Portugal enjoyed one of the richest and most sophisticated cultures
of the Middle Ages, in part because of its vibrant secular
literature. One popular literary genre of the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries was the
cantigas de amigo, love songs
in which male poets wrote from a female perspective. More than five
hundred of these mysterious poems depicting a young girl's love for
an absent lover survive today. Until now, however, they have
remained inaccessible except to a small circle of scholars. In her
translation of nearly one hundred representative examples of the
cantigas de amigo, Barbara Hughes Fowler recovers the beauty
of these poems for the modern reader. Her accurate and elegant
renderings capture the charming spontaneity of the lyrics and show
them to be a uniquely appealing form of medieval literature.
(excerpt of one of the poems) Lovely mother, I saw my friend but
did not speak with him and so I lost him, but now I'm dying of love
for him. I did not speak because of my disdain; I'm dying, mother,
for love of him.
