Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, “Las frevols venson lo plus fort” (BdT 392.21)

The article provides a commentary of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras Las frevols venson lo plus fort, a poem commonly classified as a devinalh (riddle), an Occitan poetic genre whose real existence is debated among scholars. There are two major interpretations of the poem: one, by Tobler, claims that each stanza contains a riddle whose solution is unrelated to the others; another, by Lawner, explains all the riddles of the poem in sexual terms. The author of the article does not agree with either interpretation: he believes that the central focus of the poem is to be found in the pairs of antithetic elements listed in each stanza (strong vs. weak; nothing vs. universe; sweet vs. bitter; death vs. life; cold vs. hot; rich vs. poor), in their interactions with one another as well as in the paradoxical consequences of this interaction, i.e. that the natural order of things can be subverted and so the impossible can become possible. The whole poem might be affected by biblical influences.