(c. 1127 -
According to his vida, Marcabru was of
humble birth. He probably had the education of a cleric. At the
outset of his career, he may have benefitted from the patronage
of William X, son of the first troubadour; subsequently, he seems
to have traveled to other courts without attaching himself permanently
to any. Forty-two poems are attributed to him; four have been
preserved with their music. Most of Marcabru’s poems are composed
in a difficult, hermetic style; he cultivated a type of writing
called "closed", the trobar clus. His vocabulary
is very rich and includes a number of words he probably invented.
He handles with consummate skill the traditional weapons of the
satirist: irony, invective, scathing criticism, but can also call
upon vivid resources of poetic image and symbol. He attacked what
he considered to be false love and false lovers, errant nobles
who did not live up to his ideals of true love (fin’amor)
and civilized behavior.
Marcabruns si fo de Gascoingna, fils d’una paubra
femna que ac nom Marcabruna, si com el dis en son chantar:
Marcabruns, lo fills Na Bruna
Fo engendraz en tal luna
Qu’el saup d’amor cum degruna,
-- Escoutatz --
Que anc non amet neguna,
Ni d’autra no fo amatz.
Trobaire fo dels premiers c’om se recort. De caitivetz
vers e de caitivetz serventes fez, e dis mal de las femnas e d’amor.
Marcabru was from Gascony, son of a poor woman
named Marcabruna, as he says in his song:
Marcabru, son of Lady Bruna
Was sired beneath such a moon
That he knew how love behaves
-- Listen! --
So that he’s never loved a woman
Nor been loved by any.
He was one of the first troubadours we remember.
He made poor vers and poor sirventes, and spoke
ill of women and of love.