Marie de France (12th-13th cent.)
- Old French
- D’els dous fu il tut altresi
- cume del chievrefueil esteit
- ki a la coldre se perneit:
- quant il s’i est laciez e pris
- e tut en tur le fust s’est mis,
- ensemble poeent bien durer;
- mes ki puis les vuelt desevrer,
- la coldre muert hastivement
- e li chievrefueilz ensement.
- ‘Bele amie, si est de nus:
- ne vus senz mei ne jeo senz vus!’
- An English translation
- Of the two so was it
- As was the honeysuckle
- Which to the hazel tree attached itself
- When it was embraced and held
- And all around the trunk was fixed.
- Together can they both endure
- But should one wish then to disunite them
- The hazel quickly dies
- And the honeysuckle with it.
- “Dear lover thus it is of us
- Nor you without me, nor I without you..”
Note
Marie de France probably came originally from Île de France as she wrote in the dialect of that region though her writing also shows Anglo-Norman influence, perhaps because she spent some time in England and was known at the court of Henry II.
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