La Nencia di Barberino, by Lorenzo de Medici

Today we read La Nencia di Barberino, by Lorenzo de Medici. The attribution of today’s poem to Lorenzo il Magnifico is not certain, but has a long tradition. Despite such a lofty author, the topic is very prosaic: a rustic shepherd sings the beauty and various charms of his beloved, Nencia, who gives the title to the composition. It is a pretty standard theme. The twist is the dramatic change in the social class of the people involved: whereas we are used to courtly love of learned poets for elegant and refined ladies, here we find an illiterate youngster from the lower classes using the language he normally uses (more or less…), and drawing his similes from what he knows in his everyday life. Here we present only two of the twenty ottave that make up the complete work, just to give a taste of its irony and playfulness. We are told that Nencia’s teeth are whiter not than pearls, but than horse’s teeth. And that she has more than twenty teeth per side, imagine that! Also she dances really well: not like an angel, but rather like a cute little goat, skipping around. And when she spins, she is not like the moon or the sun, but rather like the wheel of a mill. The original: 4
Le labbra rosse paion de corallo,
e havvi drento duo filar’ de denti
che son più bianchi che que’ del cavallo:
da ogni lato ve n’ha più de venti.
Le gote bianche paion de cristallo,
senz’altro liscio, né scorticamenti,
rosse entro ’l mezzo, quant’è una rosa,
che non se vide mai sì bella cosa.

8
Ell’è dirittamente ballerina,
che la se lancia com’una capretta,
girasi come ruota de mulina,
e dassi della man nella scarpetta;
quand’ella compie el ballo, ella se ’nchina,
po’ se rivolge e duo colpi iscambietta,
e fa le più leggiadre riverenze
che gnuna cittadina da Firenze.\ The music in this episode is Gaetano Donizetti’s overture to the opera Don Pasquale, played by the United States Marine Band for the album Overtures, Volume Two (in the public domain).