Date These Voices: Kürenberges Wîse an einer Zinne

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In summary: GermanLit/Minne/Minne1.htmIn summary, the conversation is about a knight who is trying to flee from a woman's advances, fearing that she will try to control him with her love. The conversation is translated from a poem by Der von Kürenberg, a medieval German poet from the 12th century.

When were the original eight lines written?

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  • #1
marcus
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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?
 
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  • #2
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.
 
  • #3
Not to translate the delightful îsengwant into the colourful "iron-gown" is nothing less than a sacrilege..
I say before 1200s on this one.
 
  • #4
loseyourname said:
Well, the translation is different from what I would read.

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

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 don't 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.:smile:
 
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  • #5
marcus said:
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.
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.
 
  • #6
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 don't you think:smile:

here is where I copied and pasted from
http://www.brindin.com/pwpger.htm
 
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  • #7
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.
 
  • #8
marcus said:
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.
This made me laugh. Sounds like she was wanting to be awakened.
 
  • #9
Evo said:
This made me laugh. Sounds like she was wanting to be awakened.

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 isn't 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
Code: 
Andre     1
Arildno    1
selfAdjoint  1
 
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  • #10
Darn, I need to start guessing. :frown:
 
  • #11
Evo said:
Darn, I need to start guessing. :frown:

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.)
 
  • #12
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.
 
  • #13
zoobyshoe said:
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.

thanks for taking part ZS! what you have noticed is something worth remarking----German doesn't 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. :smile:
 
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  • #14
marcus said:
German doesn't 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.
I have never even thought about this. I suppose I assumed all languages must be more or less equally "unstable".

Do you know the lovely "Under the linden..." poem? in the woman's voice but actually written by a man. really beautiful. written 1200 but sounds like some variant of today's
No, I don't know it.
 
  • #15
zoobyshoe said:
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.

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
:smile:
 
  • #16
marcus said:
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.
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.
 
  • #17
zoobyshoe said:
I have never even thought about this. I suppose I assumed all languages must be more or less equally "unstable".
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.
 
  • #18
arildno said:
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.
That's incredible. I had no idea there were languages that long-lived.
 
  • #19
Icelandic is admittedly, on the conservative extreme.
I think the two major reasons for this is
a) A history of national isolation preventing new input of words and ideas
b) A strong oral tradition of saga-telling, so that from early years, kids were inundated in the ancient language through exciting stories, and for that reason felt little interest to make their own way of speaking deviate from the way of their forefathers.
(I imagine young boys playing vikings and yelling out the pithy quotes and sayings they had heard countless times by the fireside).
 
  • #20
marcus said:
...

Arildno wins the point!

...POINTS SO FAR
Code: 
Andre     1
Arildno    1
selfAdjoint  1

Arildno scored on this thread's Der von Kürenberg (12 c)
Andre and selfAdjoint on the Cecco Angiolieri (1260-1312)
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=93000
Now syzygy (history and humanities PF poster child ) has scored two points
one on Comtessa de Dia (flourished 1160) and one on Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966)
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=93105
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=93143
the new scoreboard:

POINTS SO FAR
Code: 
Andre        1
Arildno      1
selfAdjoint  1
syzygy       2
 
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1. What is "Date These Voices: Kürenberges Wîse an einer Zinne" about?

"Date These Voices: Kürenberges Wîse an einer Zinne" is a scientific research project that focuses on studying the interactions between human voices and their environment in the Kürenberges region.

2. What methods were used in this research project?

This project utilized a combination of field recordings, acoustic analyses, and statistical modeling to study the soundscape of the Kürenberges region.

3. What are the main findings of this research?

The main findings of this research include the impact of natural and human-made sounds on the acoustic environment, the diversity of vocalizations in different habitats, and the changes in vocalizations over time.

4. How is this research significant?

This research provides valuable insights into the dynamics of human-environment interactions and the importance of preserving natural soundscapes in the face of urbanization and human activity.

5. What are the future implications of this research?

The findings of this research can be used to inform land-use planning and management decisions to protect the acoustic environments of the Kürenberges region and other similar habitats. Additionally, this research can inspire further studies on the impact of human voices on the environment and the potential effects on animal behavior and biodiversity.

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