Lady Patricia of Trakai has a real find: a copy of Lyrics of the Middle Ages (ed. J.J. Wilhelm, Garland Reference Library of the Humanities vol. 1268, Garland Publishing, Inc: New York, 1990). She got it for $3 at a used book store when online copies of this out of print edition go for $40-$50!
On page 90 is a poem (I think it's a lai by the rhyme scheme, if the translator preserved it) called Be·m plai lo gais temps de pascor, or "A pleasure song with war as its theme" (as given in the footnote). It's attributed to the troubador Bertran de Born. We saw this and decided that it was perfect for Storvik's Novice Tournament:
And I like it when the scouts
Make people with property flee
And I like it when I see the rout
Of a swarm of opposing armies
Does it get more Atlantian than that?
I'm not sure from the footnote, but it appears that there is music for this piece (actually, it's been recorded on two CDs, so yeah). The music apparently appears in another book, cited by this book; that book is in the UMD library. I don't know if the original music will at all fit with the English translation, but it's worth a shot to find out.
I'm hoping this other source (The Medieval Pastourelle, ed. William Paden, vol. 1 and 2, I think the same Garland series but need full citation) has some more information on the original; I don't know if I have the timeframe for a major effort, but I'd at least like an Internet search for some background on the composer, his times, and works; I'd definitely like to know if this is a lai or what.
Then it's back to a decision similar to the one I had to make for the virelai: if the rhymed English translation doesn't fit the music well, what then? Try a new translation? Stretch the music? Write new music for the new words? No answer's perfect and I'm not sure which is best. In an ideal world - probably a new translation.
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