Archpoet

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Archipoeta, or in English the Archpoet (fl. 1130 – 1165), was a German poet writing in Latin, known only by his chosen pseudonym. His masterpiece, "Confessio", is a protest against conventional morality and an affirmation of the sensual life. It is preserved among the Carmina Burana.

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[edit] Confessio

Translations are from Helen Waddell Mediaeval Latin Lyrics ([1929] 1933).

• Estuans intrinsecus
  ira vehementi
  in amaritudine
  loquar meę menti:
  factus de materia
  levis elementi
  similes sum folio
  de quo ludunt venti.
  • Seething over inwardly
    With fierce indignation,
    In my bitterness of soul,
    Hear my declaration.
    I am of one element,
    Levity my matter,
    Like enough a withered leaf
    For the winds to scatter.
  • Line 1

• Feror ego veluti
  sine nauta navis,
  ut per vias
  vaga fertur avis,
  non me tenent vincula,
  non me tenet clavis,
  Quęro mihi similes,
  et adiungor pravis.
  • Hither, thither, masterless
    Ship upon the sea,
    Wandering through the ways of air,
    Go the birds like me.
    Bound am I by ne’er a bond,
    Prisoner to no key,
    Questing go I for my kind,
    Find depravity.
  • Line 17

• Quicquid Venus imperat
  Labor est suavis,
  quę nunquam in cordibus
  habitat ignavis.
  • Whatsoever Venus bids
    Is a joy excelling,
    Never in an evil heart
    Did she make her dwelling.
  • Line 29

• Mortuus in anima
  curam gero cutis.
  • Since the soul in me is dead,
    Better save the skin.
  • Line 39

• Meum est propositum
  in taberna mori,
  ut sint vina proxima
  morientis ori.
  • For on this my heart is set:
    When the hour is nigh me,
    Let me in the tavern die,
    With a tankard by me.
  • Line 89

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