Aucassin and Nicolette

C'est Aucassin et Nicolete

I heard a narration of the story of Nicolette and Aucassin on the radio one night when I was young, about sixty years ago, and, remarkably, that one event became one of the most important facts of my subsequent life. I have often thought of the poem/song since I first heard it that night and found immense help from it in dealing with the fundamental issue.

The poem/song is in old French, from the thirteenth century, and has had translations into English that are debated. It has acquired an immense amount of scholarship that may or may not “get it,” interpretations in fine art, opera and music, and theater, but here are a couple phrases that capture the spirit of the thing for me:

- “God loves those who love each other.”

- “God loves all true lovers.”

- ”Journeys end in lovers meeting.”

It feels absurd, or even deeply or just outrightly criminal, to make any attempt to explain why it should be so powerful. It would be like trying to explain a fable or a dream or a myth to a particle-brained materialistic contemporary. God? Love? Lovers? What?

And yet, I think we all get glimpses that love is really the core of our lives, and that even knowledge itself, often considered to be separate from love, is dependent upon our ability to take the second, other, outside standpoint, perspective.

It has humor, fun, imagination, sheer beauty, yes, but it I think that the main reason it has lasted so well for eight hundred years is its spiritual-psychological truth.

Here is Andrew Lang's translation, at this link.