kwaw
Bastir as 'build' and 'compose':
Quote:
“In lines reminiscent of Arnaut Daniel's sonet coind'e leri, Guilhem satirizes the metaphor of the love poet as builder and of poets whose "hearts have wings" yet who carve their words with blunt instruments. Being the "master of the school," Guilhem has no need of the adz and hatchet; in implying that other poets do use these, he compares them not to architects but to clumsy woodcutters who bring rough lumber to the building site:
Cel so qui capol'e dola:
tant soi cuynde e avinen
si que destral ni exola
no·y deman ni ferramen
qu'esters n'a bastidas cen
que maestre de l'escola
so, e am tan finamen
que per pauc lo cor no·m vola.
(Gm Berg 15, 1–8)
I am the one who planes and trims: I am so gracious and pleas-
ing that I do not require an adz or a hatchet, nor other tools,
for I have built a hundred [songs] without them, because I am
the master of the school, and I love in such a refined way that
my heart nearly flies away.
For fuller exposition of the theme see section on Level, Plumb, and True: Songs as Buildings here:
http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft358004pc&chunk.id=d0e10860&toc.id=d0e10267&brand=eschol
Kwaw
Ref: p.174
Van Vleck, Amelia E. Memory and Re-Creation in Troubadour Lyric. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1991 1991. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft358004pc/
Rosanne said:...The reason I ask is that in English from the 1500's the word 'baste' meant Card playing from the Old French term 'bastire' to put together or sew together loosely.
Quote:
“In lines reminiscent of Arnaut Daniel's sonet coind'e leri, Guilhem satirizes the metaphor of the love poet as builder and of poets whose "hearts have wings" yet who carve their words with blunt instruments. Being the "master of the school," Guilhem has no need of the adz and hatchet; in implying that other poets do use these, he compares them not to architects but to clumsy woodcutters who bring rough lumber to the building site:
Cel so qui capol'e dola:
tant soi cuynde e avinen
si que destral ni exola
no·y deman ni ferramen
qu'esters n'a bastidas cen
que maestre de l'escola
so, e am tan finamen
que per pauc lo cor no·m vola.
(Gm Berg 15, 1–8)
I am the one who planes and trims: I am so gracious and pleas-
ing that I do not require an adz or a hatchet, nor other tools,
for I have built a hundred [songs] without them, because I am
the master of the school, and I love in such a refined way that
my heart nearly flies away.
For fuller exposition of the theme see section on Level, Plumb, and True: Songs as Buildings here:
http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft358004pc&chunk.id=d0e10860&toc.id=d0e10267&brand=eschol
Kwaw
Ref: p.174
Van Vleck, Amelia E. Memory and Re-Creation in Troubadour Lyric. Berkeley: University of California Press, c1991 1991. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft358004pc/