Alais andYselda (orIselda, fromIsold) were two young nobletrobairitz, probably sisters ornuns, who wrote anOccitantenso with an elderly woman namedCarenza.
Their poem beginsNa Carenza al bel cors avinen ("Lady Carenza of the lovely, gracious body"), and the first two stanzas were composed by Alais and Yselda. It is the last two stanzas, composed by Carenza, that are the most difficult to interpret. Magda Bogin andPeter Dronke have read the opening line of both her stanzas beginning with the addressN'Alais i na Iselda ("Lady Alais and lady Yselda").[1] There is, however, an alternative interpretation that sees the address as to a "N'Alaisina Iselda". Under this interpretation, there are two, not three, interlocutors in the poem: Carenza andAlaisina Yselda (sometimesAlascina, both diminutives of Alais). Within the poem, in favour of the multiplicity of younger women is the phrasenos doas serors ("we two sisters"), but against it is the continuous use of the first person singular. The poem is preserved amidst a collection ofcoblas esparsas in only oneItalianchansonnier.[2]
Whoever wrote it,Na Carenza al bel cors avinen is complex and eludes full comprehension. Bogin went so far as to classify the last four lines of Carenza's part astrobar clus, making it only the second example in trobairitz literature after that ofLombarda.[3] The language is religious in some places (gran penedenza, great penitence) and in others colloquial (las tetinhas, the breasts).[3] Carenza's reference to marriage withCoronat de Scienza ("Crowned with Knowledge") has caused confusion. The obscure phrase is perhaps aCathar orGnostic name forJesus Christ, but perhaps just a colourfully orthodoxsenhal (signifier) forGod.[3] Parallel to the colloquial/religious lexical dichotomy is the general contrast in tenor between the "serious" and "playful" portions of the text. References to Carenza's sagging breasts are balanced by the sisters' earnest plea for answers to their questions about marital decisions.[1][2]
According to Bogin, Carenza is advising her interlocutor(s) to avoid earthly marriage and "marry God". Under the interpretation of Pierre Bec, however, Carenza is recommending marriage to an educated cleric, who will appreciate virginity and give her a glorious son (filh glorios).[2]Renat Nelli explains the entiredébat as a Cathar exercise in worldly renunciation, while Angelica Rieger treats it as a traditional debatetenso on the value of marriage.[2] Perhaps the most unconventional interpretation has been put forward by Patrician Anderson. Anderson theorises that the piece is asatire ofMidons ("milady"), who chooses a convent for vanity's sake (a major point of the sisters' stanzas is the physical toll of marriage on the wife). Carenza therefore represents the virgin, Alais the peasant, and Iselda the noblewoman; together they are "everywoman".[2]
Intertextually,Na Carenza has links with works byArnaut de Maruelh and with the court of Azalais, the daughter ofRaymond V of Toulouse and the wife ofRoger II Trencavel.[2] English translations exist by Bogin (1976), Dronke (1984), and Rieger (1992).