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Pus mos coratges s'es clarzitz
Per selh Joy don ieu suy jauzens,
E vey qu'Amors part e cauzis,
Per qu'ieu n'esper estre manens,
Ben dey tot mon chan esmerar,
Qu'om re no mi puesca falsar,
Que per pauc es hom desmentitz.

Aicel cui fin' Amors causitz
Viu letz, cortes e sapiens,
E selh cui refuda delis
E met a totz destruzemens!
Car qui fin' Amor vol blasmar
Elha·l fai si en folh muzar
Que per art cuid' esser peritz.

Cill son fals jutg'e raubador,
Fals molherat e jurador,
Fals home tenh e lauzengier,
Lengua-loguat, creba-mostier,
Et aissellas putas ardens
Qui son d'autrui maritz cossens!
Cyst auran guazanh ifernau.

Homicidi e traidor,
Simoniaic, encantador,
Luxurios e renovier,
Que vivon d'enujos mestier,
E cill que fan faitilhamens,
E las faitileiras pudens
Seran el fuec arden engau.

Ebriaic et escogossat,
Fals preveire e fals abat,
Falsas recluzas, fals reclus,
Lai penaran, ditz Marcabrus,
Que tuit li fals y an luec pres,
Car fin' Amors o a promes,
Lai er dols dels dezesperatz.

Ai fin'Amors, fons de bontat,
C'as tot lo mon illuminat,
Merce ti clam, d'aquel grahus
E·m defendas qu'ieu lai no mus!
Qu'en totz luecx me tenh per ton pres,
Per confortat en totas res,
Per tu esper estre guidatz.

Mon cor per aquest vers destrenh
Quar mi plus que·ls autres reprenh,
Que qui autrui vol encolpar
Dregs es que si sapcha guardar
Que no sia dels crims techitz
De que lieys encolpa e ditz,
Pois poira segurs castiar.

Pero si es asatz cauzitz
Sel que ben sap dire e·l ditz,
Que pot si se vol remembrar.

Since my heart has brightened
through that Joy which I enjoy
and I see Love chooses and shares,
by which I expect great gains,
I must refine all my songs,
so that nobody can misquote me on anything,
because one ends up exposed for very little.

He whom pure Love has chosen
lives easily, courteous and wise
and he whom it refused, it vanquishes
and drives completely to ruin;
because whoever wants to blame pure love,
it makes him loiter like a fool
until he thinks he's died by [its] guile.

Such are the false judges and robbers,
unfaithful husbands and false witnesses,
men of false colour and slanderers,
demagogues and wreckers of monasteries
and those fervid whores
who return other husbands' attentions:
all these will have a hellish reward.

Murderers and traitors,
simoniacs, magicians
debauchees and usurers
who live of criminal pursuits
and those who cast sortileges
and the reeking witches
will be together in the burning fire.

Drunkards and meddlers,
false provosts and false abbots,
false cloistered monks and false cloistered nuns
will suffer there, says Marcabru,
for all false [people] have their place reserved
–pure love has promised it–
there where the pain of the despairing is.

Oh, pure Love, source of [all] good,
who have enlightened all people,
I beg you for mercy against these wails:
may you defend me, lest I be held there!
For, wherever I am, I consider myself in your thrall
and, comforted in all things,
I hope you will be my guide.

I quell my heart through this piece,
for it reproaches me more than the others,
because he who wants to indict others
should rightly keep himself
from being vitiated by the crimes
of which he indicts and preaches:
then he will be able to censure safely.

But if he is well chosen,
who knows to recite and recites it well,
may he, if he wishes, remember [my piece].