Dissertation on Birds of Prey and the Sport - the Falconry Heritage ...

e disleale, larone e traito,
che wol la nostra gioia disturbare.*'
It is interesting to note the use of the technical language of falconry here: the hawk used
to come back to her call, so she didn't have to tempt it back with food; she had tied a bell
to it, and it broke its jesses to leave her. One may wonder also whether the phrase, "eri
fermo nel tuo uccellare," has a sexual significance. The setting and the language of the
poem belong very much to the courtly world in which ladies own and fly pet hawks; it is
an excellent example of the association between love and this aristocratic pastime.
This is the only lament of its kind that has been found in Italian poetry, however,
this same theme was very common in German poetry of the same period.22 One similar
poem, known as the Song of the Falcon, is by Der von Kiirenberg, from the mid-twelfth
century, the earliest named German lyric poet.
-
Ich z6ch mir einen valken mere dame ein j6r.
d6 iche in gezamete, als ich in wolte hiin,
und ich im sin gevidere mit golde wol bewant,
er huop sich fif vil h6he und vlouc in anderiu lant.
Sit sach ich den valken sch6ne vliegen,
er vuorte an sinem vuoze sidine riemen,
und was im sin gevidere alr6t guldin.
got sende si zesamene, die gelieb wtllen gerne sin!"
2' From Contini, 442-443.
n
-- William C. McDonald, "Concerning Ambiguity as the Poetic Principle in Kiirenburg's Falcon Song,"
Zeitschrift fur Literaturgeschichte (1978): 320 ff.
23 Translation by A. T. Hatto, "Poetry and the Hunt," in Essays in Medieval German and Other Poetry
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 3 13:
I reared me a falcon for more than a year.
When I had tamed him as I wished to have him
And wound his feathers all about with gold,
He raised himself aloft and flew to other lands.
Since then I saw that falcon flying rarely:
On his feet he wore silken jesses
And his feathers were all reddish gold.
May God send those together who wish to be lovers!