Arnaut Daniel

Provençal poet, born at the Castle of Rebeyrac, Périgord, SW France. He became a member of the court of Richard Coeur de Lion and was esteemed one of the best of the troubadours, particularly for his treatment of the theme of love. He introduced the sestina, the pattern of which was later adapted by Dante and Petrarch.

Arnaut Danièl was a Provençal troubadour of the 13th century, praised by Dante as "il miglior fabbro" (the better creator) and called "Grand Master of Love" by Petrarch.

According to one vida, Daniel was born of a noble family at the castle of Ribeyrac in Périgord; Dante's reference to Daniel as the author of prose di romanzi ("proses of romance") remains, therefore, a mystery.

In Dante's The Divine Comedy, Arnaut Daniel appears as a character doing penance in Purgatory for lust. Ara vos prec, per aquella valor que vos guida al som de l'escalina, sovenha vos a temps de ma dolor» (Purg., XXVI, 140-147)

Translation:

"Your courteous question pleases me so, that I cannot and will not hide from you.

In homage to these lines which Dante gave to Daniel, the European edition of T.S. Eliot's poem The Waste Land opens and closes with references to Dante and Daniel. The Waste Land is dedicated to Pound as "il miglior fabbro" which is what Dante had called Daniel. The poem also contains a reference to Canto XXVI in the line "Poi s'ascose nel foco che gli affina" ("Then hid him in the fire that purifies them"), which immediately follows them in to end Dante's Canto, and appears in Eliot's closing section of The Waste Land.

Arnaut's Xth canto contains the lines that Pound claimed were "the three lines by which Daniel is most commonly known" (The Spirit of Romance, p. 36):

"leu sui Arnaut qu'amas l'aura E chatz le lebre ab lo bou E nadi contra suberna"

Translation:

"I am Arnaut who loves the wind, And chases the hare with the ox, And swims against the torrent."

The lycée in modern day Ribérac is named for Arnaut Daniel.