Translated by A. This work may be freely reproduced, stored and transmitted, electronically or otherwise, for any non-commercial purpose. Conditions and Exceptions apply.
This personal selection of Occitan poetry is of verse that I feel has true poetic merit, and nothing is included solely for its historic interest. I considered a simple prose or free verse translation of these poems, but to show the Troubadours without their rhyme schemes, their form, seemed to me too great an admission of failure.
Form is half their art and crucially their poems were set to music, a large amount of which survives. Either approach, rhymed or un-rhymed, is of course valid.
As always the end result is what counts. I have gone for rhyme and aimed for accuracy of meaning. These translations attempt to stay close to the original text, in rhythm, rhyme-scheme and content.
I have given the first lines of the poems, the incipits , as Occitan headings one only is in Latin , so that a quick search on the Web for the line, remembering to enclose it in double quotes, will usually turn up the original text for those who need to see it.
