%Menota_entities;] > "Oh how it troubles me!" Fesneau/Agricola [att.] Transcription by Mae Velloso-Lyons Translation by Mae Velloso-Lyons Encoded in TEI P5 XML by Jordan Rosen-Kaplan Global Medieval Sourcebook

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This fifteenth-century love song is a virelai for three voices. Although it draws on a common theme for French songs of this period—the heartache of someone whose lover is absent—it is somewhat unusual that it is written from a woman’s perspective.

This song has been transcribed from the Chansonnier Nivelle de la Chausée (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département de Musique, Res. Vmc MS 57), ff.79v-80r. The manuscript can be viewed at https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b55007270r/f158.item. The same song is also found in Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française, 1719. Different manuscripts attribute it to either Agricola or Fesneau.

 "Ha qu’il m’ennuye" "Oh how it troubles me!"

Chansonnier Nivelle de la Chausée (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département de Musique, Res. Vmc MS 57), ff.79v-80r

"Oh how it troubles me!" is published by The Global Medieval Sourcebook (GMS), a free, open access, and open source compendium of medieval texts in their original languages and in English translation. GMS comprises computer-readable transcriptions or editions alongside new translations of texts dating from the ninth to the sixteenth century and originating in Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The GMS platform includes critical introductions as well as sources for further reading.

Transcriptions and translations are encoded in XML conforming to TEI (P5) guidelines. The original-language text is contained within <lem> tags and translations within <rdg> tags.

Texts are translated into modern American English with maximum fidelity to the original text, except where it would impair comprehension or good style. Archaisms are preserved where they do not conflict with the aesthetic of the original text. Scribal errors and creative translation choices are marked and discussed in the critical notes.

 <app> <lem wit="#Transcription">"Ha qu’il m’ennuye"</lem> <rdg wit="#Translation">"Oh how it troubles me!"</rdg> </app> Ha qu'il menuye Oh how it troubles me! et que Je me treuve esbahye I find myself astonished de ce que Je ne vous puis voir that I cannot see you. mon seul tout vueillez y pourvoir My one and only, please do what is necessary se vous amez moy et ma vie if you love me and my life. Jay des enuis I have troubles qui me tourmentent jours et nuits tormenting me day and night tant que Jen suis toute esperdue to such a degree that I feel totally lost, car je ne puis [avoir] plaisir ne nulz de puis for I have not been able to have any joy, nor anything else, since que je vous ay perdu de veue I lost you from my sight. Je nay envye I have no interest in anything, ne mon desir ne my convye nor does desire drive me, puis que mieulx je ne puis avoir because I cannot have anything better fors de voz nouvelles savoir than news of you, dailleurs ne puis estre esjouye and I cannot be happy otherwise.