"I have learned to speak happiness, but to be happy I have not learned." "To speak of happiness I have learned," "but learned to be happy have I not." "I saw a nightingale on the bough, his words calling to his mate." "My own words call only to other words;" "my verses call only to other verses." "Tell me, nightingale..." "The nightingale will tell you nothing!" "My friends, let me finish!" "No, Jaufré, we will not let you." "Listen to us." "We shall say only what we have come to say." "Then we will leave, we promise!" "You will see us no more..." "I do not ask you to leave, my friends." "I ask only that you let me finish my couplet." "I am looking for a word..." "If you are looking for a word, you will find it amongst those we speak." "Listen to us!" "Jaufré, you are a changed man;" "you have lost your sense of fun." "Your lips no longer seek the mouths of bottles," " nor the lips of women..." " Yet the taverns of Aquitaine still remember your laughter." "Your name remains carved in the dark wood of their tables." "Have I forgotten anything?" "Ah, yes..." "Jaufré Rudel, come to your senses." "Women once looked on you with terror, and men with envy..." "Or was it the other way around?" "Men once looked on you with terror, and women with envy." "Joke, Jaufré, joke as much as you will, but you were happy every night and upon each awakening." "Could you have forgotten that so soon?" "Perhaps I was happy, my friends, yes, perhaps." "But of all my youthful nights nothing is left me." "Of all I have drunk nothing is left but an immense thirst." "Of all the embraces nothing is left but two clumsy arms." "That Jaufré who was heard bawling in the taverns, he shall be heard no more." "That Jaufré who each night weighed his body on the scales of a woman's body, he shall be seen no more..." "So you no longer wish to hold any woman in your arms!" "The woman I desire is so far away, so far away that my arms shall never enclose her." "Where is she then, this woman?" "She is far away, far, far." "Who is she, this woman?" "What is she like?" "She is graceful and humble and virtuous and gentle," "courageous and shy, full of fortitude and delicate," "a princess with the heart of a peasant girl, a peasant girl with the heart of a princess." "In a passionate voice she will sing my songs..." "Beautiful without the arrogance of beauty, noble without the arrogance of nobility, pious without the arrogance of piety..." "Jaufré, Jaufré." "Such a woman does not exist!" "Tell him, Pilgrim, you who have traveled the world, tell him!" "Such a woman does not exist!" "Maybe she does not exist," "but maybe she does." "One day, in Outremer, I saw a woman pass by..." "It was in Tripoli, near the Citadel." "She was walking down the street on her way to church" "and suddenly one saw nothing but her." "Conversations fell silent." "Every gaze was drawn towards her like butterflies with powdery wings that have just spotted a light." "She herself walked without looking at anyone." "Her eyes focused on the ground before her as her dress stretched out behind." "Beautiful without the arrogance of beauty, noble without the arrogance of nobility, pious without the arrogance of piety..." "Speak again, friend." "Speak to me of her..." "What would you that I say?" "I have already told all." "We were near the Citadel." "It was Easter Sunday." "She is called..." "No, wait, do not tell me her name!" "Not yet!" "Tell me first the color of her eyes." "Her eyes..." "Her eyes..." "I did not observe her close to..." "Her eyes are the color of the sea when the sun has only just risen, and as one watches the darkness vanishing in the west..." "Jaufré, my friend..." "Jaufré, Jaufré Rudel, your boat drifts away from the shore," "your mind wanders..." "And her hair?" "Jaufré." "Her hair is so black and silky that at night it is no longer visible." "One only hears it as a murmuring of leaves..." "Indeed..." "And her hands, her smooth hands flow like running water." "I gather them in my open palms and I bend over them as over a fountain, to drink, my eyes closed..." "And her lips are another fresh spring that smiles and murmurs comforting words and offers itself to the thirsty lover..." "And her blouse..." "Tell me, friend, how was she dressed?" "What have you done to me, Pilgrim?" "What have you done?" "You have allowed me to glimpse the spring from which I shall never drink." " Never shall this distant lady be mine," " Far, far, far... but I am hers, for ever, and shall never acknowledge any other." "Pilgrim, what have you done to me?" "Jaufré, Jaufré..." "You have given me a taste for the distant spring" "where I can never, never slake my thirst." "Good fellow, say!" "Did you call me, Countess?" "The ship that has just reached shore, would you know where it is from?" "I was on board the ship, noble lady, and have come purposely to the Citadel to wish to your brother, the Count, long life, and also to you." "We embarked at Marseilles." "And before Marseilles, Pilgrim, where did your journey start?" "In Blaye, in Aquitaine, a small town, you would not know it..." "Did your homeland deserve that you should abandon it thus?" "Had it starved you?" "Had it humiliated you?" "Had it driven you away?" "Nothing of the kind, Countess." "I left behind those most dear to me." "But I had to..." "I had to cross the sea." "So many people dream..." "To gaze with my own eyes on the strangest things the Orient holds," " So many people dream of coming..." " Constantinople, Babylon," "Antioch, the oceans of sand, the rivers of ash, the trees that weep tears of incense..." "I had to cross the sea." "So many people dream of coming to the East..." "The lions in the mountains of Anatolia, and the dwelling places of the Titans." "And above all, above all I had to see the Holy Land." "So many people dream of coming to the East, and I dream of leaving it." "At the age of five I left Toulouse, and since then nothing has consoled me." "Each ship that arrives reminds me of my own exile." "Each ship that leaves makes me feel I have been abandoned." "Tripoli is yours, nevertheless;" "it belongs to your noble family." "And this country is now yours." "This country is mine?" "Perhaps." "Here your ancestors are buried." "But I do not belong here." "My feet walk on its grass but my thoughts stray in fields far away." "We both dream of crossing the sea but your destination is here, Pilgrim, and mine is over there." "My destination is near Toulouse, which bears the image of my mother's voice and my childish smiles." "I still remember how I ran barefoot along a stony track, chasing a cat." "The cat was young and is perhaps still alive" "and remembers me." "No, he must be dead, or has certainly forgotten me" "as the stones in the road have forgotten me." "I remember my childhood still" "but nothing in the world of my childhood remembers me." "The land where I was born still breathes in me but for it I am dead." "How happy I would be if a single wall, a single tree remembered me." "A man thinks of you." "What did you say?" "A man sometimes thinks of you." " What man?" " A troubadour." "A troubadour?" "What is his name?" "He is called Jaufré Rudel." "He is also Prince of Blaye." "Jaufré..." "Rudel..." "No doubt he would have seen me then, when I was a child..." "No, he has never seen you, it seems." "But how then can he know me?" "A traveler told him one day that you were beautiful without the arrogance of beauty," "noble without the arrogance of nobility, pious without the arrogance of piety." "Since then he thinks of you constantly it seems." "And he speaks of me in his songs?" "He sings of no other lady." "And he... mentions my name in his songs?" "No, but those who hear him know that he speaks of you." "Of me?" "And by what right does he speak of me?" "It was to you whom God gave beauty, Countess, but for the eyes of others." "And what does this troubadour say?" "He says what all poets say:" "that you are beautiful and that he loves you." "But by what right, dear God, by what right?" "Nothing obliges you to love him," "Countess." "Nothing obliges you, but you cannot prevent him from loving you from a distance." "In his songs he also says that you are his distant star," "and that he languishes for you without hope of return." "And what else does he say?" "My memory is not good..." "There is, however, a song that goes somewhat like this:" ""Never shall I delight in love" ""if I delight not in this distant love." ""For a nobler nor a better love I know not of" ""whosesoever, neither near, nor far." ""Its worth so great is, and so true," ""that over there, in the kingdom of the Saracens," ""for her sake, I would a captive be."" "Oh, God, and it is I that have inspired him." ""I hold faith with our Lord" ""that by His grace I shall see my distant love." ""Yet through this one piece of fortune" ""my ills are doubled, since she is so far away." ""Ah, that I were there, a pilgrim," ""so that my staff" ""and my robe could fall" ""beneath the gaze of her beautiful eyes."" "Do you recall any more?" ""He who calls me greedy" ""speaks aright" ""for wishing for a distant love," ""for no joy would please me as much" ""as to delight in this distant love." ""But what I wish for is denied me." ""Such was my godfather's decree," ""that I should love and be not loved..."" "And he says many other things I no longer remember..." "If you see this man one day, tell him... tell him..." "What should I tell him?" "No, nothing, tell him nothing." ""Never shall I delight in love" ""if I delight not in this distant love." ""For a nobler nor a better love I know not of" ""whosesoever," ""neither near, nor far."" "If this troubadour had known me, would he have sung with such fervor?" "Would he have sung thus if he had sounded the depths of my soul?" "Beautiful without the arrogance of beauty," "they told him..." "Beautiful?" "Yet always looking around me to make sure no other woman is more beautiful!" "Noble without the arrogance of nobility?" "Yet I covet both the eastern and the western lands, as if providence were indebted to me!" "Pious without the arrogance of piety?" "Yet I strut to Mass in my finery, then kneel in church," "my spirit empty!" "Troubadour, troubadour," "I am not beautiful, except in the mirror" "of your words." "Pilgrim, Pilgrim, tell me straightaway:" "have you seen her?" "Yes, my good prince, I have seen her." "Ah, you are luckier than I. I am jealous of your eyes." "And now when I speak of her you see her again, admit it." "Yes, when you speak to me of her, I see her again." "Then tell me: what does she look like?" "She is as I have already described her to you twenty times, if not fifty." "Jaufré, perhaps..." "Perhaps you should think of her a little less." "Less?" "Yes, less!" "You should dream a bit less of this distant lady and pay more attention to your fiefdom" "and to the good people who surround you." "You no longer leave your castle, you no longer speak but to your lute." "Everyone in the land thinks you mad." "And you too, my friend, do you think so?" "When one says to a man "You are mad,"" "it is because one does not think so." "When one thinks that he is, one contents oneself with complaining behind his back." "Nevertheless I am quite mad." "Pilgrim, by our Savior, I am mad." "Since you spoke to me of her, nothing else occupies my mind." "At night, when I'm asleep," "there appears this face so sweet with sea-green eyes that smile at me and tell me that it is she, even though I have never seen her." "Then in the morning, in my bed," "I lament that I have not been able to caress her nor hold her to me." "Is that no madness, Pilgrim?" "And to think that she, over there, far away, suspects nothing of it!" "Jaufré, she knows." "What did you say?" "I said: she knows." "She knows what?" "She knows everything that she should know." "That you are a poet and that you hymn her beauty." "How did she learn this?" "She asked me, and I told her." "Why?" "Why did you do that?" "I did not wish to lie to her." "From the moment when everyone knew the name of her that you sing about, by what right was it hidden from her?" "She knows!" "If you love her, you owe her the truth." "I did what you would have done in my place..." "She knows!" "She would have learned sooner or later, and from a malicious tongue!" "Exactly what does she know?" "Have you told her my name?" "Yes, she now knows your name and that you are a prince and a troubadour." "Have you told her that I love her?" "How could I not have told her?" "You wretch!" "And how did she take it?" "At the beginning, she seemed offended." "Offended?" "It was only a first reaction, the modesty of a noble lady of whom a man sings without her knowledge." "But very soon she seemed resigned to it." "Resigned?" "I mean that she eventually realized that your attitude was that of a man of honor, in love but respectful." "I believe that she was even flattered by it." "Flattered?" "She who is so lofty, above the mountain tops, flattered?" "Offended, resigned, flattered:" "what unfortunate words to use about her!" "Ah, Pilgrim, you should never have betrayed me!" "Have you recited my poems to her?" "My memory is not good enough, I merely hummed..." "Merely!" "What do you mean by "merely"?" "I spend my days and nights composing my songs, each note and each rhyme of which must pass the sternest test." "I undress and dress twenty times, thirty times, before I find the precise word" "that has been hanging in the sky" "for all eternity, awaiting its destination." "And you, you merely recited them?" "You merely hummed them?" "You wretch!" "You wretch!" "How could you betray me thus and go on pretending to be my friend?" "Perhaps it would be better for me to go." "No, wait, forgive me!" "All this news has cut me to the quick." "Forgive me, my friend," "I would not have you leave in anger." "If any man in this world below has any rights over me, it is you alone, Pilgrim," "my friend, the first who spoke to me of her." "But what you tell me stuns me, because I can no longer think of her without thinking that she too watches me from afar." "It was sweet to think of her at leisure without her seeing me." "It was easy to compose my songs because she did not hear them." "But now, now..." "But now she must hear them from my own mouth." "Yes, from my mouth, and from no other." "If she blushes to hear my song," "I want to see her blush." "If she shudders, I want to see her shudder." "If she sighs, I want to hear her sigh." "She is no longer so distant now, and you can..." "You can even whisper her name to me." "Clémence, she is called Clémence." "Clémence!" "Clémence!" "Like the heavens are clement!" "Clémence, the clement sea will close before me," "so I can cross it dry-foot all the way to the land" "where you breathe." ""I hold faith with our Lord" ""that by His grace I shall see my distant love." ""Yet through this one piece of fortune" ""my ills are doubled, since she is so far away." ""Ah, that I were there, a pilgrim," ""so that my staff and my robe could fall" ""beneath the gaze of her beautiful eyes."" "Hear how she lets herself be caught in the troubadour's net." "He who calls me greedy speaks aright for wishing for a distant love." "She sings his songs, she feels flattered, but what good can distant love bring?" " "For no," " No good company," " "no joy would please me as much - no sweet embrace, no marriage, no land," " "as to delight in this..." " no children." ""distant love." ""But what..."" "What good therefore can distant love bring?" ""But what I wish for is denied me," " "such was my godfather's decree..."" " It will merely separate her from those who covet her hand, the Prince of Antioch" " "...that I should love - and the old Count of Edessa" " "and not be loved." - and even, they say, the Emperor's son..." "All you who blame her, what have your close-at-hand men brought you?" "Princes or servants, they make servants of you." "When they are near to you, you suffer, and when they leave, you suffer once more..." "You speak truly, my daughter, my friend." "A blessing on you!" "A blessing on you!" "Because you, Countess, do not suffer?" "You do not suffer in being so far from him who loves you?" "In being unable to guess from his look whether he still desires you?" "You do not suffer in not even being able to know what he looks like?" "You do not suffer in not being able to close your eyes, feeling his arms enfold you and draw you close to his breast?" "You do not suffer in never, never feeling his breath upon your skin?" "Do you not suffer?" "No, by our Savior, I do not suffer." "Perhaps one day I shall suffer, but by the grace of God no, I do not suffer yet." "His songs are more than caresses, and I do not know whether I would love the man as well as I love the poet." "I do not know if I would love his voice as much as I love his music." "No, by our Savior, I do not suffer." "Doubtless I should suffer if I waited for this man and he came not." "But I do not wait for him." "To know that over there in his country a man thinks of me," "I feel myself suddenly close to the land of my childhood." "I am the poet's Outremer and the poet is my Outremer." "Between our two shores sail tender words." "Between our two lives sails music..." "No, by our Lord, I do not suffer." "No, by our Lord, I do not wait for him." "I do not wait for him..." "Believe me, Pilgrim, this is the first time" "I have set a foot on water." "I have always lived close to the sea." "I see sailors, pilgrims, merchants depart and return, or not return." "I have sung with them, I have heard their tales." "But this is the first time I have set foot on water." "For me it is the tenth crossing, or the twelfth." "But each time is the first time..." "At the start, every time, giddiness, the body doubled up, a bitter taste in the mouth..." "At such times I promise myself never, never again to set forth on the sea." "Never before had I the desire to go to sea." "Then I slowly recover." "I let myself be overcome by the immensity of the sky and the smell of the waves." "My spirit already on the far shore..." "Never before had I the desire to go to sea." "But the end of the voyage now is Tripoli." "At the end of the voyage there is Clémence." "There is my second birth." "The baptismal water shall be deep and cold." "At the end of the voyage my life shall begin." "Now you must rest awhile." "Pilgrim, do you know why the sea is blue?" "Because it is the mirror of the sky." "And the sky: why is it blue?" "Because it is the mirror of the sea!" "But you should stretch out like me, Jaufré:" "the crossing will be long..." "I have seen her, Pilgrim, I have seen her as I see you!" "Jaufré, you do not see me, nor do I see you." "It is pitch black and you have been dreaming!" "She was here, and her body and her face and her white dress lit up the night." "She sang a song that I had written for her." ""Your love fills my mind" ""waking" ""and dreaming." ""But it is dreaming" ""that I prefer" ""because in dreams you are mine!"" "because in dreams you are mine!" ""Your love..."" "When I looked into her eyes she smiled and made a sign for me to follow her." ""fills my mind."" "Then she moved away, with the footsteps of a queen..." ""Waking and dreaming."" "her dress trailing behind her, as you saw her that first time in Tripoli, on Easter Sunday." " "For there I have..."" " I followed her, but suddenly I saw her leave the ship and walk on the sea..." ""a marvelous joy"" "like our Lord, without sinking." "Then she turned towards me and opened her arms..." ""because I joyfully enjoy her joy."" "but I dared not go to her." "love, your love..." "I remained clinging to the rail without daring to join her, and I wept with shame for my cowardice." "When I awoke, my eyes were filled with tears and she was gone." "Calm yourself, Jaufré;" "it is nothing but a false dream." "You are no coward and you have undertaken this voyage precisely in order to join your distant lady." "I'm afraid, Pilgrim." "I'm afraid." "You are the voice of reason, but fear does not heed the voice of reason." "I'm afraid of not finding her, and I'm afraid of finding her." "I'm afraid of being lost at sea before reaching Tripoli," "and I'm afraid of reaching Tripoli..." "I'm afraid of dying, Pilgrim, and I'm afraid of living." "Do you understand me?" "I ought to be the happiest man in the world, and I'm the most desperate..." "There have been intrepid warriors who hurled themselves into the fray and offered their bodies to the enemies' swords." "Yet they would tremble at sea..." "There was a powerful king whose look made counts and knights shudder, who, leading his troops from the front, would cross deserts and mountains." "Yet he would tremble at sea." "If our companions knew why I trembled they would not sing thus." "It is not the sea that terrifies me..." "Do you think they have told her, Pilgrim?" "Do you think they have told her I am coming to Tripoli?" "Do you think they have told her that I am a crusader?" "These things are known, yes." "I do not know who has spoken of them, but they are known, yes." "Myself, who travel across seas and kingdoms, each time I bring a piece of news to a town someone has already reported it before me." "There are those who believe that the secrets of men are whispered on the winds by the angels..." "I ought to be the happiest man in the world, and I am the most desperate..." "I should be in a hurry to reach her town of Tripoli and I surprise myself by pleading with heaven not to let our sails have the least breath of air." "If at this moment a genie rose from the waves, saying:" ""Command, Jaufré, and your wish shall be done!"" "I would not know what to ask for." "Do I wish to see before me the woman without stain, and to stand before her visible?" "Shall I desire to hymn distant love" "when my eyes gaze upon her close to, and when I descry each movement of her eyelids, every crease in her lips, every one of her sighs?" "Never should I have set forth on his crossing." "From afar, the sun is the light of the sky, but close to seems like the fires of hell!" "I should have let myself be endlessly, endlessly charmed by the distant light," "instead of coming to burn myself!" "I was Adam and distance was my earthly paradise." "Why did I have to walk towards the tree?" "Why did I have to raise my hand towards the fruit?" "Why did I have to draw near the incandescent star?" "Countess, look!" "In port, on the quay, the ship!" "Ja'!" "Ja'!" "Pilgrims, flags, and the ship!" "The troubadour!" "Countess!" "So he has come, the madman!" "He did not want to remain a distant shadow, a strange story that is peddled," "a powerful voice that is imitated." "To be a poet and a troubadour was not enough for him." "So he has come, the madman!" "Countess, he's here!" "Countess, look!" "In port, on the quay, the ship!" "The troubadour!" "He is here!" "Countess!" "Down there!" "Ja'!" "Ja'!" "So he has come, the madman!" "Driven mad by love he took to sea to see me as I am" "and to allow me to see him in the flesh so that I may see his lips move when they speak of me." "Should I show myself expectant, flattered, grateful?" "Or perhaps hesitant, and feign indifference?" "Ought I to remain distant, inaccessible?" "Or, on the contrary, be welcoming?" "How would the woman of his songs behave, she whom he calls his distant love?" "So he has come, the madman!" "Countess, he is here!" "Ja'!" "Noble lady, I bring you news, news that shall displease you." "Pilgrim, allow me to judge for myself what does or does not displease me." "Perhaps your good news will sadden me, and your bad news will fill me with joy." "It may also be that all your news will leave me unmoved." "What would you tell me?" "It concerns Jaufré, Jaufré Rudel." "The troubadour?" "The news that you bring I know already." "He has become a crusader they say." "His ship has just landed at Tripoli." "He's here!" "How many days will he stay?" "It is not that, noble lady." "I have come to tell you that he is dying." "Lord!" "O Lord!" "Lord!" "He fell ill at sea, and he has not revived." "He is leaving this world and only you could hold him back." "Where is he?" "In a moment he will be here." "If he can climb up to the Citadel, then he is not as ill as you say." "It is you!" "I would have recognized you among all women." "How do you feel?" "Happy..." "Happy as a man can be whose fate is not a matter of indifference to you." "What does the Arab doctor say?" "He says that he will not live beyond dawn." "My God!" "Do not whisper." "I know all about my condition." "Doctors can lie to reassure the dying, but the heart's palpitations do not lie." "Perhaps our Lord may not wish to tear you from those around you yet." "We must not abuse God's grace!" "I asked of him the favor of seeing you just once before I died, and here you are before me." "The last image" "I shall keep of this world is that of your face and of your eyes which behold me." "The last voice" "I shall hear is yours that seeks to soothe me." "The last sensation of my mortal body" "is that of my worn-out hand that falls asleep in the hollow of yours." " Why ask more of heaven?" " Accursed..." "Even if I lived another hundred years, how could I know a joy more complete?" "Accursed be love when it makes us despise our existence." "Accursed be love when it betrays life and allies itself with death." "Do not curse love, my friends." "It is that which gives us our joys." "Does it not have the right to take them back?" "Accursed be love when it betrays life." "It is never love that is unworthy;" "it is we who are sometimes unworthy of love." "It is never love that betrays us but we who betray love." "I wish I were a poet and could respond with words as beautiful as yours." "You are beauty, and I am no more than the water in which beauty is reflected..." "There is something I thought to keep long hidden within me" "but, if I do not tell it this very day, I fear" "I shall never be able to say it." "Your songs, I speak them at night, all alone, in my room." "And I weep with happiness." "If my songs were beautiful, it is because my love was pure, and because the object of my love is so beautiful." "But you are still a thousand times more radiant and more gentle than I imagined." "If I had gazed on you" "I would have found words much more beautiful and a music that entered the soul." "And I would have loved you even more." "I too, if we had met, would have loved you." "As much as I love you?" "As much as you love me." "You could have said, I love you, Jaufré?" "I could have said it, yes;" "I love you, Jaufré." "Lord, forgive me, I want to live again!" "Lord, if I could remain thus, for a few moments, a few moments more," " But if death - if I could come back to life a little," " were not so close, Jaufré, - just a little." " The woman that you love" " My love that was distant" " would not at this moment - is now close to me," " be by your side to embrace you." " my body lies in her arms" " The air you breathe - and I breathe her sweetest perfume." "Would not be suffused with her perfume." "I love you, Jaufré..." " If death could wait apart," " And she would not have said to you," " instead of seizing on me thus, impatiently. - "I love you, Jaufré."" "I love you, Jaufré, and I would like so much for you to live." "If heaven were to cure me, would you take me by the hand and lead me to your chamber?" "Yes, Jaufré," " if heaven in its goodness" " Would you take me by the hand?" "Really wanted to cure you, I would take you by the hand and lead you to my chamber." "And I would lie next to you?" "And you would lie next to me..." "And you would rest your head on my shoulder?" "My head upon your shoulder..." "Your face turned to mine, your lips close to mine..." "My lips close to yours..." "In this instant," "I have all I wish." "Why ask life for more?" "Still I hope, my God, still I hope." "The old gods could be cruel, but not thou," "not thou, my God." "Thou art goodness and compassion, thou art pity." "Still I hope, my God, still I hope." "Still I hope, my God, still I hope." "Thou art goodness and compassion, thou art pity." "Still I hope, my God..." "This mortal being had nothing in his heart but the purest love." "He made an offering of his life to a distant, unknown woman," "and was content to receive in return a smile." "He thanked heaven for the little that was accorded him, and asked for nothing." "If with such a being as he thou art not generous, Lord, with whom shall thou then be?" "I believed in thee, I had hope, O God, that with a being so generous thou wouldst show thyself more generous still." "I believed in thee, I had hope, O God, that with a being so loving thou wouldst show thyself more capable of love." "That thou wouldst grant us an instant, just one instant of true happiness," "without suffering, without illness, without the approach of death, a brief moment of simple happiness." "Was that too much?" "Be silent, woman, your passion leads you astray." "Be silent, woman, silence!" "What didst thou seek to punish?" "That he called me goddess?" "Silence!" "That he pretended to be a crusader, as if he were leaving to fight the Infidel, when it was me that he came to find?" "Could it be that thou art jealous of the fragile happiness of men?" "Be silent, woman, your passion leads you astray." "Be silent, woman, silence!" "Would you seek to draw down on our town misfortune and malediction?" "Would you that the sea were unleashed, that the waves leap over the walls to engulf our houses and drown our children?" "Would you seek to draw on us the punishment of God?" "That He abandoned us in mid-ocean when the tempest rages?" "That He abandoned us in the midst of battle when our enemies hurl themselves against us?" "Be silent, woman, your passion leads you astray." "Be silent, woman, silence!" "Jaufré thought he was coming to me, and he met death." "Could it be that my beauty was death's lure?" "He thought to see in me Light, and I was nothing other than the Guardian of the Shadows!" "And I, Lord?" "How should I love again?" "Why didst Thou choose me for this task?" "How could I reveal my body?" "Bare my bosom to a lover's gaze?" "Why didst Thou choose me for this task?" "I no longer deserve to be loved." "From one shore to the other..." "I no longer deserve to be hymned by a poet..." "From one shore to the other, from one confidence to another." "nor held against a man's shoulder, nor caressed." "Tomorrow, after the funeral, I shall go into mourning." "I thought I was spinning the white threads..." "I shall wear a thick linen robe and hide myself away beneath a convent roof whence I shall never more emerge neither living nor dead." "I thought I was spinning the white threads of a wedding dress." "I am the widow of a man who did not know me." "I did not know I was spinning the material for a shroud!" "And no other man shall ever enter my bed." "If you are called Love," "I adore only you," "Lord." "If you are called Goodness," "I adore only you." "If you are called Pardon," "I adore only you," "Lord." "If you are called Passion," "I adore only you." "My prayer rises to you who are so far from me now," "to you who are so far." "Forgive me for having doubted your love, forgive me for having doubted you!" "You who gave your life for me, forgive me for having remained so distant." "Now that it is you who are distant." "Are you still there to hear my prayers?" "Now it is you who are distant." "Now you are the distant love." "Lord, Lord, you are love," "you are the distant love..."