C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Richard Cœur de Lion (1169–1199): Ah! Certes will no Prisoner Tell His Tale
By Provençal Literature (The Troubadours), 1090–1290
A
Fitly, unless as one whom woes befall;
Still, as a solace, songs may much avail:
Friends I have many, yet the gifts are small,—
Shame! that because to ransom me they fail,
I’ve pined two years in thrall.
In England, Poitou, Gascony, know well
That not my meanest follower would I
Leave for gold’s sake in prison-house to dwell;
Reproach I neither kinsman nor ally,—
Yet I am still in thrall.
Nor kin nor friends have captives and the dead:
’Tis bad for me, but for my people worse,
If to desert me they through gold are led;
After my death, ’twill be to them a curse
If they leave me in thrall.
Each day my lord disturbs my country more;
Has he forgot that he too had a part
In the deep oath which before God we swore?
But yet in truth I know, I shall not smart
Much longer here in thrall.