Dietmar von Aist

Dietmar von Aist Poems

Dietmar von Aist Biography

Dietmar von Aist was a Minnesinger from a baronial family of Upper Austria, documented between 1140 and 1171, whose work is representative of the lyric poetry of the Danube region. A Dietmar von Aist is mentioned by name from c 1139 onwards in contemporary records from Salzburg, Regensburg and Vienna. The name Aist probably refers to the River Aist, which in Austria feeds into the Danube below the Enns. The family von Aist is evidenced in Austria from about 1125, where today the ruins of the ancestral castle stand on the River Aist. Whether the Freiherr (Baron) Dietmar von Aist mentioned in the records is really the same as the poet, is not completely certain on chronological grounds. It is definite however that a certain "Ditmarus de Agasta" mentioned in the records, who died in about 1171, was not the same as Dietmar von Aist. A whole series of songs is ascribed to Dietmar, but his authorship can be clearly decided in only a few cases. With those verses which can be attributed to him without any doubt, he belongs in the earliest period of the Minnesang. Dietmar von Aist and his work represent the link between the uncourtly and the courtly forms. He was one of the first poets to use the refrain and the Wechsel. The themes of his songs are mostly to do with the relationship of men to women (love, parting, partnership), in which connection it is worth noting that some of his poems are written from the female perspective and others from the male. The woman takes a decidedly strong position: for example, she is to be able to choose her own partner freely - cf the poem Ez stuont ein frouwe alleine - There stood a woman alone (eLib Austria; full text in the original). The first surviving Tagelied is also by Dietmar: Slâfest du, friedel ziere? (Are you asleep, dearest one?).)

The Best Poem Of Dietmar von Aist

There Sat Upon The Linden-Tree

There sat upon the linden-tree
A bird, and sang its strain;
So sweet it sang, that, as I heard,
My heart went back again.
It went to one remember'd spot,
It saw the rose-trees grow,
And thought again the thoughts of love
There cherish'd long ago.

A thousand years to me it seems
Since by my fair I sate,
Yet thus t' have been a stranger long
Was not my choice, but fate:
Since then I have not seen the flowers,
Nor heard the birds' sweet song;
My joys shave all too briefly past,
My griefs been all too long.

Dietmar von Aist Comments