Alquerque nel Medioevo

Amors e jois e luecs e temps (Love and joy and time and place)
 
Alquerque is still being played as a separate game in the 14th century. Margin illumination of Bodleian MS 264, folio 76r, Romance of Alexander, 1338-1344.


Amors e jois e luecs e temps
mi fan tornar lo sen en derc
d'aquel joi qu'avia l'autr'an
quan chassava lebr'ab lo bou:
ara'm va meils d'Amor e pieis,
car ben am, d'aizo'm clam astrucs;
ma Non-Amatz ai nom anquers
s'Amors no venz son dur cor e'l mieus precs.

Cel que totz bes pert a ensems,
mestiers l'es qe ric seignor cerc
per restaurar la perd'e'l dan,
qe'l paubres no'il valri'un ou:
per zo m'ai eu chauzit en leis
don non aic lo cor ni'ls oils clucs,
e pliu't, Amors, si la'm conqers,
trevas tostemps ab totas fors dels decs.

Pauc pot hom valer de joi sems;
per me'l sai que l'ai agut berc,
car per un sobrefais d'afan
don la dolor del cor non mou
-e s'ab joi l'ira no'm foreis...-
tost m'auran mei paren faducs;
pero tal a mon cor convers
q'en lais amar volgra morir senecs.

Non sai om tan si'en Dieu frems,
ermita ni monge ni clerc,
com ieu sui seleis de cui chan,
e er proat anz de l'annou;
liges sui seus meilz qe demeis,
si'm for'eu si fos reis o ducs:
tant es en lieis mos cors esmers
qe s'autra'n voil ni'n deing donc si'eu secs.

D'aizo c'ai tant duptat e crems
creis ades e meillur e'm derc,
que's reproers c'auzi antan
me dis que tan trona tro plou;
e s'ieu mi pec cinc anz o seis,
ben leu, can sera blancs mos sucs,
jauzirai zo per qu'er sui sers,
c'aman preian s'afranca cor ufecs.

De luencs suspirs e de grieus gems
mi pot trar cella cui m'aerc
c'ades ol per un bel semblan
n'ai mogut mon chantar tut nou.
Contramon vauc e no m'escreis,
car gent mi fai cujar mos cucs.
Cor, vai sus! ben fas si't suffers:
sec tant q'en leis c'as encubit no't pecs.

Ans er plus vils aurs non es fers
c'Arnautz desam leis ont es fermanz necs.

Love and joy and time and place
return me to my usual wits
back from that yoke I had the other year,
when I went hunting hares with oxen:
now I'm better off, Love-wise, and worse,
since I love well, and for that I call myself lucky;
but my name is still Not-Loved
if Love and my entreats don't win her stark heart.

He who loses all his wealth at once
ought to look for a rich lord
to restore his loss and harm,
since a poor one wouldn't be worth to him a minnow:
for this reason I have chosen her
towards whom neither my heart nor my eyes have ever been closed,
and I vow, Love, if you win her for me,
peace forever with all the others.

He's worth little, a man without joy;
I know it well, I've had mine spoiled,
since for an excess of toil,
the pain of which won't leave my heart,
(and if sadness doesn't leave as joy did)
soon my relatives shall see me insane;
but the one who has changed my heart is such
that I would die old, loving her.

I don't know anyone as devoted to God,
hermit nor monk nor cleric,
as I am to her about whom I sing,
and this'll be proven ere new year comes;
I am more faithful to her than to a half of myself,
and I would be so [even] if I were king or duke:
so pure is my heart towards her
that I'll be blind ere I long for another woman.

About that of which I've so feared and doubted
I now grow more hopeful and assured,
since an adage I have heard once
tells me it thunders as long as it rains;
albeit I fail five years or six,
how gladly, when my hair is hoary,
I'll enjoy that for which I suffer,
since by loving and entreating the scornful heart is sweetened.

From long sighing and grievous wailing
the one I exalt myself for can deliver me,
since now, for a seemly visage's only sake,
I have stirred a wholly new song.
I walk up the slope and don't complain,
since this mountain moves me to think gently.
Go up, heart! you do well if you suffer:
go on, as long as you don't fail the one you brood.

Gold shall be viler than iron
before Arnaut renounces loving the one he's secretly devoted to.

Arnaut Daniel 

http://thomasguild.blogspot.it/2014/05/another-game-to-play-with-your-medieval.html