As part of my research to find songs to bring into the SCA I ran across an old favorite from the Breton band Tri Yann entitled Si Mort À Mors:
The song is modern, inspired by part of a funeral poem for Anne de Bretagne (see this Wikipedia article for more information on her importance to Brittany) written in 1514 by her herald and king of arms Pierre Choque – specifically from the second funeral held when the gold reliquary containing her heart was laid to rest in the chapel of the Carmelite friary in Nantes. The chorus of the modern song is:
Si mort à mors Duchesse Noble Dame
S’il n’en sera plus que poudre de corps,
Dorme son cœur bordé d’or;
Reviendront des siècles d’or
Cent fois mille et mille aurores encore.
Which I roughly translate as:
Though death consumed you, Duchess, noble lady,
Though little remains but the dust of your form,
Your heart still sleeps encased in gold;
It will bring back glories of old
One hundred thousand plus one thousand dawns more.
Of course, having caught the SCA disease of researching everything to its source, I wondered what the actual inspiration said – and could I find it? After hurdling through some search engine hoops I was able to find a Google Books link to an edited collection of the script of the funerals, Récit des funérailles d’Anne de Bretagne which sure enough showed the lines that inspired the song:
Si mort a mors par son aspre pointure
Le noble espoir de maincte créature.
Si mort a mors si haulle magesté,
Le lys en fleur de toute crestienté.
Si mort a mors le confort de noblesse;
Maincls haulx voulloirs sont atainctz de foiblesse.
Si mort a mors des pauvres la sustance,
Le bon conseil, des vices résistance.
Si mort a mors des vertueulx le mémoyre,
L’honneur de paix, l’unyon débonnayre.
Si mort a mors des tristes le confort
Et joye, l’accord, l’ayde du foible au fort.
Si mort a mors de gloire le mérite;
La doctrine des dames deshérite.
Si mort a mors de l église la mère:
Plusieurs en ont affliction amère.
Si mort a mors le guydon de jeunesse,
Et l estandart de tout féminin sexe.
Si mors a mors le zelle de justice:
Je tiens vaccant de mainct homme l’office.
Si mort a mors des Bretons la princesse,
Et des Français leur regrect n’a prins cesse.
Si mort a mors des filles l’abitacle:
Las! griefs, soupirs en sont sous mainct pinacle.
Si mort a mors le cueur de si grant dame.
Prions à Dieu qu’il en veuille avoir l’âme.
Stay tuned while I drop everything in my life (practically) to translate this…
Is there a source for the claim that Choque wrote the poem? Every source i find in french says that the poem’s author is unknown, and while Choque seem to have written a dialogue on Anne’s death, the poem does not turn up amongst his œuvre. In any case, it’s a beautiful poem and song. Thank our everlasting lord for Tri Yann.
The earliest form is a rondeau that appears as part of the funeral script written by Choque for the interment of Anne’s heart. That’s the section that begins:
Si mort a mors par son aspre pointure
Le noble espoir de maincte créature.
Si mort a mors si haulte magisté,
Le lys en fleur de toute crestienté.
etc.
There seems to be a later version that much more closely resembles the song, and that version is (as far as I can tell) unattributed. I’ve not found an actual primary source for that and have only seen it fleetingly.