Pons was born into a minor noble family with a history of producing ecclesiastics for the local church.
Pons' name appears on a peace treaty between the lords of Roussillon and their count, Nuño Sánchez, in 1217.
Pons first poems is Enaissi cum la naus en mar ("Thus like the ship on the sea"), dedicated to a Senher En Berenguier ("Lord Sir Berengar", possibly Berenguier de Palazol, with whom Pons may have had contact early in his life).
The lady of the song was from the Narbonnais, a region in which Pons' father possessed land according to a document of 13 November 1171 now in the Liber Feudorum Maior: de meridie in campo Caput Stagni de Burliano .
It is full of original ideas and some chansonniers assign it to Raimbaut de Vaqueiras or Pons de Capduelh, but the mention of Jau fixes its author as Pons d'Ortaffa, whose lordship was adjacent to Jau.