Annotated Tirant lo Blanc

The mirror declaration in Tirant lo Blanc turns courtly indirection into physical comedy: Carmesina asks who Tirant loves, Tirant hands her a mirror, and the reflected face answers without his naming her. The scene's grammar matters as much as the prop. Commands, honorifics, clitics, simple pasts, and indirect reference let desire be expressed while both speakers preserve ceremonial distance.

For the modern system behind clusters such as li + ho and la + hi, see two-clitic order; the historical passage shows why segmentation comes before interpretation.

Source and transcription policy

The bounded public-domain excerpt comes from Joanot Martorell's Tirant lo Blanc, in the 1905 Viquitexts transcription, volume II, chapter CXII. Chapter numbering differs among editions; modern teaching selections often label the mirror episode chapter CXXVII. We preserve the edition's spelling and word division but replace the typographic long ſ with ordinary s, a glyph change that does not modernize the words. We adapt paragraphing only. The following block is the source excerpt; every later modernization is explicitly labeled as ours.

Public-domain excerpt

Digaume, Tirant, dix la Princesa, si Deu vos lexe obtenir lo que desijau, dieume qui es la senyora qui tant de mal vos fa passar? que si en cosa neguna vos hi pore ajudar, ho fare de molt bona voluntat, car molt me tarda de saberho.

Tirant se posa la ma en la manegua, e trague lo espill, e dix: Senyora, la ymatge quey veureu me pot donar mort o vida: maneli vostra altesa quem prengua a merçe.

La Princesa pres prestament lo espill, e ab cuytats passos sen entra dins la cambra pensant quey trobaria alguna dona pintada, e noy veu res sino la sua cara: lavors ella hague plena noticia que per ella se fahia la festa, e fon molt admirada que sens parlar pogues hom requerir vna dama de amors.

These are historical forms, not spellings to imitate in current standard writing.

Guide-authored modern paraphrase

This is a pedagogical modern paraphrase written for this guide, not a quotation and not a replacement for a critical edition.

—Digueu-me, Tirant —va dir la princesa—, i que Déu us deixi obtenir allò que desitgeu: digueu-me qui és la senyora que us fa patir tant. Si us puc ajudar en res, ho faré de molt bona voluntat, perquè tinc moltes ganes de saber-ho.

Tirant es va posar la mà a la màniga, en va treure el mirall i va dir:

—Senyora, la imatge que hi veureu em pot donar la mort o la vida. Mani-li vostra altesa que tingui pietat de mi.

La princesa va agafar de seguida el mirall i va entrar de pressa a la cambra, pensant que hi trobaria pintada alguna dona; però no hi va veure res més que la seva cara. Aleshores va comprendre plenament que la festa es feia per ella, i es va meravellar que, sense parlar, es pogués requerir d'amors una dama.

The line mani-li vostra altesa... keeps both the third-person agreement selected by the honorific subject vostra altesa and Tirant's playful fiction that the lady in the mirror is another person whom Carmesina can command. Rendering it simply as “have mercy on me” would erase both a clitic and the scene's indirection.

Idiomatic English translation

“Tell me, Tirant,” said the princess, “and may God let you obtain what you desire: tell me who the lady is who causes you such suffering. If I can help you in any way, I will do so very willingly, for I am most eager to know.”

Tirant put his hand into his sleeve, took out the mirror, and said, “My lady, the image you will see in it can give me death or life. May Your Highness command her to have mercy on me.”

The princess quickly took the mirror and hurried into her chamber, thinking she would find some woman's portrait inside it. She saw nothing but her own face. Then she fully understood that all this courtship had been performed for her, and she marveled that a lady could be wooed without a word being spoken.

The translation expands la festa as “all this courtship”: a literal “the party” would be a false friend and would miss the staged social performance.

Numbered annotations

1. Digaume... dieume: a respectful command with attached me

The princess addresses Tirant with plural/respectful vós morphology. Historical digau/dieu + me appears in the edition as digaume, dieume. Contemporary standard spelling separates the attached clitic with a hyphen: digueu-me. The command is direct, but the blessing si Déu vos deixi obtenir... cushions it in courtly register.

The embedded question keeps declarative order: qui és la dama, not an English-driven inversion.

2. Vos, us, and vostra altesa maintain rank

Historical vos is the weak object form corresponding in this passage to modern us: si Déu us deixi...; si us puc ajudar... Tirant replies with vostra altesa (courtly/formal) as a third-person grammatical subject—hence modern mani-li, not second-person maneu-li—which increases the distance. In a modern institutional setting, respectful vós often avoids gender marking, but vostra altesa belongs to royalty or deliberate historical style.

The neutral clitic ho resumes the whole action “help you,” not a masculine noun.

3. Quey, quem, noy: old word division hides familiar clitics

The strings quey, quem, noy correspond to modern que hi, que em, no hi. Readers should segment them before reaching for a dictionary. In la imatge que hi veureu, hi refers to the mirror as the visual field. In que em prengui a mercè, em is the person seeking mercy. In no hi veu res, hi again means “in it/there.”

4. The simple past advances every gesture

Dix, tragué, pres, veu, hagué, fon are simple-past forms. Here veu is a past form of veure (comparable to modern literary veié/veu), not a sudden switch to the present. In the edition, missing or prestandard accents can obscure posà and other forms. The simple past is expected in medieval narrative and remains available (literary/formal) today. The modern paraphrase uses the ordinary spoken periphrastic past: va dir, va treure, va agafar, va veure, va comprendre, es va meravellar.

(regional: Valencian) the simple past has greater spoken vitality in some areas than it does in the Central baseline, with local and generational variation. It is not merely an “old mistake.”

5. En tragué l'espill tracks a source

The source says tragué lo espill after naming the sleeve. A highly cohesive modern retelling can say en va treure el mirall, where en resumes de la màniga. The clitic prevents a repeated prepositional phrase and directs attention from hiding place to revealed object.

6. Mane-li... que em prengui a mercè layers two commands

Tirant grammatically speaks of the reflected lady as someone separate. Li is the recipient of manar; the following que-clause gives the commanded action, and its verb is subjunctive. In modern wording that retains the protocol treatment: Mani-li vostra altesa que tingui pietat de mi. The joke is syntactic: Carmesina must command her own image to favor him.

Modern everyday Catalan would sound theatrical with this frame. That is precisely why it works here (courtly/literary).

7. Future inside an object-relative clause

La imatge que hi veureu uses the future veureu because Carmesina has not yet looked. The relative object is omitted inside the clause: que stands for la imatge, while hi retains the location “in the mirror.” English uses the same future, but cannot mirror the Catalan locative clitic so compactly.

8. Hom suppresses the agent of courtship

In pogués hom requerir una dama d'amors, hom is an indefinite human pronoun, “one/people,” now (formal/literary). The imperfect subjunctive pogués depends on the princess's amazement at the possibility. Modern prose naturally uses impersonal es: que es pogués requerir d'amors una dama.

The en in pronunciar-ne el nom means “pronounce the name of it,” resuming amor.

9. Information arrives in the order Carmesina discovers it

The passage withholds the beloved's identity at three levels: Tirant avoids a name, the mirror initially appears to promise a painted woman, and only the reflected face resolves the reference. Pensant que... e no hi veu... llavors... orders expectation, correction, and recognition. Historical veu is a simple-past form; the guide paraphrase replaces it with the ordinary periphrastic va veure while keeping the same past sequence.

Read-aloud version

Read the historical excerpt as dialogue, not as a museum label. Carmesina's first sentence should move quickly through the repeated digaume/dieume, then pause before Tirant's reveal. Slow down on mort o vida: the balanced nouns are deliberately absolute. After the princess takes the mirror, accelerate through ab cuytats passos and pause at e noy veu res sino la sua cara, the scene's visual punch line.

A modern Valencian reading is culturally appropriate to the work's fifteenth-century Valencian authorship, but it is still a modern reading, not a reconstruction. This page uses Central forms in its pedagogical paraphrase while labeling Valencian relevance; neither pronunciation should be projected backward without historical evidence.

Comprehension checks

1. What does hi refer to in la imatge que hi veureu?
2. Why does Tirant refer to the image with li, as though it were a third person?
3. List three source simple-past forms and their modern periphrastic counterparts.
4. What expectation does alguna dona pintada create, and how is it overturned?
5. Why is “the party” a poor translation of la festa in this context?

Transformation exercises

1. Segment quey, quem, and noy into modern word boundaries.
2. Change Tirant tragué l'espill to the periphrastic past and resume de la màniga with en.
3. Rewrite Digaume with modern spelling while retaining respectful vós.
4. Replace literary hom with impersonal es.
5. Retell the final sentence entirely in a modern past sequence without changing the order of expectation, correction, and recognition.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• The source excerpt, modern paraphrase, and English translation must remain visibly separate.
• Old word division often conceals familiar clitics: quey = que hi, quem = que em, noy = no hi.
• Simple pasts carry the historical narrative; periphrastic pasts make a neutral modern retelling.
• Courtly grammar does the scene's dramatic work: honorific distance lets Tirant reveal love without naming the beloved.