Anon. 13th c.: Élégie de Troyes

• published: 07 Nov 2015
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Anonymous 13th c.: Élégie de Troyes. Contrafactum: "Li Chastelains de Couci ama tant" based on a melody by Chatelain de Coucy (End of 12th c.). CD: "Juifs et Trouvères" - Chansons juives du XIIIè siècle en ancien français et hébreu / Jewish songs of the 13th century in Old French and Hebrew. Ensemble: Alla Francesca - Dir. Brigitte Lesne & Pierre Hamon http://allafrancesca.fr/fr/ http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/cds/bud60261.htm Interprets' comments: “Mont sont il a meechief mis” is a complaint narrating tile agony of 13 Jewish men, women and children condemned to burn by the Inquisition in the city of Troyes in 1288. This traumatic event led to the composition of three Hebrew elegies in memory of the victims. The one presented here is the most famous and the only one translated into langue d'oïl. All three are found in the same manuscript, “Vatican ebreo 322”. Transcribing langue d'oïl from Hebrew characters presented numerous challanges, and we have here followed the version suggested by the philologist Arselle Darmesteter. English translation: Israel, the abandoned people, is suffering great hardship, / They cannot help it if they are all enraged; / For many fine bodies and souls among them were burned, / Who in exchange for their lives did not want to give even a penny of ransom. Our joy and pleasure are troubled / By those who studied Torah and had it in their safe-keeping. / They did not stop studying the law by day or by night. / Now they are burned and dead, each one has already recognized the true God. To the square was led Rabbi Isaac Châtelain, / Who for God left income and houses there and then. / This man who was rich in all things gave himsell to the living God; / He was a good teacher of Tosafot and plain commentary. When the good wife saw her husband burn / The separation was very hard for her, so she uttered a loud cry. / She said: "I am going to die such a death, as my beloved one died." / She was big with child; for this reason she suffered great pain. Two brothers were burned there, one a child, one grown. / The little one was terrified of the pyre that was catching fire / And he said: "Help! I am burning up!" And his older brother instructed him / And said to him, "You will soon be in Paradise, I promise you." They came to preach to the daughter-in-law I who was so beautiful, / "We will give you a rich squire who will hold you most dear." / She at once began to spit at them: / "I will not give up the living God, therefore you could flay me alive. With one voice, all together, they sang loud and clear. / They might have been merrymakers who should perform the carole, but in vain: / Their hands were bound so that they could not dance it. Never did a group of people come so joyfully out into the open air. Like a bridgegroom he was quickly brought to the fire. / He took great pains to make his beautiful death./ At once he strengthened the others: how fortunate that he was born! / His name was Rabbi Samson the Son-in-Law and the Eastern/Ancient One. Afterwards came Rabbi Solomon who was highly esteemed. / And he was thrown into the fire which was all aflame. / He did not hold back from offering his body to God: / He suffered death for love of him; to do so gave him much joy. The evildoer, the cursed one, he was filled with / poisonous desire / To bum one after the other. Adon the Holy said to him, I "Make a big fire, evil man" and he became emboldened to reproach him. / Of great beauty was his end, like that of a man intoxicated, Dan Bandit. Friars came entreating Rabbi lsaac Cohen : / He could convert to their faith; if not, he would have to die. / He said: "Why are you so dismayed? I want to die for God." / "I am a Cohen. And you want to offer my body as a sacrifice!" "You will scarcely escape, for we have you,” / Said the bailiff, "Become a Christian." And at once he answered "No.' / For their path I will not give up the living God or his holy name. / They called him Rabbi Hayyim, the brother-in-law of the Rabbi of Brinon. God will punish and take vengeance upon these evil-doers for these things! / The day seems very long to us as we wait for your revenge, / And as we pray to you with whole heart, where we are born and where we go./ We are ready and prepared. Answer, Lord, when we call you! (Translation based on the version of K.A. Fudeman)