The sirventes or serventes (Occitan: sirventés, IPA: [sirβenˈtes]; Catalan: sirventès, IPA: [sirβənˈtɛs] or sirventés, IPA: [sirβenˈtes]), sometimes translated as "service song", was a genre of Occitan lyric poetry used by the troubadours. The name comes from sirvent ("serviceman"), from whose perspective the song is allegedly written. Siventes usually took the form of parodies, borrowing the melody, metrical structure and often even the rhymes of a well-known canso to address a controversial subject, often a current event. They were always opinionated, being either highly complimentary or, more often, oozing with vitriol. The first author known to have written a sirventes is Cercamon, and the most famous practitioner of the genre was Bertran de Born; Peire de Vic was also known for his sirventes, but only one has survived to this day.
Most major troubadours have written at least one sirventes; well-known examples include:
The sirventes, called sirventesch in early Catalan, was imported into that language in the fourteenth century, and it developed into a unique didactic/moralistic type.