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a collection of literature from poets, bards, songwriters, and skalds in the SCA

Canta, mea venusta

olivier's picture
olivier
Poem (Canso): 

Canta, mea venusta,
Et a et o,
Voluptatis angusta,
Et a et o et a et o!
Vita longa expeto,
Et a et o,
Ab libide langueo,
Et a et o et a et o!
Urit tam ferociter,
Et a et o,
Et saltas tam impiger
Et a et o et a et o!
Talis amor non vinco,
Et a et o,
Manere te devinco,
Et a et o et a et o!

Translation: 

Sing, my lovely one,
With ah! and oh!
Of brief pleasure,
With ah! and oh! and ah! and oh!
How I wish for a long life,
With ah! and oh!
For I am feeble from desire,
With ah! and oh! and ah! and oh!
That burns so fiercely,
With ah! and oh!
And you dance so energetically,
With ah! and oh! and ah! and oh!
Such affection I cannot overcome,
With ah! and oh!
I must tie you up in order to continue,
With ah! and oh! and ah! and oh!

Documentation / Explanation (Razo): 

This poem is based off of Song 49 in the Carmina Cantabrigiensia (the "songs of Cambridge"), a collection of eleventh-century songs and poems probably from Germany (the manuscript title refers to Cambridge because it was named so by modern scholars, as the manuscript was discovered in a monastic library in Cambridge). The original poem is a celebration of the narrator's sexual prowess; I thought it would be rather hilarious to twist the idea around and celebrate the narrator's lack of sexual ability and endurance (or perhaps celebrating the superhuman ability of his beloved!). Each verse line is 7 syllables long, with an "et a et o" refrain, then a rhyming line of 7 syllables, then the longer "et a et o et a et o" refrain, with 4 rhyming verses in total. The third verse of the original is incomprehensible - the source I used, which is fairly thorough, provides guesses at some letters and ellipses for those which are completely unreadable. However, this was no real obstacle to understanding the poem's meter or intent.

Original
Ven<i> d<ilectissim>e
et a et o
gratam me <in>visere,
et a et o et a et o
in languore pereo
<et a> et <o>
. . . . <de>sidero
<et a et o et a> et o.

Veni . . l . . . . h . . . . . & . d e . es
ro . l . . . . . . . . . . & . . . . . .

Si cum clave veneris
et a et o,
<mox> intrare poteris
et a et o et a et o.

 

Bibliography

 

"Carmina Cantabrigiensia ca. 1050." Bibliotecha Augustana. http://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost11/CarminaCantabrigiensia/can_carm.html
Jones, Peter. Learn Latin: A Lively Introduction to Reading the Language. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1997.
Traupman, John. The New College Latin & English Dictionary. New York: Bantam, 1995. 
Whicher, George. The Goliard Poets: Medieval Latin Songs and Satires. New York: New Directions, 1949. 
Ziolkowski, Jan. The Cambridge Songs (Carmina Cantabrigiensia). New York: Garland, 1994.