Dante and Lemosi (was: Weekly Vocab #2)

Kala Tunu scripsit:

> Dante himself is reported to have said he wished he could speak lemozi which was
> the french popes' official lang and the english court's poetic lang for a
> century.
And so he did.  Purgatorio Canto 26, final lines:

Versi d'amore e prose di romanzi
        soverchiò tutti: e lascia dir li stolti
        che quel di Lemosí credon ch'avanzi. (...) "
Io mi fei al mostrato innanzi un poco,
        e dissi ch'al suo nome il mio disire
        apparecchiava grazïoso loco .
E cominciò liberamente a dire:
        "Tant m'abellis vostre cortes deman,
        qu'ieu no me puesc ni voill a vos cobrire.
Ieu sui Arnaut, que plor e vau cantan;
        consiros vei la passada folor,
        e vei jausen lo joi qu'esper, denan.
Ara vos prec, per aquella valor
        que vos guida al som de l'escalina,
        sovenha vos a temps de ma dolor!"
Poi s'ascose nel foco che li affina.


The Dorothy Sayers translation renders these lines as follows,
using Border Scots as a rough analogue:

Then I: "Your verse, forged sweetly link by link,
        Which while our modern use shall last in song,
        Must render precious even the very ink." (...)
I to that soul he'd shown advanced a pace,
        Begging he would vouchsafe his name to me,
        Who hoped to write it in an honoured place ;
And he at once made answer frank and free:
        "Sae weel me likes your couthie kind entreatin',
        I canna nor I winna hide fra' ye;
I'm Arnaut, wha gae singin' aye and greetin';
        Waefu' I mind my fulish deeds lang syne,
        Lauchin' luik forrit tae the bricht morn's meetin'.
Pray ye the noo, by yonder micht that fine
        Sall guide ye till the top step o' the stair,
        Tak' timely thocht for a' my mickle pine" -
Then veiled him in the fires that fine them there.

--
John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_