Arnaut Danièl was a Provençal troubadour of the 13th century, praised by Dante as "il miglior fabbro" (the better craftsman/creator, literally "the best smith") and called "Grand Master of Love" by Petrarch. In the 20th century he was lauded by Ezra Pound as the greatest poet to have ever lived in his work "The Spirit of Romance" (1910). Provençal (Prouvençau in Provençal language) is one of several dialects of the Romance language Occitan, which is spoken by a minority of people in southern France and other areas of France. ... A troubadour was a composer and performer of songs during the Middle Ages in Europe. ... (12th century - 13th century - 14th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. ... Dante in a fresco series of famous men by Andrea del Castagno, ca. ... From the c. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... Ezra Pound in 1913. ...

According to one vida, Daniel was born of a noble family at the castle of Ribeyrac in Périgord; however, the scant contemporary sources point to him being a jester with pernicious economic troubles. Raimon de Durfort calls him "a student, ruined by dice and shut-the-box". He was the inventor of the sestina, a song of six stanzas of six lines each, with the same end words repeated in every stanza, though arranged in a different and intricate order. Longfellow claims he was also the author of the metrical romance of Lancillotto, or Launcelot of the Lake, but this claim is completely unsubstantiated; Dante's reference to Daniel as the author of prose di romanzi ("proses of romance") remains, therefore, a mystery. Périgord (   pronunciation?) is a former province of France, corresponding to the current Dordogne département, now forming the northern part of the Aquitaine région. ... The sestina is a highly structured form of poetry, invented by the Provençal troubadour Arnaut Daniel the late 12th century. ... In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. ... Baron Longfellow , also named Andy Kim was an artist from the 60s. ...

In Dante's The Divine Comedy, Arnaut Daniel appears as a character doing penance in Purgatory for lust. He responds in Provençal to the narrator's question about who he is: Dante shown holding a copy of The Divine Comedy, next to the entrance to Hell, the seven terraces of Mount Purgatory and the city of Florence, with the spheres of Heaven above, in Michelinos fresco. ... Purgatory commonly refers to a doctrine in the Roman Catholic Church, which posits that those who die in a state of grace undergo a purification in order to achieve the holiness necessary to enter heaven. ... Provençal (Prouvençau in Provençal language) is one of several dialects of the Romance language Occitan, which is spoken by a minority of people in southern France and other areas of France. ...

«Tan m'abellis vostre cortes deman,

qu'ieu no me puesc ni voill a vos cobrire.

Ieu sui Arnaut, que plor e vau cantan;

consiros vei la passada folor,

e vei jausen lo joi qu'esper, denan.

Ara vos prec, per aquella valor

que vos guida al som de l'escalina,

sovenha vos a temps de ma dolor»

(Purg., XXVI, 140-147)

Translation:

"Your courteous question pleases me so,

that I cannot and will not hide from you.

I am Arnaut, who weeping and singing go;

Contrite I see the folly of the past,

And, joyous, I foresee the joy I hope for one day.

Therefore do I implore you, by that power

Which guides you to the summit of the stairs,

Remember my suffering, in the right time."

In homage to these lines which Dante gave to Daniel, the European edition of T.S. Eliot's second volume of poetry was titled Ara Vos Prec. Eliot's poem The Waste Land opens and closes with references to Dante and Daniel. The Waste Land is dedicated to Pound as "il miglior fabbro" which is what Dante had called Daniel. The poem also contains a reference to Canto XXVI in the line "Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina" ("Then hid him in the fire that purifies them"), which immediately follows them in to end Dante's Canto, and appears in Eliot's closing section of The Waste Land. Thomas Stearns Eliot (September 26, 1888 - January 4, 1965), was a major Modernist Anglo-American poet, dramatist, and literary critic. ... T. S. Eliot (by E. O. Hoppe, 1919) The Waste Land (sometimes mistakenly written as The Wasteland) is a highly influential 433-line modernist poem by T. S. Eliot. ... T. S. Eliot (by E. O. Hoppe, 1919) The Waste Land (sometimes mistakenly written as The Wasteland) is a highly influential 433-line modernist poem by T. S. Eliot. ... T. S. Eliot (by E. O. Hoppe, 1919) The Waste Land (sometimes mistakenly written as The Wasteland) is a highly influential 433-line modernist poem by T. S. Eliot. ...

Arnaut's Xth canto contains the lines that Pound claimed were "the three lines by which Daniel is most commonly known" (The Spirit of Romance, p. 36):

"leu sui Arnaut qu'amas l'aura

E chatz le lebre ab lo bou

E nadi contra suberna"

Translation:

"I am Arnaut who loves the wind,

And chases the hare with the ox,

And swims against the torrent."

There are sixteen extant lyrics of Arnaut Daniel; there is music for at least one of them, but it was composed at least a century after the poet's death by an anonymous author. No original melody subsists.

The lycée in modern day Ribérac is named for Arnaut Daniel. In France, secondary education is divided into two schools: the collège (IPA: ) (somewhat comparable to U.S. junior high school) for the first four years directly following primary school; the lycée (IPA: ) (comparable to a U.S. high school) for the next three years. ... Ribérac is a commune of the Dordogne département in France. ...

References

Eusebi, Mario (1995). L'aur'amara. Parma: Pratiche Editrice. ISBN 88-7380-294-X.

Pound, Ezra (1910). "The Spirit of Romance" rpt New Direction Books 1968.

See also

• Provençal literature

Provençal literature is much more easily defined than the Provençal language in which it is expressed. ...

External link

• Arnaut Daniel: Complete Works (in English and Provençal)