A poem from Baudri

Translated letter:

Behold our pen approaches/attacks Beatrice,
yet I scarcely remember having seen her,
I hardly remember that the girl saw me,
who responds nothing to my frequent requests.
I have asked often that she offer her songs or mine,      5
nor were these or those songs lacking,
but excessively she put a silent finger to her mouth
and hid herself as if under a veil.
And yet she could be seen as if through a sieve,
indeed there were many windows in that veil.                 10
She displeased since she sent nothing to me asking so much
and I see myself as an ass before the lyre.*
Either she is too exalted or the rustic virgin has no feelings,
or perhaps both are joined in her,
or she was more deprived of the office of the tongue     15
than if present I had taken it away.
But I did not know the songs of a goddess or Circe,
rather this girlish novelty found me.
Before virgins men are rendered quite speechless,
no woman is speechless before a man.                           20
Now therefore I try if she has found a tongue,
if sleep has helped her or medicine,
if provoked by verses the mute perhaps will speak,
invited by prayers, aroused by songs.
Let her praise in songs or damn our songs,                     25
thus let the mute animal be broken.

Original letter:

Ecce Beatricem noster stilus aggrediatur,
Me vidisse tamen vix reminiscor eam,
Vix reminiscor ego me conspexisse puellam,
Quae nil respondit saepe rogata mihi.
Carmina proferret sua vel mea saepe rogavi,                          5
Carmina nec deerant ista vel illa sibi,
Sed tacitum a nimis digitum superaddidit ori.
Et.velo oppanso se velut occuluit.
Tanquam per cribrum poterat tamen ipsa videri,
In velo siquidem multa fenestra fuit.                                    10
Displicuit quia nil retulit mihi multa roganti
Et mecum video nunc asinum ante lyram.
Aut nimis effertur, aut callet rustica virgo,
Forsitan aut sibi sunt haec duo juncta simul,
Aut magis officio linguae privata manebat,                          15
Quam praesens illi forsitan abstuleram.
Sed neque me deae neque Circes carmina novi ;
Immo puellaris repperit haec novitas.
Coram virginibus homines satis obstupere,
Obstupuit nulla femina coram homine.                                20
Nunc igitur tempto si linguam forte recepit,
Si somnus valuit vel medicina sibi,
Versibus irrito mutum si forte loquatur,
Invito precibus, excito carminibus.
Carminibus laudet vel damnet carmina nostra,                    25
Sic autem mutum sit pecus et mutilum.
 

Historical context:

Baudri exchanged poems, or tried to, with a number of the aristocratic nuns at Le Ronceray in Angers.  Beatrice seems to have been more reluctant than others to respond, despite his teasing.

Scholarly notes:

• The image of an ass playing a lyre or harp was popular in the Middle Ages, perhaps inspired by Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, in which Philosophy asks "Do you listen only as the 'dull ass to the lyre'?", meaning "are you too stupid to understand what you hear?"

Printed source:

Les OEuvres Poétiques de Baudri de Bourgueil, ed. Phyllis Abrahams, (Paris:  Honoré Champion, 1926, repr. Geneva:  Slatkine, 1974), # CCII.

Date: