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The Oxford book of Portuguese verse

Chapter 30: 19. Cantiga de amor
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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.

PEDR’ ANEZ SOLAZ

13th c.

18. Cantiga de amigo

Eu velida non dormia,
lelia doura!
e meu amigo venia,
e doi lelia doura!
Non dormia e cuidava,
lelia doura!
e meu amigo chegava,
e doi lelia doura!
O meu amigo venia,
lelia doura!
e d’ amor tan ben dizia,
e doi lelia doura!
O meu amigo chegava,
lelia doura!
e d’amor tan ben cantava,
e doi lelia doura!
Muito desejei, amigo,
lelia doura!
que vos tevesse comigo,
e doi lelia doura!
leli, leli, par Deus leli,
lelia doura!
Ben sei eu quen non diz leli,
lelia doura!
demo x’ é quen non diz leli,
e doi lelia doura!

19. Cantiga de amor

Vou m’ eu, fremosa, pera’ l rei:
por vos, u for, penad’ irei
d’ amor, d’ amor, d’ amor, d’ amor,
por vos, senhor, d’ amor.
Vou m’ eu a la corte morar:
por vos, u for’, ei a penar
d’ amor, d’ amor, d’ amor, d’ amor,
por vos, senhor, d’ amor.
E se vos non vir, que farei?
Cuidand’ en vos morrer-vos-ei
d’ amor, d’ amor, d’ amor, d’ amor,
por vos, senhor, d’ amor.