The Perilous Fountain with the Charter of Love

En my bed recently sleeping,
My head low beside the pillow,
Sad, weary, and exhausted
By tears, sighs, and long waking,
I lay a long time without waking
Through a dream in which I was enraptured,
At which I began to wonder greatly
Because of the wonders I saw there.
original: "ioupte louillier." The term "ouillier" (modern French: oreiller) refers to a pillow. The narrator establishes a classic Dream Vision opening, where the poet falls asleep in a state of emotional distress.

¶ All that I saw and heard
Seemed to me to be seen quite clearly;
I rejoiced in it all too vainly,
For I truly thought I visibly
Saw and heard with my senses
The fictions seen and heard;
But when I truly awoke,
Soon they were vanished.
The poet uses the term "faintises" to describe the contents of the dream—meaning fictions, imaginings, or illusions. This reflects a common medieval debate about whether dreams were divine revelations or mere hallucinations.

¶ Through the voice of another, I made a writing,
Reciting the whole story
Of the dream put into writing
To have a long memory of it;
For often the dark and black night
Shows many people, covertly,
Things which later become notorious
And which one knows openly.
The phrase "Par voix d'aultruy" (By the voice of another) suggests the poet is acting as a scribe for a higher power or a muse, a common trope to grant the poem authority.

¶ It seemed to me, first of all,
That I was in a beautiful ship
The "nef" or ship is a frequent allegorical symbol in medieval literature, often representing the journey of life, the state of the soul, or, in the context of courtly love, the lover's quest.