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The Oxford book of Portuguese verse cover

The Oxford book of Portuguese verse

Chapter 52: 36. Barcarola
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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.

ROY FERNANDEZ

13th c.

36. Barcarola

Quand’ eu vejo las ondas
e las muit’ altas ribas,
logo mi veen ondas
al cor pola velida:
maldito sea ’l mar
que mi fez tanto mal!
Nunca vejo las ondas
nen as muit’ altas rocas
que mi non venhan ondas
al cor pola fremosa:
maldito sea ’l mar
que mi fez tanto mal!
Se eu vejo las ondas
e vejo las costeiras,
logo mi veen ondas
al cor pola ben feita:
maldito sea ’l mar
que mi fez tanto mal!