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113 Galician Portuguese Troubador Poems

Edited by Richard Zenith

Translated by Richard Zenith

Cover Picture of 113 Galician Portuguese Troubador Poems
Imprint: Aspects of Portugal
Publisher: Carcanet Press
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  • The poetry of the Provencal troubadours has been widely appreciated this century, but most modern readers of English are unaware of the
    troubadour tradition on the Iberian Peninsula. Some 1,685 cantigas (sung poems), written in Galician-Portuguese between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, survive in several cancioneiros (song books). The language of the cantigas reflects the vernacular spoken along the Minho river dividing Portugal from Galicia. It was the idiom of lyric poets in every Peninsular region except Catalonia.

    One of the two main types of love songs is the fascinating cantiga d'amigo, derived from an oral tradition native to the peninsula and narrated from the woman's point of view. Satirical songs, on the other hand, provide insights into the history and politics of the day, or else take delight in pure invective and ribald fun far more daring (some would say `vulgar') than the work of poets of our own day.
    Richard Zenith
    RICHARD ZENITH is a noted translator from the Portuguese. His version of Fernando Pessoa's Book of Disquietude was published in Carcanet's `Aspects of Portugal' series. ... read more
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