It is difficult to understand, because the language is Occitan, also known as Langue d'oc (oc = yes). This was the language of the south of France, a part of Italy and Catalonia (where it is an official language today). The troubadours (trobador in occitan, someone who "finds") wrote and sang in Occitan. Gascogne is in the southwest of France, where they spoke a dialect of Occitan. Maybe someone from Barcelona should be able to translate the text. It looks indeed like a mixture of French, Italian and Spanish and many words and sentences are understandable when you know these languages.
Alexis Blumberg -----Original Message----- From: Rob MacKillop [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: vrijdag 21 maart 2008 10:31 To: Vihuela Subject: [VIHUELA] Air Gascon I'm having trouble understanding the text of Moulinie's Air Gascon: Lauzel ques sul boyssou. Seems to my uneducated eye a mixture of French, Italian and Spanish. Where is Gascon? Here is the text. Translation, anyone? Lauzel ques sul boyssou, Digos uno cansou Alegro la mio vido: E baiten tout d'u vol Veire la Margarido, Li raconta mon dol. E digos li d'abort, Que yeu souy deja mort Despey quieu nou ley visto, E qu'absent de son oel Yeu ey larmo tant tristo Quieu bouldrio' estre'al tombel. It comes from Moulinie's collection of Airs de Cour avec la tablature de luth et de guitarre (1629) which Timo Peedu has kindly placed on my website: http://www.rmguitar.info/scores.htm - these are really good songs. Rob MacKillop -- To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
