My Lady Carenza of the lovely body,
please offer sisters your professional advice,
and since you know whats best, tell us precise-
ly what to do. You know. Your ways embody
all ways of women. Please say: shall I wed
someone we know? Or stay a virgin? I’ve said
that would be good. But having kids. What for?
To me a marriage seems a painful bore.
Lady Carenza, I’d like to have a man,
but what a penance when you have a clan
of brats. Your tits hang halfway to the ground;
your belly is discomforted and round.
My Lady Iselda and my Lady Alais,
you have youth, beauty; your skin a fresh color
and know courtly manner; you have valor
beyond all other women in your place.
Here me. And for the best seed from a cod,
marry the Crown of Knowledge, who is GOD.
and you will bear the fruit in glorious sons,
saving your chastity like married nuns.
My Lady Iselda and my Lady Alais,
remember me and may my light erase
all fears. Please ask the king of glory, when
you enter heaven, to join us once again.
- Anonymous Provencal
- 12th century
Trans Willis Barnstone
