The Honeysuckle and the Hazel Tree "ch4"

4. Honeysuckle

(Chevrefoil)

Marie de France

	This lai, a favorite of mine,
	Was named for the honeysuckle vine
	And written to commemorate
4	The incident which I’ll relate.
	Many times I’ve had the chance
	To hear or read the old romance
	Of Tristan and the queen, who were
8	So true to love and to each other
	And who, for their love, were sorely tried
	Until, on a single day, they died.

	Tristan, by King Mark’s command,
12	Was exiled back to his own land
	When, furious, the king had seen
	The love he bore Iseut, the queen.
	He stayed in South Wales for a year
16	And all that time did not appear
	At court. But then, in his despair,
	He couldn’t bring himself to care
	What might happen if he went back;
20	It was better to risk death than lack
	The one thing that counted in his eyes.
	This shouldn’t cause anyone surprise—
	A lover grieves and broods that way
24	If he is true and far away
	From the lady who has won his heart,
	And that’s why Tristan had to start
	For Cornwall. Whatever that could mean,
28	At least he was sure to see the queen.
	He went through the forest, all alone,
	So that his presence would not be known.
	When evening came, it seemed all right
32	To seek some shelter for the night.
	From poor peasants whom he met
	He took what lodging he could get,
	And asked if they knew anything
36	About the intentions of the king.
	They told him that by King Mark’s decree
	The barons who owed him fealty
	Had all been summoned forth to ride
40	To Tintagel, where at Whitsuntide^[1]
	The king intended to hold his court.
	There would be feasting and good sport;
	The queen was going to be there too.

44	Tristan was overjoyed. He knew
	That for the journey she would make
	There was just one road the queen could take.
	As soon as the king was on his way,
48	Tristan went into the woods to stay
	Close to the road where he could meet
	The queen as she passed by with her suite.
	Meanwhile, he cut down and squared
52	A hazel branch. When it was pared,
	He signed it, using his knife to write,^[2]
	And placed the signal well in sight.
	The queen would never fail to notice,
56	Alert for such a sign as this—
	They had used it in another case
	To indicate a meeting place—
	And so the message would be clear;
60	She’d know her friend was somewhere near.
	Earlier, he had sent a letter.
	This is what he wrote to her:^[3]
	In the forest, where he had to hide,
64	He’d waited a long time to decide
	How best to find her, where and when
	They might see each other once again.
	He could no longer live that way,
68	Cut off from the one he loved, for they
	Were like the honeysuckle vine,
	Which around a hazel tree will twine,
	Holding the trunk as in a fist
72	And climbing until its tendrils twist
	Around the top and hold it fast.
	Together tree and vine will last.
	But then, if anyone should pry
76	The vine away, they both will die.
	“My love, we’re like that vine and tree;
	I’ll die without you, you without me.”

	The queen, as she rode along the way,
80	Was waiting for something to betray
	The presence of her friend, and spied
	The hazel stick on a slope beside
	The road. Understanding what it meant,
84	She called to those knights present
	To be her escort, and expressed
	A wish to stop a while and rest;
	The traveling had made her tired.
88	The knights did as she desired,
	And waited there while she withdrew
	Alone, except for one she knew
	Would keep her secret, the faithful maid
92	Brangene. After a while they strayed
	Off the road and into the forest.
	There was the one the queen loved best
	In all the world, waiting for her.
96	Great was their joy at being together,
	With time to talk again at leisure.
	She told him that King Mark’s displeasure
	Had changed to grief at having exiled
100	Tristan; they’d soon be reconciled.
	The king was sure he’d been deceived
	By slander he should not have believed.
	But when it was time for her to go,
104	Both of them wept in bitter sorrow.
	Tristan went back to Wales and waited
	Until he had been reinstated.

	Because he wanted to express
108	The overwhelming happiness
	Of being with his love once more,
	What he had written to her before
	And her words to him, not to forget,^[4]
112	Tristan, a skilled harpist, set
	To music. I will quickly say^[5]
	How people referred to this new lai:
	Gotelef in English (which became
116	“Honeysuckle”) translates the name
	Chevrefoil. Here I’ve related
	Just what the lai commemorated.

Notes

1. Line 40 Whitsuntide is Pentecost, the traditional time for King Arthur to hold his court and for chivalric adventures to begin.

2. Line 53 See the Introduction, 16, on the ambiguity of Tristan’s inscription.

3. Lines 61-62 I take these lines (“Ceo fu la somme de l’escrit / Qu’il li aveit mandé e dit”) to refer to an earlier message. Others believe they refer to the message on the bastun, or stick, which she would understand either from the name alone or in code.

4. Lines 107-11 These lines have been accurately translated if they suggest the determined ambiguity of the original.

5. Line 113 In the Tristan episode of a thirteenth-century continuation of Chrétien’s Perceval, Tristan, in disguise, identifies himself to Iseut by playing the Lai du Chievrefueil on a small flute. She is at first angry, thinking that Tristan had taught someone else “the lai that he and I composed.” Then she realizes that the musician is Tristan himself. Gerbert de Montreuil, La Continuation de “Perceval,” ed. Mary Williams, vol. 1 (Paris: Champion, 1922), lines 4066–4088