The Boiardo Tarocchi Poem Translated

DoctorArcanus

Huck said:
....we search somebody who translates the Boiardo Tarocchi poem. Once it was started, but actually the plan stopped and wasn't completed.
The result must ... in no way ... be perfect, perhaps just good enough to give a rough orientation, not worrying rhyme and structure, just getting the sense. It can be refined later.

Our material is at
http://trionfi.com/0/h/
and the links around it.

Perhaps you take a look, if you're interested .. ??? ... :)

Thanks to Huck for such a good opportunity to study in detail this poem. A wonderful thing is that I asked Ross G Caldwell and he is interested too. Here is the sonnet with which the poem begins. The translation has actually been done by Ross, whose Italian is excellent: we just discussed together a few verses. I want to thank again Huck and Ross for all the fun I am having :)

Code:
   Argumento de li ditti capituli               Content of the said chapters
   di Matteo Maria Boiardo                      by Matteo Maria Boiardo
   sopra un novo gioco di carte.                about a new game of cards.


Quattro passion de l'anima signora           Four passions of the soul, milady,
hanno quaranta carte in questo gioco;        Are forty cards in this game.
a la più degna la minor dà loco,             The lesser gives place to the worthier,
e il lor significato le colora.              And their meaning gives them their suit.

Quattro figure ha ogni color ancora,         Each suit also has four figures,
che ai debiti suo' offici tutte loco,        Each of which I place in the due role,
con vinti et un trionfo; e al più vil loco   With twenty and one triumphs; and in the meanest place
è un folle, poi che 'l folle el mondo adora. Is a fool, because the fool the world adores.

Amor, speranza, gelosia e timore             Love, hope, jealousy and fear
son le passion, e un zerzetto han le carte   Are the passions, and the cards have a tercet
per non lassar chi giocarà in errore.        So as not to leave the player in error.

Il numero ne' versi si comparte,             The number in the verses runs:
uno, due, tre, fin al grado maggiore,        One, two, three, ending at the highest;
resta mo' a te trovar del gioco l'arte.      Now it remains for you to find the art of the game.

Marco
 

Cerulean

Love or Amor...did some work but have a class...

I tried to do some with Amor, but the cross between my terrible try and a bad google translation had me giving up.

The first small segments, though, posted above--I thought had been worked through by Jane Cocker a few years ago? She posted the version of the first three verses for the Tarocchi study group. I believe this looks similar to what I have in partial translation.

http://boiardotriumphpoem.home.att.net/translation.html

But in a few days, after classes, I'll post my horrible attempt, only of Amor.

It is a very archiac style of language...a nice university college student was able to glance through Simone Foa's commentary of the poetry, but not the sonnets themselves.

Giordano Berti also had some commentary, which might be good to pm someone if they are interested.

Once I dig out those notes, I'll be glad to post them or pm to someone.

Regards,

Cerulean
 

Huck

.. :) ... Nice, that this old project comes back to life ..

then I'll do my part and update the old article to the new version of trionfi.com, where it will have some more elegance

Lothar thinks, that somebody should awake Jane Cocker, at least should tell her about the restart. Mari? Do you've contact?
 

Huck

Marco, also Ross,

there are some older considerations, how this poem was made and constructed. One is:

http://www.geocities.com/autorbis/boiardochange.html

perhaps not very clear, just the poem is sorted in a specific way, which is:

1. the first opposition (two trumps, one negative and one positive) reign about the 4 Aces

2. The second opposition reigns about the 4 Two's

etc. till 10.

This was suggested by schematical analysis, not by really understanding the content .. the real order might be different

As each opposition is a sort of fight between good and bad in the soul of the author (or the "lover"), as it seems, one has to look, which suits are negative and which positive. So likely there are on each level two forces with 3 elements:

Bad Good <---suits
/---\
Bad Good <--- opposition
\---/
Bad Good <--- suits

somehow like this, but perhaps different. Some relevant order can only come to the surface, when one knows the content. And this is in the moment in Italian and that creates difficulties.

It would be normal, that the whole is a puzzle-game and contains
not-expected poetical finesse. The whole construction: "poems on a cardplay" creates the freedom from the "normal sequence" and has the ability to move the parts of the poem into a new order, which is a second sequence, but not-sequentiell at first sight. Perhaps there is even a third sequence etc.
 

Huck

.. I don't know, where your enthusiasm has gone to, but at least we transported the old Boiardo files from their old place to trionfi.com and gave them a little better outfit.

We made some nice explorations:

1. During this work we met an old insight about the poem: The terzine open each with the suit word (for instance amore) and then follows a word which starts with the same letter as the relevant Italian number. Aces for instance have an "u" at that that for "uno". The two's with a "d" and the three's with a "t". This is only arranged for the number cards.

2. Boiardo gives the first card as the Fool (as known) and the last card and highest trump card as "Fortezza". It's interesting, that the Fortezza figure is displayed with Lucretia, the admired selfmurdering woman. ... a woman which sets a final NO to the approaching lover.
To this point there are a few things, which Marco doesn't know, so I try to explain them.
The Michelino deck - the oldest Tarot - is centered on the Daphne-figure, who also sets a final NO .. in this case to Apollo. The Michelino deck is by us calculated ca. 1424/25.
Now writes just at this time, 1424, the French poet Carthier a famous poem about a cruel beauty, who made her lover endlessly unlucky ... another type of the same "final NO". Carthier got a very great success with the poem, and he was the greatest literary man of his time. He knew Filippo Visconti and he was in Italy just in 1424 .. if he saw Filippo at this time is not explored.

At least it is said, that with the "cruel woman" a new literary type was established, which was repeted and imitated variously.

During our reserch around this we found a specific picture, Apollo and Daphne, and we found somebody, who had the opinion, that the presented persons had in reality Galeazzo Maria Visconti and Bona of Savoia, and these both are just the pair, that married in June 1468 and at whose wedding likely a Trionfi deck was produced, whic was the first which used the 4x14+22-structure.

The picture is suspected (generally) to be of one of the Pollaiuolo-brothers, and the logical date would be the visit of Galeazzo Maria Sforza with Bona in spring 1471 in Florence. We discussed with the researcher, who has the opinion that this are Galeazzo Maria Sforza and Bona and she thinks it possible, even likely, that the picture was made before the wedding - it's not a picture for a married woman. It's a picture for a girl, which still has the choice between cruel beauty and loving wife. In the opinion of the researcher it's not necessarily true, that it was from Pallaiuolo, btw..

In the case, that the picture shows really Galeazzo and Bona we've an interesting feature in the Visconti-Family. Galeazzo repeated the motif of Daphne after more than 40 years (Daphne was at that time NOT an often painted motif). Now is the whole connected to a wedding and the production of a Trionfi deck.

And Boiardo wrote a Tarocchi poem ... when he already know, that the other Trionfi deck was somehow connected to the "cruel beauty" phenomen.
And Boiardo uses the same theme with Lucretia.

Now we transfered also our "Life of Boiardo"-theme to trionfi.com and we updated it ... on the same way we checked the life (again) for good opportunities, when Boiardo might have done it. Now there is - for various reasons - a "best opportunity".

In April 1469. Boiardo did fall in love to an 18 years old girl (which he finally didn't get). Various poems appeared in this context. It is the only occasion in Boiardo's life, for which it is recorded, that Boiardo did fall in love.

The relations between Milan and Ferrara were stressed after Francesco Sforzas death till April 1468. Then - after a short war - peace was declared (and Galeazzo married in June). New trouble arived in August 1469, when a secret rebellion was sponsored by Galeazzo, Florence and Naples against Borso - after this the relations should have been stressed again - how long is endured is not clear.

One should see, that, when Galeazzo changed the Trionfi set to 22 Ferrara would only follow, when it had reason to expected relations. Boiardo followed with a new 22-special-cards-version, so he had not too much time to do so, as he needed "good relations".

Well .. this is are only ideas. But from all the situations this date looks most promising. But we need the text of this poem in English language.

Helpful links to understand the above:

http://trionfi.com/0/b/ - Michelino deck

http://trionfi.com/0/b/78/ - the Daphne picture

http://trionfi.com/0/g/71/ - Galeazzo Maria biography

http://trionfi.com/0/h/00/ - the Boiardo files, they may contain slight mistakes.
 

Cerulean

I think I follow you...

1. In April 1469. Boiardo did fall in love to an 18 years old girl (which he finally didn't get). Various poems appeared in this context. It is the only occasion in Boiardo's life, for which it is recorded, that Boiardo did fall in love.

I think this is "Amorum Libri"--I found an e-book and meant to see if I could find a translation in English for this set of poetry flexing to Boiardo's 'amor'.

2. The relations between Milan and Ferrara were stressed after Francesco Sforzas death till April 1468. Then - after a short war - peace was declared (and Galeazzo married in June). New trouble arived in August 1469, when a secret rebellion was sponsored by Galeazzo, Florence and Naples against Borso - after this the relations should have been stressed again - how long is endured is not clear.

When I dig out my notes, I'll look at this time again.

Thanks, Huck! I've got several ongoing classes, so I won't be able to dig out my Amor notes for a few more days. I'm not in touch with anyone else on this any more, but I may be able to assist in a rough translation of the Amor passage of the poem. It's unfortunately a busy week at work, etc...

Best regards,

Cerulean
 

Huck

Hi Mari,

we've altered the life of Boiardo a little bit, please check it.

Jane Cocker has translated the first sonett and the fear chapter btw.

http://boiardotriumphpoem.home.att.net/translation.html

Could you use the mail button at her webpage (it doesn't use for me)? Please tell her, that we're restarting the translation.
 

Ross G Caldwell

Marco and my translation is almost done. However, I don't know how to post the poems from our editor to this window (as Marco did with the first verse and some other things) so I'll have to wait until he returns to post the rest.
 

Huck

I would suggest, that we use one of the ..pedia's for the cooperation (various persons can work at the same file).

I became aware, that jmd and robert are arranging to build a Tarotpedia at

http://tarotpedia.com , as they say, a beta-version.

Perhaps we could use it, and test it in that way.

If this is not possible, we can use en.wikipedia.org
or it.wikipedia.org or any other, likely they'll wonder, what sort of object that is ... :)

It would have the advantage, that some of us learn the easy programming language of the pedia's.
 

Huck

Jane Cocker added to terzine Timore/page:

Refers to the story of
Perseus and Andromeda
Refers to the goddess Fortuna

"The story is taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The princess Andromeda was engaged to Phineas, but instead married Perseus, who had rescued her from a sea-monster as he returned from his mission to cut off the Gorgon Medusa’s head. At Perseus’ and Andromeda’s wedding celebrations, Phineas and his armed followers burst in to claim back Andromeda, but Perseus held up Medusa’s head and turned them to stone."

## Hm. That's interesting. Phineas shows yealousy and yealousy is a suit. It's the place of the page ... and one should expect on the page position the quality of the suit "fear" , cause fear is the first in the row, as the poem is presented. Which would make sense:

Page = Fear
Knight = yealousy
Queen = hope
King = Amore

So here is a contradiction to that, what would be normally expectable.


Jane Cocker added to terzine Timore/knight:

"King Ptolemy endured against
Pompey, to use for fear
That Ceasar did not remove his reign."

Ptolemy had Pompey beheaded
hoping to win Ceasar's favour

"Arriving in Egypt, Pompey's fate was decided by three counselors of Ptolemy, the boy-king. While Pompey waited offshore for word, they argued the cost of offering him refuge with Caesar already en route for Egypt. Because "dead men don't bite," it was decided to murder Caesar's enemy to ingratiate themselves with him. Alone, the great Pompey was lured toward a supposed audience on shore in a small boat in which he recognized two old comrades-in-arms from the glorious, early battles. They were his assassins. While he sat in the boat, studying his speech for the boy king, they stabbed him in the back with sword and dagger. Cutting his head off, the body was left, contemptuously unattended and naked, on the shore for a slave to tend and cremate on a pyre of broken ship's timbers. When Caesar arrived, a slave offered him Pompey's head;" …he turned away from him with loathing, as from an assassin; and when he received Pompey's signet ring on which was engraved a lion holding a sword in his paws, he burst into tears." Plutarch, 80. "
http://heraklia.fws1.com/contemporaries/pompey/

Ptolemaios is a boy/king, actually in the age of a "page". Phineas is much more knight than Ptolemaios ...

#############
"In the springtime of 51 BC, Ptolemy Auletes died and left his kingdom in his will to his eighteen year old daughter, Cleopatra, and her younger brother Ptolemy XIII who was twelve at the time. Cleopatra was born in 69 BC in Alexandria, Egypt. She had two older sisters, Cleopatra VI and Berenice IV as well as a younger sister, Arsinoe IV. There were two younger brothers as well, Ptolemy XIII and Ptolemy XIV. It is thought that Cleopatra VI may have died as a child and Auletes had Berenice beheaded. At Ptolemy Auletes' death, Pompey, a Roman leader, was left in charge of the children. During the two centuries that preceded Ptolemy Auletes death, the Ptolemies were allied with the Romans. The Ptolemies' strength was failing and the Roman Empire was rising. City after city was falling to the Roman power and the Ptolemies could do nothing but create a pact with them. During the later rule of the Ptolemies, the Romans gained more and more control over Egypt. Tributes had to be paid to the Romans to keep them away from Egypt. When Ptolemy Auletes died, the fall of the Dynasty appeared to be even closer.

According to Egyptian law, Cleopatra was forced to have a consort, who was either a brother or a son, no matter what age, throughout her reign. She was married to her younger brother Ptolemy XIII when he was twelve, however she soon dropped his name from any official documents regardless of the Ptolemaic insistence that the male presence be first among co-rulers. She also had her own portrait and name on coins of that time, ignoring her brother's. When Cleopatra became co-regent, her world was crumbling down around her. Cyprus, Coele-Syria and Cyrenaica were gone. There was anarchy abroad and famine at home. Cleopatra was a strong-willed Macedonian queen who was brilliant and dreamed of a greater world empire. She almost achieved it. Whether her way of getting it done was for her own desires or for the pursuit of power will never be known for certain. However, like many Hellenistic queens, she was passionate but not promiscuous. As far as we know, she had no other lovers other than Caesar and Antony. Many believe that she did what she felt was necessary to try to save Alexandria, whatever the price.

By 48 BC, Cleopatra had alarmed the more powerful court officials of Alexandria by some of her actions. For instance, her mercenaries killed the Roman governor of Syria's sons when they came to ask for her assistance for their father against the Parthians. A group of men led by Theodotus, the eunuch Pothinus and a half-Greek general, Achillas, overthrew her in favor of her younger brother. They believed him to be much easier to influence and they became his council of regency. Cleopatra is thought to have fled to Thebaid. Between 51 and 49 BC, Egypt was suffering from bad harvests and famine because of a drought which stopped the much needed Nile flooding. Ptolemy XIII signed a decree on October 27, 50 BC which banned any shipments of grain to anywhere but Alexandria. It is thought that this was to deprive Cleopatra and her supporters who were not in Alexandria. Regardless, she started an army from the Arab tribes which were east of Pelusium. During this time, she and her sister Arsinoe moved to Syria. They returned by way of Ascalon which may have been Cleopatra's temporary base.

In the meantime, Pompey had been defeated at Pharsalus in August of 48 BC. He headed for Alexandria hoping to find refuge with Ptolemy XIII, of whom Pompey was a senate-appointed guardian. Pompey did not realize how much his reputation had been destroyed by Pharsalus until it was too late. He was murdered as he stepped ashore on September 28, 48 BC. The young Ptolemy XIII stood on the dock and watched the whole scene. Four days later, Caesar arrived in Alexandria. He brought with him thirty-two hundred legionaries and eight hundred cavalry. He also brought twelve other soldiers who bore the insignia of the Roman government who carried a bundle of rods with an ax with a blade that projected out. This was considered a badge of authority that gave a clear hint of his intentions. There were riots that followed in Alexandria. Ptolemy XIII was gone to Pelusium and Caesar placed himself in the royal palace and started giving out orders. The eunuch, Pothinus, brought Ptolemy back to Alexandria. Cleopatra had no intentions of being left out of any deals that were going to be made. She had herself smuggled in through enemy lines rolled in a carpet. She was delivered to Caesar. Both Cleopatra and Ptolemy were invited to appear before Caesar the next morning. By this time, she and Caesar were already lovers and Ptolemy realized this right away. He stormed out screaming that he had been betrayed, trying to arouse the Alexandrian mob. He was soon captured by Caesar's guards and brought back to the palace. It is thought that Caesar had planned to make Cleopatra the sole ruler of Alexandria. He thought she would be a puppet for Rome.

The Alexandrian War was started when Pothinus called for Ptolemy XIII's soldiers in November and surrounded Caesar in Alexandria with twenty thousand men. During the war, parts of the Alexandrian Library and some of the warehouses were burned. However, Caesar did manage to capture the Pharos lighthouse, which kept his control of the harbor. Cleopatra's sister, Arsinoe, escaped from the palace and ran to Achillas. She was proclaimed the queen by the Macedonian mob and the army. Cleopatra never forgave her sister for this. During the fighting, Caesar executed Pothinus and Achillas was murdered by Ganymede. Ptolemy XIII drowned in the Nile while he was trying to flee.

Because of his death, Cleopatra was now the sole ruler of Egypt. "

From http://interoz.com/egypt/cleopatr.htm
############

So: Ptolemaios is a boy/king, actually in the age of a "page". Phineas is much more knight than Ptolemaios ...

but the boy/king is on the position of the knight and the yealous knight Phineas with his stolen bride on the position of page.

So the analyzer asks: Why? Simple error, or intended confusion of the poet?
Perhaps this riddle will be solved, when we detect other contradictions.

----------
The Queen's position is taken by Andromache:
13) FEAR prevented Andromache from saving
Her son, seeing Ulysses: and made him enter
Into the same tomb as his father Hector.
----------

Seneca's Trojan woman, abstract from an Internet source (I lost the source)

1. From lines 1-159 the Trojan King Priam's widow Hecuba and the Chorus (women of fallen Troy) set the play's tone.
2. From 160-368, after Talthybius announces the will of the shade Achilles that Polyxena and Astyanax must die, King Agamemnon and Achilles' son Pyrrhus assess the situation.
3. From 369-402, Calchas delivers his opinion and the Chorus comment on what they have just heard from Agamemnon and Pyrrhus.
4. From 403-521, Andromache enters and converses with an old servant, her son by fallen Hector near them.
5. From 522-810, Andromache and Ulysses (Odysseus) argue over the fate of Astyanax.
6. From 811-1007, first the Chorus speak, and then Helen, entering to dress Polyxena and carry out the Greeks' designs, argues with Andromache and Hecuba.
7. From 1008-end, after the Chorus discuss the value of shared grief, the Messenger enters and , at Andromache's bidding, recounts the killing of Polyxena and Astyanax.

###

"Astyanax was the son of Hector and Andromache, and therefore the eldest grandson of Priam. He died only a baby during the fall of Troy, when the son of Achilles, Neoptolemus, threw him over the wall of Troy. Neoptolemus said to Andromache, "Since my father killed his father he might try to avenge the death. He also could become King of Troy, and we want no more kings of Troy!"
Iliad VI, 403, 466; Virgil II, 457.

####

"Andromache, remembered as Hector 1's loving wife, was assigned to Neoptolemus at the end of the Trojan War. Having become by force her enemy's concubine, she bore his children in Epirus, the Adriatic coastal region of Hellas, between the Ambracian Gulf and Illyria (Albania), where Neoptolemus was king. After the death of Neoptolemus, who was murdered by Orestes 2 on account of their dispute over Helen's daughter Hermione, Andromache married her first husband's brother Helenus 1, whom Neoptolemus had also brought from Troy to Epirus. At the end of her life, Andromache returned to Asia with one of her sons. "

###

So Andromache is the wife, who sacrifies her son and goes with the victor. The "fearful wife" - the position makes logic.


----
14) FEAR: Dionysius, instead of a barber,
Had his own daughters shave him with coals, in order
To avoid iron; and in the end he did not avoid it.

Seems to be a Dionysios, who had an bad oracle about iron. I don't know, who he is. Somebody else?