The Song of Roland

The Death of Roland

CLXXXIX

Roland feeleth his death is near,

His brain is oozing by either ear.

For his peers he prayed — God keep them well;

Invoked the angel Gabriel.

That none reproach him,

his horn he clasped;

His other hand Durindana grasped;

Then, far as quarrel from crossbow sent,

Across the march of Spain he went,

Where, on a mound, two trees between,

Four flights of marble steps were seen;

Backward he fell, on the field to lie;

And he swooned anon,

For the end was nigh.

CXC

High were the mountains and high the trees,

Bright shone the marble terraces;

On the green grass Roland hath swooned away.

A Saracen spied him where he lay:

Stretched with the rest he had feigned him dead,

His face and body with blood bespread.

To his feet he sprang, and in haste he hied,

He was fair and strong and of courage tried,

In pride and wrath he was overbold, And on Roland,

Body and arms, laid hold.

“The nephew of Karl is overthrown!

To Araby bear I this sword, mine own”.

He stooped to grasp it,

But as he drew,

Roland returned to his sense anew.

CXCI

He saw the Saracen seize his sword;

His eyes he oped,

And he spake one word

“Thou art not one of our band, I trow”,

And he clutched the horn he would ne'er forego;

On the golden crest he smote him full,

Shattering steel and bone and skull,

Forth from his head his eyes he beat,

And cast him lifeless before his feet.

“Miscreant, makest thou then so free,

As, right or wrong, to lay hold on me?

Who hears it will deem thee a madman born;

Behold the mouth of mine ivory horn Broken for thee,

And the gems and gold Around its rim to earth are rolled”.

CXCII

Roland feeleth his eyesight reft,

Yet he stands erect with what strength is left;

From his bloodless cheek is the hue dispelled,

But his Durindana all bare he held.

In front a dark brown rock arose

He smote upon it ten grievous blows.

Grated the steel as it struck the flint,

Yet it brake not,

Nor bore its edge one dint.

“Mary, Mother, be thou mine aid!

Ah, Durindana, my ill-starred blade,

I may no longer thy guardian be!

What fields of battle I won with thee!

What realms and regions was ours to gain,

Now the lordship of Carlemaine!

Never shalt thou possessor know

Who would turn from face of mortal foe;

A gallant vassal so long thee bore,

Such as France the free shall know no more”.

CXCIII

He smote anew on the marble stair.

It grated,

But breach nor notch was there.

When Roland found that it would not break,

Thus began he his plaint to make.

“Ah, Durindana,

How fair and bright Thou sparklest,

Flaming against the light!

When Karl in Maurienne valley lay,

God sent his angel from heaven to say

‘This sword shall a valorous captain's be, ’

And he girt it, the gentle king, on me.

With it I vanquished Poitou and Maine,

Provence I conquered and Aquitaine;

I conquered Normandy the free,

Anjou, and the marches of Brittany;

Romagna I won, and Lombardy, Bavaria,

Flanders from side to side,

And Burgundy, and Poland wide;

Constantinople affiance vowed,

And the Saxon soil to his bidding bowed;

Scotia, and Wales, and Ireland's plain,

Of England made he his own domain.

What might, regions I won of old,

For the hoary-headed Karl to hold!

But there presses on me a grievous pain,

Lest thou in heathen hands remain.

O God our Father,

Keep France from stain”!

CXCIV

His strokes once more on the brown rock fell,

And the steel was bent past words to tell;

Yet it brake not, nor was notched the grain,

Erect it leaped to the sky again.

When he failed at the last to break his blade,

His lamentation he inly made.

“Oh, fair and holy, my peerless sword,

What relics lie in thy pommel stored!

Tooth of Saint Peter,

Saint Basil's blood,

Hair of Saint Denis beside them strewed,

Fragment of holy Mary's vest.

Twere shame that thou with the heathen rest;

Thee should the hand of a Christian

Serve One who would never in battle swerve.

What regions won I with thee of yore,

The empire now of Karl the hoar!

Rich and mighty is he therefore.

CXCV

That death was on him he knew full well,

Down from his head to his heart it fell.

On the grass beneath a pinetree's shade,

With face to earth, his form he laid,

Beneath him placed he his horn and sword,

And turned his face to the heathen horde.

Thus hath he done the sooth to show,

That Karl and his warriors all may know,

That the gentle count a conqueror died.

Mea Culpa full oft he cried; And,

for all his sins, unto God above,

In sign of penance, he raised his glove.

CXCVI

Roland feeleth his hour at hand;

On a knoll he lies towards the Spanish land.

With one hand beats he upon his breast:

“In thy sight, O God, be my sins confessed.

From my hour of birth, both the great and small,

Down to this day, I repent of all”.

As his glove he raises to God on high,

Angels of heaven descend him nigh.

CXCVII

Beneath a pine was his resting-place,

To the land of Spain hath he turned his face,

On his memory rose full many a thought

Of the lands he won and the fields he fought;

Of his gentle France,

Of his kin and line;

Of his nursing father,

King Karl benign;

He may not the tear and sob control,

Nor yet forgets he his parting soul.

To God's compassion he makes his cry:

“O Father true, who canst not lie,

Who didst Lazarus raise unto life agen,

And Daniel shield in the lions' den;

Shield my soul from its peril,

Due For the sins I sinned my lifetime through”.

He did his right-hand glove uplift

Saint Gabriel took from his hand the gift;

Then drooped his head upon his breast,

And with clasped hands he went to rest.

God from on high sent down to him

One of his angel Cherubim Saint Michael of Peril of the sea,

Saint Gabriel in company From heaven

they came for that soul of price,

And they bore it with them to Paradise.

一 文獻出處

Brian Tierney,ed.,Sources of Medieval History,Volume 1,New York,1973, pp. 173-175.

二 文獻導讀

《羅蘭之歌》是中世紀西歐的英雄史詩或武功歌（chansons de geste）的代表作，是法國最古老的文學經典樣本，“羅蘭之死”是其中的一部分。

作為封建貴族的世俗文學作品，英雄史詩或武功歌是封建西歐特有的“騎士精神”所醞釀的。騎士精神是整個封建貴族階級所推崇的一種基本精神素質與生活準則。騎士精神的勃發與流變經歷了一個較長的過程。中古初期，戰亂頻繁，社會混亂，勇敢忠誠就成了日耳曼騎士的座右銘。封建等級確立后，各級封臣都須恪守封建效忠原則，向封君履行提供軍役等義務，尚武忠君之風逐漸蔓延。為了限制騎士劫掠殺戮的行為，不久教會又為騎士晉封儀式增加了一種宗教儀式，即讓其在禮拜堂守夜做彌撒，并宣誓要保護教士、朝圣者、寡婦和孤兒。這樣，鄙棄懦弱膽怯、背信棄義與恃強凌弱而崇尚勇敢、忠誠、榮譽與祛邪扶正的騎士精神開始形成。以騎士精神為思想底蘊的武功歌或英雄史詩，在11、12世紀的西歐各地相繼問世，如西班牙的《熙德之歌》、英國的《貝奧武甫》、德國的《尼伯龍根之歌》等。而法國的《羅蘭之歌》則是這類作品的杰出代表。

《羅蘭之歌》（Chanson de Roland）記敘的是在查理曼征討阿拉伯人（即其中所說的撒拉森人或摩爾人）的過程中羅蘭伯爵英勇戰死的故事。778年初秋，查理大帝率軍從對西班牙的阿拉伯人的遠征中返回，當他的軍隊行進至比利牛斯山時，其后衛部隊在龍塞斯瓦山谷（Valley of Roncesvaux）遭到了山區巴斯克人（Basque inhabitants）的襲擊并被殲滅。有關這一慘劇有很多民間歌謠，其中不少歌頌的是布列塔尼邊區（the Marches of Brittany）的羅蘭伯爵（Count of Roland）。這些歌謠為吟游詩人在深宅大院、通衢大道吟唱，很快傳播到緬因、安茹和諾曼底。大約在11世紀晚期，《羅蘭之歌》出現了最初的抄本，其創作年代不詳，故事內容與史實頗不一致。到了12世紀，才有人在民間傳說的基礎上，用地方語言羅曼語將其編寫成書，但作者的身份很難弄清楚。

在《羅蘭之歌》成書的時代，西歐各國封建主正在羅馬教會的號召下對中近東地區的穆斯林進行曠日持久的“十字軍”東征。正是適應了這一東征的新形勢和需要，《羅蘭之歌》不僅將造成這次悲劇的襲擊者變成了穆斯林“異教徒”的阿拉伯人，而且將事件發生時未滿36歲的查理大帝描述成為白發蒼蒼的老皇帝，并將失敗描述成是由內奸的陰謀所致。羅蘭伯爵也被說成是查理大帝的侄子，他的英勇戰死也被渲染為基督教騎士與異教徒圣戰中的可歌可泣的英雄事跡。

《羅蘭之歌》全詩共分為291節，長4002行，描述了羅蘭伯爵在征討異教徒的戰爭中英勇陣亡的悲壯故事，歌頌了騎士忠君愛國的情操與勇敢無畏的精神。它不僅可以讓人從中看到當時封建貴族的內心世界與行為取向，而且其筆調簡樸流暢，敘事質樸渾厚，訴說回腸蕩氣，具有很高的文學價值。

三 延伸閱讀

Crosland.J.,The Old French Epic,New York,1951.

Holmes,U.T.Jr.,A History of Old French Literature from the Origins to 1300,New York,1938.

Keen,M.,Chivalry,New Haven,2005.

Robards,B.,The Medieval Knight at War,London,1997.