Ella Young and Romance

Jaufre Rudel dies in the arms of Hodierna of Tripoli (MS of troubadour songs, 13C North Italian, Bib. Nat. Française)

Somehow I missed Valentine' Day…but endeavor to carry on the theme of love and romantic gestures. I came across a poem by Ella from her volume of poems The Rose of Heaven - published in Dublin in 1920. As with many of her poems I find myself on an adventure as I research the names and places she mentions.  First, here is the poem - my gift, from Ella.

Rudel takes leave of the Countess of Tripoli

You are so beautiful, and yet the light
Ebbs fast and faster as I lie:
Outside 'tis noonday burning white
In that long-wished-for Southern sky.

I have no words now - I that made
So many songs for you.  All's done.
I have reached to you: my life essayed.
Naught further, Lady of the Sun.

Bend down and kiss me, let your hair 
Shut out the darkness for a space:
It may be death itself will spare
This Dream in which I see your face. 

So,  who are these people? Are they real? Imaginary?

My research led me to one Jaufre Rudel - a Provincial troubadour of the early mid-twelfth century and a Prince. The legend has it that Jaufre went on a Crusade after hearing about the great beauty and intelligence of the Countess of Tripoli - Hodierna. It is said that Jaufre was deathly ill when he reached Tripoli ( a small duchy north of Palestine) and the Countess came to him - permitting him to die in her arms. Ah, love and death - so painfully entwined. 

Others have written poems in honor of Juafre's quest and his death - but none, I feel, as perfect in its simplicity as Ella's creation.  

Reading about Jaufre Rudel reminded me of a favorite novel - A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay.  Kay's fantasy brings to life this age of romance, courtly love, and troubadours. 

Sometimes the road is rocky...

                                                                                               


I feel that I am slowly emerging from a very rocky beginning to this new year. Nothing traumatic for which I am grateful - but long, dragging, stressful days of finalizing financial affairs for my elder parents so we no longer have to worry about how to afford their remaining years in care. It took its toll on me - body and soul - but it is done now. I am regrouping. Yet again. As always.

I've given myself permission to think once more of the new novel waiting for my return, "pen in hand,"  and even a few visual pieces I long to create.

Then, this evening, I opened a book of Celtic literature to a stanza from AE's The Twilight of Earth. It was the perfect stanza for me to read and I thank you, dear Ella, for bringing these words into my world.

The power is ours to make or mar
        Our fate as on the earliest morn,
The Darkness and the Radiance are
        Creatures within the spirit born.
Yet, bathed in gloom too long, we might
Forget how we imagined light.


Photograph © Denise Sallee 2012