Paul Blackburn (transl.) - Proensa: An Anthology of Troubadour Poetry

PROENSA An Anthology of Troubadour Poetry Selected and translated by PAUL BLACKBURN Edited and introduced by GEORGE ECONOMOU NEW YORK REVIEW BOOKS New York PAUL BLACKBURN (19261971) was born in St. Albans, Vermont, the son of the poet and childrens book author Frances Frost. When he was fourteen he moved from Vermont to Greenwich Village, later spending a year at New York University before enlisting in the army. After his military service he transferred to the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he studied Old Provenal and began a correspondence with Ezra Pound. Through Pound he became friends with Robert Creeley and was introduced to many in Creeleys circle. In 1954 Blackburn received a Fulbright to study Provenal literature in the south of France and it was there he embarked on the project that would become Proensa. Back in New York, he continued to write and publish poetry while working various jobs, including printing-house clerk and encyclopedia-entry writer, and running a reading series that would become the legendary Poetry Project at St.

Marks in the Bowery. He was known for encouraging the work of the young poets who later rose to prominence as members of the New York School and the Beats. By the mid-1960s, Blackburn had become recognized enough to take on traditional teaching jobs, and in 1967 received a Guggenheim Fellowship, which allowed him to live in Europe and concentrate on his own work. In all he published thirteen books of poetry and five translations, including works by El Cid, Pablo Picasso, Federico Garca Lorca, and Julio Cortzar. The final version of Proensa was published in 1978 seven years after Blackburns death from esophageal cancer. GEORGE ECONOMOU taught English and comparative literature at Long Island University and the University of Oklahoma for forty-one years.

He has published twenty-one books of poetry, translations, and criticism. THIS IS A NEW YORK REVIEW BOOK PUBLISHED BY THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS 435 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014 www.nyrb.com Translation and selection copyright 1978 by Joan Blackburn Introduction copyright 1978 by George Economou All rights reserved. Cover image: Archie Rand, from the Montale Motets series Cover design: Katy Homans Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Blackburn, Paul, editor. | Economou, George, translator. Title: Proensa: an anthology of Troubadour poetry / selected and translated by Paul Blackburn; edited and with an introduction by George Economou. | Series: New York Review Books Classics Identifiers: LCCN 2016020308 | ISBN 9781681370309 (paperback) | ISBN 9781681370316 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Provenal poetryTranslations into English. | Troubadours. | BISAC: POETRY / Anthologies (multiple authors). | BISAC: POETRY / Anthologies (multiple authors).

Classification: LCC PC3365.E3 P7 2016 | DDC 849/.1040802dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016020308 ISBN 978-1-68137-031-6 v1.0 For a complete list of titles, visit www.nyrb.com or write to: Catalog Requests, NYRB, 435 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014

For their help and encouragement, I would like to thank David Antin, Joan Blackburn, Frederick Goldin, and Hugh Kenner. Robert Creeley, who published the first Proensa (Mallorca: Divers Press, 1953), has generously given us permission to use that title again. Some of these translations have appeared before in various publications: Anthology of Medieval Lyrics, ed. Angel Flores (New York: Random House, 1962); Peire Vidal (New York/Amherst: Mulch Press, 1972); Guillem de Poitou (Mount Horeb, Wisconsin: The Perishable Press, 1976); Origin, VI, IX, XI, XII, XV, XVII, XIX, and in The Gist of Origin, edited by Cid Corman (New York: Grossman, 1976); Caterpillar, 10; Sixpack, 7/8 (1974), Special Paul Blackburn Issue. Parts of my discussion of Ab la dolchor del temps novel are based on an earlier, considerably different discussion of that poem as a Test of Translation for Caterpillar, 10 (1970), reprinted in A Caterpillar Anthology, ed. G. E. Obviously, this is a very selective list, with criticism confined mainly to works in English. Obviously, this is a very selective list, with criticism confined mainly to works in English.

I have included all of the works Blackburn mentions (by author) in his notes, but I do not claim to have identified all of the studies and texts he may have consulted or used in the preparation of his translations and notes. My own indebtednesses, more specifically indicated in my notes, are acknowledged generally here. The abbreviation CFMA stands for Classiques Franais du Moyen ge. Anglade, Joseph, ed. Les posies de Peire Vidal, 2nd ed., CFMA 11. Paris, 1966. Chrestomathie provenale, 6th ed., rev. Chrestomathie provenale, 6th ed., rev.

Eduard Koschwitz. Marburg, 1904. Ballard, Jean et al., eds. Cahiers de Sud, XX (1942), numro spcial: Le Gnie dOc et lHomme Mditerranen. Bergin, Thomas G. T. Hill, eds. Anthology of the Provenal Troubadours. 1st ed. Anthology of the Provenal Troubadours. 1st ed.

New Haven, 1941. 2nd ed., 2 vols. New Haven and London, 1973. Blackburn, Paul. Proensa: A Reading at Long Island University, Brooklyn Center, December 14, 1965: on tape. The Women Troubadours. New York, 1976. The Women Troubadours. New York, 1976.

Boutire, Jean and A. -H. Schutz, eds. Biographies des troubadours. Toulouse and Paris, 1950. 2nd ed., 1964. -M. -L., ed. Posies complte du troubadour Marcabru. Toulouse, 1909, reprinted New York, 1971. Posies complte du troubadour Marcabru. Toulouse, 1909, reprinted New York, 1971.

Diez, Friedrich. Leben und Werke der Troubadours. Leipzig, 1882, reprinted Amsterdam, 1965. . Die Poesie der Troubadours. Leipzig, 1883. Dronke, Peter. Medieval Latin and the Rise of European Love-Lyric. 2 vols.

Oxford, 1965-1966. . The Medieval Lyric. New York, 1968. Ferrante, Joan M. and George D. In Pursuit of Perfection: Courtly Love in Medieval Literature. Port Washington, N.Y. and London, 1975. and London, 1975.

Goldin, Frederick. The Mirror of Narcissus in the Courtly Love Lyric. Ithaca, 1967. . Lyrics of the Troubadours and Trouvres. New York, 1973. Hoepffner, Ernest. . Le troubadour Peire Vidal. Paris, 1961. Le troubadour Peire Vidal. Paris, 1961.

Jeanroy, Alfred. La posie lyrique des troubadours. Toulouse and Paris, 1934. , ed. Les chansons de Jaufr Rudel, 2nd ed. CFMA 15, Paris, 1965. Les Origines de la posie lyrique en France au moyen-ge, 4th ed. Les Origines de la posie lyrique en France au moyen-ge, 4th ed.

Paris, 1965. , ed. Les posies de Cercamon. CFMA 27. Paris, 1966. . Les chansons de Guillaume IX, 2nd ed. CFMA 9. CFMA 9.

Paris, 1967. Klein, Karen W. The Partisan Voice: A Study of the Political Lyric in France and Germany, 1180-1230. The Hague and Paris, 1971. Jackson. T. H. The Literature of the Middle Ages. New York, 1960. The Literature of the Middle Ages. New York, 1960.

Lavaud, Ren, ed. Peire Cardenal. Toulouse, 1957. Lewis, C. S. The Allegory of Love. Oxford, 1936. H., ed. The Razos de Trobar of Raimon Vidal and Associated Texts. London, 1972. The Razos de Trobar of Raimon Vidal and Associated Texts. London, 1972.

Nelli, Ren.