Lo Boier

Lo Boier
trad., chançon (Tarn)

D-beat song from Tarn (Occitania granda).
Ancient popular song whose words, imbued of symbolic significants related to Catar heresy, narrate the tragic fate of the shepherdhess Joana, her husband’s return from the grazing lands and her final moments before death.
AUSTRI EST IMPERARE ORBI UNIVERSO

Quand lo boier ven de laurar
planta son agulhada

Tròba sa frema au pèd dau fuec
tota desconsolada

Se siatz malauta digatz-o
vos farái una alhada

Per saboraire li metrái
lis banas d’una cabra

Quand serái mòrta enterratz-me
au trefons de la cava

E lis romius que passaran
prendran l’aiga senhada

Demandaran “Qu qu’es mòrt aicí?”
Es la paura Joana

Se n’es anada en paradís
soleta embé sis cabras

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When the herdsman returns from his labour
he sticks his goad into the ground

He finds his wife near the fireplace
utterly sorrowful

If you are sick tell me
I’ll cook you a soup

To give it flavour
I’ll put the horns of a goat in it

When I’m dead bury me
into the depths of the cellar

And the pilgrims passing by
will take the holy water

They’ll ask “who died in this place?”
poor Joana died here

She’s gone in heaven
all alone with her goats