WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
The Oxford book of Portuguese verse cover

The Oxford book of Portuguese verse

Chapter 40: 27. Cantiga de amigo
Open in WeRead

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.

D. JOAN SOAREZ COELHO

13th c.

27. Cantiga de amigo

Foi eu, madre, lavar meus cabelos
a la fonte, e paguei-m’ eu d’ elos
e de mi, louçana!
Foi eu, madre, lavar mias garcetas
a la fonte, e paguei-m’ eu d’ elas
e de mi, louçana!
A la fonte paguei-m’ eu d’ eles,
e lá achei, madr’, o senhor d’ eles
e de mi, louçana!
Ante que m’eu d’ali partisse
foi pagada do que m’ el disse
e de mi, louçana!

28. Cantiga de amigo

Ai Deus, a vo-lo digo,
foi-s’ ora o meu amigo,
e se o verei, velida!
Quen m’ end’ ora soubesse
verdad’ e dissesse,
e se o verei, velida!
Foi-s’ el mui sen meu grado
e non sei eu mandado,
e se o verei, velida!
Que fremosa que sejo
morrendo con desejo,
e se o verei, velida!