The Oxford book of Portuguese verse

Chapter 16: MEENDINHO

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About This Book

This anthology gathers Portuguese verse from the twelfth through the twentieth century, presenting medieval Galician-Portuguese lyric—dance and pilgrimage songs—alongside troubadour-influenced courtly love poems, satirical pieces, and later lyric developments. An extended introduction situates the poems in early national formation, foreign contacts, and manuscript songbooks, and highlights forms such as cantigas de amigo, cantigas de amor, serranilhas, barcarolas, and other folk and court genres. Selections stress the music and dance origins of many texts and trace a continuity between popular village songs and cultivated court poetry, offering a historical and formal panorama of Portuguese poetic tradition.

MEENDINHO

13th c.

10. Cantiga de romaria

Sedia-m’ eu na ermida de San Simon

e cercaron-m’ as ondas que grandes son,

eu atendend’ o meu amigo!

Estava na ermida, ant’ o altar,

e cercaron-m’ as ondas grandes do mar,

eu atendend’ o meu amigo!

E cercaron-m’ as ondas que grandes son:

nen ei barqueiro nen remador,

eu atendend’ o meu amigo!

E cercaron-m’ as ondas grandes do mar:

nen ei barqueiro nen sei remar,

eu atendend’ o meu amigo!

Nen ei barqueiro nen remador,

e morrerei, fremosa, no mar maior,

eu atendend’ o meu amigo!

Nen ei barqueiro nen sei remar,

e morrerei, fremosa, no alto mar,

eu atendend’ o meu amigo!