Utterly delightful. That's the only way to begin a description of these poems. I just completed this book as part of a school reading, and honestly when I began I was sure I would just read the primary assigned lais and then move on to something else. After the first few pages, though, I realized I was going to have to read the entire book. And it was a treat all the way through.
A lai is basically a poem told in song form that does not repeat lyrics or stanzas. It's simply a story, told with rhythm and melody. For readers who are not a fan of poetry (such as myself), this might not exactly propel you to the bookstore to get your hands on these poems. But let me persuade you to give them a try. For one, they don't read like complex Renaissance poetry. In many ways, they are quite simple and at times even deceptively simplistic. The stories themselves don't really have much of a plot, and all have the primary theme of love. But Marie (who is always styled Marie de France, because she never identified her family name) was quite the master of her craft. To get the best appreciation of the lais, it helps to read them together--or at least to read several of them together. She has the different lais play off one another, providing the reader with a more complete understanding of how she is representing love. In some cases, the stories have what I could only describe as icky, chivalric nonsense, complete with fainting damsels and impossible heroism. Underneath the surface, however, Marie is toying with her readers, manipulating the conventions of the form to present a very different look at love. In some cases, she outright mocks the love that is based solely on physical beauty or the "love" that comes when an attractive man sees an attractive woman. But again, you really have to read all of them to see this. To read only "Les Deus Amanz" would be to miss out on the much more complex "Equitan." And reading "Equitan" alone would be to miss the powerful contrast in "Guigemar."
So, what is Marie's conception of love? She sees love as a strong force, but one that must be fought for, one that requires action, and one that is not right if it is not pure. So, the married man who believes he has found his true love in a woman who is not his wife is penalized for it. That isn't real love according to Marie de France. And at the end of the lais, the ultimate love is sacrifical, only found in the love of God.
I read the Hanning and Ferrante translation, and I highly recommend it. At the end of each lai, they provide a nice overview about the themes of the poem and link it to other forms of the day, giving the reader a fuller understanding of just how skilled Marie was. Additionally, their comments are highly entertaining in places, and I actually found myself looking forward to seeing what they would have to say. I haven't seen other translations, so I can't make a comparison, but given that I was assigned this for school, I'm assuming it ranks up there with other recommended versions. I also don't know for certain if it contains every single lai that Marie composed, but if it doesn't it must be pretty complete, because the theme arc is there. All of these long-winded remarks to say that I encourage readers to give this one a try and to have a little fun discovering a new side of medieval poetry. It's surprisingly fresh and, as I said at the beginning, utterly delightful.
