Love Poems for your Valentine
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Instead of chocolates, why not buy some poetic confections for your valentine? This collection of poems contains nuggets from the treasure trove of chivalrous Medieval love poetry. Believe it or not, many of these poems, from the Carmina Burana, were found in a Benedictine monastery! Some of the poems are also written by knights. Such poetry eventually developed into our modern conception of romance. Some of them are also mine.
Here’s a short preview:
These Medieval Love Poems are from the German:
Three Versions of „du bist mein, ich bin dein“:
You are mine, I am yours.
You can be sure it’s true.
Into my heart, I’ve gotten you,
Locked its lock,
Lost the key,
So you’ll never get back out, you see.
The second:
I love you, you love me.
We’re in each other’s hearts, you see.
So let’s lock the lock,
Throw away the key,
So we belong to each other eternally.
In Shakespearean English
Thou art mine, I am thine!
Certain of this, thou must be.
Locked thou art
within mine heart.
Lost is the key,
Thou must therein forever be.
Here’s the Love Poem transposed into modern German:
Du bist mein, ich bin dein.
Des sollst du gewiss sein.
Du bist verschlossen
in meinem Herzen;
Verloren ist das Schlüsselein.
Du musst immer drinne sein.
If this Whole Wide World Were Mine
If this whole wide world were mine,
without qualms,
I’d give it up any time,
My queen of charms,
Just to have you in my arms.
Translated from old German (ca.1050-ca.1450)
Were this whole world mine
From the great sea to the Rhine
I’d leave it without qualms,
if only the queen of England
were in my arms.
Could this have been for
Eleanor of Aquitaine or of Poitiers?
In modern German:
Wär alle Welt mein,
vom Mär bis an den Rhein,
des wolt ich keineswegs ersparen,
so nur die Königin von England
würde liegen in meinen Armen.
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