Bernart de Ventadorn

Bernart de Ventadorn is described by Farnell as the first great Provençal poet and one of the greatest medieval love-poets in Europe. The Life she translates makes him the son of a servant at the castle of Ventadorn in Limousin, who loved the viscount's wife, then served the Duchess of Normandy and Count Raymond of Toulouse, and ended his days in the monastery of Dalon.

The verse in this selection is Ida Farnell's English version in The Lives of the Troubadours (London: David Nutt, 1896), where it stands beside a prose Life of the poet; the prose Life is not reproduced here. The dates are those Farnell prints for the period in which the poet was active, and the Old Occitan original is not included.