Ah, beautiful month of May and its love songs of yesteryear!
Ah, the custom of the flowery month is at the heart of the chronicle of Sétoise Miquelà Stenta, ex-professor of Occitan at the University of Montpellier, and president of the Cercle Occitan de Sète.
Will the young people go to “plant the may”, the flowering tree, in front of the young ladies’ door? Unlikely… Because the custom has changed. Risca pas res, qu’aquò se do not mai…
Mast decorated with foliage and flowers…
However, there is still a survival: the small towns honor their elected official, often the mayor, by planting a mast decorated with foliage and flowers and the French flag in front of his house. Encara que siaga pas sistematic… Siam passesats de l’omenatge a la joinessa ea l’amour a la celebracion de la fonction administrativa.
Will the young women sing and dance in the squares and in the streets? Unlikely… We won’t hear them laughing while singing: “To the via, to the via, gelos, laissatz-nos balar entre nos” – “Oust, ouste, jealous, let us dance between us”
“When the jealous one is outside…”
Or : “When the jealous one is outside, handsome friend, come to me.”
“When lo gelós èr fòra, bèl amic, venètz-vos a mi.
The jealous being the husband, of course! Vertat es que siam not mai a l’edat mejana. Perhaps we should see if social networks echo this popular euphoria that is so invigorating…
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Vertat es que la religion catolica has recuperat aqueste mes de las femnas en ne fasent lo mes de Maria… De qu’i auràn pas perdut, las femnas…!
The trobadeurs of today will they go on the catwalks to launch love songs with spring themes? A, lo roman time… The new time, the renewal of nature and the power of life, this novelum/novèl lum (renewal/new light) that we need so much after two dark years…
The birds sing each in his own language, according to the way of the new song.
He had said it, written it, sung it, the first of trobadeursGuilhem IX, Count of Poitiers and Duke of Aquitaine (1071-1126): With the sweetness of the first season, the trees put on their leaves and the birds each sing in their own language, according to the style of the new song…
Amb la doçor del temps novèl fòlhan li bòscs e li ausèl chantan chascun en or latin, segon lo vèr del novèl chant…
Popular wisdom echoes it, in a more down-to-earth register: à la daisy, sur marie la belle. At the pimparela, maridan la bela.
And again: “In the cuckoo season, as soon as it is wet (rain), as soon as it is dry.”
“In the season of cocut, tan lèu plogut, tan lèu eissut.”
Miquèla STENTA (Setòria)
Tell them ! in Oc language… Chronicles:
Occitan chronicle: When Molière attended popular festivals in Béziers or Toulouse