Meendiño

Meendiño, Mendiño, Mendinho or Meendinho was a medieval Galician troubadour who probably lived in the 13th century.

Life

Did you mean:

Juglar gallego portugués activo durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIII (1240-1280).

It probably comes from the south of Galicia, more specifically from the Vigo estuary or the Island of San Simón, Redondela, although the authors do not maintain a single position. It is very possible that its name derives from the place name Mende (or Mendo, since the locals pronounce it in both ways and of which Mendiño would be a hypocoristic), a place on the southern coast of the Ría de Vigo between A Guía and Rande, still belonging to the municipality of Vigo and not Redondela. This small place on the coast is very close to the Island of San Simón, where there was a sanctuary in the troubadour era dependent on the Monastery of Poio. Between the 13th and 14th centuries it was, presumably, a Templar enclave. Since then the place has had many other uses (lazaretto, prison...).

Work

His production is considered one of the most important in Galician-Portuguese poetry. The only composition of his authorship, belonging to the genre of the friend's cantiga, appears collected in two of the preserved manuscripts: in the Cancionero de la Biblioteca Vaticana and in the formerly called Cancionero Colocci-Brancuti and today known as Cancionero de la Biblioteca Nacional from Lisbon.

His song has always attracted the attention of philologists. Famous is the study of Roman Jakobson. Years ago, Professor Tavani drew attention to the reading error that distorted the saying from the first editions. The reading error deformed the structure and the message in a positive sense. Tavani correctly read the abbreviated form of the manuscript as e u(err)á[?]. Thus the saying that had caused so much ink to flow, 'eu atendendo o meu Amigo, / eu a(tendendo o meu Amigo', of high poetic value for its echoic effect and its musicality, becomes the no less valuable eu atendendo o my friend, / e verrá? which is what is really read in the Songbook of the National Library of Lisbon (previously called Colucci-Brancuti), in which the rhetorical question closes the proverb with the doubtful future of the verb vẽer ('come'), with a tone of resigned but at the same time hopeful saudade, leaves in the air, in suspense, the possibility of the amorous encounter, all with a great economy of expressive means (a rhetorical question highlighted at the end of the stanza and verse, with only a conjunction, a future and an interrogative tone and very fundamental vocabulary in language (conjunction e and the verb vẽer ('come') wrapped in an interrogative tone that, despite its vulgarity of use in everyday language, here takes on another value of mystery, of expectation, of desire, that fills that usual vocabulary with connotations that capture the feelings of the listener (or reader) who sympathizes with the "maggoa" ('sorrow'), in this case, restless and hopeful at the same time. It is precisely that question that has just produced a cathartic effect on the listener (in his time the cantigas were performed with singing and musical accompaniment) caught in the ominous reiteration with continuous effects of repetitions of phrases (in the first two stanzas the threat of deep sea, in the middle two the helplessness of the protagonist without salvation since there is no help to go to dry land, and in the last two the presence of death) Only the hopeful question of the proverb opens a door to the hope of salvation through the possible amorous encounter.

Although the musical notation of the composition is not preserved (since the music was not transcribed in the Italian apographs V and B), the internal musicality that structures the poem does not detract from the lost musical version, since the echoic effects (typical of the Cantigas de Amigo) and the rhetorical question produce an air of surprise, of unreality, with a certain suffocating, even urgent air. Reading it (and listening to it) produces a great cathartic effect: the reader, or listener, feels transported and shares the anxious expectation.

The text of its composition, established by Giuseppe Tavani and accepted by the majority of scholars (although some critical editors have proposed other readings), is the following, as it appears in the canonical edition of Galician-Portuguese poetry:

Did you mean:

'CBN 852/CV 438Did you mean:

Sedia-m' eu na ermida de San Simón

They surrounded my waves, how great they are.

Did you mean: Eu atendendo meu amigo#39;! E ver?

Being on the ermida, before' or altar,

they surrounded my big waves of the sea.

Did you mean: Eu atendendo meu amigo#39;! E verrá?]

And they surrounded my waves, how great they are:

non ei [i] boatman and rower.

Did you mean: Eu [atendendo meu amigo#39;! E ver?]

And they surrounded my waves of the high sea:

non ei [i] barqueiro ne sei rowing.

Did you mean: Eu atendendo meu amigo#39;! E verrá?]

Not the boatman or the rower:

morrerei “eu”, fremosa, not mar maior.

Did you mean: Eu atendendo meu amigo#39;! E verrá?]

Non ei [i] barqueiro nen sei row:

morrerei eu, fremosa not high sea.

Did you mean: Eu [atendendo meu amigo#39;! E ver?]

(Literal translation into Spanish: I was in the hermitage of San Simeon and the waves surrounded me, how big they are. Me waiting for my friend! And will it come? While in the hermitage before the altar, the large waves of the sea surrounded me. Me waiting for my friend! And will it come?' And the waves surrounded me, how big they are, I have no boatman or rower. Me waiting for my friend! And will it come?' And the waves of the high sea surrounded me, I have no boatman nor do I know how to row. Me waiting for my friend! And will it come? I have no boatman or rower; I will die beautiful in the greater sea. Me waiting for my friend! And will it come? I don't have a boatman nor do I know how to row, I will die beautiful on the high seas. Me waiting for my friend! And will it come?)

The Galician Literature Day was dedicated to him in 1998 (along with Xohán de Cangas and Martín Codax).

Currently, a choral festival (Festival de Corales Cantiga de Mendiño) is celebrated on the Island of San Simón, organized by the Cesantes Cultural Sports Circle.