''Augats, seyós qui credets Déu lo Payre'' (, sometimes called the ''Plany de la Verge'') is a

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

poem of lamentation (''

planctus A ''planctus'' (" plaint") is a lament or dirge, a song or poem expressing grief or mourning. It became a popular literary form in the Middle Ages, when they were written in Latin and in the vernacular (e.g., the ''planh'' of the troubadours). The ...

'') in the ''planctus Mariae'' tradition, in which the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

laments the death of her son. It was written between 1240 and 1260 and is thus one of the oldest Catalan poems, although it is comes two hundred years after the ''

Cançó de Santa Fe The ''Cançó'' (or ''Cançon'') ''de Santa Fe'' (, ; french: Chanson de Sainte Foi d'Agen, en, Song of Saint Fides), a hagiographical poem about Saint Faith, is an early surviving written work in Old Occitan and has been proposed to be the earlie ...

''. The piece is sometimes confused with the ''Plant de la Verge'' of

Ramon Llull Ramon Llull (; c. 1232 – c. 1315/16) was a philosopher, theologian, poet, missionary, and Christian apologist from the Kingdom of Majorca. He invented a philosophical system known as the ''Art'', conceived as a type of universal logic to pro ...

. Structurally, ''Augats'' is divided into twelve

stanza In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian language, Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or Indentation (typesetting), indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme scheme, rhyme and ...

s, each composed of five monorhyming

decasyllabic Decasyllable (Italian: ''decasillabo'', French: ''décasyllabe'', Serbian: ''десетерац'', ''deseterac'') is a poetic meter of ten syllables used in poetic traditions of syllabic verse. In languages with a stress accent (accentual ...

lines followed by tetrasyllabic single-line

refrain A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in poetry — the "chorus" of a song. Poetic fixed forms that feature refrains include the vi ...

and a final decasyllabic line without rhyme. The language of the poem is heavily influenced by the

Occitan Occitan may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania territory in parts of France, Italy, Monaco and Spain. * Something of, from, or related to the Occitania administrative region of France. * Occitan language Occitan (; o ...

of the

troubadours A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairi ...

and the

courtly love Courtly love ( oc, fin'amor ; french: amour courtois ) was a medieval European literary conception of love that emphasized nobility and chivalry. Medieval literature is filled with examples of knights setting out on adventures and performing vari ...

lyric. The poem is preserved in four manuscripts. It was first brought to light by

Jaime Villanueva Jaime Villanueva (1765–1824) was a Spanish historian and writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative wri ...

in 1821, when he redacted it for publication from a manuscript in the archives of the church of

Àger Àger is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of the Noguera in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated in the north-west of the ''comarca'', and the territory of the municipality stretches between the Noguera Ribagorçana and Noguera Pallaresa rivers. The ...

. Villanueva found it entitled ''Planctus Sanctae Mariae virginis''. Its language (whether Occitan or Catalan) became at once an issue of debate. The first two lines of the second stanza are a direct translation of an earlier

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

lament, ''Qui per viam pergitis''. The poem, which was perhaps performed, is the first-person lament of the Virgin Mary over the crucifixion of her son, Jesus Christ:

References

*Otto, Richard (1889). "Der ''Planctus Mariae''". ''Modern Language Notes'', 4:4 (Apr.), pp. 105–108. * Riquer, Martí de (1964). ''Història de la Literatura Catalana'', vol. 1. Barcelona: Edicions Ariel. *Sticca, Sandro (1988). ''The ''Planctus Mariae'' in the Dramatic Tradition of the Middle Ages''. Joseph R. Berrigan, trans. London: University of Georgia Press. * Villanueva, Jaime (1821)
''Viage literario á las iglesias de España''.
Valencia: Imprenta de Oliveres. For his transcriptions, see pp. 281–3.

External links

''Bibliografia de Textos Catalans Antics'', at PhiloBiblon. {{DEFAULTSORT:Augats, seyos qui credets Deu lo Payre Medieval Catalan literature Occitan literature