William IX, Duke of Aquitaine

William IX (Occitan: Guilhèm, French: Guillaume; 22 October 1071 – 10 February 1126), called "the Troubadour", was the Duke of Aquitaine and Gascony and Count of Poitou (as William VII) between 1086 and his death. He was also one of the leaders of the Crusade of 1101. Though his political and military achievements have a certain historical importance, he is best known as the earliest troubadour—a vernacular lyric poet in the Occitan language—by whom some work survives.

Quotes

• Farai un vers de dreit nien:
  non er de mi ni d’autra gen,
  non er d’amor ni de joven,
    ni de ren au,
  qu’enans fo trobatz en durmen
    sus un chevau.
  • I will compose a verse about nothing at all: it will not be about me nor about anyone else, nor will it be about love, nor about youth, nor about anything else, rather it was composed whilst I was sleeping on a horse.
  • "Farai un vers de dreit nien", st. 1, as translated by Simon Gaunt, Troubadours and Irony (1989), p. 27; see also: James J. Wilhelm, Medieval Song (1972), p. 115
  • Variants: "dreyt" for "dreit"; "sobre" for "sus un"