A new reading proposal of verse 9 of the “Cantiga da Guarvaia”: des aquelha vs. de saquelha

Abstract

This study proposes a new reading of verse 9 of the “Cantiga da Guarvaia” (Ajuda 38), by Paai Soarez de Taveiros, as well as a new hypothesis for the general interpretation of the text, which changes significantly with respect to the prevailing one. Starting from the fact that this cantiga is based on the opposition between two very different types of cloth or garment, one of them being the ‘guarvaia’, I propose that the other element of the pair is a cloth or garment named ‘saquelha’, used as rhyming word in the much-discussed verse 9 of the poem.

Keywords

• saquelha
• guarvaia
• textual criticism
• hermeneutics
• cantigas de escarnio e mal dizer
• Galician-Portuguese lyric