Date these voices!

marcus

ICH STUONT MIR NEHTINT SPÂTE...

Ich stuont mir nehtint spâte an einer zinne,
dô hört ich einen rîter vil wol singen
in Kürenberges wîse al ûz der menigîn.
er muoz mir diu lant rûmen, alder ich geniete mich sîn.

"Nu brinc mir her vil balde mîn ros, mîn îsengwant,
wan ich muoz einer vrouwen rûmen diu lant,
diu wil mich des betwingen, daz ich ir holt sî.
si muoz der mîner minne iemer darbende sîn."

---------approx. transl.----------

STANDING ON THE CASTLE WALL ...

She says:
Standing on the castle wall last night
I heard a voice outside sing full and fine -
a tune from Kürenberg. I say that knight
shall either flee the country or be mine.

He says:
"My horse! and bring my armor's coat and pants,
so I can clear out of this lady's lands.
She'd have me paying court, indoors or out -
it's her tough luck, my love she'll do without."

====================

Please put your guess down in the poll before you look it up.
A storehouse of poetry in over a dozen languages is at
http://www.brindin.com/main.htm

Congratulations to selfAdjoint and arildno on the other poll who both obviously know their apples when it comes to verse. Now which one was righter?

loseyourname

Well, the translation is different from what I would read. Some of that can probably be attributed to maintaining the structure rather than literally translating, but there are also some archaic spellings and verb conjugations that seem to be in use here, which I think places it prior to 1400.

arildno

Not to translate the delightful îsengwant into the colourful "iron-gown" is nothing less than a sacrilege..
I say before 1200s on this one.

marcus

I strongly approve of both these attitudes, arildno and loseyourname. Especially about the sacrilege (it shows that people can have strong reactions to translation they dont like)

Everyone, especially you arildno and loseyourname, is invited to look up different translations, or to make your own more correct translation of the line, or the whole poem!

I notice that at the BRINDIN PRESS website (from which I copied and pasted it) they often have TWO OR MORE DIFFERENT TRANSLATIONS by different people of the same poem.
We have options, and room for differences of opinion.

Arildno, I think in modern German the word "Gewand" means, correct me if I am wrong, "garment". I do not think it has the narrow meaning of GOWN. But there is clearly an etymological connection!
And also a knight's CHAINMAIL was often like a gown, or like a long shirt reaching down below the knees. So IRON-GOWN would be visually evocative of a long chainmail garment. So one can argue passionately that it would be better.

But I don't see how I can consider something different unless you show me just what you propose as a substitute.

arildno

Certainly, that is the German meaning.
The word has passed out of modern Norwegian, and for some obscure reason, the plural form "gevanter" (used in particular to describe a woman's clothing) was more common than just "gevant" when describing some piece of garment.

marcus

I am excited to find someone else here who feels strongly about achieving the full potential of an old voice. Let's get Evo. She can tell us what she thinks.

Maybe it should not be "armor pants" but "iron pants"

to ride a horse one should probably have iron pants, not a gown. and that sounds uncomfortable, which would improve the poem dont you think

here is where I copied and pasted from
http://www.brindin.com/pwpger.htm

marcus

Arildno, and Evo, I think you will like this maybe. I got it from the same page.
http://www.brindin.com/pwpger.htm

JÔ STUONT ICH NEHTINT SPÂTE ...
Der von Kürenberg

Jô stuont ich nehtint spâte vor dînem bette,
dô getorste ich dich, vrouwe, niwet wecken.
"des gehazze got den dînen lîp!
jô enwas ich niht ein eber wilde", sô sprach daz wîp.

ALTHOUGH I STOOD LAST NIGHT ...
trans. Raymond Oliver

Although I stood last night at your bedside late,
I didn't wake you, Lady; I didn't dare."
"For that," said she, "may God forever hate
Your carcass!" (splendid girl!) "I'm no wild bear."

==============================
just as an exercise, this would be a literal (not lyric verse) translation,
arildno please correct anything since you are closer to German

Although stood I night late at your bed,
dared I you, lady, not to waken.
"May God hate your body for that!
I wasn't afterall a wild bear," said the woman.

Evo

This made me laugh. Sounds like she was wanting to be awakened.

marcus

yes she was quite disappointed not to have been.

Arildno wins the point!

Everything i've read about Der von Kürenberg says that he was a poet of the 1100s (12th c.). His exact dates are not known, but in anthologies he comes before the other medieval german (mittlehochdeutsch) poets. His style is simpler too----the others used more elaborate forms and were probably more influenced by provençal (troubadour) verse.

So loseyourname COULD be right, since the dating isnt certain, but the weight of evidence points to pre-1200

His name is not known----and he has always been called "The One from Kürenberg" because of this very poem, where she hears the man singing Kürenberg-fashion whatever that meant.

POINTS SO FAR

Evo

Darn, I need to start guessing.

marcus

Hi Evo, since you expressed this wish I started a couple of threads (with women poets as it happens) to give you an opportunity to guess. But I hope others will as well. My guess is that selfAdjoint is courteously holding back to make room for others and that he probably knows several of these. Please people no need to be modest. If you know the date, nail it (just don't let the rest of us know that you are sure.)

zoobyshoe

Well, I guessed 1400-1599, based on thinking it looked as "old" to me as Shakespeare might to a German with a couple years of English. Then I read the thread and saw I had it wrong.

marcus

thanks for taking part ZS! what you have noticed is something worth remarking----German doesnt seem to have changed as fast as english in the past 700 or 800 years. makes sense, perhaps, because no analog of 1066, which must have destabilized the language for several centuries.

so you can go back 800 years and find a poem that seems to be written in german, or something recognizably kin to it.

Shhhhh. Forget I said that.

zoobyshoe

I have never even thought about this. I suppose I assumed all languages must be more or less equally "unstable".

No, I don't know it.

marcus

the shock of invasion, of having to merge with French, of having a set of rulers speaking a foreign language.

I guess also having a large number of immigrants, even if not an invasion, could tend to reduce the syntactic complexity of a language---make it more child-like or pidginy.

You don't know it? Hmmmm. then pretend I never said that. Shhhhh

zoobyshoe

Apparently there is a known dynamic to this, something like: the first generation of foreign speakers to encounter each other develop a pidgin. Their children, however, will start to make a proper language of the pidgin, and it just keeps getting better from there.

I read a brief description of this, interestingly, in Oliver Sacks' great book about the deaf: Seeing Voices. He was making a point about the development of the sophistication of sign language.

arildno

A modern Icelander has no problem reading Norse literature written 1000 years ago; the difference is about as great as that between British English and American English.