Medieval Quotes About Writing

ignettes!



I've been reading medieval poetry from Spain, which started out as research but soon turned into a pleasurable activity in its own rite.


These two pieces come from the poet Shem Tov Ardutiel (Santob De Carrión):

I
Writer, you hold a flame in your hand,
or is it the blade of a sword or a spear -
the tree of knowledge of good and evil,
or a staff to make wondrous signs appear.

II
Are there words enough in all of song
to praise the pen? Who else could bear
the burden of bringing back the past
and preserving it then as though with myrrh?

It has no ear with which it might hear,
or mouth with which to offer answers;
and yet the pen, in a single stroke,
at once does both - observes and remembers.