Airas Núñez was one of the most important and
innovative of the medieval Galician-Portuguese
lyric poets. His 15 extant lyrics display a broad
generic variety—there are seven cantigas de amor
(love songs), three CANTIGAS DE AMIGO (songs with
women speakers), one pastorela (or PASTOURELLE),
and four cantigas de escarnho (satirical poems).
They also evince an innovative technical virtuosity and a thematic originality.
Núñez was probably born in Galicia, sometime
in the mid 13th century. He writes in Galician-Portuguese, but scatters some passages of vernacular
Provençal through his lyrics, a fact that has led
some scholars to speculate that he may have been
educated in France. Some documents append the
title clérigo to his name, and some have thought
therefore that he was a priest, though it seems
more likely that his reputation for learning inspired the title. What little we know of Nuñez’s life
is gleaned from a few references to him in documents from the court of Sancho IV of Castile, who
seems to have been Núñez’s patron in the decade
from 1280–90, and one of Núñez’s poems suggests
that he traveled to Santiago on pilgrimage with
King Sancho in 1284. A most interesting chancery
document from the Castilian court is one granting Núñez money to buy clothing and an animal.
Since one of his poems tells the story of how
thieves set upon him and took his mule and his
clothing, it seems likely that the grant of funds was
related to that incident.
In his love songs, Núñez distances himself from
the conventions of Galician-Portuguese lyrics by
adopting a tone more in line with that of the
Provençal TROUBADOURS than with the tradition as
it had developed in Portugal: Núñez emphasizes
the hope and joi of love rather than the despair
emphasized by his fellow countrymen. He also, like
the troubadours, sees the spring as a season of true
inspiration to sincere feelings of love.
Even more unusual is his treatment of the
mother-daughter relationship in his cantiga de
amigo entitled Bailad’ og’, ai filha, que prazer vejades
(Dance today, oh daughter, and may it give you pleasure). Here, rather than acting as a strict guardian of
the daughter’s behavior, the mother encourages her
daughter to dance before her “friend”—advice that
makes the daughter suspicious:
—Dance today, oh daughter, and may it
give you pleasure,
in front of your friend, whom you love
sincerely.
—I shall dance, mother, since you are
asking me to,
yet I gather one thing from you:
you are very happy if he were to live only a
short time,
since you are asking me to dance well in
front of him.
(Jensen 1992, 6.5, ll. 1–6)
In Núñez’s pastorela entitled Oí oj eu ¯ ua pastor
cantar (Today I heard a shepherdess singing), he
breaks with tradition again, not only by using
snatches of other lyrics in his refrains, but in reversing the expectations of the genre. Rather than attempting to seduce the young shepherdess, the
speaker merely listens to her song in secret, and then
moves on without making his presence known:
After the shepherdess had made the
garland,
she went away singing, moving away softly;
and I returned quickly to my road,
for I had no desire to trouble her.
(Jensen 1992, 6.6, ll. 25–28)
Such breaks with tradition make Airas Núñez’s lyrics
fresh and vivid, and make him one of the most important of medieval Galician-Portuguese poets.
Bibliography
Flores, Angel, ed. An Anthology of Medieval Lyrics.
New York: Modern Library, 1962.
Jensen, Frede, ed. and trans. Medieval Galician-Portuguese Poetry: An Anthology. Garland Library of
Medieval Literature, 87. New York: Garland, 1992.