VII - Lunet's Captivity

Summary

One day chance led him,

he knowing nothing of it himself,

right into his lady's land,

where he found that same fountain

by which had fallen to his lot there,

as I told you before,

great good fortune and much distress,

and when he saw the lime-tree above it,

and when, moreover, there appeared before him

the chapel and the stone,

his heart was then reminded

of how he had lost his honour and his land,

and his wife.

He grew most remorseful at that.

Grief brought him such pain

that he very nearly, as before,

lost his senses.

Moreover, he was deprived

entirely of his physical powers there,

so that, pale as death,

he dropped from his charger to the ground,

and when he fell headlong

the sword shot out of his scabbard.

Its excellence was so great

that it broke through his hauberk

and pierced him, wounding him grievously,

so that he bled profusely.

This troubled the lion greatly –

it thought he was dead,

and it strove to die, too.

It placed the sword upright, against a bush,

and was about to stab itself through the belly,

were it not that Lord Iwein

still retained a semblance of life.

He raised himself

and prevented the lion

from stabbing itself to death.

Lord Iwein lamented, saying:

‘Wretched man, what are you to do now?

You’re the most wretched man

that was ever born in this world.

Nû wie hâstu verlorn

dîner frouwen hulde!

Jâ ne wære diu selbe schulde

zer werlde niemens wan dîn,

ezn müese sîn ende sîn.

Noch ist er baz ein sælech man,

der nie nâch êren muot gewan,

danne der êre gewinnet,

und sich sô niht versinnet,

daz er sî behalten chünne.

Êren unde wünne,

der het ich beider als vil,

daz ichz got clagen wil,

daz ich ir ie sô vil gewan,

ichn solde ouch stæte sîn daran.

Wære mir niht geschehn heil

und liebes ein vil michel teil,

sône weste ich waz ez wære –

âne senede swære

sô lebt ich frîlîche als ê.

Nû tuot mir daz senen wê,

daz daz ie solde geschehn, 77v

daz ich muose an sehn

schaden unde schande

in mîner frouwen lande!

Diz ist ir erbe und ir lant –

daz stuont ê sô ze mîner hant,

daz mir des wunsches niht gebrast.