Ye-Jae Hetty Lee

HUM 216-217

To what extent does the third stanza of Bernart de

Ventadorns Chantars no pot gaire valer have the ability
to change the tone of the entire poem?
Graded by Professor Sugrue
This paper represents my own work in accordance with University
regulations.

(14)
(15)
(16)
(17)
(18)
(19)
(20)
(21)
(22)

And their singing is not worth a dime

whose song comes not from the heart.
If love has not set his roots there
the song cannot put forth shoots there: so
my song is superior, for I turn to it
mouth eyes mind heart
and there is the joy of love in it.
And the binding glance is food for it
and the barter of sighs is food for it

(23)

and if desire is not equal between them

(24)

there is no good in it.

Bernart de Ventadorn, Chantars no pot gaire valer

It may appear upon first glance that Bernart de Ventadorn is writing only about how his
love for the subject of Chantars no pot gaire valer serves as the condition for the poems
existence, and how without this love his poem would be like a verse poor in the making
1

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HUM 216-217
(line 9), having no purpose. His love interest has apparently made [him] rich (line 33)
by inspiring and inducing him to write good (line 12) poetry about genuine love, where
before there was only love for himself (line 11). However, the third stanza, when
interpreted a certain way, can cast a veil of irony over the whole poem and add another
layer to its meaning. Perhaps the cansos real aim is to explain the hopelessness of de
Ventadorns situation: if he wants to pen the perfect poem (line 40) he must have a
subject to provide him with the reason and inspiration to write. This inspiration, however,
comes at a price; his love must remain unrequited, the desire between him and his
beloved must remain unequal (line 23), lest the darkness enter [his] throat (line 43) and
he loses the incentive to write poetry about this unreturned affection.

Chantars no pot gaire valer seems at first to be a typical troubadour poem. It possesses
all the conventional elements of a canso: the speaker addresses the object of his amorous
attachment, an unknown lady who is described in vague terms, the desire for whom
sparks the poems conception. De Ventadorn is writing a poem about writing poems: the
first stanza, which reads it is worthless to write a line / if the song proceed not from the
heart: / nor can the song come from the heart / if there is no love in it (lines 1-4), can be
simplified to it is worthless to write a line / [] if there is no love in itthe condition
for the poems very existence is love. Furthermore, the pursuit of the personas inamorata
takes him out of his previous loveless foolishness (line 5). Here is evident the
characteristic troubadour view that loving someonea beautiful and comely (line
34) lady in this caseactually improves the lover in the process. De Ventadorn uses the
words worthless (line 1), fool (line 9), poor (line 9), corrupt (line 13) and not

Ye-Jae Hetty Lee

HUM 216-217
worth a dime (line 14) to describe his previous state, whereas after the aforementioned
third stanza he speaks of how the lady has made [him] rich (line 33) and how he
grows like a canso, perfect (line 41) when he beholds her fine body (line 39).

The third stanza (lines 14-24), when interpreted to fit this context, seems to state that the
personas song is superior (line 16) to that of the corrupt [] rhyme (line 13) of the
fools (line 5) he mentions in the second stanza. De Ventadorns song is superior
because it possesses the joy of love (line 20) whereas the fool can only brag (line 5)
about a love that is nothing but nominal. Their singing is not worth a dime / whose song
comes not from the heart (lines 14-15), but thankfully love has [] set his roots (line
16) in de Ventadorns heart. His song can therefore put forth shoots (line 17), unlike the
mere brag of a maligning fool (line 5). Moreover, his song is fruitful because it itself
has been nourished: the binding glance is food for it / and the barter of sighs is food for
it (lines 21-22), a reversal of the later idea that music be the food of love.

This interpretation, however, is not completely satisfactory. If this is indeed the extent of
the poems meaning, de Ventadorns reason for including the last two lines of the third
stanza is unclear. This stanza closes with if desire is not equal between them / there is no
good in it (lines 23-24). This seems to be an extension of the idea in the previous line
that the barter of sighs is food for the personas songthere is no good in a song
about unrequited love; the desire between lover and beloved must be equal, a
barter. However, unrequited love is in fact the very subject of the poem. The final
stanza implies that the extent to which the lady has made de Ventadorn rich (line 33) is

Ye-Jae Hetty Lee

HUM 216-217
the mere fact that she has provided him with inspiration to write the poem; line 33
however goes on to state that he nevertheless remains a man with nothing, a man who
has smarting (line 36) because the woman he loves so seldom (line 37) pays attention
to him. The love he feels, albeit the stimulus for this canso, is by no means returned, and
each day goes badly (line 28) for him because of it.

Furthermore, when de Ventadorn speaks of the joy of love (line 20) present in his song,
he may be indicating the joy of what is simply the fools love (line 9) mentioned in the
previous stanza. Maligning fools, says de Ventadorn in the second stanza, failing all
else, brag (line 5), but in the third stanza he then boastfully proceeds to inform the
reader about the superiority of his own song. Perhaps the persona is being ironic about
this superiority, implying that he has failed to win the affections of the unnamed lady in
the poem, and that he is a fool who can only brag about his knowledge of what it
takes to write a song when he himself does not possess that necessary element of
reciprocated love. Moreover, in the second stanza he defines a verse poor in the making
(line 9) as a verse that loves nothing except itself (line 11). In the third stanza, however,
after declaring the superiority of his song, he states that he turns to it / mouth eyes mind
heart / and there is the joy of love in it (lines 18-20). It seems that de Ventadorn is
implying that he is in love with his own song: he has given his mouth eyes mind heart
over to it, where he finds the joy of the fools love which loves nothing except
itself. His is therefore a corrupt rhyme (line 13), no different from that of fools,
because it can take nothing of good (line 12); desire is not equal between him and his
beloved and hence there is no good in [his song] (lines 23-24).

Ye-Jae Hetty Lee

HUM 216-217

Troubadour poetry usually speaks of aiming high in love, and about how striving for this
seemingly impossible mutual affection makes the poet a better person. However, de
Ventadorns Chantars no pot gaire valer can be interpreted as taking a rather sardonic
tone instead of the standard soppy one, which can be seen especially in the subtleties of
the third stanza. When these possible double entendres are taken into account the poem
takes on a different meaning: the persona realizes that he will only receive fine thought
(line 29) from his unreciprocated desire, though no other thing (line 30). If the love is
mutual and desire is equal between [him and his beloved], darkness will enter his
throat and cease his singing; the only way his poem can exist is if he harbors love for her
even without hope of requital, but he remains in perpetual pain because it is unreturned.