Pastorela: L'autrier jost', Marcabru

Riding along the other day,

I found a shepherdess of low birth

who seemed too full of fun and sense

to be the daughter of a serf;

with caps and skirt and camisole,

shoes, and stockings made of wool--

she had a lot beneath it all.

Across the meadow I made my way:

"Girl," I said, "(you well built thing)

I'm sorry this cold weather stings

you!" "Lord," so said this shepherdess,

"thanks to God, and to my nurse,

the winds of winter don't distress

me: 'Happiness is healthiness!'"

"Girl," I said, "(you pious thing)

I turned aside, out of my way,

just to keep you company;

a country girl needs a friend

to help her keep these beasts in hand;

why there are so many, and such a place,

and you're here all alone?"

"Sir," said she (didn't get her name),

"I think I know fair from folly,

and you may keep your company

to yourself!" So spoke the lass,

"For girls who grab at such a pass

think they'll have you in their grasp,

until they turn their backs--alas."

"Lass, you have a gentle air,

your father was a cavalier,

engendering you, my Lady fair,

in your mother, a most genteel

peasant. The more I see, the more I feel

turned on by you, but would it be

impossible to show some humanity?"

"Sir, my lineage and my race

I turn back to and retrace

nothing but scythes and plows," she said,

"and a man like you, a cavalier,

might give attention to what he hears,

for if he heard his nature speak,

he'd act the knight six days a week."

"Lass," I said, "on the day

that you were born, a gentle fay

touched her wand and made your beauty

dazzling, more than any other;

and your beauty would be doubled

if just once I could see

myself on top, and you beneath."

"Lord, your praise for me is so much

I'm deeply touched . . .

but since you've raised my price so high,

my lord," so said this shepherdess,

"when we part, as your largess,

you'll get none of it: 'only buffoons

stand in the sun at noon.'"

"Girl," I said, you should tame

a heart like that, so wild and strange;

I knew at once, with one like you,

we two could

get something started:

with our hearts in their right places

and lies not told to each other's faces."

"Then go ahead, fry in your folly,

swear and pledge and promise reward,

if you'd do homage to me, my lord,"

so said this country girl,

"but if you believe for a small entrance fee

I'd want to exchange my virginity

for the name of whore, think again!"

"Well, girl, 'all creatures

revert to their natures . . . '

but let us, you and me,

seal this friendly pact

in that shed back in the pasture;

we'll feel a bit more sure, in fact,

performing that sweet act."

"Oh, sir, yes! . . . but by rights,

fools find folly,

courtiers court adventures

and shepherds, shepherdesses;

thus in this world we must stay

'Tried, true, and temperate,'

as the ancients say."

"Girl, I've never seen before

a face more knavish than yours,

nor a more deceitful heart or body!"

"Why sir, as the owl prophesies,

'One man's certainly idle in dreaming,

when another's waiting for the reality of it!"