In the year 1202, Jean Bodel, an epic poet in Arras, had to leave his city, friends and patron because of leprosy. He therefore composed Les Congés [Farewells], a long poem of a poignant and dignified lyrical realism that was unparalleled at the time.
The present publication contains Jean Bodel’s 45 verses in their original text, along with the first complete translation of these verses into modern French. In the margins, superimposed over the “literal” translation, are “echoes” or “scholia” that, through a search for formal equivalences and a kind of discontinuous commentary, attempt to reconstruct something of what was otherwise lost from the original. This endeavor is combined with original photographic work, like so many missing verses.