Alanus de Insulis: Anticlaudianus

Cum fulminis impetus uires suas expandere dedignetur in uirgulam, uerum audaces prouectarum arborum expugnet excessus, imperiosa uenti rabies iras non expendat in calamum, uerum in altissimarum supercilia rerum uesani flatus inuectiones excitet furiosas, per uitiosam nostri operis humilitatem inuidie flamma non fulminet, nostri libelli depressam pauperiem detractionis flatus non deprimat, ubi potius miserie naufragium, misericordie portum expostulat, quam felicitas liuoris exposcat aculeum. In quo lector non latratu corrixationis insaniens, uerum lima correctionis emendans, circumcidat superfluum et compleat diminutum quatenus illimatum revertatur ad limam, impolitum reducatur ad fabricam, inartificiosum suo referatur artifici, male tortum proprie reddatur incudi. Sed quamuis artificii enormitas imperitiam accuset artificis, in adulterino opere imperitie uestigium manus relinquat opificis, opus tamen sui ueniam deprecatur erroris, cum tenuis humane rationis igniculus multis ignorantie obnubiletur erroribus, humani ingenii scintilla multas erroris euanescat in nebulas.

When the onset of the thunderbolt deigns not to expand its powers upon a little twig, but assaults the bold excesses of trees grown far upward; when the imperious rabies of the wind does not expend its wraths upon a reed, but upon the brows of the loftiest things the insane blasts arouse furious invectives—may the flame of envy not fulminate against the faulty lowliness of our work, may the breath of detraction not press down the sunken poverty of our little book, where rather the shipwreck of misery demands the harbor of mercy than that the felicity of spite demand a sting. In which let the reader, not raving with the bark of wrangling, but amending with the file of correction, cut away the superfluous and complete what is diminished, so that what is unfiled may return to the file, what is unpolished may be led back to the workshop, what is inartificial may be referred to its own artificer, what is ill-wrought may be rendered back to its proper anvil. But although the enormity of the craft may accuse the unskilledness of the craftsman, although in a counterfeit work the trace of unskilledness may leave the hand of the workman, yet the work begs pardon for its own error, since the slight spark of human reason is overshadowed by many errors of ignorance, and the scintilla of human ingenuity vanishes into many mists of error.

Quare ad hoc opus non nauseantis animi fastidio ductus, non indignationis tumore percussus, sed delectatione nouitatis illectus, lector accedat, ut, quamuis liber uernantis eloquii purpuramento non floreat et fulgurantis sententie sydere non clarescat, tamen in fragilis calami tenuitate mellis possit suauitas inueniri et arescentis riuuli modicitate sitis ariditas temperari; in hoc tamen nulla uilitate plebescat, nullos reprehensionis morsus sustineat, quod modernorum redolet ruditatem, qui et ingenii preferunt florem et diligentie efferunt dignitatem, cum pigmea humilitas excessui superposita giganteo, altitudine gigantem preueniat et riuus a fonte scaturiens in torrentem multiplicatus excrescat. Hoc igitur opus fastidire non audeant qui adhuc nutricum uagientes in cunis, inferioris discipline lactantur uberibus. Huic operi derogare non temptent qui altioris scientiae militiam spondent.

Wherefore to this work let the reader approach, not led by the fastidiousness of a nauseating mind, not struck by the tumor of indignation, but enticed by the delectation of novelty, so that, although the book may not blossom with the purpureal adornment of blooming eloquence and may not shine with the star of a fulgurant sentence, nevertheless in the slenderness of a fragile reed the sweetness of honey can be found, and by the modest measure of a drying rivulet the aridity of thirst may be tempered; yet in this let it by no vileness grow plebeian, let it sustain no bites of reprehension, because it savors of the rudeness of the moderns, who both prefer the flower of ingenium and exalt the dignity of diligence, since pygmy humility, set above gigantic excess, outstrips the giant in height, and a stream springing from the fountain, multiplied, grows into a torrent. Therefore let those not dare to disdain this work who, still wailing in nurses’ cradles, are suckled at the breasts of the lower discipline. Let those not attempt to derogate from this work who pledge the soldiery of higher science.

Huic operi abrogare non presumant qui celum philosophie uertice pulsant. In hoc etenim opere litteralis sensus suauitas puerilem demulcebit auditum, moralis instructio perficientem imbuet sensum, acutior allegorie subtilitas proficientem acuet intellectum. Ab huius igitur operis arceantur ingressu qui, solam sensualitatis insequentes imaginem, rationis non appetunt ueritatem, ne sanctum canibus prostitutum sordescat, ne porcorum pedibus conculcata margarita depereat, ne derogetur secretis, si eorum magestas diuulgetur indignis.

Let those who with the pinnacle of philosophy strike the heaven not presume to abrogate this work. For in this work the sweetness of the literal sense will soothe the childlike hearing, moral instruction will imbue the sense that is being perfected, and the keener subtility of allegory will whet the advancing intellect. Therefore let those be barred from entry to this work who, pursuing only the image of sensuality, do not desire the truth of reason, lest the holy thing, prostituted to dogs, grow defiled, lest the pearl, trampled by the feet of swine, perish, lest a derogation be made to secrets if their majesty is divulged to the unworthy.

Quoniam igitur in hoc opere resultat grammatice syntaseos regula, dialetice lexeos maxima, oratorie reseos communis sententia, arismetice matheseos paradoxa, musice melos, anxioma geometrie, gramatis theorema, astronomice ebdomadis excellentia, theophanie celestis emblema, infruniti homines in hoc opus sensus proprios non impingant, qui ultra metas sensuum rationis non excedant curriculum, qui iuxta imaginationis sompnia aut recordantur uisa, aut figmentorum artifices commentantur incognita; sed hii qui sue rationis materiale in turpibus imaginibus non permittunt quiescere, sed ad intuitum supercelestium formarum audent attollere, mei operis ingrediantur angustias, certa discretionis libra pensantes quid sit dignum in aures publicas promulgari uel silentio penitus sepeliri. Sicut enim quorundam genuinos detractions insultus non timeo, sic fauorabilem commendationis auram ab aliis non expecto. Non enim tumor superbie intus eructuans ut exiret in publicum, me huius operis coegit ad fabricam, uel fauor popularis applausus insolentem inuitauit ad operam, sed ne meus sermo contraheret de cure raritate rubiginem aliorumque profectibus labore mei studii desudarem.

Since therefore in this work there resounds the rule of grammatical syntax, the maxima of dialectical lexis, the common sententia of oratorical rhesis, the paradoxes of arithmetical mathesis, the melos of music, the axiom of geometry, the theorem of grammar, the excellence of the astronomical hebdomad, the emblem of a celestial theophany, let shameless men not thrust their own senses into this work—men who do not, beyond the bounds of the senses, overstep the course of reason, who according to the dreams of imagination either recall things seen, or, craftsmen of figments, concoct unknowns; but let those who do not permit the material of their reason to rest in base images, but dare to lift it to the intuition of supercelestial forms, enter the narrows of my work, weighing with the sure balance of discretion what is worthy to be promulgated into public ears or to be wholly buried in silence. For just as I do not fear the inborn assaults of certain men’s detraction, so I do not expect from others the favorable breeze of commendation. For it was not a swelling of pride belching within, that it might go forth into the public, which drove me to the making of this work, nor did the favor of popular applause invite an insolent one to the toil, but lest my discourse should contract rust from the rarity of care, and that I might sweat for the advancements of others by the labor of my study.

PROLOGUS

PROLOGUE

[1-9]

Autoris mendico stilum falerasque poete,
Ne mea segnicie Clio directa senescat,
Ne iaceat calamus scabra rubigine torpens.
Scribendi nouitate uetus iuuenescere carta
Gaudet, et antiquas cupiens exire latebras
Ridet, et in tenui lasciuit harundine musa.
Fonte tuo sic, Phebe, tuum perfunde poetam,
Vt compluta tuo mens arida flumine, germen
Donet, et in fructus concludat germinis usum.

I, a poet, beg the author’s stylus and the phalerae of a poet,
lest by my sloth Clio, once set on her course, grow old,
lest the reed-pen lie inert, torpid with scabrous rust.
By the novelty of writing the old sheet rejoices to grow young,
and, eager to leave its ancient hiding-places, it laughs,
and the Muse frolics upon the slender reed.
From your fount thus, Phoebus, drench your poet,
that, soaked by your river, my dry mind may give a sprout,
and may bring the sprout’s use to fruit.

LIBER PRIMUS

BOOK ONE

[1-17]

Vt sibi iuncta magis Nature dona resultent,
Vt proprium donet donis mixtura fauorem,
Solers Nature studium, que singula sparsim
Munera cuntulerat aliis, cuncludit in unum.
Cudit opus, per quod operi cuncluditur omni:
Pristina sic operum peccata repensat in uno,
Vt quod deliquit alias cumpenset in isto.
Supplicat huic operi famulans, opus omne decoris,
Et tanta cupiens uestiri dote fauoris,
Incudis deposcit opem: sed fessa laborat
Incus, que tantos uires expendit in usus.

That Nature’s gifts, joined together, may redound more to themselves,
That the mixture may grant its own favor to the gifts,
The skillful study of Nature, which had bestowed single
gifts separately to others, encloses them into one.
It forges a work, through which every work is enclosed:
Thus it recompenses in one the former sins of works,
That what it failed in elsewhere it may compensate in this.
Serving, every work of comeliness supplicates this work,
And, desiring to be vested with so great a dowry of favor,
It demands the aid of the anvil: but the anvil, weary, labors,
which expends such forces upon such uses.

Vltra sese posse studet Natura suumque
Supra se metitur opus, sic uincere fertur
Artifices alios, quod se superasse fatetur.
Nec subitos animi motus perpessa, repente
Currit ad hec opera, sed ad hec deliberat utrum
Possit et ad libram racionis singula pensat.

Beyond herself Nature strives, and measures her work above herself; thus she is said to conquer other artificers, since she confesses that she has surpassed herself.
Nor, having suffered sudden motions of the mind, does she run at once to these works; but about these she deliberates whether she can, and she weighs each thing to the balance of reason.

[18-32]

Protinus ergo suas uocat in sua uota sorores,
A quibus emeriti descendat tramite recto
Regula consilii mentisque coherceat estum,
Vt sic, freta sue scalpro racionis, in ipsos
Effectus operum mentis deducat ydeas,
Aut lima meliore diu concepta recidat.
Ergo consilii non aspernata rigorem,
Concilium celeste uocat; peregrinat ab alto
Milicie celestis honor terramque serenat
Luce sua, dignatus humum uestire beatis
Gressibus, et nostri tolerans fastidia mundi,
A splendore suo descendit regia celi;
Dum lumen proprium terre cucedit ad horam,
Jam noua miratur tellus uestigia ferre,
Gaudet honus, sed uis honeris pensatur honore.

Immediately therefore she calls her sisters into her vows,
from whom, as by a well-earned straight path, may descend
the rule of counsel and may coerce the heat of the mind,
so that thus, relying on the chisel of her ration, into the very
effects of works she may lead down the ideas of the mind,
or with a better file may recut what has long been conceived.
Therefore, not having spurned the rigor of counsel,
she calls a celestial council; the honor of the celestial militia peregrinates from on high
and makes the earth serene with its light, deigning to clothe the ground
with blessed steps, and, tolerating the fastidiousnesses of our world,
from its own splendor the royal court of heaven descends;
while its own light grants itself to the earth for an hour,
now the earth marvels to bear new footprints;
the burden rejoices, but the force of the burden is weighed by honor.

[33-46]

Pacis alumpna mouet primos Concordia gressus,
Et pleno cuncta perfundens Copia cornu,
Et Fauor, et multo perfusa fauore Iuuentus,
Et Risus nostre proscribens nubila mentis,
Et Pudor, et certo contenta Modestia fine,
Et Racio, mensura boni, quam semper adherens
Felici gressu felix comitatur Honestas,
Et Decus, et cuncta trutinans Prudentia libra,
Et Pietas, et uera Fides, que fraudis in umbra
Nobis ypocritum mentiri nescit amorem,
Et uirtus que spargit opes, que munera fundit,
Quam penes ignorat ignauam gaza quietem
Nec dormire potest thesauri massa sepulti,
Sed mutat uarios tociens peregrina magistros.

Concord, alumna of Peace, sets the first steps in motion,
and Plenty, suffusing all things with her full horn,
and Favor, and Youth drenched with much favor,
and Laughter proscribing the clouds of our mind,
and Pudor, and Modesty content with a fixed bound,
and Reason, the measure of the good, which, ever adhering,
happy Honesty accompanies with a happy step,
and Decorum, and Prudence weighing all things with her balance,
and Piety, and true Faith, which, in the shadow of fraud,
does not know how to lie to us a hypocritical love,
and Virtue which scatters riches, which pours out gifts,
with whom treasure knows not slothful repose,
nor can the mass of buried treasure sleep,
but, a wanderer, it so often changes various masters.

[47-54]

Vltima Nobilitas, et forme laude secunda,
A longe sequitur harum uestigia; quamuis
Nescio quid presigne gerat, tamen huius ad unguem
Non poterat reliquis facies equare decorem;
Munere Fortune melior sed parcius ipsa
Gracia Nature dotes effundit in illa.
Hec superum soboles gressus maturat in arcem
Nature proprioque domum chorus afflat honore.

Last Nobility, and second in the praise of form,
from afar follows the footsteps of these; although
she bears I know not what pre-eminent quality, yet to the nail
her face could not equal the decorum of the rest;
better by the gift of Fortune, but more sparingly does
the Grace of Nature pour out endowments upon her.
This offspring of the gods above hastens her steps into the citadel
of Nature, and the chorus breathes upon the house with its own honor.

[55-80]

Est locus a nostro secretus climate longo
Tractu, nostrorum ridens fermenta locorum:
Iste potest solus quicquid loca cetera possunt;
Quod minus in reliquis melius suppletur in uno;
Quid prelarga manus Nature possit et in quo
Gracius effundat dotes, exponit in isto,
In quo, pubescens tenera lanugine florum,
Sideribus stellata suis, succensa rosarum
Murice, terra nouum contendit pingere celum.
Non ibi nascentis expirat gracia floris
Nascendo moriens; nec enim rosa mane puella
Vespere languet anus, sed uultu semper eodem
Gaudens, eterni iuuenescit munere ueris.
Hunc florem non urit hyems, non decoquit estas.

There is a place, secluded from our climate by a long tract,
smiling at the ferment of our places:
this one alone can do whatever the other places can;
what is less in the rest is better supplied in the one;
what the over-lavish hand of Nature can do, and wherein
she more graciously pours out endowments, she sets forth in this one,
in which, coming of age with the tender down of flowers,
starred with its own stars, kindled with the murex of roses,
the earth strives to paint a new heaven.
Non there does the grace of the budding flower breathe out,
dying as it is born; nor indeed does the rose, a girl in the morning,
in the evening droop an old woman, but rejoicing with the same face always
by the gift of eternal spring grows young again.
Hunc flower winter does not scorch, summer does not boil down.

Non ibi bacchantis Boree furit ira, nec illic
Fulminat aura Nothi, nec spicula grandinis instant.
Quicquid depascit oculos uel inhebriat aures,
Seducit gustum, nares suspendit odore,
Demulcet tactum, retinet locus iste locorum.
Iste parit, nullo uexatus uomere, quicquid
Militat aduersum morbos nostramque renodat,
Instantis morbi proscripta peste, salutem.

Not there does the wrath of bacchantic Boreas rage, nor there
does the breeze of Notus fulminate, nor do the darts of hail press on.
Whatever feeds the eyes or inebriates the ears,
seduces the taste, holds the nostrils suspended by odor,
soothes the touch—this place of places retains them.
This brings forth, vexed by no ploughshare, whatever
militates against diseases and renovates our
health, the pest of the threatening disease proscribed.

Non uulgus uerum, uerum miracula gingnens
Sponte nec externo tellus adiuta colono,
Nature contenta manu Zephirique fauore,
Parturit et tanta natorum prole superbit.

Not a vulgar yield, but truly engendering miracles, the earth of its own accord, and not aided by an external colonist, content with Nature’s hand and the favor of Zephyr, brings forth and prides itself on so great a progeny of those born.

[81-91]

Flore nouo gaudens, folio crinita uirenti,
Non demorsa situ, non iram passa securis,
Non deiecta solo, sparsis non deuia ramis,
Ambit silua locum, muri mentita flguram.
Non florum predatur opes foliique capillum
Tondet hyems, teneram florum depasta iuuentam.
Exilium patitur arbor quecumque tributum
Germinis et fructus Nature soluere nescit,
Cuius mercari fructu meliore fauorem
Contendens aliasque suo precellere dono,
Quelibet et semper de partu cogitat arbor.

Rejoicing in new bloom, hair-decked with the green leaf,
Not gnawed by mould, not having suffered the wrath of the axe,
Not cast down to the soil, not awry with scattered branches,
The wood encircles the place, feigning the figure of a wall.
It does not prey on the wealth of flowers, nor shear the leaf’s hair
Does winter, nor graze down the tender youth of the flowers.
Whatever tree does not know how to pay the tribute
Of sprout and fruits to Nature suffers exile,
Striving to purchase her favor with a better fruit
And to excel the others by its own gift,
And every tree is always thinking about parturition.

[92-96]

Syrenes nemorum, cithariste ueris, in illum
Conuenere locum mellitaque carmina sparsim
Commentantur aues, dum guturis organa pulsant.
Pingunt ore liram, dum cantus imbibit istos
Auditus, dulces offert sonus auribus escas.

Sirens of the groves, citharists of spring, to that place
have convened, and the birds honeyed songs here and there
compose, while they strike the organs of the throat.
They paint the lyre with the mouth, while Hearing imbibes those
songs; the sound offers sweet baits to the ears.

[97-106]

In medio lacrimatur humus fletuque beato
Producens lacrimas, fontem sudore perhenni
Parturit et dulces potus singultat aquarum.
Exuit ingenitas feces argenteus humor,
Ad puri remeans elementi iura, nitore
Fulgurat in proprio, peregrina fece solutus.
Pregnantis gremium telluris inhebriat iste
Potus et ad partus inuitat uota parentis:
Arboribus similes tellus non inuida potus
Donat et affectum pariendi suggerit illis.

In the midst the ground weeps, and with a blessed weeping
bringing forth tears, by perennial sweat it is in labor with a fountain,
and sobs forth sweet draughts of waters.
The silvery humor strips off its inborn dregs,
returning to the rights of the pure element, with its own luster
it flashes, freed from foreign lees.
This drink inebriates the bosom of the pregnant earth
and invites the parent’s vows toward births:
the not-envious earth grants to the trees similar draughts
and supplies to them the disposition for bearing.

[107-125]

In medio nemoris euadit in aera montis
Ardua planicies et nubibus oscula donat.
Hic domus erigitur Nature, si tamen isto
Nomine censeri fas sit, cum numine possit
Sydereas superare domos superumque penates,
Nec sibi dignetur conferre palacia regum.
A nostris laribus excepta beatior aula
Aera metitur, altis suspensa columpnis,
Sydere gemmarum prefulgurat, ardet in auro
Nec minus argenti proprio donatur honore.

In the midst of the grove a steep plateau of the mountain issues into the air
and gives kisses to the clouds.
Here the house of Nature is raised—if indeed it be right
to be accounted by that name—since by its numen it can
surpass the sidereal homes and the Penates of the gods above,
nor deign to compare with itself the palaces of kings.
Removed from our household Lares, a more blessed hall
measures the air, suspended on lofty columns,
it outshines with a starry constellation of gems, it burns in gold,
nor is it less endowed with the proper honor of silver.

Non ibi materies, que sit demissior istis,
Jura tenet propriaque potest plebescere forma.
Hic hominum mores picture gracia scribit:
Sic operi proprio pictura fideliter heret,
Vt res picta minus a uero deuiet esse.
O noua picture miracula!

There, matter which is more lowly than these does not hold rights, and its own form can become plebeian.
Here the grace of picture writes the manners of men:
Thus picture faithfully clings to its proper work,
So that the painted thing deviates less from the true.
O new miracles of picture!

Transit ad esse
Quod nichil esse potest picturaque simia ueri,
Arte noua ludens, in res umbracula rerum
Vertit et in uerum mendacia singula mutat.

It passes into being
what can be nothing, and painting, the ape of truth,
playing with new art, turns the shadows of things into things
and changes each mendacity into the true.

[126-151]

Sic logice uires artis subtiliter huius
Argumenta premunt logiceque sophismata uincunt:
Hec probat, ista facit; hec disputat, impetrat illa
Omne quod esse potest: sic utraque uera uideri
Falsa cupit, sed ad hoc pictura fidelius instat.
Illic arma parat logico logiceque palestram
Pingit Aristoteles, sed eo diuinius ipsa
Sompniat archana rerum celique profunda
Mente Plato, sensumque Dei perquirere temptat.
More suo Seneca mores ratione monetat,
Optimus excultor morum mentisque colonus.

Thus, with logic, the powers of this subtle art press arguments, and with logic they vanquish sophisms:
this one proves, that one achieves; this one disputes, that one obtains
everything that can be: thus both desire false things to seem true,
but to this painting more faithfully applies itself.
Illic Aristotle prepares arms for the logician and paints the palestra for logic;
but more divinely than he, Plato himself dreams the arcana of things and the depths of heaven
with his mind, and attempts to seek out the sense of God.
In his own manner Seneca mints morals by reason,
the best cultivator of morals and a husbandman of the mind.

Diuitis ingenii uena Ptholomeus inundans,
Deuectus superas curru racionis in arces,
Colligit astrorum numeros, loca, tempora, cursus.
Verbi pauperiem redimit splendore colorum
Tullius et dictis ornatus fulgura donat.
Virgilii musa mendacia multa colorat
Et facie ueri contexit pallia falso.

Ptolemy, the vein of rich genius overflowing,
borne to the supernal citadels by the chariot of reason,
gathers the numbers, places, times, and courses of the stars.
Tullius redeems the poverty of speech with the splendor of colors
and, adorned in his sayings, bestows lightning-flashes.
The Muse of Virgil colors many mendacities
and with the face of truth weaves cloaks for the false.

Hic uigor et sensus equali munera lance
Pensant: Alcidem uigor armat, sensus Vlixem.
Ne mentem fermentet opum conuictus, habunde
Fundit opes Tytus et munera cogit abire.
Militat instantis feruens audacia Turni,
Ense tonans, ignara metus et prodiga uite,
Ypolitique pudor Veneris subductus habenis
Gaudet et excepto luget Cytherea pudore.

Here vigor and sense weigh the gifts in an equal scale:
vigor arms Alcides, sense Ulysses.
Lest the conviviality of riches ferment the mind,
Titus pours out wealth abundantly and compels gifts to depart.
The fervent audacity of Turnus, pressing on, fights,
thundering with the sword, ignorant of fear and prodigal of life,
and Hippolytus’s modesty, withdrawn from the reins of Venus,
rejoices, and Cytherea laments, modesty being excepted.

[152-206]

Has species rerumque tropos et sompnia ueri
Regia picta tenet, tanto festiua decore,
Sed minus in uultu gestans insigne decoris
Postremos subtristis habet pictura penates.
Vel lusisse parum, uel saltem sompnia passam
Credas et tenues ire sensisse procellas,
Vel magis oblitam facti presentis in illa
Naturam peccasse putes. Delira uidetur
Picture facies meliorem poscere formam,
Sed neque gemmarum radius splendore diescens,
Nec nitor argenti, nec fulgure gracius aurum
Excusare potest picture crimen adultum
Quin pictura suo languens pallescat in auro:
Illic pannoso plebescit carmine noster
Ennius et Priami fortunas intonat; illic
Mevius, in celos audens os ponere mutum,
Gesta ducis Macedum tenebrosi carminis umbra
Pingere dum temptat, in primo limine fessus
Heret et ignauam queritur torpescere musam;
Illic precipiti Nero fulmine concutit orbem,
Indulgens sceleri, cogit plus uelle furorem,
Quam furor ipse uelit; quicquid distillat ab illo
Nequicie sese totum partitur in orbem;
Illic diues eget, sitit aurum totus in auro
Midas, nec metas animo concedit habendi.

The painted palace holds these forms and the tropes of things and the dreams of the true,
so festive in such decor,
But, bearing less in its face of the badge of grace,
the painting has the hindmost Penates somewhat-sad.
Vel you would believe it has played too little, or at least has suffered dreams
and has felt slight gusts go by,
Or rather you would think that Nature, forgetful of the present deed in that,
has sinned. The picture’s face seems delirious to demand a better form,
But neither the ray of gems, brightening into day by its splendor,
nor the sheen of silver, nor gold more graceful in its flash
can excuse the full-grown crime of the picture—
nay, the painting, languishing, grows pale upon its own gold:
There our Ennius becomes plebeian with rag-cloth song
and thunders forth the fortunes of Priam; there
Mævius, daring to set a mute mouth into the heavens,
while he attempts to paint the deeds of the leader of the Macedonians with the shadow of a dusky song,
weary, sticks at the very threshold and complains that the slothful Muse grows torpid;
There Nero with a headlong thunderbolt shakes the world,
indulging in crime, he compels frenzy to will more
than frenzy itself would will; whatever of wickedness drips from him
divides itself wholly through the world;
There the rich man is needy, Midas, wholly in gold, thirsts for gold,
nor does he grant limits to his mind for possessing.

Militis excedit legem plus milite miles
Aiax milicieque modus decurrit in iram.
Fractus amore Paris, Veneris decoctus in igne,
Militat in Venerem; dum militis exuit actus,
Damnose compensat in hac quod perdit in armis.
In Dauo propriam miratur noctua formam
Et uultus peccata sui solatur in illo.

A soldier beyond the soldier, Ajax exceeds the soldier’s law; and the measure of militancy runs into ire.
Broken by love, Paris, decocted in the fire of Venus,
militates for Venus; while he sheds the acts of the soldier,
he ruinously compensates in this for what he loses in arms.
In Davus the owl admires its own form
and consoles the sins of its visage in him.

Ergo Nature quicquid munuscula plene
Percipit aut eius modicam subterfugit artem,
Inscriptum calamis picture fabula monstrat.
Singula decernens sensu Natura profundo,
Sedibus hiis sua iura tenet legesque figurat
Prouida, quas toto sparsim promulgat in orbe.
Scrutatur rerum causas et semina mundi:
Quis Chaos anticum uultu meliore redemit,
Dum forme melioris opem uultusque decorem
Quereret atque suum lugeret silua tumultum;
Quis, fidei nexu ciuilia bella refrenans,
Et fratrum rixas, elementis oscula pacis
Indidit et numeri nodo meliore ligauit.

Therefore whatever little gifts Nature fully receives,
or else slips beneath her moderate art,
the picture’s fable shows, inscribed by reeds.
Deciding each thing with deep sense, Nature,
in these seats holds her own rights and shapes laws,
Provident, which she here and there promulgates through the whole orb.
She scrutinizes the causes of things and the seeds of the world:
who redeemed the antique Chaos with a better visage,
while he sought the help of a better form and the beauty of a countenance,
and the forest lamented its own tumult;
who, restraining civil wars by the bond of faith,
and the quarrels of brothers, into the elements the kisses of peace
he put, and with a better knot of number he bound them.

Terrarum motus, mugitum fulminis, iras
Occeani, uentorum prelia mente fideli
Conspicit et certa solers indagine claudit
Temporis excursus; cur contristata pruinis
Luget hyems canis, ridet uer, estuat estas,
Effluit autumnus rerum torente profundo,
Vel cur terra sedet, fluit amnis, profluit aer,
Flamma uolat reliquisque fidem non inuida seruat;
Non audens uiolare fidem cur federa terris
Labilis unda tenet, certo contenta meatu.

She, with a faithful mind, beholds the earth’s quakings, the bellowing of the thunderbolt, the wraths of Ocean,
the battles of the winds, and with a sure inquest, skillful, she encloses
the excursions of time; why, saddened by hoar-frosts,
hoary winter mourns, spring laughs, summer seethes,
autumn streams away in the deep torrent of things;
or why earth sits fast, the river flows, the air streams forth,
flame flies, and, not envious, keeps faith with the rest;
why the shifting wave, not daring to violate faith, holds its pacts with the lands,
content with a fixed course.

[207-213]

Postquam celestis aurata sedilia cetus
Impleuit tantaque nitens deitate refulsit
Ipsa domus, tanti lucem mirata diei,
Concilii stetit in medio Natura, parumper
In terram demissa caput, concepta seueris
Vultibus exponens dextraque silencia dictans,
Suspendensque animos, uoces exiuit in istas:

After the celestial gathering filled the aurate seats
and the house itself, shining, re-flashed with so great a deity,
marveling at the light of so great a day,
Nature stood in the midst of the council, for a little while
with head bowed to the earth, presenting herself with severe
countenances assumed, and with her right hand bidding silence,
and holding souls in suspense, she broke forth into these words:

[214-269]

"Sepe, diu, multum solerti mente retracto
Singula que nostre pinxit solercia dextre,
Sed nichil invenio quod in omni parte beate
Viuat, quin multas nobis deferre querelas
Possit, si hanc nostram uelit accusare Mineruam.
Sed nostras errasse manus quod penitet, error
Haut nocet et nostros denigrat parcius actus.
Nec tamen herentes maculas abstergere possum,
Quas habitus firmi prescriptio longa tuetur,
Nam medicina silet, ubi morbi causa senescit,
Nec morbi ueteres molimina tarda requirunt.

"Often, long, and much, with a skillful mind I reconsider
the individual things which our right-hand skill has painted,
But I find nothing that lives blessedly in every part,
without being able to bring many complaints against us
if it should wish to accuse this our Minerva.
But that our hands have erred, which we regret, the error
in no way harms, and it denigrates our acts more sparingly.
Nor yet can I wipe away the clinging stains,
which the long prescription of a fixed habit protects,
for medicine is silent where the cause of the disease grows old,
nor do old diseases require delayed measures.

Vnica coniecto tante solacia pestis,
Que tamen effectu describere nolo, priusquam
Norma iudicii uestri mens nostra probetur.
Hoc in mente diu scriptum mihi sedit, ut omnes
Et simul instanter, caute, solerter ad unum
Desudemus opus, in quo tot munera fundat
Quelibet, ut post has dotes uideatur egere,
Nostrorum crimen operum redimatur in uno,
Vnius probitas multorum crimina penset
Vnaque quamplures exterminet unda litturas.
Non terre fecem redolens, non materialis
Sed diuinus homo nostro molimine terras
Incolat et nostris donet solacia damnis,
Insideat celis animo, sed corpore terris:
In terris humanus erit, diuinus in astris.

I cast forth one solace for so great a pestilence,
which, however, I do not wish to describe in effect before
our mind be approved by the norm of your judgment.
This has long sat written in my mind, that we all
and at once, urgently, cautiously, skillfully, to one
work should toil down in sweat, in which each may pour forth
so many gifts, that after these dowries he may seem to be in want,
the guilt of our works may be redeemed in one,
the probity of one may weigh against the crimes of many,
and one wave may exterminate very many blots.
Not redolent of the dregs of earth, not material,
but a divine man, by our endeavor, may inhabit the lands
and grant solaces for our losses,
be seated in the heavens in mind, but in body on the earth:
on earth he will be human, divine among the stars.

Sic homo sicque Deus fiet, sic factus uterque
Quod neuter mediaque uia tutissimus ibit,
In quo nostra manus et munera nostra loquantur.
Sit speculum nobis, ut nos speculemur in illo
Que sit nostra fides, que nostra potencia, virtus
Que sit et in quantum melius procedere possit.
Si labor accusat nostros in munere tanto
Deffectus honerique manus succumbere nostro,
Hoc decus excusat, soluens objecta pudoris.

Thus man and thus God will be made; thus fashioned, both,
so that neither overpasses, and the middle way will go most safely, in whom our hand and our gifts may speak.
Let him be a mirror for us, that we may behold ourselves in him
what our faith is, what our potency, virtue,
what it is, too, and to what extent it can proceed better.
If labor accuses, in so great an office, our
defects, and that the hand succumbs to our burden,
this honor excuses it, dissolving the objections cast against modesty.

Si Natura negat, animi succurrere debet
Robur et affectus effectu claudere nostros.
Nam quod nulla ualet per se supplebit in unum
Coniurata manus, ut que non singula prosunt
Multa iuuent collecta simul, nam plurimus annem
Riuulus excressens gignit scintillaque flammam
Multa parit multusque lapis concludit aceruum.
Heu!

If Nature denies, the strength of spirit ought to succor,
and zeal to close our undertakings with effect.
For what by itself avails nothing, a band conspired into one
will supply, so that things which do not profit singly
may, collected together at once, help much; for a very great river
a rivulet, growing out, begets, and a scintilla the flame
brings forth much, and many a stone concludes the heap.
Alas!

pudeat nostrum tociens errasse laborem
Et tociens fructum male respondisse labori!
Heu! pudeat nostra terris decreta silere,
Quod nostri languescit amor, quod fama tepescens
Torpet et a toto uiles proscribimur orbe,
Quod laxas mundo sceleris concedit habenas
Thesiphone nostraque sibi de gente triumphans
Gaudet et a nostro luctu sibi gaudia suggit:
Vincimur et uictas pedibus summittit Herinis
Et grauibus nostra castigat colla cathenis".

let it shame our labor to have erred so often
and so often the fruit to have answered ill to the labor!
Alas! let it shame that our decrees are silent on the lands,
that our love grows languid, that our fame, becoming tepid,
is torpid, and from the whole world we are proscribed as vile,
that Tisiphone grants loose reins of crime to the world
and, triumphing over our own people, rejoices
and from our mourning sucks joys for herself:
we are vanquished, and the Erinys submits the vanquished beneath her feet
and with heavy chains chastises our necks".

[266-269]

Sic Natura, suo mentem sermone figurans,
Fine dato uerbis, orandi fine perorat.
Gaudet et assentit Nature curia, uotum
Laudat et a uoto non distant uota sororum.

Thus Nature, shaping the mind with her own speech,
with an end given to words, she perorates at the end of pleading.
The Curia of Nature rejoices and assents, praises the vote,
and from the vote the votes of the sisters do not stand apart.

[270-302]

Please provide the Latin text for lines [270-302] so I can translate it into English while preserving the exact formatting.

Surgit ad hoc placidi uultus gestusque modesti
Circumscripta modum Prudencia. Colla pererrat
Aurea cesaries, sed acus mediata refrenat
Litigium crinis et regula pectinis instat.
Ordo supercilii, iusto libramine ductus,
Nec nimis exhaustus nec multa nube pilorum
Luxurians, sese geminos exemplat in arcus.

To this there rises Prudence, of placid countenance and modest bearing,
circumscribed by measure. A golden tress ranges over the neck,
but a pin set in the middle restrains the strife of the hair,
and the rule of the comb presses.
Or the order of the eyebrow, drawn with a just balance,
neither too exhausted nor luxuriating with a great cloud of hairs,
models itself into twin arches.

Luminis astra iubar, frons lilia, balsama naris,
Dens ebur osque rosam parit, offert, reddit, adequat;
Spirat in ore color uiuus nec candor adulter
Turpiter effingit tanti phantasma decoris.
Sydereum uultus castigauere ruborem
Lilia nupta rosis et, ne palloris obumbrent
Nubila candorem, deffendit flamma ruboris.
Clarior argento, fuluo conspectior auro
Lucidior glacie, cristallo gracior omni,
Menti planicies roseo non derogat ori;
Non male colla sedent, humero non insidet alta
Ceruix, sed spacio surgit distincta modesto.

Stars of light a radiance; the brow lilies; balsams for the nostril,
The tooth brings forth ivory and the mouth a rose— it produces, offers, returns, matches;
A living color breathes upon the mouth, nor does adulterate candor
Shamefully fashion a phantasm of so great a decor.
Lilies wedded to roses have chastened the sidereal blush
Of the face, and, lest clouds of pallor overshadow
The brightness, the flame of redness defends it.
Brighter than silver, more conspicuous than fulvous gold,
More lucid than ice, more graceful than every crystal,
The flatness of the chin does not derogate from the rosy mouth;
The necks do not sit ill, nor does a high nape sit upon the shoulder,
But rises, set apart with a modest space.

Poma mamillarum, modico suspensa tumore,
Nulla mollicie dependent fracta, sed ipsa
Duricie proprii describunt signa pudoris.
Explicat explicito tractu iunctura lacertos
Amplexusque suos deposcere brachia credas,
Imaque conciliat summis extremaque primis
Conuallis laterum, modulo submissa decenti.
Cetera quis nescit meliora latere sub istis
Quorum sola gerunt placidi preludia uultus?

The apples of the breasts, hung with a moderate swelling,
by no softness do they hang broken, but they themselves
by the durity of their own trace the signs of pudicity.
The juncture unfolds the upper arms with an explicit tract,
and you would think the arms demand their embraces,
and the lowest it reconciles with the highest and the extremest with the first,
the valley of the flanks, submitted to a becoming measure.
Who does not know that the rest, better things, lie hidden beneath these
of which the placid faces alone bear the preludes?

Canone sub certo dimensio nulla retardat
Corporis excursum uel certo fine refrenat:
Nunc magis euadens celestia uertice pulsat,
Nunc oculos frustrans celestibus insidet, ad nos
Nunc redit et nostra sese castigat habena.

Under a fixed canon no dimension retards the body’s excursion or with a fixed limit reins it in:
now, more escaping, it with its vertex beats upon the celestials;
now, frustrating the eyes, it sits among the celestials, to us
now it returns and castigates itself with our rein.

[303-325]

Vestis erat filo tenui contexta, colorem
Non mentita suum nulloque sophismate uisum
Decipit, immo rubor natiuus inhebriat illum.
Non ibi materies forme suffragia querit
Nec forme peccata sibi uelamina querunt.
Materie neutra succumbit, neutra sorori
Cedit et ex equo certant utra uincere possit.

The garment was woven with a thin thread, its color
not feigned, and by no sophism does it deceive the sight;
rather, a native blush inebriates it.
There matter does not seek suffrages for form,
nor do the sins of form seek veils for themselves.
To matter neither succumbs, neither to her sister
does either yield, and on equal terms they contend which of the two may be able to conquer.

Sompniat hie rerum species pictura resultans,
Quas tamen ex parte iubet expirare uetustas,
Et forme ueteris uestigia pauca supersunt;
Sed tamen in partes uestem diffibulat istam
In uariis scissura locis, lugere uidetur
Vestis et illata sibimet conuicia fiere.
Dextra manus librat trutinam que singula pensat
In numero, forma, mensura, pondere, causa.
Hiis ornata modis, isto festiua paratu,
Verba parat solers Prudencia, cuius ab ore
Curia dependet.

Here a picture, reflecting the appearances of things, dreams,
which, however, age bids in part to expire,
and of the old form few vestiges remain;
but yet it unclasps that garment into parts
in various places of scissure, the garment seems to mourn,
and to have revilings inflicted upon itself.
The right hand poises a balance-scale which weighs each thing
in number, form, measure, weight, cause.
Adorned with these modes, festive in that array,
skilled Prudence prepares words, from whose mouth
the court depends.

Currunt instanter ad illam
Visus et auditus, sed uoto dispare certant:
Visus, ut in specie tanta conuiuia querat
Auditusque fauos uerborum suggat ab ore.
Hiis igitur uerbis mentem Prudencia pingit,
Dum tenet intentas attentio tanta sorores:

They run instantly to her
Sight and Hearing, but with a disparate wish they contend:
Sight, that in so great a spectacle he may seek banquets,
and Hearing may suck the honeycombs of words from the mouth.
With these words, therefore, Prudence paints the mind,
while so great attention holds the sisters intent:

[326-424]

"Nil nisi diuinum sapit hec sentencia, tanti
Prouida consilii, que sic racionis in igne
Decoquitur quod nulla manent uestigia fecis.
Non fluidum redolet animum, non mentis obese
Segniciem loquitur, subitis non motibus instat
A summis exputa labris, sed mentis ab alto
Prominet et nostris offert medicamina morbis.
Trans hominem mens ista sapit, condita sapore
Diuine mentis, de cuius fonte profundo
Riuulus emanat, animi discrecio uestri.

"Nothing except the divine does this sententia savor of, of such
provident counsel, which is thus decocted in the fire of reason
that no vestiges of lees remain.
It is not redolent of a fluid spirit, it does not speak of the sluggishness
of an obese mind, it does not press with sudden impulses,
not spat out from the topmost lips, but from the deep of the mind
it stands forth and offers medicaments for our maladies.
Beyond human measure does this mind savor, seasoned with the savor
of the Divine Mind, from whose deep fountain
there emanates a rivulet: the discretion of your spirit.

Non igitur iacet exanimis, non indiga recti,
Non racionis inops, non mens effrenis oberrat,
Non agitur casu, tanto suffulta patrono.
Que tantam mentem detractio mordeat, aut quis
Vrgeat inuidie stimulus? Quis nubila liuor
Misceat aut odium?

Not, therefore, does it lie lifeless, not in need of rectitude,
not destitute of reason, nor does an unbridled mind wander astray,
not is it driven by chance, sustained by so great a patron.
What detraction would bite so great a mind, or what
stimulus of envy would press? What livid envy
would mingle clouds, or hatred?

Cur limes regius illam
Dirigat et recto producat calle uiantem?
Ne uestre faciat conceptio mentis abortum,
Ne res tanta ruat, ne lux moriatur in umbra,
Sed magis exposita prefulguret, exeat illud
In commune bonum, melius sub luce patebit.
Namque bonum quod sepe latet splendore minori
Degenerat lucetque magis si luce fruatur:
Sic flos in fructus, in flumen riuus inundans
Ibit et in messem pinguis procedet arista.

Why should the royal road her
direct and lead her forth, a wayfarer, by a straight path?
Lest the conception of your mind suffer an abortion,
lest so great a matter collapse, lest the light die in shadow,
but rather, once exposed, let it shine forth, let that go out
to the common good; it will lie open better under the light.
For the good which often lies hidden under lesser splendor
degenerates, and it shines more if it enjoys the light:
thus a flower into fruits, a rivulet, inundating, into a river,
will go, and into the harvest the plump ear will proceed.

Quid melius sperare potest, quid maius et ultra
Quid poterit uelle mentis conceptus honeste?
Si bonus est, hucusque licet, deflgat in isto
Gressus proposito nec longius ire laboret.
Sed tamen hoc superest quod mentem concutit, obstat
Proposito, uexat animum, concepta retardat,
Quod tanti uires operis, tot pondera rerum
Tantum nescit opus, operas suspirat ad istas
Nostra manus, que sic hominem conducit ad esse.

What better can be hoped, what greater and beyond,
what will the conception of the mind be able to will honestly?
If it is good, thus far it is permitted: let the step be burned out in that
purpose, and let it not toil to go farther.
But yet this remains, which shakes the mind, stands in the way
of the purpose, vexes the spirit, retards the conceived things,
that for so great a work the forces, the so many weights of matters—
so much the work does not know; our hand sighs for those labors
which thus conducts a human being to being.

Quod non perducit, facit hunc, non perficit ipsum;
Semper ad esse mouet, sed nunquam permouet illum;
Ejus ad esse ualet nec ad eius preualet ortum.
Dispar natura, dispar substancia, forma
Discors, esse duplex hominis concurrit ad esse;
Vna sapit terras, celum sapit altera, celis
Insidet hec, illa terris, mortique tributum
Cogitur ista dare, mortis lex excipit illam.
Hec manet, illa fluit; hec durat, deperit illa;
Essendi nomen gerit hec, gerit altera numen;
Corpus habet terras, celestia spiritus: ergo
Terram terra tenet, retinent celestia celum.

That which does not lead through brings this man forth; it does not perfect him himself;
it always moves him toward being, but never thoroughly moves him;
it has strength for his being, nor does it prevail for his origin.
Unlike in nature, unlike in substance, in form
discordant, the double being of man runs together to being;
one savors the earth, the other savors heaven; in the heavens
this one sits, that one on the earth; this one is compelled to give a tribute
to death, the law of death exempts that one.
This one remains, that one flows; this one endures, that one perishes;
this one bears the name of being, the other bears the numen;
the body has the things of earth, the spirit the things of heaven: therefore
earth holds earth, the heavenly retain heaven.

Incudem nostram corpus mortale fatetur,
Artifices nostros et nostram postulat artem.
Artifices alios anime natale requirit,
Artificis melioris opem celestis origo
Postulat et nostram fugit eius forma monetam,
Diuinique loquens operis miracula, nostrum
Spernit opus, ridens artis uulgaria nostre.
Qualiter ex nichilo, sine forma, semine, causa,
Materia, motu, sensu, ductore, ministro,
Ingenitum, simplex, animabile, mobile, purum
Prodeat exterius, nullo mediante patrono,
Sola Dei nouit Prudencia, cuius ab alto
Pectore procedit quicquid procedit in esse.

Our anvil the mortal body acknowledges,
and demands our artificers and our art.
The soul’s birth requires other artificers,
and the celestial origin demands the aid of a better artificer,
and its form flees our mint,
and, speaking of the miracles of the divine work, it spurns our work,
laughing at the vulgarities of our art.
How from nothing, without form, seed, cause,
matter, motion, sense, guide, minister,
unbegotten, simple, animable, mobile, pure,
it should come forth outwardly, with no mediating patron—
this only the Prudence of God knows, from whose high
bosom proceeds whatever proceeds into being.

Hie elementa silent, languescunt semina rerum,
Sydus hebet, natura tacet uirtusque planete
Deficit et propria miratur iura tacere.
Ergo cum nostram genituram regula talem
Nesciat et tantam stupeat pictura figuram
Occasumque manus talem patiatur ad ortum,
Non uideo, non concipio, non iudico memet
Scire modos, causas, raciones, semina, formas,
Instrumenta quibus, nostra mediante Minerua,
Ortus celestis anime ducatur ad ortum.
Ergo consilii super hiis libramina ferre
Nescio, non ualeo, dubito, desisto, retardor;
Consilio, racione, fide mea causa iacebit
Orphana nec certo claudetur fine uoluntas,
Singula ni Racio trutina meliore repenset,
Quam penes obscurum, fluitans, mutabile, cassum,
Ignotum, mendax nichil est, cui singula lucent,
Cuncta patent dubiumque nichil, non alta uidentur
Astra nec obscurus aer pelagusque profundum.

Here the elements are silent, the seeds of things grow languid,
the star is blunt, nature is mute, and the virtue of the planet
fails and marvels that its proper laws are silent.
Therefore, since a rule does not know such a geniture as ours
and a picture is amazed at so great a figure,
and the hand’s setting endures such at a rising,
I do not see, I do not conceive, I do not judge myself
to know the modes, causes, reasons, seeds, forms,
the instruments by which, with our Minerva mediating,
the rise of the celestial soul might be led to a rise.
Therefore to bring the balances of counsel upon these matters
I do not know, I am not able, I hesitate, I desist, I am held back;
by counsel, by reason, by faith my cause will lie
orphaned, nor will the will be shut with a certain end,
unless Reason reweigh the particulars with a better balance,
than with one at whose command nothing is obscure, floating, mutable, vain,
unknown, mendacious; to whom the individual things shine,
all things are laid open and nothing is doubtful; the high stars do not seem high,
nor the dark air and the deep sea.

Sol animi, mentis oculus lumenque uianti,
Proscripti patria, mortis solamen, origo
Iusticie, uirtutum regula, linea recti,
Subducat dubia certis, mendacia ueris,
In certo figat animum dubiumque recidat,
Erroris tergat tenebras uerique serenet
Luce diem mentis et falsi nubila pellat.
Menti concusse dubiorum fluctibus aura
Gracior applaudat, Racionis flamine leni
Concilians estus animi fluctusque retardans.
Segniciemque meam non tanti massa laboris
Accusare potest; non tanto uicta labore
Cedo nec ignaue mendico quietis asylum.

Sun of the soul, eye of the mind and light to the wayfarer,
homeland of the proscribed, solace of death, origin
of Justice, rule of virtues, line of the straight,
let it draw off doubts to certainties, falsehoods to truths,
fix the mind on the certain and let the doubtful recede,
wipe the darknesses of error and with the light of truth make serene
the day of the mind and drive away the clouds of the false.
Let a more gracious breeze applaud the mind concussed by the waves of doubts,
with the gentle blast of Reason, reconciling the heats of the spirit
and retarding the waves. And my sluggishness the mass of so great a labor
cannot accuse; nor, conquered by so great a labor, do I yield,
nor ignavely do I beg an asylum of rest.

Aggrediar quicquid Racio dictauerit, immo
Iusserit atque nichil de contingentibus ipsa
Transgrediar, finem proprio pro posse secuta.
Sed quia principia nullo concludere fine,
Vel dare principiis fines aliunde petitos,
Vt primo medium, medio non consonet imum,
Censetur turpe, fluitans, mutabile, stultum.
Cedere principiis malo quam cedere fini".

I will undertake whatever Reason shall have dictated, nay, shall have commanded, and I will transgress nothing of the contingents themselves, having followed the end with my own power to the extent possible.
But because to conclude beginnings with no end, or to give to principles ends sought from elsewhere, so that the middle does not consonate with the first, nor the lowest with the middle, is judged shameful, floating, mutable, and stupid.
I prefer to yield to principles rather than to yield to the end".

[425-435]

Sic ait et tanto dubiorum turbine tota
Curia concutitur turbataque turba sororum
Fluctuat in dubiis, alta cum uoce fluentes
Suspendens animos, et murmura sola pererrant.
Qualiter aura fremit, fluit aer, fluctuat unda,
Quam primo Zephirus complanat flamine leni,
Si maris excuciat borealis turbo soporem,
Vel maris instantes cogat uigilare procellas,
Sic animi fluitant et mentes mentibus instant;
Quas Natura prius leni perflauerat aura,
Perflat maiori flatu Prudencia mentes.

Thus she speaks, and by so great a turbine of doubts the whole
Curia is shaken, and the troubled throng of sisters
Fluctuates in uncertainties, with lofty voice holding
the flowing spirits in suspense, and only murmurs wander through.
Just as the aura roars, the air flows, the wave fluctuates,
which at first Zephyr smooths with a gentle breath,
if the boreal whirlwind of the sea should shake off sleep,
or compel the pressing tempests of the sea to keep vigil,
thus the spirits waver and minds press upon minds;
which Nature before had breathed through with a gentle aura,
Prudence breathes through the minds with a greater blast.

[436-464]

Erigitur Racio poscitque silencia nutu
Voce, manu, facie; pacis tranquilla meretur
Vultus et ad nutum moriencia murmura nutant
Virginis in facie. Prudencia plurima uultu
Paret et expressi sequitur uestigia uultus.
Suntque relatiue facies: gerit altera formam
Alterius seseque sibi conformat in illa.

Reason is raised up and asks for silences by a nod
by voice, by hand, by face; the tranquil visage of peace merits it,
and at her nod the dying murmurs sway
on the Virgin’s face. Prudence, in very great measure, with her visage
obeys and follows the vestiges of the expressed visage.
And the faces are relative: the one bears the form
of the other, and conforms itself to that one.

Vna sibi facies faciem presentat utramque.
Vultus diuersi, facies diuersa duarum,
Non aduersa tamen, quales decet esse sororum.
Par facies habitusque pares, par gestus in illis,
Par modus atque decor, sed dispar uultus in annis.

One single face presents to itself both faces.
Different countenances, a diverse face of the two,
Yet not adverse, such as it befits those of sisters to be.
Equal the face and equal the habit; equal gesture in them,
Equal mode and decor, but a disparate countenance in years.

Nam pocior Racio senii uexilla gerebat,
Plenior etate, plenis maturior annis.
Dextra manus triplicis speculi flamata nitore
Splendet et in triplici speculo triplicata resultat
Vitrea mollicies, que tactus abdicat omnem
Insultum digitique leues uix sustinet ictus.
Vnius speculi sese concedit in usum
Attente Racio, speculo speculator in isto
Causarum seriem, rerum scrutatur abissum,
Subiecti formeque uidet connubia, cernit
Oscula, que miscet concrecio, queue propinat
Vnio natiua, formis subiecta maritans,
Subiecti que forma facit, que perficit esse,
Que rem conducit uel que perducit ad esse;
Que generat, que mutat eam, que seruat in esse,
Quid sit uel quanta, qualis uel quomodo sese
Res habeat reliquosque status perquirit in illa.

For the weightier Reason was bearing the banners of seniority,
fuller in age, riper with full years.
Her right hand, enflamed with the brilliance of a triple mirror,
gleams, and in the triple mirror the glassy softness, made triple, rebounds—
a smoothness of glass which banishes every assault of touch
and hardly sustains the light strokes of a finger.
To the use of one mirror Reason devotes herself attentively,
as a speculator in this mirror she scrutinizes the series of causes, the abyss of things,
she sees the marriages of the subject and of form, she discerns
the kisses which concretion mingles, and which native Union proffers,
wedding the subject to the forms; and what the form of the subject makes,
what perfects being; what conduces a thing or what leads it through to being;
what generates, what changes it, what preserves it in being,
what it is, or how great, of what kind, or how the thing comports itself—
and she investigates in it the remaining states.

[465-482]

Argenti facies, feces exuta metalli,
Infra se splendore diem stellasque relinquens,
Exultat, speculi formam uestita secundi.
Hie subiecta uidet, formis uiduata, reuerti
Ad Chaos antiqum propriamque requirere matrem
Inque statu proprio puram iuuenescere formam
Nec sua degeneris subiecti tedia flere;
Quomodo forma suo gaudens requiescit in esse,
Nec uarios fluctus subiecti naufraga querit;
Qualiter ad proprium peregrina reuertitur ortum,
Subiecti fugit occasus et funera uitat.
Subiecti senio non deflorata iuuentus
Formarum, formas semper facit esse puellas.

The face of silver, stripped of the dregs of the metal,
leaving day and the stars beneath itself in splendor,
exults, clothed with the form of a second mirror.
Here it sees the subjects, bereft of forms, return
to ancient Chaos and to seek their proper mother,
and in its own state the pure form grow young,
nor to weep the wearinesses of the degenerate subject;
how form, rejoicing in its own being, comes to rest,
nor, shipwrecked, seeks the various billows of the subject;
how the foreign thing returns to its proper origin,
flees the setting of the subject and avoids funerals.
The youth of forms, not deflowered by the senility of the subject,
makes forms always to be maidens.

Cernit inoffenso uultu mentisque profundo
Quomodo compositum simplex, celeste caducum,
Diversum sit idem, grauidum leue, mobile certum,
Obscurum lucens, preciosum uile, iocosum
Flebile, perpetuum mortale, uolubile fixum.

He discerns with an unhindered countenance and with the mind’s depth
how the composite is simple, the celestial caducous,
the diverse the same, the gravid light, the mobile certain,
the obscure shining, the precious cheap, the jocose
tearful, the perpetual mortal, the changeable fixed.

[483-510]

Auri nobilitas, auro decoctior omni,
Vixque suum dignata genus speciemque fateri,
In speculi transit speciem, que tercia rerum
Vmbras mentiri nescit, sed singula monstrat
Cercius et specie meliori cuncta figurat.
Hie rerum fontem, mundi genus, orbis ydeam,
Exemplar, speciem, causam, primordia, finem
Conspicit et certis metitur singula metis:
Qua racione, quibus causis, cur, quomodo, quando
Instabilis, genitus, fluitans, mutabilis iste
Mundus ab ingenito, stabili certoque figuram,
Esse, statum, speciem, uitam contraxit et ortum;
Quomodo terrestrem formam celestis ydea
Gignit et in nostram sobolem transcribit abissum,
Mittit in exilium formas quas destinet orbi,
A patre degenerat proles faciemque paternam
Exuit antiqui uultus oblita parentis;
Qualiter in mundo fantasma resultat ydee,
Cuius inoffensus splendor sentitur in umbra;
Qualiter a fonte formarum riuus aberrans
Ingenitum perdit subiecti labe nitorem;
Quid cogat fatum, quia casu deffluat aut quid
Arbitrii possit medio librata potestas.
Se totam Racio speculis expendit in istis,
Sed magis ad presens uisus indulget habenis,
Mentem sollicitat, animum diffundit, ut intus
Hauriat a speculis aliquid racione probatum,
Quod digne ferri tantas mereatur ad aures.

The nobility of gold, more refined than any gold,
and scarcely deigning to admit its own genus and species,
passes into the species of the mirror, which, third among things,
does not know how to counterfeit shadows, but shows each thing
more surely and fashions all with a better species.
Here it beholds the fount of things, the kind of the world, the idea of the orb,
the exemplar, the species, the cause, the beginnings, the end,
and surveys each by fixed bounds:
by what ratio, by what causes, why, how, when
this unstable, begotten, floating, mutable world
from the unbegotten, stable, and sure one contracted form,
being, state, species, life, and origin;
how the celestial idea begets the earthly form
and transcribes the abyss into our offspring,
sends into exile the forms that it destines for the world,
how the offspring degenerates from the father and the paternal face
it sheds, forgetful of the ancient parent’s visage;
how in the world the phantasm rebounds from the idea,
whose unoffending splendor is felt in the shadow;
how a stream, straying from the fountain of forms,
loses the unbegotten brilliance by the stain of the subject;
what fate compels, why it flows down by chance, or what
a power of choice, balanced in the mean, can accomplish.
Reason spends herself wholly upon these mirrors,
but for the present sight more indulges the reins,
stirs the mind, pours out the spirit, that within
it may draw from the mirrors something approved by reason,
which may deserve to be fittingly borne to such great ears.

LIBER SECUNDUS

BOOK TWO

[1-6]

Regia tota silet; expirat murmur in altum,
Cum uisu placidos delegat curia uultus,
Cum uisu currit animus uisumque uolantem
Anticipare cupit uisus auriga uoluntas.
Euocat ergo foras mentem Rationis inundans
Eloquium sermoque modum decurrit in istum:

The whole royal palace is silent; the murmur exhales, dying away aloft,
as with its gaze the curia designates placid visages,
as with a gaze the spirit runs, and the vision in flight
the will desires to anticipate—the charioteer of sight.
Therefore the inundating Eloquence of Reason calls the mind forth,
and the speech runs down into this mode:

[7-56]

"Plus quam posse meum possit me posse iubetis,
Dum uestram cogor indocta docere Mineruam.
Sic mirti presunt lauris, oleaster oliuis,
Sic saliunca rosis, uilis sic alga iacintis
Prefertur germinique lutum uiolisque cicuta;
Sic ouis a capra mendicat uelleris usum,
Sic tumidus torrens a riuo postulat undam,
Sic solet a Dauo Narcisus querere formam,
Sic addit lucem candele flamma diei.
Sed quantum cogit, iubet, instat uestra uoluntas
Vt super hiis que uestra modo discrecio mouit,
Mendicata mei tandem suffragia dentur
Consilii, plene uestris obsistere uotis
Nolo, sicque mea uobiscum uelle uoluntas
Incipit, ut tandem cupiat quodcumque necesse est.

"More than my power can, you bid that my being-able be able for me,
while I, unlearned, am forced to teach your Minerva.
Thus myrtles preside over laurels, the wild-olive over olives,
thus saliunca over roses, thus cheap seaweed over hyacinths
is preferred, and the mud of the germ and hemlock over violets;
thus a sheep begs from a she-goat the use of a fleece,
thus a swollen torrent asks a rivulet for water,
thus Narcissus is wont to seek his form from Davus,
thus the flame of a candle adds light to day.
But inasmuch as your will compels, bids, presses,
that, concerning these things which your discretion has just now stirred,
the begged-for suffrages of my counsel at length be given,
I am unwilling fully to withstand your wishes;
and thus my will begins to will along with you,
so that at length it may desire whatever is necessary.

Defecata minus aliamque rogancia formam,
Consilii secreta meis deponere uerbis
Malo, quam uotis uulgata fronte repugnem,
Aut mea coniectent suspecta silencia fastum.
Ergo precor ueniam, uenie non tarda sequatur
Gracia delictum, releuet compassio morbum,
Si minus excoctas raciones uerba propinent,
Vel racionis inops, ieiunus sermo laboret;
Nec stupor inuadat uestre munimina mentis,
Si sibi sermo meus maculas erroris adoptat.
Error in humanis comes indefessus oberrat,
Denigrare solet fermenti copia quicquid
Humanus sermo uel mens humana voluptat.

Less clarified and entreating another form,
I prefer to lay down the secrets of counsel in my words
rather than with a public brow to resist your wishes,
or that they conjecture my silences to be suspect haughtiness.
Therefore I beg pardon; let not slow be the grace of pardon to follow
the delict; let compassion lighten the sickness,
if my words proffer reasons not thoroughly well-cooked,
or, needy of reason, my jejune speech should labor;
nor let stupor invade the muniments of your mind,
if my discourse adopts to itself stains of error.
Error, among human things, as an indefatigable companion, wanders about;
the abundance of ferment is wont to denigrate whatever
human speech or the human mind delights in.

Si tamen officio finis respondeat, alter
Non orantis erit error, non culpa medentis,
Si primus finis fraudetur fine secundo.
Non ferit assiduo telum quodcumque minatur,
Non semper medicus sanat, non ipse perorat
Retor, non logicus ad metas peruenit, immo
Sepe iacens, calle medio defessus anhelat.
Discretum, prudens, cautum, laudabile, tutum,
Vtile consilium Nature iudico, uotum
Approbo, propositum laudo, molimen adoro
Vt nouus in mundo peregrinet Lucifer, in quo
Nullius labis occasus nubilet ortum,
Solis in occasu sol alter proferat ortum,
Sol nouus in terris oriatur, cuius in ortu
Sol uetus occasus proprios lugere putetur,
Possideat solus quicquid possedimus omnes;
Omnis homo sic unus erit, sic omne quod unum:
Vnus in esse suo, sed erit uirtutibus omnis.

If, however, the end answer to the office, the other will not be the error of the one beseeching, nor the fault of the healer, if the first end be defrauded by a second end.
Not every dart that threatens strikes assiduously,
not always does the physician heal, not even the rhetor himself fully pleads,
the logician does not reach the goals; nay,
often lying down, in mid-path, wearied he gasps.
Discreet, prudent, cautious, laudable, safe,
I judge the counsel of Nature useful; I approve the vow, I praise the plan, I adore the endeavor
that a new Lucifer may pilgrimage in the world, in whom
the setting of no stain may cloud the rising,
at the Sun’s setting another sun may bring forth a rising,
a new Sun may arise on earth, at whose rising
the old Sun may be thought to mourn its own settings,
let him alone possess whatever we all have possessed;
every man thus will be one, thus all that is one:
one in his being, yet in virtues he will be all.

Sit contra uicia que nos depellere temptant
Tutor, defensor, iudex, athleta, patronus;
A nostris laribus cum nos exterminet orbis,
Hie noster thalamus, nostrum firmetur asylum.

Let there be, against the vices that try to drive us away,
a tutor, defender, judge, athlete, patron;
when the world banishes us from our household hearths,
here let our bridal-chamber, our asylum, be made firm.

[57-89]

Non tamen inficior uterine uerba sororis,
Que tanti limam sapiunt examinis, immo
Verius hec eadem possunt examina dici,
Cum nostrum fateatur opus nostramque requirat
Incudem, fluitans humane machina molis.
Corpus ad esse suum uocat artis regula nostre;
Excipit hanc hominis animam, que semper ab istis
Legibus excipitur, meliori pollice ducta.
Non tamen a tanto debet secedere uoto
Instans propositum nec citra prelia uinci,
Quamuis ad tantas operas tantumque laborem
Nature suspiret opus citraque residat.

I do not, however, deny the uterine sister’s words,
which savor of the file of so weighty an examination; nay,
more truly these same things can be called examinations,
since the floating machine of human mass confesses our work and requires
our anvil, the wavering engine of human bulk.
Our rule of art calls the body to its proper being;
it excepts the soul of man, which is always excepted from these
laws, guided by a better thumb.
Yet it ought not to withdraw from so great a vow,
pressing its purpose, nor be conquered without battles,
although for such works and so great a labor
the work of Nature sighs and remains short of it.

Supplebit tamen ipsa manus diuina quod infra
Perfecti normam Nature norma relinquet:
Quod Natura facit diuinus perficit auctor;
Diuinum creat ex nichilo, Natura caduca
Procreat ex aliquo; Deus imperat, illa ministrat;
Hie regit, illa facit; hie instruit, illa docetur.
Ergo si nostris que sunt indigna fauore
Votis aspirat, suspiria nostra relaxans,
Plenius applaudet istis que sola perorant,
Nec candore precum uestiri cultius orant.
Vota tamen precibus nostris mellita mereri
Plus possunt tali melius condita sapore.

Yet the divine hand itself will supply what the norm of Nature will leave below the norm of the Perfect:
what Nature makes, the divine Author perfects;
He creates the divine out of nothing, perishable Nature
procreates out of something; God commands, she ministers;
He rules, she does; he instructs, she is taught.
Therefore, if to our vows, which are unworthy of favor,
she breathes, relaxing our sighs,
she will more fully applaud those which plead alone,
nor do they ask to be more finely clothed with the candor of prayers.
Nevertheless, vows honeyed by our prayers can deserve more,
being better seasoned with such a savor.

Ergo vota, preces, animos fundamus in illum,
Vt nostris faueat uotis, ut uota secundet
Qui solus complere potest, nec tarda sequetur
Mens diuina preces, si mens legauerit extra.
Quem non rethoricis oracio picta figuris,
Non ignauus opum cumulus, non musa Maronis,
Non amor ypocrita nec honor uenator amoris
Demulcet, sed sola precum dulcedo perorat,
Si tamen a fonte cordis deducta madescat.

Therefore let us pour out vows, prayers, and spirits into Him,
that He may favor our vows, that He may second the vows,
He who alone can complete them; nor will the Divine Mind follow
the prayers tardy, if the mind has legated itself outward.
Whom neither an oration painted with rhetorical figures,
nor a slothful heap of wealth, nor the Muse of Maro,
nor hypocrite love nor the honor, hunter of love,
soothes, but the sweetness of prayers alone perorates,
if indeed, drawn down from the fountain of the heart, it grow moist.

[90-157]

Restat in ambiguo nec certa luce patescit
Que nostrum, quibus auxiliis, quo calle uiarum
In superas deuecta domos, donetur honore
Legati, que uota Deo presentet et, instans
Imbre precum, precibus diuinas compluat aures.
Sed tamen, ut proprie mentis sentencia dictat,
Nulla potest melius istius muneris usum
Amplecti quam nostra soror Prudencia, cuius
Debellare nequit uirtutem turba laborum.
Cuius iter, gressus obstacula nulla retardant,
Non strepitus, non ira maris, non uallis abyssus,
Non iuga, non celsi preceps audacia montis
Asperitasque uie saxis callosa, nec ipse
Limitis ambages desertaque nescia gressus,
Non rabies uenti, non imbribus hebria nubes,
Non tonitrus horrenda lues, non nubilus aer
Quin superos adeat, quin uisitet astra Deique
Imbibat archanum.

It remains in ambiguity, nor is it laid open by certain light
which of us, by what helps, by what track of the ways,
borne to the upper homes, might be endowed with the honor
of an envoy, who may present vows to God and, pressing on,
with a shower of prayers, may deluge the divine ears with prayers.
Yet, as the judgment of my own mind dictates,
no one can more fittingly embrace the exercise of this office
than our sister Prudence, whose
virtue the throng of labors cannot subdue.
Whose journey, no obstacles retard her steps,
not the din, not the anger of the sea, not the abyss of the valley,
not the ridges, not the headlong audacity of a lofty mountain,
and the roughness of the road, calloused with stones, nor even
the windings of the boundary-path and solitudes ignorant of a footstep,
not the rage of the wind, not a cloud drunk with rains,
not thunder, a horrendous bane, not a clouded air
but that she goes to the supernal realms, that she visits the stars and the
arcane of God she imbibes.

Diuino fonte madescens,
Cernit in archanis superum quis conditor orbis,
Quid Deus ipse uelit, quid mundo preparet aut quid
Preuideat aut prouideat, uel destinet orbi,
Quid celi possint secreta, quid astra loquantur,
Cur celi motu cursus nugetur eodem,
Semper in occasum uergens contra quem planeta
Militet aduerso motu celumque refrenet;
Morbida Saturni quid mundo stella minetur,
Quamue salutis opem iouialis gracia mundo
Nunciet, aut Martis sidus que bella prophetet,
Quo duce, qua causa, quo fomite quoue patrono,
Temperie, motu, uita, splendore, meatu
Prouidet, applaudit, blanditur, consulit orbi
Sol, oculus mundi, uite fons, cereus orbis;
Quas Venus, illecebras, que tristia gaudia, tristes
Leticias, mala dulcia, pocula fellea terris
Offert et felle mellito cumpluit orbem;
Quo nexu, qua lege meant, quo federe iuncti
Lucifer et nostri Cillenius, assecla solis
Nascentis, uexilla gerunt, famulantur eunti
Alternantique uices, sibi quas partitur uterque,
Alter in alterius usum transcribitur, alter
Solis in occasu splendescit, solis in ortu
Alter, et alterni sibi mutua nomina donant:
Hesperus occasum comitatur, Lucifer ortum.
Quo modo mendicat alienum luna decorem,
Cur a luce sua Phebe demissa parumper
Detrimenta sue deplorat lucis, at infra
Plenius exhausta, tocius luminis amplam
Iacturam queritur, sed rursus fratris in igne
Ardescens, nutrit attriti damna decoris,
Perfectos tandem circumfert plena nitores.
Quis ligat in nube pluuiam, cur mugiat aer,
Quis pariat uentos, quis eorum seminet iras,
Cur in tot facies exit substancia nubis,
Nunc pluuie plena lacrimis, nunc cana pruinis,
Nunc uestita niuis facie, nunc grandinis arma
Suscipit et celi miratur terra sagitas.

Steeped from the divine fount,
she discerns in the arcana of the supernal ones who is the founder of the cosmos,
what God himself wills, what he prepares for the world, or what
he foresees or provides, or destines for the orb,
what the secrets of heaven can do, what the stars speak,
why by the motion of heaven the course is bound into the same,
always inclining to the west, against which the planet
wages war with adverse motion and reins back the heaven;
what the morbid star of Saturn threatens for the world,
and what help of salvation Jove’s grace announces to the world,
or what wars the star of Mars prophesies,
under what leader, for what cause, by what fomite or what patron,
by tempering, by motion, by life, by splendor, by course
the Sun provides for, applauds, caresses, counsels the world,
the eye of the world, the fount of life, the cereous orb;
what allurements Venus offers, what joys sad, sad
delights, sweet evils, cups of gall to the lands,
and with honeyed gall she drenches the orb;
by what bond, by what law they pass, by what pact joined
Lucifer and our Cyllenian, attendant of the rising sun,
bear the standards, serve him as he goes and as he alternates
his turns, which each parcels out to himself,
the one is transferred into the use of the other, the one
at the sun’s setting shines, at the sun’s rising
the other, and they give to one another mutual names:
Hesperus attends the setting, Lucifer the rising.
In what way the moon begs a beauty not her own,
why from her own light Phoebe, lowered for a little,
laments the diminutions of her light; but lower down,
fully exhausted, she complains of the ample loss of all
brightness, yet again, blazing in her brother’s fire,
she nourishes the losses of her worn beauty,
and at last full she carries about perfected radiances.
Who binds the rain in a cloud, why the air bellows,
who brings forth the winds, who sows their wraths,
why into so many faces the substance of the cloud goes forth,
now full of the tears of rain, now white with frosts,
now clothed with the face of snow, now the arms of hail
it takes up, and the earth marvels at the sky’s arrows.

Ergo que melius legati nomen inibit
Quam Fronesis, cui cuncta Dei secreta loquntur?
Ergo si nostris uult condescendere uotis,
Omnia prouenient, ut lex deposcit et ordo
Postulat, et certis claudentur singula metis.
Nec puto quod tanta rerum molimina, tantos
Cognatus animi, tanti momenta favoris
Defraudare uelit tantosque refellere questus.

Therefore who will better enter upon the title of legate
than Phronesis, to whom all the secrets of God speak?
Therefore, if she is willing to condescend to our vows,
all things will turn out as law demands and order
requires, and each particular will be enclosed within fixed bounds.
Nor do I think that she would wish to defraud such great undertakings of affairs, such
kindredness of spirit, the momentum of so great favor,
and to refute such great plaints.

Nil dubii superest, hiis concurrentibus; omnes
Aggrediamur opus; melior fortuna sequetur.
Dimidium qui cepit habet, finisque beati
Gracia principiis semper respondet honestis".

No doubt remains, with these things concurring; let us all
undertake the work; better fortune will follow.
He who has begun has the half, and the Grace of a blessed
end always corresponds to honorable beginnings".

[158-164]

Sic animos captat Racio mentesque sororum
Allicit et turbam cogit plus uelle uolentem.
Sed tamen assensum Prudencia sola minorem
Donat seque parem tanto negat esse labori.
Cogitur, illa negat meruitque negacio cogi.

Thus Reason captures the spirits and the minds of the sisters;
she allures and compels the willing crowd to want more.
But yet Prudence alone grants a lesser assent
and denies that she is equal to so great a labor.
She is compelled; she refuses, and the denial deserved to be compelled.

Fluctuat hec, se nolle negat nec uelle fatetur,
Inter utrumque uolat, nec uult et nolle ueretur.

She fluctuates; she denies that she is unwilling, nor does she confess to be willing,
between the two she flies: she does not will, and she is afraid to be unwilling.

[165-177]

Cum sic in dubio mens pendet, fluctuat, heret,
In medium cuncta medians Concordia sese
Profert, in cuius facie deitatis ymago
Splendet et humani fastidit tedia uultus.
Pacem sponte tenet crinis flammancior auro,
Se sibi concillat nec opem sibi pectinis optat;
Sed sibi sufficiens in tanta pace quiescit
Vt nec perflantis Boree suspiria crinem
Sollicitare queant litisque creare tumultum;
Forma, figura, modus, numerus, mensura decenter
Membris aptatur et debita munera soluit.
Sic sibi respondent concordi pace ligata
Membra, quod in nullo discors uinctura uidetur.

When the mind thus hangs in doubt, it heaves and clings,
Mediating all things, Concord brings herself forth into the midst,
in whose face the image of deity shines,
and the human visage scorns tedium.
Her hair, more flaming than gold, holds peace of its own accord;
she reconciles herself to herself and does not seek the aid of a comb;
but being sufficient to herself she rests in so great a peace
that not even the breaths of a blowing Boreas can trouble the hair
and create a tumult of lawsuit-strife;
form, figure, mode, number, measure are fittingly
adapted to the limbs and pay their due offices.
Thus the limbs, bound by concordant peace, answer to one another,
so that in no respect does the bond seem discordant.

[178-212]

Vnius uultus, uno contenta colore
Vestis in ornatum membrorum transit, eisdem
Sic aptata foris quod eis inscripta putetur.
Illic arte sua vitam pictura secundam
Donat eis quos castus amor, concordia simplex,
Pura fides, uera pietas coniunxit et unum
Esse duos fecit purgati fedus amoris;
Nam Dauid et Ionathas ibi sunt duo, sunt tamen unum;
Cum sint diuersi, non sunt duo mente sed unus;
Dimidiant animas, sibi se partitur uterque.
Vt sibi Pyrithous se reddat, redditus orbi
Theseus inferni loca, monstra, pericula uictat,
Viuere posse negat in se, nisi uiuat in illo;
Tydeus arma rapit, ut regnet Thydeus alter,
In Polinice suo pugnat seseque secundum,
Dum regnare cupit sibi, poscere regna uidetur.

Of a single face, content with a single color,
the garment passes into the ornament of the limbs, to the same
so fitted without that it would be thought inscribed upon them.
There by its art painting grants a second life
to those whom chaste love, simple concord, pure faith,
true piety has joined and has made the two to be one,
the covenant of purified love;
for David and Jonathan there are two there, yet they are one;
although they are diverse, they are not two in mind but one;
they halve their souls; each parcels himself out to the other.
So that Pirithous may be restored to himself, Theseus, restored to the world,
overcomes the places, monsters, and dangers of the underworld;
he denies that he can live in himself, unless he lives in that other;
Tydeus snatches arms, that another Thydeus may reign,
for his Polynices he fights, and his second self,
while he longs to reign for himself, he seems to demand the realms.

Alter in Eurialo comparet Nisus et alter
Eurialus uiget in Niso; sic alter utrumque
Reddit et ex uno comitum pensatur uterque.
Atride furit in furiis eiusque furorem
Iudicat esse suum Pilades patiturque Megeram,
Ne paciatur idem Pilades suus alter et idem.
Hec pictura suis loquitur misteria signis;
Non res ipsa magis, non lingua fidelius unquam
Talia depingit talique sophismate uisum
Decipiens oculis, rerum concludit in umbra
Qui preco solet esse boni pacisque figura.

One matches in Euryalus as Nisus, and the other—
Euryalus thrives in Nisus; thus the one makes each into both,
and from the one each of the comrades is weighed.
The Atreid raves among the Furies, and Pylades judges his frenzy to be his own and even endures Megaera,
lest his own Pylades, his other-and-the-same, suffer the same.
This painting speaks its mysteries by its own signs;
not the thing itself more, not a tongue more faithfully ever
depicts such things; and with such a sophism, beguiling sight,
it encloses realities in shadow—
that which is wont to be the herald of good and the figure of peace.

Virginis in dextra, foliorum crine comatus,
Flore tumens, fructus expectans, ramus oliue
Pubescit nec matris humi solacia querit.
Quo mediante, uices, nexus et uincula rerum,
Fedus, amicitiam, pacem Concordia nectit.
Ad uirge nutum pacem sibi postulat illa
Verborumque uotis succurrens, nutibus illis
Prodit in hec uerbique sonum sentencia dictat:

In the Virgin’s right hand, leaf-tressed with the hair of leaves,
swelling with blossom, awaiting fruits, the branch of olive
puts forth downy growth and does not seek the consolations of mother earth.
By whose mediation, the turns, the nexus and bonds of things,
the covenant, friendship, peace, Concord knits together.
At the nod of the rod she asks for peace for herself,
and, succoring the vows of words, at those nods
she comes forth into these, and the sense dictates the sound of the word:

[213-309]

"Si mea iura, meas leges, mea federa mundus
Olim seruasset uel adhuc seruaret amoris
Vincula, non tantis gemeret sub cladibus orbis;
Non cenam fratrum, non cene flesset abusum
Phebus et errantis Nature crimina lugens,
Noctis abusiue tenebras legasset in orbem.
Non rex thebanus, Pollinicis frater et hostis,
Exutus fratrem, sese mutasset in hostem.
Non Progne commenta dolos, exuta parentem,
Pro pietate scelus redolens, pro matre nouercam,
In sua degenerem uertisset uiscera dextram,
Nec furor armasset contra sua uiscera matrem.

"If the world had once kept my rights, my laws, my treaties,
or were even now keeping the bonds of love,
the orb would not be groaning beneath such great disasters;
Phoebus would not have wept the dinner of the brothers, nor the abuse of the dinner,
and, mourning the crimes of errant Nature,
would not have bequeathed to the world the wrongful darkness of night.
The Theban king, the brother and enemy of Polynices,
stripped of a brother, would not have changed himself into an enemy.
Nor would Progne, having devised deceits, divested of being a parent,
reeking of crime instead of piety, a stepmother in place of a mother,
have turned her right hand, degenerate, against her own entrails,
nor would frenzy have armed a mother against her own flesh.

Troie nobilitas, Troie decus, inclita Troie
Fama uireret adhuc nec laudis flore careret.
Non auri potum siciens, non hebrius auro
Aurum potasset Crassus, male potus in auro.
Non olim ciuile nefas, non Cesaris arma,
Non pueri regis animum, non federa regni,
Non mortis seruile genus seruosque probasset
Magnus et exanimis, truncatus, nudus honore
Funeris, in nuda solus iacuisset harena.

The nobility of Troy, the honor of Troy, the illustrious Fame of Troy
would still be verdant, nor would it lack the flower of praise.
Not thirsting for a draught of gold, not inebriate with gold,
would Crassus have drunk gold, ill-drunk in gold.
Not once the civil impiety, not Caesar’s arms,
not the mind of the boy-king, not the federal compacts of the kingdom,
not a servile kind of death and by slaves would the Great have experienced,
and, lifeless, hacked, stripped naked of the honor
of Funeral, he would have lain alone on the bare sand.

Post tantos belli strepitus, post funera Martis,
Post gladii furias, post tot discrimina Cesar
Non fraudes pugnamque stili sensisset inhertem.
Cesaris insultus, belli momenta, furorem
Fortune casusque uices Antonius olim
De facili posset uitasse, nec uxor, adoptans
Mammis serpentes, colubros lactasset et ipsos
Vberibus portans, portasset in ubere mortem.
Ni stabili nexu, concordi federe, pace
Perpetua uicibusque meis elementa ligassem,
Intestinus adhuc strepitus primordia rerum
Dissona concuteret germanaque bella mouerent;
Officiis excepta suis, ignara meatus,
Scabra situ, confusa locis, permixta figuris,
Fortuitis agitata modis, elementa iacerent.

After so great a clamor of war, after the funerals of Mars,
after the furies of the sword, after so many crises, Caesar
would not have felt the frauds and the inert combat of the stylus.
Caesar’s assaults, the moments of war, the frenzy
of Fortune and the vicissitudes of mishap Antony once
might easily have avoided; nor would his wife, adopting
serpents to her breasts, have suckled the very colubrines, and, carrying them
at her teats, have carried death in her breast.
Unless by a stable nexus, a concordant league, with perpetual
peace and with my vicissitudes I had bound the elements,
the internal din would still shake the dissonant beginnings of things,
and kindred wars would be set in motion;
the elements, removed from their offices, ignorant of their courses,
rough with neglect, confused in their places, commixed in their forms,
agitated by fortuitous modes, would lie prostrate.

Et nisi sponte meis obnoxia legibus essent
Astra poli, celique uices, septemque planete
Ordine, pace, fide, numero nexuque ligati,
Omnia fortuitis ruerent incerta minis.
Ni mea corporibus animas iunctura ligasset,
Dedignans habitare casas, ergastula carnis,
Spiritus egrediens proprios remearet in ortus.
Hec probat, hec fatur, hec disputat, edocet, instat.

And unless of their own accord the stars of the sky were subject to my laws,
and the vicissitudes of heaven, and the seven planets,
bound together by order, peace, fidelity, number, and nexus,
all things would collapse, uncertain, to fortuitous menaces.
Unless my joining had bound souls to bodies,
disdaining to inhabit huts, the workhouses of flesh,
the spirit, going forth, would return to its own origins.
This proves, this speaks, this argues, instructs, presses on.

Ostendit Racio quod nil seruatur in esse
Quod seruare meas leges et iura recuset.
Nos ergo liget unus amor, liget una uoluntas,
Vnum uelle liget, liget unum nolle sorores.
Cetera si normam pacis seruare tenentur,
Nos magis ad quarum nutum disponitur orbis,
Quas penes arbitrium ius est et regula mundi.

Reason shows that nothing is kept in being
that refuses to keep my laws and rights.
Therefore let one love bind us, let one will bind us,
let willing one thing bind, let not willing one thing bind, sisters.
If the rest are constrained to observe the norm of peace,
we all the more, at whose nod the orb is arranged,
in whose keeping are the arbitration, the right, and the rule of the world.

Quis nexus, quis uerus amor, quod fedus amoris,
Que pietas, que pura fides, que linea recti
In rebus reliquis saltern uestigia pacis
Seruabit? Si nostra manet concordia discors,
Defiluet in membra capitis iactura dolentis,
Deffluet in ramos vicium radicis amare,
Deffluet in riuos tabes cognata fluento.
Quis lune splendor, si solis lumen oberret?

What nexus, what true love, what covenant of love,
what piety, what pure faith, what line of rectitude
in the remaining things will at least preserve the vestiges of peace?
If our concord remains discordant,
the loss of the ailing head will trickle down into the members,
the bitter vice of the root will flow down into the branches,
the kindred rot will flow down into the streams with the current.
What moon’s splendor, if the light of the sun should be overcast?

Quis riui fluctus, si copia fluminis aret?
Quis grani fructus, si torpens languet arista?
Si nostram pacem discordia dissuit, immo
Rumpit, nostra perit uirtus, nam stare negatur,
Occasum paciens, in se diuisa potestas.

What surge of the stream, if the plenty of the river is parched?
What fruit of the grain, if the torpid ear languishes?
If discord unsews our peace—nay
it breaks it—our virtue perishes, for to stand is denied,
power divided against itself, suffering downfall.

Cum nobis donet consensus robur adultum,
Dissensus noster uires exhauriet istas:
Effectus medicina suos diuisa recusat;
Quem sibi distribuunt riui minus amnis inundat,
Vel diuisa minus candescit flamma camini;
Acrior insultus uiciorum pugnaque maior
Nobis incumbet, si nos diuiserit error;
Postquam cementi rumpit discordia muros,
Hostili pugne muros exponit inhermes;
Acrius insultat sevitque profundius ensis,
Conserte partes ubi nulla repagula donant
Nec series harum conserta recalcitrat ensi;
Acrius in uolucrem Iouialis fulminat ales,
Cum plebem uolucrum uenientis disgregat horor;
Vberius torrens effunditur, obice nullo
Deffendente uiam fluuioque negante meatum.
Ergo Concordes uotum curramus in unum:
Quod Natura petit, Racio commendat, Honestas
Approbat, immo cupit, Pietas deposcit et instat.
Nec Fronesis sola, distans, contraria, discors
Nos omnes pacis conformi lege iugatas
Diuidet in partes ut amoris uincla relaxet,
Sed pocius constans, congaudens, consona, concors,
In nostram mentem ueniet nec uicta labore
Cedere credatur citra preludia lucte,
Vel tumido flatu perflare superbia mentem,
Vel sibi liuor edax animi mordere recessus.

When consensus grants to us a full-grown strength,
our dissensus will drain those forces:
medicine, divided, refuses its effects;
the stream which the river distributes to them inundates less than the river,
or the flame of the furnace, divided, grows less incandescent;
a sharper assault of vices and a greater battle
will press upon us, if error shall have divided us;
after discord breaks the walls of cement,
it exposes the walls unarmed to hostile battle;
the sword assails more keenly and rages more deeply,
where the interlaced parts grant no barriers,
nor does their interlinked series kick back against the sword;
the Jovian bird fulminates more fiercely against the winged one,
when the terror of the oncoming scatters the flock of birds;
the torrent pours out more abundantly, with no obstacle
defending the way and with the river not denying a course.
Therefore, Concordant, let us run into one vow:
what Nature seeks, Reason commends, Honesty
approves—nay, longs for—Piety demands and presses.
Nor will Prudence alone, distant, contrary, discordant,
divide us all, yoked by the uniform law of peace,
into parts so that it may relax the bonds of love,
but rather, constant, rejoicing-together, consonant, concordant,
she will come into our mind, nor be thought, conquered by toil,
to yield short of the preludes of wrestle,
nor let Pride with swollen blast blow through the mind,
nor let devouring Envy bite into the recesses of the spirit for itself.

An que sola solet bona poscere, sola recidet
Hoc commune bonum, nostrum decus, utile uotum,
Nos omnes que sola libens et sponte mouere
In tantum deberet opus tantumque fauorem,
Si flamata minus torperet nostra uoluntas
Nec tantum uellet animus conscendere noster?"

Or will she who alone is wont to demand good things, she alone cut off
this common good, our honor, an utile vow,
she who alone would willingly and of her own accord move us all
to so great a work and to so great a favor,
if our inflamed will were less torpid
and our spirit did not so much wish to ascend?"

[310-324]

Hiis uerbis accensa magis Prudencia mentem
Sistit et in certo figit uestigia mentis.
Tempestas animi moritur fluctusque recedunt,
Velle suum commune facit cum uelle sororum:
Cogitat, exquirit, studet, inuenit, eligit ergo
Que uia, quis callis, que semita rectius ipsam
Defferat ad superos archanaque regna Tonantis
Vtque minus possit gressus uexare uiantis
Limitis asperitas, pes scandala nesciat, immo
Vt cicius possit munus complere quod instat,
In quo percurrat celum, mare, sydera, currum
Imperat excudi Sapiencia nec pede lento
Affectum sequitur effectus, sed simul instant.
Nascitur effectus cum nascitur ipsa uoluntas:
Sic matri prolique simul conceditur ortus.

By these words more enflamed, Prudence halts her mind
and fixes the mind’s footprints in certainty.
The tempest of spirit dies and the billows recede;
she makes her will common with the will of her sisters:
she considers, inquires, strives, finds, therefore chooses
what road, which bypath, what footpath more rightly
might carry her to the supernal ones and the arcane realms of the Thunderer,
and so that the asperity of the boundary may less be able to vex
the steps of the wayfarer, may the foot not know stumbling-blocks (scandals), nay rather
that she may more swiftly be able to complete the task which presses,
in which she may run through heaven, sea, stars, she orders a chariot
to be hammered out by Sapience; nor with a slow foot does effect follow
affection, but at once they press on together.
Effect is born when will itself is born:
thus to mother and offspring birth alike is granted.

[325-362]

The source text for lines [325-362] is not included. Please provide the Latin passage for [325-362], and I will translate it into English while preserving the formatting.

Caute, prudentes, pulcre similesque puelle
Septem, que uultum sub septem uultibus unum
Reddunt, quas facies, genus, etas, forma, potestas
Vna tenet, tenet una fides, tenet una uoluntas,
Assistunt Fronesi, Fronesis decreta sequntur,
Eius in obsequio semper feruere parate.
Tot dotes in eas effundunt dona Sophye
Quod sese totam Prudencia fundit in illas,
Se partitur eis, sibi thesaurizat in illis.
Sic diuisa tamen manet integra, sparsaque tandem
Colligitur, diffusa redit cum fenore multo.

Cautious, prudent, fair, and similar maidens,
seven, who render one countenance under seven faces,
whom one face, one genus, one age, one form, one power
holds, one faith holds, one will holds;
they attend Phronesis, they follow Phronesis’s decrees,
ready always to be fervent in her service.
Tot dotes in eas effundunt dona of Sophia
that Prudence pours herself wholly into them,
she shares herself to them, she treasures up in them for herself.
Thus divided, nevertheless she remains whole, and scattered at length
she is gathered; diffused, she returns with much interest.

Delegans uultus in eam mentisque latebras,
In uultu uelud in speculo chorus iste sororum
Conspicit, attendit, discit, notat atque docetur
Quicquid carta tenet, quicquid mens concipit, audet
Lingua loqui tantamque bibit sine fine sophiam,
Quid manus artificis, pictoris gracia, fabri
Dextera, scultoris solers industria possit:
Vt Zeuxis pingit chorus hie, ut Milo figurat,
Vt Fabius loquitur, ut Tullius ipse perorat,
Vt Samius sentit, sapit ut Plato, querit ut Hermes,
Diuidit ut Socrates, ut Zeno colligit, instat
Vt Brisso, studet ut Crisias, speculatur ut Argus,
Temporis excursus ut Cesar cogit, ut Athlas
Sydera perquirit, ut Zetus pondera librat,
Tanquam Crisippus numerat, metitur ut alter
Euclides, canit ut Phebus, cytharizat ut Orpheus,
Circinat ut Perdrix, ut Dedalus erigit arces,
Fabricat ut Cyclops, ut Lennius arma monetat,
Instruit ut Seneca, blanditur ut Appius, urget
Vt Chato, succendit ut Curio, uelat ut alter
Perseus, ut Crassus simulans, ut Iulius alter
Dissimulans, ut Soldius implicat, explicat idem
Vt Naso, uernat ut Stacius, ut Maro dictat,
Concipit, exponit, imitatur, gestat, adimplet
Mercurii sensus, nostri Demostenis iras,
Ouidii flumen, Lucani fulmen, abyssum
Virgilii, morsus Satyre, Solonis asylum.

Turning their faces toward her and the recesses of the mind,
in the face as in a mirror this chorus of sisters
beholds, attends, learns, notes, and is taught
whatever the page holds, whatever the mind conceives, the tongue
dares to speak, and drinks Sophia without end; what the hand of the artificer, the grace of the painter, the smith’s
right hand, the skillful industry of the sculptor can achieve:
as Zeuxis paints, this chorus; as Milo shapes;
as Fabius speaks, as Tullius himself perorates;
as the Samian perceives, is wise as Plato, inquires as Hermes;
divides as Socrates, as Zeno collects, presses on
as Brisso, studies as Crisias, watches as Argus;
computes the courses of time as Caesar, as Atlas
searches through the stars, as Zetus balances weights;
as if Chrysippus it numbers, measures like another
Euclid, sings like Phoebus, plays the cithara like Orpheus;
draws circles like Perdix, raises citadels like Daedalus,
fashions like a Cyclops, mints arms like the Lemnian;
instructs like Seneca, flatters like Appius, urges
like Cato, inflames like Curio, veils like another
Perseus, like Crassus dissembling, like another Julius
dissimulating, like Soldius it implicates, and likewise explicates
like Naso; it buds like Statius, dictates like Maro;
it conceives, expounds, imitates, bears, fulfills
Mercury’s meanings, the angers of our Demosthenes,
Ovid’s river, Lucan’s lightning, the abyss
of Virgil, the bite of Satire, the asylum of Solon.

[363-379]

Ergo Minerua uidens tanto splendore Sophye,
Tot donis tantisque datis splendere sorores,
Ordinat, iniungit, iubet, imperat, orat ut instans
Quelibet istarum comitum, comitante Sophia,
Corpore, mente, fide studeat, desudet, anhelet,
Instet et efflciat ut currus currat ad esse,
Quo terre spacium, mare, sydera, nubila, celum
Transeat et, trini superato cardine celi,
Scrutetur secreta Noys sensusque profundos
Hauriat et summi perquirat uelle magistri.
Vix satis expressit uotum, cum uota iubentis
Certatim complere student seseque sorores
Accingunt operi nec mens discordat ab actu,
Non a mente manus, sed eam delegat in actum
Affectus mentis, manus ergo predicat extra
Quod mens intus habet; sic mentis lingua fidelis
Fit manus et proprio mentem deponit in actu.

Therefore Minerva, seeing Sophia with so great a splendor,
that the sisters shine with so many and so great gifts given,
orders, enjoins, bids, commands, prays as one urgent
that whichever of these companions, with Sophia accompanying,
with body, mind, and faith, may strive, sweat, pant,
press on and bring it about that the chariot run toward Being,
whereby it may pass beyond the span of earth, the sea, the stars, the clouds, the heaven,
and, the threefold hinge of heaven surpassed,
may scrutinize the secrets of Nous and draw deep meanings,
and may inquire into the will of the highest Master.
Hardly had she sufficiently expressed the wish, when the wishes of the one commanding
they strive eagerly to fulfill, and the sisters gird themselves
for the work, nor does the mind disagree from the act,
nor the hand from the mind; rather the affection of the mind delegates it into act;
therefore the hand proclaims outside what the mind holds inside;
thus the hand becomes the faithful tongue of the mind,
and sets down the mind in its proper act.

[380-475]

Harum prima studet ut themo, preambulus axi
Et quasi uenturi quedam prefacio currus,
Prodeat, ut tanti sit pars primeua laboris.
Illa uigil, studiosa, libens, attenta, laborans,
Indulgens operi, mentem deducit in actum,
Non habitu uilis nec uultu sordida, gestu
Degener, incompta uerbis uel barbara factis,
Sed tamen in uultu proscribit signa laboris
Pallor; sed modicus, qui non proscribit ab ore
Purpureos ignes niueique coloris honorem,
Cum flos uirgineus non deffloretur in illa
Nec proprium frangat Veneris fractura pudorem.
Sunt tamen in multo lactis torrente natantes.

Of these the first strives that, like the temon (pole), a forerunner to the axle,
and, as it were, a certain preface of the coming chariot,
she may step forth, so that she may be the primeval part of so great a labor.
Illa, wakeful, studious, willing, attentive, laboring,
indulging the work, leads the mind down into act,
not base in habit nor sordid in countenance, in gesture
degenerate, nor unpolished in words or barbarous in deeds,
but yet in her face she publishes the signs of labor—
pallor; but a moderate one, which does not proscribe from her face
the purple fires and the honor of snow-white color,
since the virgin flower is not deflowered in her,
nor would a shattering shatter the proper pudor of Venus.
Yet there are things swimming in a great torrent of milk.

Mamme, subducti mentite damna pudoris.
Dum suspirat adhuc lactantis ad ubera matris,
Infantem cibat iste cibus liquidoque fouetur,
Quem solidum non pascit adhuc, dum pocula lactis
Lactea delibat etas potuque sub uno
Et cibus et potus in solo lacte resultat.
Asperat illa manum scutica qua punit abusus
Quos de more suo puerilis combibit etas.

Breasts, feigning the damages of subtracted modesty.
While he still breathes toward the teats of the lactating mother,
this food nourishes the infant, and he is cherished by the liquid,
whom solid food does not yet feed, while the milky age sips cups of milk,
and under one drink both food and drink consist, in milk alone they redound.
She roughens the hand with the scourge with which she punishes the abuses
which the boyish age imbibes from its own custom.

Verberibus sic asperat ubera, uerbera mollit
Vberibus. Facto pater est et mater eodem,
Verbere compensat patrem, gerit ubere matrem;
Officio scalpri seruit manus altera, dentes
Liberat a scabie, dum buxum dentis in ipsum
Vertit ebur rursusque suo candore uenustat;
Vel si dens aliquis aliorum de grege solus
Deuiet, excessum sub iusta lance recidit.
Infantes docet ipsa loqui linguasque ligatas
Soluit et in propriam deducit uerba monetam.

Thus with lashes she roughens the breasts; with the breasts she softens the lashes.
By the same deed she is father and mother,
with the lash she compensates for the father, with the breast she plays the mother;
the other hand serves the office of the scalpel, the teeth
she frees from scab, while she turns the boxwood for the tooth into the ivory itself
and again with its own whiteness makes it charming;
or if some tooth, alone out of the flock of the others,
deviates, she cuts back the excess with a proper lancet.
Infants she herself teaches to speak, and tongues that are bound
she loosens, and she brings words into their proper currency.

Candida Niliaco uestis contexta papyro
Vestit eam; forme non detrahit illa nec illi
Forma nocet. Cultus forme connubia grata
Nectunt et sese proprio uenerantur honore.
Vestibus hec inscripta manent, descripta resultant,
Artis gramatice uirtus, natura, potestas,
Ordo, materies, pars, finis, nomen et actor,
Officium, species, genus, instrumenta, facultas.

A shining garment woven of Nilotic papyrus
clothes her; it does not detract from her form, nor does
form harm it. Adornment and form weave pleasing marriages
and honor one another with their own honor.
Upon the garments these things remain inscribed; when transcribed they resound:
the virtue, nature, and power of the grammatical art,
order, material, part, end, name and agent/author,
office, species, genus, instruments, faculty.

Illic imperium datur arti, regula regnat,
Exilium patitur uicium ueniamque mereri
Nescit. Gramatice paciens sine line repulsam,
Deffendens sese propria racione, figura
Excubat ante fores artis ueniamque precatur.
Ars admittit eam, ueniam largita precanti,
Nec fouet in gremio sed tamen sustinet illam.

There command is given to Art; Rule reigns,
Vice suffers exile and does not know how to merit pardon.
Grammar, patient, suffers repulse without limit,
defending herself by her own reason and figure,
she keeps watch before the doors of the art and begs for pardon.
Art admits her, having granted pardon to the one who prays,
nor does it cherish her in its lap, but nevertheless it sustains her.

Hie docet ars, monstrat racio, doctrina fatetur
Littera cur simplex, cur indiuisa uocetur,
Cur sibi mendicet elementi littera nomen,
Vel tropice soleat elementum littera dici;
Que pingant elementa note, que nomina signent,
Quis claudat numerus, quis congruit ordo, potestas
Que sit, et has species certo sub canone claudit.
Cur tenui deiecta sono poscencia uocem
Cetera mutescant, uerum uocalis aperte
Clamitet et reliquis uocis spiramina donet.
Qua racione, quibus causis H littera non sit,
Cum sibi pretendat scripturam, nomen et usum,
Sed cyphri loca possideat solumque figure
Ius sibi deffendens, elementi preferat umbram;
Qualiter in metro secum rixata liquescat
Vocalis uocisque suum deperdat honorem;
Qualiter in metro natiuas littera uires
Perdit et ad tempus langet proscripta potestas;
Qualiter in metro uires et iura duarum
Vendicet una sibi, redimendo damna sororum;
Quomodo diversas species uox induit una,
Quam gravis accentus infra demittit, acutus
Erigit, in gyrum fert circumflexus eandem;
Quidue sibi proprium deffendit littera quidue
Sillaba, quid proprii iuris sibi dictio seruat,
Quid proprie proprium nomen sibi vendicat, aut quid
Appropriat uerbum sibi, quid pronomen adoptat,
Quid relique partes proprio sibi iure reseruant,
Quid nomen proprie designat, quid peregrine
Insinuat, quid uerba notant, pronomina signant;
Cum subiecta notent, cur sic pronomina forme
Dedignantur opem, cur demonstracio sola
Subueniat formeque uicem compenset in illis;
Qua racione regat pars partem quaue regatur,
Cur nomen substans aliis, uel cetera pingens,
Materie gerat officium formamque figuret
Verbi, cur redeat in se, cur transeat actus
Fedus amicicie, cur uerbis nomina seruant
Et uerbo iunctum soluat sua federa nomen,
Que nisi conueniant oracio muta iacebit
Nec plenos sensus uox decurtata loquetur;
Cur, partem capiens ab utroque, rependat utrinque
Dictio quod debetur ei, sic reddit utrumque
Quod neutrum, mediumque tenens mediatur utrinque;
Cur relique partes istas uenerentur et istis
Sese summittant nec eis seruire recusent.

Here art teaches, reason shows, doctrine confesses
why the letter is called simple, why undivided,
why the letter begs for itself the name of “element,”
or is wont, tropically, for the letter to be called an element;
what marks paint the elements, what names they designate,
what number encloses, what order fits, what power
there is, and it shuts these species under a fixed canon.
Why the other letters, cast down with a thin sound and asking for a voice,
fall mute, but the vowel openly
shouts and grants to the rest the breathings of voice.
By what rationale, by what causes the letter H is not [a letter],
though it puts forward for itself writing, name, and use,
but may possess the places of the cipher and, defending only the right
of a figure for itself, proffers the shadow of an element;
how in meter, having quarreled with itself, the vowel becomes liquescent
and loses its proper honor of voice;
how in meter a letter loses its native strengths
and, proscribed, its power languishes for a time;
how in meter one claims for itself the strengths and rights of two,
redeeming the losses of its sisters;
how one voice puts on diverse species, which the grave accent
sends down, the acute raises up, the circumflex bears the same around in a circle;
and what the letter defends as proper to itself, and what
the syllable, what of proper right diction preserves for itself,
what the noun claims as properly its own, or what
the verb appropriates to itself, what the pronoun adopts,
what the remaining parts reserve to themselves by their own right,
what the noun properly designates, what in a foreign way
it insinuates, what verbs note, pronouns signify;
when they mark subjects, why thus pronouns disdain
help for form, why demonstration alone
comes to aid and compensates the role of form among them;
by what reason a part rules a part or is ruled,
why the noun, subsisting or depicting the rest,
bears the office of matter and shapes the form
of the verb; why action returns into itself, why it passes across—
the pact of amity—why nouns serve verbs
and why, joined to the verb, the noun loosens its own compacts,
which, unless they agree, discourse will lie mute,
nor will a curtailed voice speak full meanings;
why, taking a part from each, diction repays on both sides
what is owed to it; thus it renders each as “neither,”
and, holding the middle, mediates between both;
why the remaining parts venerate these and to these
submit themselves, nor refuse to serve them.

Hec artis series seriatim picta propinat
Delicias oculis et menti fercula donat,
Nam pictor predoctus eam descripserat, immo
Plus pictore potens, picturaque clamitat illum.

This series of the art, painted seriatim, proffers delights to the eyes and grants courses to the mind,
for a pre-taught painter had described it—nay, one more potent than a painter—and the painting proclaims him.

[476-485]

Aggrediens proprium uirgo prefata laborem,
Non honeris concussa metu, non fracta labore,
Ad proprium desudat opus multumque rebellis
Materies tandem sequitur superata uolentem.
Nam predicta iacent ad tempus et ocia seruant
Instrumenta quibus pueriles excolit annos
Et mentita fabrum, fabrilibus utitur armis,
Materie fluxum superat cogitque negantem
Materiam seruire sibi lignique rigorem
Edomat et lignum themonis ymagine uestit.

The maiden, having spoken beforehand, approaches her own labor,
not shaken by fear of the burden, not broken by toil,
she sweats hard at her proper work, and the much-rebellious
material at last, overcome, follows the willing one.
For the aforesaid implements lie for a time and keep leisure—
the instruments with which she cultivates her youthful years—
and, counterfeiting the smith, she uses fabrile arms,
she overcomes the flux of the material and compels the refusing
material to serve her, and the stiffness of the wood
she tames, and she clothes the wood with the image of the plough-pole.

[486-513]

The Latin text for lines [486-513] is not included; please provide the passage so I can translate it to English while preserving the exact formatting (including spaces and line breaks).

Hie ortu cultura nouo uitaque decenti
Gramatice locat artifices et uiuere cogit;
Illic Donatus rector, patronus et heres,
Gramatice precepta docens uiciumque recidens,
Doctrina, uerbis, studio, racione, figura
Ampliat, extollit, ditat, deffendit, honestat
Gramaticam nomenque sibi speciale meretur
Vt non gramaticus dicatur, at emphasis ipsam
Gramaticam uocat hunc, signans sub nomine numen.
Noster Aristarcus donaria fundit in artem
Gramaticam, cujus thesauros ampliat, auget
Diuitias uiresque suos mensurat in illa.
Partes grammatice dissutas cogit in unum
Dindimus et propriis describit singula formis.

Here, with culture at a new birth and with a decent life,
she places craftsmen for Grammar and compels them to live;
there Donatus, ruler, patron, and heir,
teaching Grammar’s precepts and cutting back vice,
by doctrine, by words, by zeal, by reason, by figure
he amplifies, extols, enriches, defends, and honors
Grammar, and he earns for himself a special name,
so that he be not called a grammarian, but Emphasis calls him
Grammar herself, marking divinity under the name.
Noster Aristarcus pours donaries into the art
of Grammar, whose treasures he enlarges and augments;
his own riches and powers he measures in it.
Dindimus compels the unstitched parts of Grammar into one
and describes each by its proper forms.

Gramatice tractus pertractat apostata noster,
Pigrius in dictis torporis somnia passus;
In scriptis errans propriis, aut hebrius esse,
Aut magis insanus, aut dormitare putatur.
Claudicat ille fide, ne fama claudicet eius
Tractatus, uenditque fidem, ne premia libri
Depereant, erratque fides, ne rumor aberret.
Solos artifices quos fama beauit adulta
Laude nec a fama discessit gloria facti,
Hec scriptura tenet, minime dignata fateri
Gramaticos humiles, qui sola cortice gaudent,
Quos non dimittit intus pinguedo medulle:
Si foris exposcunt framenta, putamine solo
Contenti, nequeunt nuclei libare saporem.

Our apostate thoroughly handles the tract of Grammar,
having suffered more sluggishly, in his sayings, dreams of torpor;
erring in his own writings, he is thought either to be inebriate,
or rather insane, or to be dozing.
He limps in faith, lest the fame of his
treatise should limp; and he sells good faith, lest the rewards of the book
should perish; and faith goes astray, lest rumor should wander.
Only the artisans whom mature fame has blessed,
nor by laud has the glory of the deed departed from fame,
this writing holds, having least deigned to admit
humble grammarians, who rejoice only in the bark,
whom the richness of the marrow does not let within:
if outside they demand fragments, content with the shell alone,
they are unable to sip the savor of the kernel.

LIBER TERTIUS

BOOK THREE

[1-24]

Lacius inquirens, solers, studiosa, laborans,
Virgo secunda studet, intrat penetralia mentis
Sollicitatque manum. Mentem manus excitat, urget
Ingenium, sensus proprios inuitat, ut axis
Effigiet speciem multoque secundet honore,
Vt nec materie nec forme laude secundus,
Cum themone suo contendens disputet axis,
Immo precellens specie concludat eidem.
Et decor et species perflasset uirginis artus,
Sicut presignis uerborum disserit ordo,
Ni facies quadam macie resparsa iaceret.

More widely inquiring, skillful, studious, laboring,
the favorable maiden strives, enters the innermost places of the mind
and solicits the hand. The hand excites the mind, urges
genius, invites its proper senses, so that the axle
may fashion the appearance and second it with much honor,
so that he be second neither in the praise of material nor of form,
while the axle, contending with its own yoke-pole, may dispute,
nay, excelling in appearance, may conclude against the same.
Et decor et appearance would have suffused the maiden’s limbs,
as the preeminent order of words sets forth,
if her face, sprinkled with a certain leanness, did not lie there.

Vallat eam macies, macie uallata profunde
Suisidet et nudis cutis ossibus arida nubit.
Hie habitu, gestu, macie, pallore figurat
Insompnes animi motus uigilemque Mineruam
Predicat et secum uigiles uigilare lucernas.
Quodam litigio contendens, crinis in ima
Deuiat et secum pugnans rixatur inepte;
Nec pecten castigat eum, non forcipis urget
Morsus, tonsure non mordet apocopa crinem.

Leanness walls her round; deeply walled by leanness,
she subsides, and her skin, dry, weds the naked bones.
Thus by bearing, gesture, leanness, pallor, she figures
the insomniac motions of the mind and proclaims wakeful Minerva,
and that wakeful lamps keep vigil with her.
Contending in a certain litigation, her hair strays downwards
and, fighting with herself, she quarrels ineptly;
nor does the comb chastise it, the bite of the forceps does not press,
nor does the apocope of tonsure bite the hair.

Dum stellis oculi certant, ardere putantur;
Subcombunt aquile uisus et lincis adorant
Intuitus oculos tales seseque fatentur
Deuictos et eis sese conferre uerentur.

While the eyes contend with the stars, they are thought to blaze;
they scorch the vision of eagles, and the lynxes adore
the gaze of such eyes, and they confess themselves
vanquished, and fear to compare themselves with them.

[25-105]

Dextra manus floris donatur honore, sinistram
Scorpius incendens caude mucrone minatur.
Mel sapit ista manus, fellis gerit illa saporem;
Hec spondet risus, fletu concluditur illa;
Hec capit, illa fugat; hec ungit, pungit et illa;
Hec ferit, hec mulcet; hec afficit, in licit illa;
Non sordis scalore iacens, non luce superba
Vestis erat mediumque tenens, utrinque redacta.
Illic arte noua pictor nouus, histrio ueri,
Monstrat elenchorum pugnam logicesque duellum,
Qualiter, ancipiti gladii mucrone choruscans,
Vis logice, ueri facie truncata, recidit
Falsa, negans falsum ueri latitare sub umbra;
Cur pseudologicus, artis fur, artis adulter,
Falsus et ypocrita, furtiuus predo, sophista,
Mentitur logice uultum fretusque quibusdam
Prodigiis, temptat pro uero uendere falsum;
Quid locus in logica dicatur quidue localis
Congruitas, que causa loci, quid maxima, que sit
Vis argumenti, manans a fonte locali;
Cur argumentum firmet locus, armet elenchum
Maxima, que uires proprios largitur elencho;
Quo modo materia uel forma peccat elenchus
Et sola facie laruam pretendit elenchi;
Cur ex premissis conclusio nata, loquendo
Quod premissa velint uultu signetur eorum;
Cur liget extremos medius mediator eorum
Terminus et flrmo conflbulet omnia nexu;
Cur decurtati species nascatur elenchi,
Quando uel afferesis uel sincopa curtat elenchum;
Qualiter, usurpans uires et robur elenchi,
Singula percurrit inductio, colligit omne,
Sed tamen inferior sese summittit elencho;
Qualiter exemplum de se parit, immo recisa
Parte sui, curtata parens sibi pignora gignit;
Qualiter est munita locis ars ista localis,
Nec tamen est conclusa loco, non quod loca querat,
Immo locum, capiatque locos, ignara locorum;
Quo modo diffinit, partitur, colligit, unit
Singula que gremio complectitur illa capaci;
Quo modo res pingens descriptio claudit easdem
Nec sinit in uarios descriptum currere uultus;
Quid genus in species diuisum separat aut quid
Diuidit in partes totum rursusque renodat
Que sunt sparsa prius, diuisaque cogit in unum;
Qualiter ars logice, tamquam uia, ianua, clauis,
Ostendit, reserat, aperit secreta sophie;
Qualiter arma gerit et in omni militat arte
Ascribitque sibi causas et damna sororum;
Qualiter hec reliquas deffendit, ditat egentes,
Roborat inflrmas, elingues instruit, ornat
Incomptas, torpentes excitat, armat inhermes;
Qualiter hec purgat uicium fecemque repellit,
Si quid inest fecis, uicium ne deroget arti;
Qualiter incudem seruat, ne falsa monetet
Argumenta sui furtiua fraude sophista.

The right hand is gifted with the honor of a flower; the left the Scorpion, kindling, threatens with the sharp point of its tail.
This hand savors of honey; that bears the taste of gall;
This one promises laughter; that is shut up with weeping;
This one seizes, that puts to flight; this anoints, and that pricks;
This strikes, this soothes; this affects, that allures;
Not lying in the foulness of filth, nor in haughty brightness,
the garment kept the mean, drawn in on both sides.
There, with new art, a new painter, an actor of truth,
shows the battle of elenchi and the duel of logic,
how, flashing with the two-edged point of a sword,
the force of logic, trimmed by the face of truth, hews down
falsehoods, denying that the false lurks under the shadow of the true;
why the pseudologicus, thief of the art, adulterer of the art,
false and hypocrite, furtive robber, sophist,
lies about the face of logic, and, relying on certain
prodigies, attempts to sell the false for the true;
what a locus in logic is called, and what topical
congruity is, what the cause of a locus is, what a maxima is, what is
the force of argument, flowing from a topical fount;
why the locus makes the argument firm, the maxima arms the elenchus,
the maxima which bestows its proper powers upon the elenchus;
in what way the elenchus sins in matter or in form,
and with face alone presents a mask of elenchus;
why from the premisses the conclusion is born, so that, speaking
what the premisses intend, it is signed with their countenance;
why the middle term, mediator of them, binds the extremes
and clasps all with a firm nexus;
why a truncated species of elenchus is begotten,
when either apheresis or syncope shortens the elenchus;
how, usurping the forces and strength of the elenchus,
induction runs through the singulars, gathers the whole,
yet nevertheless, as inferior, submits itself to the elenchus;
how example begets from itself, nay, with a part
of itself cut off, the shortened parent engenders pledges for itself;
how this local art is fortified with loci,
and yet is not enclosed by place, not because it seeks places,
rather the place, and seizes the loci, unacquainted with places;
in what way it defines, partitions, collects, unites
the singulars which that capacious bosom embraces;
how description, painting things, encloses the same,
nor allows the described to run into various faces;
what the genus, divided into species, separates, or what
divides the whole into parts, and in turn re-knots
what before was scattered, and compels the divided into one;
how the art of logic, as way, door, key,
shows, unbars, opens the secrets of wisdom;
how it bears arms and militates in every art,
and ascribes to itself the causes and the damages of its sisters;
how this one defends the rest, enriches the needy,
strengthens the infirm, instructs the tongueless, adorns
the unkempt, rouses the torpid, arms the unarmed;
how this purges vice and repels the dregs,
if any dregs are within, lest vice derogate from the art;
how it guards the anvil, lest the sophist coin false
arguments by a furtive fraud.

Hec expressa tenet inscriptio uestis ut artem
Et proprios pugiles et luctam poscere credas.
Hunc habitum, formam, speciem gestumque puella
Pretaxata gerit, sed florem dextra resignat
Ad presens aliisque uacat, serpensque sinistram
Exit et ad maius urget manus utraque uotum.
Virginis ergo manus ne torpor inhebriet, adsunt
Instrumenta fabri, manibus que Lennius ipse
Commodat et propriis illi deseruit in armis.

This expressed inscription holds the vestment so that you would think it calls for the art and its own pugilists and the wrestling-bout.
The maiden, pre-designated, wears this habit, form, appearance, and gesture, but with her right hand she unseals the flower for the present and is free for other things; and the serpent leaves the left hand, and each hand urges a greater vow.
Therefore, lest torpor inebriate the virgin’s hands, the instruments of the smith are present, and the Lemnian himself lends them to her hands and has supplied her with his own arms.

Ergo se totam concedens uirgo labori,
Duriciem ferri temptat mollire, rigorem
Flectere, torporem delere, fugare stuporem,
Vt, ferri delicta domans, exemplet in axem.
Materiam ferri uultu meliore flgurans,
Nunc ignis demollit eam, nunc malleus ipsam
Flectit et ad culmen ferri suspirat uterque.
Sic ferrum ferro contendit, ut excolat illud,
Vt socium uenerans sese ueneretur in illo.

Therefore, yielding herself wholly to labor, the maiden
tries to mollify the hardness of iron, to bend the rigor,
to erase torpor, to put stupor to flight,
so that, taming the delicts of the iron, she may fashion it into an axle.
Shaping the material of iron with a better countenance,
now the fire demollifies it, now the hammer
bends it, and each aspires to the culmination of the iron.
Thus iron contends with iron, that it may exculte it,
so that, revering the associate, it may venerate itself in that.

Post multum sudoris opus, post prelia lucte,
Insultum ferri uincit labor improbus, aufert
Nequiciam motumque ligat rixamque retundit.
Materiam ferit informem uestitque figura,
Et que iam fuerat discors, rudis, yspida, torpens,
Temperiem, formam, cultum motumque resumit
Materies, axisque gerit formata figuram.

After much sweat’s work, after the battles of wrestling,
relentless labor conquers the assault of the iron, removes
wickedness, binds its motion, and blunts the quarrel.
It strikes the shapeless material and clothes it with a figure,
and what had already been discordant, rough, hispid, torpid,
the Material resumes temper, form, polish, and motion,
and, formed, bears the figure of an axis.

[106-136]

Picture series cum fama predicat illic
Auctores logice, quos donat fama perhenni
Vita, nec sepelit illos quos terra sepultos
Velat, sed recolens deffunctos suscitat orbi.
Illic Porfirius directo tramite pontem
Dirigit et monstrat callem quo lector abyssum
Intrat Aristotilis, penetrans penetralia libri.
Illic Porfirius archana resoluit, ut alter
Edipodes nostri soluens enigmata Spingos.

Picture series, together with Fame, proclaims there
the authors of logic, whom Fame endows with perennial
life; nor does it bury those whom the earth veils as buried,
but, recalling the defunct, it rouses them for the world.
There Porphyry sets the bridge on a straight course
and shows the path by which the reader the abyss
of Aristotle enters, penetrating the penetralia of the book.
There Porphyry resolves the arcana, as another
Oedipus of ours, solving the enigmas of the Sphinx.

Verborum turbator adest et turbine multos
Turbat Aristotiles noster gaudetque latere.
Sic logicam tractat, quod non tractasse uidetur,
Non quod oberret in hac, set quod uelamine uerbi
Omnia sic uelat quod uix labor ista reuelet.
Qui tamen iccirco uestit sua dicta latebris,
Ne sua prostituat secreta suumque relinquens
Archanum, uulgo tandem uilescere cogat,
Nam sua secreti maiestas uilet et omni
Priuatur splendore sui, si publica fiat;
Nam magestatem minuit qui mistica uulgat,
Nec secreta manent quorum fit conscia turba,
Nam res uulgate semper fastidia gignunt:
Ex re uulgata contemptus nausea surgit.

A disturber of words is at hand, and with a whirlwind many
he disturbs; our Aristotle rejoices to lie hidden.
Thus he handles logic, such that he seems not to have handled it,
not because he wanders in this, but because with the veil of the word
he so veils all things that scarcely toil would reveal these.
Who nevertheless on that account clothes his sayings with hiding-places,
lest he prostitute his secrets and, relinquishing his own
arcanum, compel it at last to grow cheap to the crowd,
for the majesty of his secret grows cheap and is deprived of all
its own splendor, if it be made public;
for he diminishes majesty who publishes mystic things,
nor do those things remain secret of which the crowd becomes conscious,
for things made common always beget distastes:
from a thing made common contemptuous nausea arises.

Zeno, pugil logicus, logices athleta, sophye
Rex et ductor adest, logice sibi prelia querens;
Illius nudat latebras ymosque recessus,
In lucem tenebrosa refert, noua ducit in usum,
Excusatque tropos, in normam scema reducit.
Exerit ambiguum Seuerinus, quo duce linquens
Natalem linguam nostri peregrinat in usum
Sermonis logice uirtus ditatque latinum.

Zeno, a logical pugilist, an athlete of logic, of wisdom
a king and leader is present, seeking battles for himself in logic;
he lays bare its hiding-places and deepest recesses,
brings tenebrous things into the light, leads new things into use,
and vindicates the tropes, reduces the schemata to the norm.
Severinus draws out the ambiguous, with whom as leader leaving
its native tongue, the virtue of our logic peregrinates into the use
of our speech and enriches Latin.

[137-150]

Non cultu facieque minor, non arte secunda,
Tertia uirgo suo non fraudat munere currum.
Euocat exterius mentem, studioque uocatam
Destinat, atque manus animo ducente gubernat,
Supremasque manus apponit opusque sororum
Perficit atque semel factum perfectius ornat.
Excolit illa gradu supremo que positiuo
Facta gradu fuerant, sed non augmenta superni
Finis contigerant, gradibus contenta secundis.

Not lesser in attire and countenance, not second in art,
The third virgin does not defraud the chariot of her proper gift.
She calls the mind outward, and, called by zeal,
She directs it, and with the mind leading she governs the hands,
And she sets on the final touches and the work of the sisters
She perfects, and what has once been made she adorns more perfectly.
She polishes, to the supreme degree, those things which in the positive
Degree had been made, but the augments of the supernal
End they had not attained, content with second degrees.

Nec mirum si facta prius perfectius ornans
Perficit et factum cultu meliore uenustat,
Cui magis arridet species et gracia forme,
Quod comites multa pictoris preuenit arte,
Totam pictoris artem sub pectore claudens.
Exemplans auri speciem miraque polytus
Arte iacet crinis, inuestit colla capillus
In uultuque natat color igneus, ignis in ore
Purpureus roseo uultum splendore colorat,
Sed partim uultus candor peregrinus inheret
Natiuoque suum certat miscere colorem.
Nunc uario fluctu lacrimarum riuus inundat,
Nunc uultum uarii risus aurora serenat,
Abstergens fletus lacrimas, nunc uirgo seueros
Pretendit uultus cum magestate rigoris,
Nunc oculus sursum lumen delegat in imum,
Nunc cadit huius apex, nunc totum lucis acumen
In latus obliquans, anfractus querit et umbram.

Nor is it a marvel if, adorning things done before more perfectly,
she brings them to perfection and with better adornment makes the deed more beauteous,
to whom the appearance and the grace of form more kindly smile,
since she outstrips her companions by much of the painter’s art,
enclosing the whole art of the painter beneath her breast.
Reproducing the look of gold, and polished by wondrous
art the hair lies; the hair invests the necks;
and on the face a fiery color swims, a fire of purple in the mouth
colors the visage with rosy splendor;
but partly an alien fairness clings to the face
and strives to mingle its own color with the native one.
Now with a varied surge a stream of tears overflows,
now the aurora of varied laughter makes the face serene,
wiping away the tears of weeping; now the maiden presents severe
countenances with the majesty of rigor,
now the eye upward delegates its light down to the lowest,
now the apex of it falls; now, slanting the whole keenness of the light
to the side, it seeks winding and shadow.

In dextra gerit illa tubam cornuque sinistram
Donat et in cornu signat preludia belli.
Claudit eam uestis que, picturata colore
Multiplici, gaudet uarios inducta colores.
Hic pictoris ope splendet pictura coloris
Rectorici, sic picturam pictura colorat.

She bears a trumpet in her right and a horn in her left;
she also bestows, and on the horn she marks the preludes of war.
A vestment encloses her, which, picturated with multiple color,
rejoices, invested with various colors.
Here, by the painter’s aid, the picture of rhetorical color
shines; thus a picture colors a picture.

Hic uelud in libro legitur quis finis et actor,
Forma uel officium, que causa, quis ordo, quid artis
Rectorice proprium, que uirtus, qualiter instans
Nunc tonat illa minis, nunc uerbi luce coruscat,
Nunc pluit illa preces, nunc laudibus imbuit aurem;
Quid cause genus efficiat, quo tendat et ad quem
Deueniens finem deliberet utile, iustum
Iudicet, affirmet rectum, demonstret honestum;
Que partes artis, quis earum texitur ordo,
Qualiter in primis ars inuenit ipsaque tandem
Ordinat, eloquitur, memorat, pronunciat, ut sic
Ordine legitimo sibimet respondeat ordo;
Quas uel quot partes oracio rethoris in se
Contineat uel qua serie texantur in illa;
Quomodo principium mentem mouet, erigit aurem,
Excitat auditum, cor iudicis apparat illi,
Quo magis attentus, docilis magis atque benignus
Redditur auditor et mentem dedicat auri;
Quomodo sub breuibus uerbis narratio uerum
Explicat, aut latitans ueri sub imagine falsum;
Qualiter in summa particio colligit omne
Quod sequitur, dispersa legens, diffusa coartans;
Qualiter in partem faciens assertio nostram
Argumenta notat, probat, exprimit, astruit, infert;
Qualiter oppositam ferit infirmacio partem,
Destruit, infirmat, dissoluit, dissipat, urget;
Quomodo concludens conclusio singula fine
Legitimo claudit, sistens sermonis habenas;
Quod factum factiue genus nomenue requirat
Questio, diuersis racionum nixa columpnis,
Que lis de facto certet, que questio iuris,
Que uel quot species, que simplex queue relata
Queue relatiue partes; cur astruat illa
Criminis objectum, hec transferat, illa repellat,
Comparet hec equa librans incommoda lance;
Qualiter assumat contencio robur utrinque,
Cum lex rixatur socie contraria legi,
Vel contra scriptum discors sentencia pugnat,
Vel parit in scripto dubium sentencia duplex,
Vel quando nomen describi possit ut ipsum
Nominis ambiguum descriptio certa resignet,
Vel cum jure loci, persone, temporis ipsa
Questio transfertur, alios motura tumultus,
Vel si contendat contencio nescia certe
Legis et a simili rationis robora firmat;
Quomodo personis accomoda roboris arma
Dant argumentis, sed falso robore nutant
Nomen, natura, uictus fortunaque uultus
Pretendens dubios, habitus, affectio, fallax
Consilium, studia, casus, oracio, factum;
Euentus que contineant, quid questio facti
Obtineat. facto que sint adiuncta uel ipsum,
Ut res deposcit, solito de more sequantur;
Quis modus in facto uel que complexio facti,
Quis locus aut tempus, occasio, causa, facultas.

Here, as in a book, is read what end and actor,
the form or office, what cause, what order, what is proper to the art
of Rhetoric, what virtue, how, pressing on,
now she thunders with threats, now she flashes with the light of the word,
now she rains down pleas, now she soaks the ear with praises;
what the genus of cause effects, where it tends and to what
end coming it deliberates the expedient, judges the just,
affirms the right, demonstrates the honorable;
what the parts of the art are, what order of them is woven,
how at first the art invents and then at last
orders, elocutes, remembers, pronounces, that thus
with lawful order order may respond to itself;
what or how many parts the oration of the rhetor in itself
contains, or in what sequence they are woven in it;
how the beginning moves the mind, raises the ear,
arouses the hearing, prepares the judge’s heart for it,
whereby the hearer is rendered more attentive, more docile and kindly,
and dedicates his mind to hearing;
how under brief words the narration unfolds the true,
or, hiding, the false under the image of the true;
how in sum the partition gathers all
that follows, reading the scattered, constricting the diffuse;
how the assertion, making for our side,
notes, proves, expresses, builds up, brings in arguments;
how the infirmation strikes the opposite part,
destroys, weakens, dissolves, scatters, presses;
how, concluding, the conclusion with a legitimate end
closes each thing, checking the reins of speech;
what deed, factive genus, or name the question requires,
resting on diverse columns of reasons,
what suit contends about fact, what question about law,
what and how many species, what simple and what related,
and what relative parts; why one establishes
the object of the charge, this transfers it, that repels it,
this compares, weighing disadvantages in an even scale;
how the contention takes up strength on both sides,
when a law contrary to a companion law quarrels,
or a discordant sententia fights against the writing,
or a double sententia begets a doubt in the writing,
or when a name can be described so that the very
ambiguity of the name a sure description may rescind,
or when by the right of place, person, or time the
question is transferred, destined to stir other tumults,
or if the contention, unknowing of definite
law, contends, and from a similar case strengthens the forces of reason;
how arms of strength accommodated to persons
give strength to arguments, but with false strength they waver—
name, nature, manner of life, fortune and visage
putting forward dubious things, habit, disposition, fallacious
counsel, pursuits, chance, speech, deed;
what outcomes they contain, what the question of fact
obtains; what things are adjoined to the deed or the deed itself,
so that, as the matter demands, they follow in the accustomed way;
what the mode in the deed is, or what the complexion of the deed,
what place or time, occasion, cause, capacity.

[225-271]

Hanc artis gerit effigiem pars unica uestis,
Sed tamen artificum loquitur pars altera formas.
Illic rethoricam sibi solus Marcus adoptat,
Immo parit, quare Cyceronis filla dici
Ars merito poterit, quam gignit Tullius, a quo
Ars ortum ducens censeri Tullia posset.
Illic multiplici presignit carmina flore
Sermonisque notas Ennodius effricat omnes.

This single garment bears the effigy of the art,
yet the other part speaks of the forms of craftsmen.
There Marcus alone adopts rhetoric for himself—nay, he begets her; wherefore the art could deservedly be called Cicero’s daughter, which Tullius begets, and from whom, drawing its origin, the art could be reckoned Tullian.
There Ennodius pre-marks the songs with manifold blossom, and Ennodius polishes all the notes of speech.

Quintilianus adest quadam sub imagine ueri
Causarum uelans umbras, litesque nouellas
Fingit et in litem cogit sine lite uenire.
Symacus in uerbis parcus sed mente profundus,
Prodigus in sensu, uerbis angustus, habundans
Mente, sed ore minor, fructu, non fronde beatus,
Sensus diuicias uerbi breuitate coartat.
Illic Sydonii trabeatus sermo refulgens
Sydere multiplici splendet gemmisque colorum
Lucet et in dictis depictus pauo resultat.

Quintilian is present under a certain semblance of the true,
veiling the shadows of causes, and newborn suits
he fashions and compels to come into suit without a quarrel.
Symmachus, sparing in words but deep in mind,
prodigal in sense, narrow in words, abundant
in mind, but lesser in mouth, blessed in fruit, not in foliage,
constrains the riches of sense by the brevity of the word.
There the robed discourse of Sidonius, gleaming,
with multiple star shines and with gems of colors
it glows, and in his sayings the painted peacock reverberates.

Nunc tenuem gracili meditatus harundine musam,
Nec tamen exanguis sermo ieiunia luget,
Nunc medium, nec in ima ruens, nec in ardua turgens,
Nunc tonat altiloquis describens seria uerbis,
Nunc tamen inflato tumidus crepat ille boatu.
Hoc cultu festiua suam non detrahit artem
Virgo, sed in cultus eius factura redundat.
Gemmis stellatam speciem themonis inignit,
Argento sparsim themonem uestit et ipsi
Ligni materie, que pollet honore minori,
Extremus succurrit honor redimitque minorem.

Now, having meditated a slender muse with a gracile reed,
nor yet does a bloodless sermon bewail fastings,
now the mean, neither rushing down into the depths nor swelling into the heights,
now he thunders, describing serious things with grandiloquent words,
now yet, swollen, he cracks with an inflated bellow.
In this adornment the festal Virgin does not detract from her art,
but the workmanship overflows into her adornment.
With gems she marks the pole with a star-studded appearance,
she clothes the pole here and there with silver, and to the very
material of the wood, which prevails with a lesser honor,
the utmost honor comes to the rescue and encircles the lesser.

Ligni primeuos ortus omnesque querelas
Splendor adoptiuus sepelit lignique uetustas
Exulat et primos sic obliuiscitur ortus.
Ergo themonem gemmarum sydus inaurat,
Immo diem uerum reddit lux ista diesque
Materialis hebet, nam lux natiua diei
Lumen adoptiuum tantum miratur adorans.
A simili uariis inscribit floribus axem
Virgo, flore nouo cogens iuuenescere ferrum;
Et quamuis ferrum soleat torpere rigore
Frigoris et brume soleat redolere pruinam,
Hoc hyemem nescit, frigus natale relinquens,
Vsurpatque sibi risus et gaudia ueris
Et faciem prati pretendit ymagine florum.

The adoptive splendor buries the primeval origins of the wood and all its complaints,
and the wood’s antiquity goes into exile and thus forgets its first origins.
Therefore a constellation of gems gilds the pole,
nay rather this light renders a true day, and the material day grows dull;
for the native light of day admires so much the adoptive light, adoring it.
In like manner the Virgin inscribes the axle with various flowers,
compelling the iron to grow young with a new flower;
and although iron is wont to be numb with the rigor of cold
and in brume is wont to exude the rime,
this knows not winter, leaving its natal chill,
and it usurps for itself the laughters and joys of spring,
and presents the face of a meadow by the image of flowers.

Dum sic themonem gemmis et floribus axem
Exhilarat uirgo, cumulum largita decoris,
Pingentis calamo cedit tuba, dat loca celti
Cornu, sicque duo sumunt sibi iura duorum.

While thus the virgin cheers the yoke‑pole and the axle with gems and flowers,
having lavished a heap of adornment,
the trumpet yields to the painter’s reed‑pen, the horn gives place to the chisel;
and so the two assume for themselves the prerogatives of the two.

[272-385]

Quarta soror sequitur. Quarte rota prima sororis
Est opus: huic operas operose dedicat illa
Et, quamuis hec quarta foret, tamen esse secundam
Se negat, in facto contendens prima uocari.
Ergo decora, decens, gracilis, subtilis, acuta
Pollet et in uultu monstratur copia mentis,
Nam uultus noster liber est et littera cordis
Nuncius, interpres uerax animique figura.

The fourth sister follows.
The first wheel of the fourth sister
is work: to this she dedicates operose labors;
and, although she was fourth, nevertheless she denies being second,
contending in deed to be called first.
Therefore comely, becoming, graceful, subtle, acute,
she excels, and in her face the abundance of mind is shown,
for our face is the book and letter of the heart,
a messenger, a truthful interpreter, and the figure of the soul.

Solliciti uultus, animum prudentis, honesti
Cultus, attenti speciem formamque modesti
Hec gerit et sexum transcendit mente uirili.
Non eius roseos color incolit aduena uultus,
Sed color indigena regnat nec purpura uultus
Secum furtiui patitur fermenta coloris.
Demittit caput in terram nec lubrica sensus
Venatur; menti cedens agit occia uisus.

She bears an earnest countenance, the mind of the prudent, the bearing of the honest,
the appearance and form of the attentive and the modest;
she carries these, and she transcends her sex with a virile mind.
No adventitious color inhabits her rosy face,
but an indigenous color reigns, nor does the purple of the face
permit within itself the ferments of a furtive color.
She lowers her head to the ground, nor does she hunt lubricous things
with her senses; yielding to the mind, her gaze practices leisure.

Mensam Pyctagore, que menti pabula donat,
Delicias animi sapiens, non corporis escas,
Sustinet una manus; pugnas manus altera monstrat,
Agmina disponit numerorum, prelia fingit,
Indicat insultus uarios numerosque rebelles,
Tandem subtili concludit bella triumpho.
Ex bysso contexta, suo uestita colore,
Vestis sidereos inuestit uirginis artus.
Materies subtilis erat; subtilius ipsam
Materiam precellit opus: sic preuenit usus
Nature uires naturaque uincitur arte.

Pythagoras’ table, which gives nourishment to the mind,
delicacies of the soul for the wise, not the body’s viands,
one hand supports; the other hand displays battles,
arrays the ranks of numbers, fashions combats,
points out various assaults and rebellious numbers,
and at last closes the wars with a subtle triumph.
Woven from byssus, clothed in its own color,
the garment invests the maiden’s starry limbs.
The material was fine; more finely the work itself
excels the very material: thus use forestalls
the forces of Nature, and Nature is conquered by art.

Hic pictura loquens scripto clamansque figuris,
Muta tamen, totam numerandi predicat artem:
Que numeri uirtus, que lex, quis nexus et ordo,
Nodus, amor, racio, fedus, concordia, limes;
Quo modo concordi numerus ligat omnia nexu,
Singula componit, mundum regit, ordinat orbem,
Astra mouens, elementa ligans animasque maritans
Corporibus, terras celis, celeste caduco;
Quomodo nascenti mundo rebusque creandis
Principium, finis, exemplar, forma, sigillum
Hic erat, ad cuius formam deitatis ydea
Impressit rebus formas mundoque figuras;
Quomodo principium numeri, fons, mater, origo
Est monas, et de se numeri parit unica turbam;
Quomodo Virgo parit, gignens manet integra, simplex
Sese multiplicat, de sese gignit et in se
Incorrupta manet, partus imitata parentis;
Quis numerus numerans censetur, quis numeratus,
Quis repetit, quis distribuit, quis colligit, aufert,
Addit et ad primum radices extrahit ortum;
Quo iuris merito uel qua racione uocetur
Femina par numerus, impar mas, uirgo Minerua;
Cur animam, celum, racionem, gaudia, uitam
Impare sub numero prudentum dogma figuret;
Cur corpus, terram, sensum, lacrimabile, mortem
Par numerus signet peioraque fata loquatur;
Quis numerus punctum, quis linea quisue figura
Plana uel equorum laterum, quis spera uocatur,
Quis quadrus uel quis solidus, quis piramis aut quis
Ciclicus est a se qui circumflectitur in se;
Quis numerus propriis completur partibus aut quis
Vel partes superat, uel ab hiis superatus habundat;
Que numerum numero concordia nectit et unde
Prouenit, ut uicibus mediis extrema ligentur;
Cur duo quadrati medio nectantur in uno
Vel solidos nectat mediis iunctura duobus.
Hoc igitur cultu uirgo preculta laboris
Pondera non fugiens, ne pondere pondus honoris
Effugiat, dum uitat honus ne utiet honorem,
Robur uirgineum cumulo uirtutis et arte
Transgrediens, superat uir sensu, femina sexu:
Sir uir, sic mulier, animo non illa sed ille est.
Nec motu subito quod concipit exprimit actu,
Nec quod mens gignit subitos deducit in actus,
Nam, si conceptum pariat mens ipsa, priusquam
Formam suscipiat conceptus mentis in aluo,
Vel firmum capiat mentis matrice sigillum,
Nutritumque diu racionis fomite uiuat,
Fetus abortiuus subito decurret ad ortus,
Non uita dignus proprio morietur in ortu,
Vel uiuens saltem lugebit crimina forme.

Here a speaking picture, crying out by writing and figures,
yet mute, proclaims the whole art of numbering:
what the virtue of number, what its law, what the nexus and order,
knot, love, ratio, covenant, concord, boundary;
in what manner number binds all things with a concordant nexus,
composes the singulars, rules the world, orders the orb,
moving the stars, binding the elements and marrying souls
to bodies, lands to heavens, the celestial to the caducous;
how, for the world being born and for things to be created,
the beginning, end, exemplar, form, seal was here,
according to whose form the Idea of deity
impressed forms upon things and figures upon the world;
how the beginning of number, fount, mother, origin
is the monad, and the single one from itself bears the crowd of numbers;
how the Virgin bears—begetting, she remains intact; simple,
she multiplies herself, from herself she begets and in herself
she remains incorrupt, the offspring imitating the parent;
which number is reckoned as numbering, which as numbered,
which repeats, which distributes, which gathers, removes,
adds and draws out roots back to the first origin;
by what right of law or by what ratio it is called
female the even number, male the odd, Minerva a virgin;
why the doctrine of the prudent figures soul, heaven,
reason, joys, life under the odd number;
why the even number marks body, earth, sense, the tearful, death,
and speaks of worse fates;
which is called a point, which a line, or which a figure
plane or of equal sides, which is called a sphere,
which is square or which solid, which pyramid, or which
is cyclic, that which bends around from itself into itself;
which number is completed by its own parts, or which
either surpasses its parts, or, surpassed by these, abounds;
what concord binds number to number and whence
it comes that by middle terms the extremes are bound;
why two squares are bound by one mean,
or the joining binds solids by two means.
Therefore with this cultivation the maiden, highly cultivated, not fleeing the
weights of labor, lest by the weight she flee the weight of honor,
while she avoids the burden, not to shun honor,
surpassing virgin strength by a heap of virtue and of art,
outdoes a man in sense, a woman in sex:
so a man, so a woman; in spirit not she but he is.
Nor by sudden motion does she express in act what she conceives,
nor does she lead what the mind begets into sudden acts,
for, if the mind itself should bring forth its concept before
the concept take form in the womb of the mind,
or take on a firm seal in the matrix of the mind,
and, long nourished, live by the fuel of reason,
the abortive fetus will run swiftly down to its birth,
not worthy of life it will die in its own birth,
or at least, living, it will lament the faults of its form.

Ergo legitimo ne partus mentis ab ortu
Deuiet et nullam ducat de matre querelam,
Mens gignit, nutrit racio, quod parturit actus
Fabricat in thalamo mentis mentale, priusquam
Materiale foras opus euocet. Ergo labore
Mentis et artificis animi studiique fauore
Erigitur rota mentalis, post materiali
Effigie describit eam; sic mente priorem
Concipit ut pariat, actu parit illa secundam.
Instrumenta prius manibus prefecta relinquens,
Ingreditur lathomi studium, domat arte rigorem
Marmoris et primum partes complanat ad unguem.

Therefore, lest the legitimate offspring of the mind deviate from its origin and bring any complaint against its mother,
the mind begets, reason nourishes; what action brings to birth it fashions in the mind’s bedchamber as something mental, before
it calls the material work forth outside. Therefore by the labor
of the mind and the favor of the artificer-soul and of zeal
the mental wheel is raised; afterward with a material
effigy he outlines it; thus he conceives the first in mind so that he may bring it forth; in act it bears the second.
Instrumenta prius manibus prepared leaves,
he enters the mason’s craft, tames by art the hardness
of marble, and first smooths the parts to the nail.

Scrupulus in planum descendit, surgit in equm
Vallis et in curuum demittitur angulus, orbis
Planiciem claudit planumque reducit in orbem.
Sed tumor in medio surgens supereminet, immo
Sic in supremum tendens non deserit imum.
Partibus in curuum, ferro mediante, redactis,
Exhaurit partes uirgo marmorque fenestris
Distinguens, totum spaciis intersecat orbem.

The plumb-bob descends onto the plane, it rises into the level;
and the valley and the angle are sent down into a curve; the orb
encloses the plainness and leads the plane back into an orb.
But a swelling rising in the middle overtops; indeed,
thus, while tending toward the topmost, it does not desert the lowest.
With the parts reduced into a curve, by the mediation of iron,
the virgin hollows out the parts, and, distinguishing the marble with windows,
she intersects the whole orb with spaces.

Collocat in medio centrum mediumque coronat
Multiplici radio quem latus circinat orbis.
Hic pictura docet auctores qui numerandi
Inuenere uias, artem docuere, latentem
Produxere foras, fama coluere iacentem.
Illic Nichomacus predicta ludit in arte
Et quasi per numeros rerum secreta prophetat;
Illic castra tenet et eadem miles in arte
Gilbertus saltu fallaci transilit artem,
Pictagoras menti proprie conuiuia donans,
Non carni, saciens animos, non corpora pascens,
Certis ascribit numerorum legibus ortus,
Esse, uices, causas, motus et uincula rerum;
Indulget numeris tanto Crisipus amore
Eius ut in uerbo numerus factoque resultet
Semper et in sompnis illum numerare putares.

He sets the center in the midst and crowns the middle with manifold rays, which the rim of the circle rounds.
Here the picture teaches the authors who found the ways of numbering, taught the art, brought the hidden forth, and fostered with fame what lay low.
There Nicomachus plays in the aforesaid art and, as if through numbers, prophesies the secrets of things;
there Gilbert, a soldier in the same art, holds the camp and by a fallacious leap overleaps the art,
Pythagoras, granting banquets proper to the mind—not to flesh—satiating souls, not feeding bodies,
ascribes to fixed laws of numbers the origins, being, vicissitudes, causes, motions, and bonds of things;
Chrysippus indulges numbers with such love that in his word and in his deed number ever rebounds,
and you would think him to be numbering even in dreams.

[386-468]

Quinta soror, quarte similis, gerit ore priorem.
Pingit eam cultu factoque recurrit in illam,
Nec uacat a simili studio sequiturque sororem.
In studiis exemplat eam, factumque sororis
Respiciens, eius facto sua facta sigillat,
Et quam iamdudum fecit Natura sororem,
Fit soror in facto, cumulans ius omne sororis,
Namque docet racio, ius postulat, exigit ordo
Vt fateatur opus id quod natura fatetur.

The fifth sister, like the fourth, bears the former upon her lips.
She paints her with cultivation and by deed, and returns into her,
Nor is she vacant from a similar pursuit and follows her sister.
In pursuits she copies her, and the deed of her sister
Looking back, by her deed she stamps her own deeds,
And her whom Nature long ago made a sister,
She becomes a sister in deed, heaping up the whole right of a sister,
For reason teaches, right demands, order exacts
That the work confess that which nature confesses.

Pro speculo uultum gerit hec preclara tuenti,
Nam quicumque uidet uultum se uisus in illo
Cernit et in speculo uultus epulatur ocellus.
Dum citharam manus una gerit, manus altera cordas
Sollicitat dulcemque soni parit illa saporem,
Auri dans epulas oculisque prohemia somni.
Quo cantu lapides mollescere, currere siluas,
Flumina stare, feras mitescere, cedere lites
Iussit Traïcius uates, fractoque rigore,
Compulit Eumenides lacrimis Ditemque coegit
Esse pium Furiasque suum nescire furorem;
Quo cantu Tyrios montes in menia uertit
Amphion, sic saxa domans quod nulla securis
Edomuit rigidas cautes, quas sola domare
Vox cythare potuit, tenuitque silencia ferrum.

For a mirror she bears a visage to the beholder, this splendid one;
for whoever sees the visage, his sight discerns himself in it,
and the little eye feasts upon faces in the mirror.
While one hand bears the cithara, the other hand solicits the chords
and that one begets the sweet savor of sound,
giving banquets to the ear and proems of sleep to the eyes.
By which song the Thracian seer bade stones to soften, forests to run,
rivers to stand still, wild beasts to grow mild, quarrels to yield;
and, the rigidity broken,
he compelled the Eumenides with tears and forced Dis to be pious
and the Furies to not know their own fury;
by which song Amphion turned Tyrian mountains into ramparts,
thus taming the rocks, in that no axe subdued
the rigid crags, which the voice of the cithara alone could tame,
and silence held the iron.

Insigni uestita toga se pacis alumpnam
Esse puella docet nec querere fulgura belli.
Illic picture ridens lasciuia ludit,
Scemate sub uario monstrans quid musica possit,
Que sint uincla, quibus compaginet omnia nodis,
Que species artis, que musica colligit horas,
Distinguit menses, locat anni tempora, cogit
Excursus, elementa ligat iungitque planetas,
Astra mouet uariasque uices que musica nectit,
Corporis humani partes mundumque minorem
Ordinat et specie mundi melioris honorat,
Vt sic pigmeus fraterculus esse gigantum
Maiorisque minor mereatur ymagine pingi;
Que partes anime sociat, que federat illam
Carni confirmatque fidem, que musica uoces
Diuidit et numeris uariat discrimina uocum;
Que racio cur omne melos dulcesque sonorum
Cantus non gignit uox una sed unio uocum,
Dissimilis similisque sonus, diversus et idem,
Vnicus et simplex, dupplex, difformis et alter;
Quo modo mutato se mutat musica cantu,
Cum lacrimis risus, cum ludis seria texens.
Nunc enarmonice resonat, nunc tristia fingens
Ditonico cantu luget, nunc cromate ludit;
Que uox ad uocem fit duppla uel in diapason
Quis resonet cantus, uel quis sexqualter ad illum
Sit sonus aut illi concors sonet in diapente;
Que uocum iunctura parit diatessaron, in qua
Cum tribus una sonans uox litigat, immo iocatur;
Qua racione toni pars altera semper habundet,
Transgrediens partem reliquam ne possit in equas
Distribui partes tonus integer, immo parumper
Excedat pars una toni superetque minorem
Et proprio uincat pars altera comate limma,
Nec tamen equali sectas libramine partes
In duo diuisum diasymata coma recuset.

Clad in a distinguished toga the girl shows herself a foster‑child of peace,
and that she does not seek the lightnings of war.
There, in the painting, smiling wantonness plays,
showing under a various schema what music can do,
what the bonds are, by which she fastens all things with knots,
what the species of the art, how music gathers the hours,
distinguishes months, sets the seasons of the year, compels the courses,
binds the elements and joins the planets,
moves the stars, and what various turns music knits,
orders the parts of the human body and the lesser world,
and honors it with the form of the better world,
so that thus a pygmy, a little brother of the giants,
may deserve to be painted as the lesser in the image of the greater;
what parts of the soul she unites, how she federates it
to the flesh and confirms the faith, how music divides
voices and with numbers varies the distinctions of voices;
what the ratio is why not a single voice but a union of voices
begets every melos and the sweet songs of sounds,
a sound dissimilar and similar, diverse and the same,
unique and simple, duple, deformed and other;
in what way, the song being changed, music changes itself,
weaving laughter with tears, seriousness with play.
Now it resounds enharmonically, now, shaping sad things,
it laments with a ditonic song; now it plays in the chromatic;
how one voice to another becomes duple, or in the diapason
what song resounds, or what sesquialter to it
may be the sound, or concordant with it may sound in the diapente;
what joining of voices brings forth the diatessaron, in which
one voice sounding with three quarrels—nay, jokes;
by what rationale one part of the tone should always abound,
overstepping the other part, lest the whole tone be able into equal
parts to be distributed; rather that one part of the tone should a little exceed
and surpass the smaller, and that the other part with its proper comma should conquer the limma,
nor yet should the comma refuse the diasymata divided into two parts
cut with equal balance.

Hoc igitur splendens habitu cultuque decoris
Virgo nitens, usum cythare deponit ad horam,
Dum subit officium fabri lapidemque caloris
Imperio conuertit in es, ex ere secundam
Fabricat illa rotam, que forme laude priorem
Demonstrans, prime se predicat illa sororem,
Et, quamuis diuersa foret que diuidit illas
Materies, has forma tamen facit esse gemellas.
Illic artifices quos musica gaudet habere
Consortes, uel quos proprii dignatur honore
Nominis amplecti, scripture fama perhennat.
Mellite uocis Millesius exerit usum
Et ueluti quedam cantus encenia donat
Auribus et tali mentes effeminat arte.

Therefore, shining in attire and in the cultivation of beauty,
the gleaming maiden lays aside the use of the cithara for a while,
while she undertakes the office of a smith and, by the command of heat,
turns the stone into bronze; from the bronze she fashions a second
wheel, which, outstripping the former in the praise of form,
proclaims itself the sister of the first; and, although the matter
which divides them was different, yet form makes these to be twins.
There the fame of the writing perpetuates the craftsmen whom Music
rejoices to have as associates, or whom it deigns to embrace with the
honor of its own name. Millesius, honey‑sweet of voice, brings forth
his skill and, as a kind of dedication of song, bestows gifts upon the
ears, and with such an art softens minds.

Alter ab opposito cantus fastidia lenti,
Obtuse uocis rixam cantusque rebelles,
Qui magis impugnant aures quam uoce salutent
Inuenit et nostras offendit cantibus aures.
Nauigat in medio partemque relinquit utramque
Gregorius noster, reffugitque pericula uocum;
Cantus Syrenum fugiens uitansque Caribdim
Musica letatur Michalo doctore suosque
Corrigit errores, tali dictante magistro.

Another from the opposite side finds the distastes of a sluggish chant,
the brawl of an obtuse voice and rebellious songs,
which rather assault the ears than salute them with the voice,
and he discovers and offends our ears with his songs.
Our Gregory navigates the middle and leaves each side,
and shuns the perils of voices;
fleeing the song of the Sirens and avoiding Charybdis,
Music rejoices with Michalo as doctor and
corrects her errors, with such a master dictating.

[469-512]

Instat sexta soror operi, se funditus urget
Ad studium, studio reliquis studiosius herens.
Certatim gestus, habitus, decor huius honorem
Accumulant pariter, eius pro laude loquentes.
Encleticum gerit illa caput nec corporis ullam
Iacturam patitur, sed lumen legat in unum,
Vt quibus insideat mens, enclesis ipsa loquatur.

The sixth sister presses upon the work, urges herself utterly
to study, cleaving to study more studiously than the rest.
Gestures, bearing, and decor alike accumulate this one’s honor,
speaking on behalf of her praise. She bears an Enclitic head and suffers no
loss of the body, but gathers the light into one,
so that the mind which sits upon them may speak by enclesis itself.

Exponit mentem facies animumque fatetur.
Virgam uirgo gerit, qua totum circinat orbem,
Qua terre spacium metitur, qua mare certis
Limitibus claudit, qua circinat ardua celi.
Et quamuis eius uestis respersa minutim
Pulueris imbre foret, non denigratur honestas
Materie formeque decor, sed gramate multo
Picturata nitet multoque superbit honore.

The face sets forth the mind and avows the spirit.
The maiden bears a rod, with which she circumscribes the whole orb,
with which she measures the space of the earth, with which she with fixed
limits encloses the sea, with which she circumscribes the heights of heaven.
And although her garment might be sprinkled minutely
with a shower of dust, the seemliness, the decor of matter and of form, is not blackened;
but, embroidered with much needlework, it shines and prides itself in much honor.

Hic artem totam picture lingua recenset,
Que mensurandi doctrinam fundit et usum
Edocet, immensum claudit, spatiosa refrenat
Paruaque consequitur, metitur magna, profundum
Scrutatur, ualles habitat, conscendit in altum.
Hic legitur quid sit punctum, que linea curua,
Recta uel equalis, que circumflexa uocetur
Queue superficies piano contenta, profundum
Ignorans altoquc carens, decurrit in equm;
Quid sit tetragonus, quid forma triangula, quid sit
Mensura triplici clausum, quid sterion aut quid
Circumducta sua describat linea centro;
Cur centrum sedet in medio, cur angulus omnis
Aut obtusus hebet, aut sursum tendit acutus
Obtusoque minor sit rectus, maior acuto;
Cur iuxta leges artis normamque datorum,
Supra grama datum proeedens tramite recto,
Equorum laterum trigonus describitur, in quo
Sese prosternens partem data linea donat;
Qualiter a puncto ducatur linea cumpar
Proposite reddensque datam; cur linea maior
De se producat, abciso fine, minorem;
Cur huius tyrones artis eleufuga terret
Atque prius cogit illos exire profundum
Quam subeant labique priusquam in arte laborent;
Qua racionis ope sibi forma triangula formam
Repperit equalem; cur linea partibus equis
Scinditur, aut simili distinguitur angulus arte
Inque duos unum diuisio diuidit una.

Here the tongue of picture recounts the whole art,
which pours forth the doctrine of measuring and teaches the use,
encloses the immeasurable, curbs the spacious,
and attains the small, measures the great, searches the depth,
dwells in valleys, climbs on high. Here one reads what a point is, what a line is that is curved,
straight or even, what should be called circumflex,
and what surface, contained in a plane, ignorant of depth and lacking height,
runs out into the level; what a tetragon is, what a triangular form, what
is enclosed by a triple measure, what the stereon is, or what
a line, carried around its own center, describes;
why the center sits in the middle, why every angle
either is obtuse and dull, or, pointing upward, is acute,
and why the right is less than the obtuse, greater than the acute;
why, according to the laws of the art and the rule of the givens,
proceeding upon the given diagram by a straight course,
a triangle of equal sides is described, in which,
laying itself down, the given line yields a part;
how from a point a compeer line may be drawn
answering to the proposed and rendering the given; why a greater line
by producing from itself, the end cut off, makes a lesser;
why the Eleufuga frightens the tyros of this art
and forces them first to go out from the depth
before they undergo it, and to slip before they labor in the art;
by what aid of reason the triangular form has found for itself an equal form;
why a line is cut into equal parts, or an angle is distinguished
by a similar art, and one division divides one into two.

[513-533]

Hac igitur ueste uirgo nitet, immo uirago
Glossat in hac mentem, uirge dans ocia, fabrum
Induit et sparsam mentem componit in unum.
Mente, manu, studiis inuadit, corrigit ipsam
Plumbi materiam quam crebro malleus urget.
Imprimit ad placitum formam, uetus exit et intrans
Forma recens plumbi ueteres excusat abusus.

Thus in this garment the maiden shines, nay, the virago;
she glosses her mind in this, giving leisure to the rod, she clothes the craftsman
Induits and composes the scattered mind into one. With mind, with hand, with studies she invades and corrects
the very material of lead which the hammer repeatedly urges.
She imprints a form at pleasure; the old goes out, and the entering
new form of the lead excuses the old abuses.

Nascitur ex plumbo rota tercia, nata priorem
Reddit et in uultu formam gerit illa prioris,
Illic artifices pictoris littera clamat,
Qui rerum tractus, mensuras, pondera fines,
Limite sub certo claudentes, aera, celum,
Astra, fretum, terras simili racione tuentur.
Hic geometra Tales sine motu preterit orbem
Aerii tractus, sine pennis transuolat equor,
Occeani spacium sine remige transit, in astra
Absque gradu graditur, sine tactu tangit Olimpum.
In seriem precepta ligans artemque retexens,
Euclides partes artis locat ordine iusto,
Quas ueluti quodam racionis fune ligatas
Nectit et ex una reliquas exire putares.

A third wheel is born from lead; the one born gives back the former,
and on its countenance it bears the form of the earlier one.
There the letter of the craftsman, the painter, proclaims,
who, enclosing the lines of things, the measures, the weights, the limits
under a fixed boundary, keep under watch the air, the heaven,
the stars, the sea, the lands by a similar ratio.
Here the geometer Thales passes the orb without motion,
he flies across the tracts of the airy realm without wings,
he crosses the space of Ocean without a rower; into the stars
he steps without a step; without touch he touches Olympus.
Binding the precepts into a series and re-weaving the art,
Euclid places the parts of the art in just order,
which, as if tied by a certain rope of reason,
he knits, and you would think the rest to issue from one.

LIBER QUARTUS

BOOK FOUR

[1-69]

Ultima subsequitur uirgo, que prima decore,
Cultu prima, gerit primam sub pectore mentem;
Non morbo, non tristicia, non mente magistra
Degenerat caput in terram, sed uultus in astris
Heret et archanum celi causasque fugaces
Venatur uisus, mentis preambulus, illi
Nunciat et crebro mentem docet asecla mentis.
Ori fulgor adest, qui facto fulgure nostrum
Verberat intuitum, dum uisus fulgur adultum
Deuitans, oculi tunicas exire ueretur.
Implet spera manum, spere tamen umbra uideri
Hec melius posset, que solam suscipit umbram,
Nec proprium spere retinens consurgit in altum,
Sed iacet in piano, nullo promota tumore.

The maiden follows last, who is first in decor,
first in cult, she bears a prime mind beneath her breast;
not by disease, not by sadness—mind her mistress—
does the head degenerate toward the earth, but her face on the stars
clings, and her sight hunts the arcanum of heaven and the fleeting causes,
the sight, a preambular of the mind, announces to it and often
as an acolyte of the mind teaches the mind. To the face a splendor is present, which, once lightning is made,
lashes our gaze, while the sight, shunning the full-grown lightning,
fears to go forth from the tunics of the eye. She fills the hand with a sphere; yet in the sphere a shadow
could show this better, which receives only the shadow,
and, not retaining the sphere’s proprium, does not rise on high,
but lies on the level, promoted by no tumor.

Vestis inardescit gemmis auroque superbit
Et splendore suo Stellas equare uidetur.
Hic uiget, hie loquitur, hie instruit, hie docet, immo
Dat precepta suis picture dote facultas
Que docet astrorum leges, loca, tempora, motus,
Signa, potestates, discursus, nomina, causas.
Hic legitur que sit celestis spera, quis axis
In partes speram distingat, quis polus axem
Terminet, aut sursum tendens, aut mersus in imo;
Cur mundi sit forma teres mundusque ligetur,
Quinque parallelis cinctus zonisque quibusdam
Sectus, in extremis rigeat, medio tenus estu
Torreat atque duas laterales temperet harum,
Excessu dupplici castigans frigore flammam;
Cur decurtatus concludat utrumque colurum
Circulus et neuter ad puncta priora redire
Possit, sed nomen abscisio donet utrique;
Cur obliqua means, decliui limite ducta
Linea signiferi duodeno sydere celum
Pinguat et hospicium peregrino grata planete
Donet et ipsius proprium communicet illi;
Qua racione meant stelle, qua lege planeta
Directum metitur iter, qua lege retrorsum
Aut fugit aut certa fluxus stacione moratur;
Qua racione meant obliquo signa meatu,
Cur signum proprios directius exit in ortus
Opposite, furans nascendi tempora, tempus
Perdit in occasu quod plus expendit in ortu;
Quis lune motus, que solis spera, quis orbis
Mercurii Venerisque semita, que uia Martis,
Que mora Saturnum retinet; quo limite currit
Stella Iovis motusque uagos quis circulus equat;
Quis sursum tendens egressa cuspide terram
Exit et in terra nescit defigere centrum.

The garment ignites with gems and prides itself on gold,
and by its own splendor it seems to equal the Stars.
Here it thrives, here it speaks, here it instructs, here it teaches; nay rather,
the faculty, by the endowment of picturing, gives precepts to its own,
which teaches the laws of the stars, the places, times, motions,
signs, powers, courses, names, causes.
Here it is read what the celestial sphere is, which axis
divides the sphere into parts, which pole bounds the axis
either tending upward or plunged in the lowest;
why the form of the world is rounded and the world is bound,
girded with five parallels and cut by certain zones,
that at the extremes it stiffens, in the middle it is scorched with heat,
and tempers two lateral ones of these,
by a double excess chastising flame with cold;
why a truncated circle encloses each colure
and neither is able to return to its former points,
but “cutting-off” gives its name to each;
why, going obliquely, drawn in a sloping boundary,
the line of the Zodiac with its twelve constellations paints the sky,
and grants a lodging welcome to a foreign planet
and shares with it its own property;
by what rationale the stars go, by what law a planet
measures a direct path, by what law backward
it either flees or, in a fixed station of its flux, delays;
by what rationale the signs go with an oblique course,
why a sign goes out more directly into its own risings
on the opposite side, stealing the times of birth; the time
it loses in setting it spends the more in rising;
what the Moon’s motion is, what the Sun’s sphere, what the orbit
of Mercury and the path of Venus, what the way of Mars,
what delay holds Saturn; by what boundary runs
the star of Jove, and what circle equalizes the wandering motions;
which, tending upward, with its cusp gone forth, leaves the earth
and does not know to fix its center in the earth.

Ergo puella gerens tanti sollempnia cultus,
Non animum sepelit nec pigra per ocia sese
Distrahit aut animi uires effeminat, immo
Exercet studiis totam cum corpore mentem.
Exit spera manum, quoniam manus ipsa uocatur
Ad noua, que cudens fabri sibi uendicat artem.
Dum manus excudit aurum massamque figurat,
Nascitur ex auro rota quarta, decoris honore
Hec comites uincens, primas facit esse secundas.

Therefore the girl, bearing the solemnities of so great a cultus,
does not bury her spirit nor, slothful through leisures, distract herself
or emasculate the forces of the mind; rather
she exercises by studies her whole mind together with the body.
The sphere comes forth from the hand, since the hand itself is called
to new things, and, hammering, claims for itself the craftsman’s art.
While the hand hammers out the gold and shapes the mass,
from the gold the fourth wheel is born, and by the honor of comeliness
this one, outstripping her companions, makes the first ones to be seconds.

Illi scripture facies applaudit et illos
Colligit in scripto, qui, ducti remige mentis,
In superas abiere domos secretaque celi
Scrutati, meruere sibi deitatis honorem.
Illic astra, polos, celum septemque planetas
Consulit Albimasar terrisque reportat eorum
Consilium, terras armans flrmansque caduca
Contra celestes iras superumque furorem;
Astraque sustentat, dum sustentatur ab astris
Athlantis uirtus, celi sine pondere pondus
Gestat, fert celum, dum fertur dumque ferendo
Syderibus cedit, cedenti sidera cedunt.

To those the face of scripture applauds, and gathers them into writing—those who, led by the oarsman of the mind,
have gone away to the supernal homes and, having scrutinized the secrets of heaven,
have merited for themselves the honor of divinity. There Albimasar consults the stars, the poles, the heaven, and the seven planets,
and reports their counsel to the lands, arming and strengthening mortal, perishable things
against the celestial wraths and the fury of the gods above;
and the virtue of Atlas sustains the stars, while it is sustained by the stars—
he bears the weight of heaven without weight, he carries, he bears the sky; while he is borne and, by bearing,
he yields to the stars, to the one yielding the stars yield.

[70-94]

Has igitur currus partes, ut norma requirit,
Ordo petit, poscit racio, Prudencia dictat,
Cudit et excudit, facit immo perficit, ornat
Exornatque simul lima meliore sororum
Pretaxata cohors, nullumque relinquit in istis
Enormis forme uultum maculeue querelam,
Apponensque manum supremam, fine beato
Concludens operam, sparsas Concordia partes
Ordine, lege, loco confederat, unit, adequat.
Ergo iunctura, clauis gumfisque ligate
Partes effigiant currum qui luce decoris
Preradians, facie propria demonstrat in ipso
Diuinam sudasse manum superumque Mineruam.
Tunc Racio monitu Nature docta docentis,
Quinque sibi presentat equos, quos federat illa
Federe complacito, concordi pace, fideli
Connexu, cogitque iugo seruire iugales
Indomitos, primis quos enutriuit ab annis
Gracia Nature, que sic construxit equinos
Mores, mis animi quedam uestigia donans,
Vt, quamuis bruti, tamen hii uenerentur alumpnam.

Thus therefore the parts of the chariot, as the rule requires,
Order seeks, Ratio demands, Prudence dictates,
the pre-assigned cohort of sisters hammers and forges, makes—nay perfects—adorns
and at once further adorns with a better file; and it leaves in these
no irregular visage of form nor complaint of a macula,
and applying the supreme hand, concluding the work with a blessed end,
Concord, confederating the scattered parts by order, law, and place,
unites and makes them adequate. Thus, the parts, bound by joint,
by keys and dowels, shape the chariot, which, pre-radiating with the light of comeliness,
by its own face shows that a divine hand and the supernal Minerva have sweated over it.
Then Reason, taught by the monition of Nature teaching,
presents to itself five horses, which she has federated
by a pleasing covenant, in concordant peace, by faithful linkage,
and compels the yoked yoke-mates, untamed, to serve the yoke—
whom from their first years the Grace of Nature has nourished,
which has thus constructed equine manners, granting to the beasts certain vestiges of mind,
so that, although brute, nevertheless these may venerate their foster-mother.

Insuper, in quantum patitur Natura, iugalis
Horum quisque sue nature munera iactat:
Nil cultus formeque nihil peregrinat ab illis
Quod plene possit speciem cumulare iugalis.

Moreover, inasmuch as Nature permits, as yoked,
each of these vaunts the gifts of his own nature:
nothing of grooming and of form, nothing alien from them,
exists that could fully cumulate the appearance of the yoke-team.

[95-116]

Primus equs cultu, forma cursuque sodales
Preuenit et reliquos proprio summitit honori.
Cultus, forma, color, species, audacia, cursus
Ditat eum nec in hec patitur sibi damna, quod illum
Respersus candore color subrufus inaurat.
Non meat, immo uolat nec enim discrimine passus
Inscribit terram nec gramen curuat eundo,
Sed celeri cursu terram delibat euntis
Passus et in terra uestigia nulla relinquit,
Sed leuis aura suos stupet inuenisse volatus
Miraturque sui Boreas torpescere cursum.

The foremost horse, in adornment, form, and course, outstrips his comrades
and he outstrips and subjects the others to his own honor.
Adornment, form, color, species, audacity, course
enrich him, nor in these does he suffer harms, because him
a subrufous color, sprinkled with candor, gilds.
He does not go, rather he flies; nor, by any distinction of step,
does he inscribe the earth, nor bend the grass in going,
but with swift course the steps of the one going just skim the earth,
and on the earth he leaves no footprints,
but the light breeze is amazed to have found his flights,
and Boreas marvels that his own course grows torpid.

Aura cadit, lentescit auis, uolucrisque sagite
Cursus hebescit, equi lentescunt omnia cursu.
Anticipat monitum calcaris, sponte meatum
Aggreditur facilique tamen frenatur habena.
Preterea dotes natiuas aggerat ipsa
Nobilitas generis, Pyroum namque parentem
Iactat et in speculo prolis pater ipse resultat.

The breeze falls, the bird grows sluggish, and the course of the winged arrow grows dull;
and in the horse’s running all things grow slow.
He anticipates the admonition of the spur, of his own accord he undertakes the movement,
and yet he is reined with an easy rein.
Furthermore the nobility of his lineage itself piles up his native endowments,
for it boasts Pyrrhus as his parent,
and in the mirror of the offspring the father himself is reflected.

Hunc dedit in munus Iouialis gracia matri
Nature, cuius grates dantisque fauorem
Accumulat doni meritum, quo munere maius
Nil potuit tantus tante conferre parenti.

This one the Jovial grace gave as a gift to Mother Nature,
whose thanks and the giver’s favor the merit of the gift accumulates;
than which gift nothing greater could so great a one confer upon so great a parent.

[117-137]

His igitur, uelud ipsius natura requirit,
Nobilitatur equi species, infraque secundus
Pollet equs specieque minor cultuque minori
Cultus et inferior, cursuque remissior illo.
Et quamuis minor a primo formaque secundus,
Est tamen in reliquis maior primusque decoris Munere, sed reliquos superans, superatur ab uno;
Et si non equo passu contendere primo
Possit equo, non aura tamen fugitiua secundum Preuenit, immo pari cursu contendit eidem.
Se uarians nullo prescribitur ille colore,
Sed uultum proprii mentitur sepe coloris.

Therefore by these, as his very nature requires,
the horse’s species is ennobled, and beneath him the second
horse prevails, lesser in species and with lesser cult,
more low in cultus, and more remiss in course than that one.
And although lesser than the first and second in form,
yet in the rest he is greater and first in the gift of decor/beauty, but surpassing the others, he is surpassed by one;
And if he cannot contend with the first horse in equal step,
yet the fugitive breeze does not outstrip the second; rather, with equal course he contends with the same.
Varying himself, he is prescribed by no color,
but often he counterfeits the visage of his own proper color.

Intonat ille fremens, hinnitibus aera crebris
Verberat et tenuem sine uulnere uulnerat auram.
A collo suspensa sonos crepitacula dulces
Reddunt et multo perfundunt aera cantu.
In uultu gerit ille patrem, dum reddit Eoum
Gestibus huncque suum forma probat esse parentem.

He thunders, roaring, with frequent whinnies he lashes the air
and he wounds the tenuous breeze without a wound.
From his neck, suspended, the tinkling-bells give back sweet sounds
and bathe the air with much song.
In his face he bears his father, while by his gestures he renders Eous
and his form proves this one to be his parent.

Muneribus prelarga suis, hoc munere uiuo
Nature cumulauit opes meruitque fauorem
Numinis et proprium dono descripsit amorem.

Munificent in her gifts, with this living gift
Nature has cumulated opulence and has merited the favor
of the Numen, and by a gift has described her own love.

[138-158]

Tercius a tanta speciei luce parumper
Obliquatur equs nec enim sibi dona priorum
Vendicat, immo minus retinens suspirat ad illos.
Et quamuis species huius tenebrescat eorum
Respectu, tamen ad reliquos collata nitorem
Exerit et proprio non est fraudata decore.
Et quamuis agili cursu uincatur ab illis
De quibus exiuit sermo, tamen ipse triumphans
In reliquis uictor gaudet reliquosque uolatu
Vincit et in proprio motu concludit eisdem.

From so great a light of appearance the third horse swerves a little
nor indeed does he claim for himself the gifts of the former ones,
nay rather, being less possessive, he sighs toward them.
And although this one’s appearance grows dim in their
regard, yet when compared to the remaining ones he puts forth brilliance
and has not been defrauded of his own decor.
And although in agile course he is surpassed by those
about whom the discourse went forth, yet he himself, triumphing,
rejoices as victor among the rest and by his flight he conquers the others,
and in his own motion he encloses those same ones.

Subtilis respergit eum mixtura coloris,
Sed fugiens oculos, uisum color ille recusat.
Conserti floris series quasi ueste decenti
Induit hunc et ei proprios inspirat odores.
Flos uiole perfundit eum, rosa debriat auras
Affines naresque thimi saciantur odore.

A subtle mixture of color sprinkles him,
but, fleeing the eyes, that color refuses vision.
The series of interlaced blossom, as with a becoming vesture,
clothes him and breathes into him its own odors.
The violet’s flower drenches him, the rose makes the airs drunk,
and neighbors and nostrils are sated with the odor of thyme.

Nescia natiui choitus, equa flamine solo
Edidit hunc, ignara maris, contenta mariti
Aeris afflatu, Zephiro gravidata marito.
Hoc dono Zephyrus Nature matris amorem
Mercatus, proprium uectigal soluit eidem.

Ignorant of natural coitus, the mare by breath alone
brought forth this one, unaware of the male, content with her husband
Air’s breath, made pregnant by Zephyr as husband.
With this gift Zephyr purchased the love of Mother Nature,
and paid to her his own tribute.

[159-189]

Degenerat polletque minus, lentescit abunde
Quartus equs formaque jacet cursuque tepescit,
Predictis famulans, illos quasi pronus adorat.
Ancillatur eis nec se negat esse clientem
Horum, sed tanquam dominis ut uerna ministrat.
Non tamen omnino Naturam sentit auaram,
Immo dote sua qua se tueatur habundat,
In nullo paciens eclipsim muneris huius,
Quo de more solet Natura beare iugalem.

It degenerates and prevails less, it abundantly grows sluggish;
the fourth horse lies low in form and grows tepid in running,
serving the aforesaid, he, as if bowed down, adores them.
He acts as a handmaid to them nor does he deny that he is their client
of these, but as for masters he ministers like a homeborn slave.
Yet he does not at all feel Nature to be avaricious,
nay rather he abounds in his endowment by which he may protect himself,
in no way submitting to an eclipse of this gift,
by which, according to custom, Nature is wont to enrich the yokemate.

Nec uiole marcent, quamuis rosa floris honore
Splendeat aut cultus componat lilia candor.
Non omnis delirus erit cui sensus Vlixis
Defficit, aut mutus quem nescit musa Maronis.
Non nitor argenti liuet, si fulgurat aurum,
Non minus arma rapit Hector, si plenius Aiax Fulminat: a simili non omnis gloria quarto
Absentatur equo, quamuis gradus ille negetur Emphatice laudis, in qua Natura priores
Sistit equos.

Nor do violets droop, although the rose shines with the honor of the flower,
or cultivated candor composes the lilies. Not everyone will be delirious to whom the sense of Ulysses is lacking, or mute because the muse of Maro does not know him.
The splendor of silver does not turn livid if gold flashes, nor does Hector seize arms any less if Ajax more fully Fulminates: by a similar case not all glory is absent from the fourth horse, although that grade of Emphatic praise is denied, in which Nature sets the former horses.

Non iste tamen deiectus ab omni
Munere Nature queritur, sed gaudet in illa
Fortuna qua diues eum Natura beauit.
Glaucus ei color arridet, respergit eundem
Imber et irriguo ros compluit imbre iugalem.
Hoc speciale sibi retinet propriumque reseruat,
Quod celer ad potum non obliuiscitur escam.

Yet he does not complain as though cast down from every gift of Nature,
but rejoices in that Fortune with which Nature has enriched him.
A glaucous hue smiles on him; a shower sprinkles the same,
and the dew, with irrigating rain, drenches the yoke-mate.
He retains this as something special and reserves it as his own,
that, swift to drink, he does not forget his food.

Potibus indulget, pre cunctis solus ad esum
Currit et in potus deffectus supplet equorum.
Hunc genuit Tritonis equs iurisque paterni
Heredem statuens, sese descripsit in illo:
Nature Triton dans intersigna fauoris
Contulit hoc munus, donans cum munere mentem.

He indulges in potations, before all he alone runs to eating
and he supplies the defect of drinking for the horses.
The horse of Triton begot this one, establishing him as the heir
of paternal right, he described himself in him:
Triton of Nature, giving inter-signs of favor,
Conferred this gift, donating a mind along with the gift.

[190-212]

Vix speciem deffendet equi formamque tenebit
Quintus equs, si quis temptet conferre priores
Isti, nam deponet equm laruaque iugalis
Vestitus sapiet asinum, deiectus eadem
Segnicie, plene mores exutus equinos.
Si tamen ad primos collatio nulla redundet
Huius equi, sed eum proprio scrutemur in esse,
Non erit a propriis exclusus dotibus eius
Cultus et in nullo forme pacietur abusum.
Quintus equs quartum redolet partimque figurat,
Sed tamen in modico quintus demittitur, in quo
Parcius arrisit predicto forma iugali,
Qui magis in terram sese demittit eundo.

He will scarcely defend the appearance of a horse and hold the form
the fifth horse, if anyone should attempt to compare the earlier ones
to this one; for he will put off the horse, and, clothed with the yoked mask,
he will savor of an ass, cast down by the same
sloth, fully stripped of equine manners.
If, however, no comparison to the first ones redound
upon this horse, but we scrutinize him in his own being,
he will not be excluded from his proper endowments
of cultivation, and in no way will he suffer an abuse of form.
The fifth horse is redolent of the fourth and partly figures him,
but yet in a small degree the fifth is let down, in which
the yoked form smiled more sparingly upon the aforesaid one,
who in going lowers himself more to the earth.

Nec satis ad plenum caput erigit, immo caduco
Declinans uultu, uisus descendit in imum.
Vestit eum color obscurus quem possidet ipsa
Nigredo, nullum passura colorem,
Nec plebeia uiget generis fortuna, sed Ethon
Hunc genuit, qui Solis eqos se gaudet habere
Fratres et fratrum sese deffendit honore.
Ops, superum genitrix, in signum federis isto
Naturam donauit equo, quo nodus amoris
Firmior effectus illarum uota ligauit.

Nor does he raise his head sufficiently to the full; nay, with a drooping
countenance bending, his look descends to the lowest.
A dark color clothes him, which Blackness herself possesses,
to suffer no color; nor is the fortune of his stock plebeian, but Ethon
begot this one, who rejoices that he has the Sun’s horses as brothers
and shields himself by the honor of his brothers.
Ops, mother of the gods, as a sign of that covenant,
bestowed upon the horse a nature, whereby the knot of love,
made firmer, bound their vows.

[213-270]

Predictos Racio, propria racione magistra,
Sub iuga cogit eqos, themoni federat, urget
Effrenes, ligat indomitos frenatque uagantes.
Primum sternit equm, stratum conscendit, habenis
Corrigit excursus, in uirga uisitat, instat
Verbere, uoce, minis; ilium uix illa quietum
Reddit, sed tandem superatus uincitur, illi
Paret et ad nutum Racionis fessus anhelat.
Sic primum componit eqos auriga Sophye,
Ne, si quadrigam Fronesis conscendat, eisdem
Indomitis, spacientur equi normamque relinquant,
Deuia sectentur, laxent iuga, uincula soluant,
Cuncta fluant, nutet currus, compago uacillet,
Cingula soluantur, laxetur nexus, habene
Depereant et tota labet substancia currus.

Reason, with her own reason as mistress,
drives the aforesaid horses under the yokes, fastens them to the pole, presses
the unbridled, ties the untamed and reins in the wandering.
First she saddles the horse, lays on the saddlecloth and mounts; with the reins
she corrects their excursions, visits with the rod, presses
with lash, voice, and threats; she scarcely renders him quiet,
but at length, overcome, he is vanquished; to her
he yields, and at the nod of Reason he pants, wearied.
Thus at the first the charioteer of Sophia composes the horses,
lest, if Phronesis mount the four-horse chariot, with these same
untamed, the horses should wander and leave the norm,
follow byways, slacken the yokes, undo the bonds,
let everything run loose, the chariot nod, the framework waver,
the girths be loosened, the linkage be slackened, the reins
perish, and the whole substance of the chariot collapse.

Postquam compositus ordo, per singula currens,
Singula composuit, Fronesis conscendere currum
Disponens, talem sese componit in usum:
Assidet; applaudit, congaudet, complacet illi
Curia tota simul multoque fauore recessum
Virginis exhylarat, reditus felicius omen
Orat et euentus reditu meliore serenos.
Oscula multiplicat repetens et in ore sigillans
Imprimit expresse; complexu brachia nectens,
Colla ligans animoque simul cum uoce salutans,
Illam congeminans iterat repetitque salutem.
Tunc monitu Racionis adest Prudencia; currum
Conscendit currusque decor cumulatus habundat
Plenius et roseo flammatur sidere uultus.

After the order, composed, running through each particular,
she composed each particular, disposing Phronesis to mount the chariot,
she composes herself for such a use:
she sits beside; the whole court at once applauds, rejoices together, is well-pleased with her,
and with much favor exhilarates the Virgin’s departure,
prays for a happier omen of return and for outcomes serene with a better return.
She multiplies kisses, repeating them, and, sealing upon the mouth,
presses them distinctly; weaving her arms in an embrace,
binding necks, and with spirit together with voice giving greeting,
she doubles it, reiterates, and repeats the salutation.
Then at the monition of Reason Prudence is present; she mounts the chariot, and the chariot’s
beauty, heaped up, abounds more fully, and her face is enflamed with a rosy star.

Instat equis Racio; uirga dictante, iugales
Aggrediuntur iter. Currus subtollitur, exit
Terras et tenuem currens euadit in auram.
Aeris aggrediens tractus Prudencia caute
Singula disquirit animo que uendicat aer
Ipse sibi, scrutatur eum penetratque fugacem.

Reason presses upon the horses; with the rod dictating, the yoke-mates
undertake the journey. The chariot is lifted up, leaves
the lands and, running, escapes into the tenuous air.
Approaching the tracts of the air, Prudence cautiously
inquires into each particular in mind that the air
claims for itself; she scrutinizes it and penetrates the fugitive.

Inquirit que materies, que nubis origo,
Quomodo terra madens proprio sudore resudat
In nubes celoque suos componit amictus;
Cur Phebus sitiens estuque caloris hanelus,
Haurit ab Oceano potus, sua pocula uertit
In nubes, crasso suspendit in aere nimbi
Vasa, cyphos ymbris uarii pluuieque lagenas;
Qualiter ignis hebet moriens in nube paritque
Fulmina, dum moritur, sic morte nocencior instat
Quam uita, uiuusque nequit quod mortuus infert;
Vnde trahunt ortum uenti, que semina rerum
Inspirent motum uentis causasque mouendi;
Cur Auster pluuias, pluuie pincerna, propinat
Terris et plene largitur pocula mundo;
Qualiter austrinos Boree sitis ebibit imbres
Emundatque uias pluuiis quasi scopa uiarum;
Qualiter agricola Zephyrus sine uomere terram
Excolit et florum segetes extollit in ortus;
Cur uolucris celeri pennarum remige tuta,
Plumas in remos, alas in carbasa fingens,
Transmeat aerium pelagus quasi nauis ymago
Et sine naufragio talem pertransit abyssum
Tuta, nec in tali pelago timet illa Caribdim.

He inquires what the material is, what the origin of cloud,
how the earth, dripping with its own sweat, sweats back
into clouds and composes its garments in the sky;
why Phoebus, thirsty and panting with the heat’s blaze,
draws drinks from Ocean, turns his own cups
into clouds, suspends in the thick air the storm-cloud’s
vessels—goblets of varied showers and flagons of rain;
how fire, dulling as it dies in a cloud, begets
lightnings—thus in death it presses on more harmful than in life,
and living cannot do what, dead, it inflicts;
whence the winds draw their birth, what seeds of things
inspire motion in the winds and the causes of their moving;
why Auster, cupbearer of rain, serves out
rains to the lands and lavishes brimming cups to the world;
how Boreas’s thirst drinks up the southern rains
and cleanses the ways with rains like a broom of the roads;
how Zephyrus, as farmer, without a plowshare, the earth
cultivates and raises harvests of flowers into up-springings;
why the bird, safe with the swift oarage of its feathers,
fashioning plumes into oars, wings into canvas,
crosses the airy sea like the image of a ship,
and without shipwreck safely passes through such an abyss,
nor in such a sea does it fear Charybdis.

[271-331]

Aeris occultos aditus, secreta, latebras
Altius inquirit Fronesis sensuque profundo
Vestigans, uidet intuitu meliore uagantes
Aerios ciues, quibus aer carcer, abyssus
Pena, dolor risus, mors uiuere, culpa triumphus.
Quorum mens, humili liuoris lesa ueneno,
In genus humanum uirus transfundit, ut ipsum
Consimili sanie morboque laboret eodem.
Hii sunt qui semper in nos armantur, inhermes
Deiciunt, uincunt armatos, rarius ipsi
Cedunt, sed uicti nequeunt iterare duellum,
Qui, uelud aerio uestiti corpore, nostram
Mentiti speciem, multo phantasmate brutos
Deludunt homines, falsi uerique sophyste.

Phronesis inquires higher into the hidden accesses of the air, its secrets, its hiding-places,
tracking with a deep sense; she sees, with better intuition, the wandering
aerial citizens, for whom the air is a prison, the abyss a penalty,
pain a laughter, death to live, guilt a triumph.
Whose mind, injured by the abject venom of envy,
pours its virus into the human race, so that it too
labors with similar sanies and with the same disease.
These are they who are always armed against us; the unarmed
they cast down, they conquer the armed; more rarely do they themselves
yield; but, once conquered, they cannot repeat the duel,
who, as if clothed with an airy body, having counterfeited our
appearance, with many a phantasm they delude brutish
men, sophists of the false and of the true.

In tenebris lucem simulant, in lite quietem,
Abscondunt sub pace dolos, in felle figurant
Dulcia, sub specie recti uiciata propinant.
Hos Deus esse deos fecit, quos lumine uero
Vera dies fudit et quos ab origine prima
Vestiuit deitatis honos; qui luce relicta
In tenebras adiere suas; qui fonte relicto
Inferni petiere lacus; qui, ueste decoris
Exuti, uestem gemitus saccumque doloris
Iniecere sibi; qui, maiestate superna
Deiecta, sine fine sibi meruere ruinam.
O grauis euentus, casus miser, unica pestis!

They simulate light in the darkness, in strife quiet;
they hide deceits under peace, in gall they fashion
sweet things, under the appearance of the right they proffer what is vitiated.
God made these to be gods, whom with true light
the true day poured forth, and whom from the first origin
the honor of deity vested; who, light left behind,
went into their own darkness; who, the fountain left behind,
sought the pools of Hell; who, stripped of the garment of comeliness,
cast upon themselves a garment of groaning and a sackcloth of sorrow;
who, their supernal majesty cast down,
deserved for themselves ruin without end.
O grievous outcome, wretched fall, the sole pestilence!

Iam seruit qui liber erat, mendicat habundans
Qui fuit, exilium patitur qui primus in aula
Regnabat, patitur penas a rege secundus.
Hoc casu fit gemma lutum, fit purpura saccus,
Lux tenebre, species confusio, gloria casus,
Risus tristicies, requies labor, alga iacinctus.
Celestis sic stella cadit, sic Lucifer, ortus
Nescius, occasu premitur, sic ciuis Olimpi
Exulat eiectus nec temperat exulis omen.

Now he serves who was free, he begs who was abundant;
he who was first reigning in the court suffers exile, the second
suffers penalties from the king. By this fall the gem becomes mud, the purple becomes sackcloth,
light becomes darkness, appearance confusion, glory a fall,
laughter sadness, rest labor, a hyacinth seaweed. Thus a celestial star falls, thus Lucifer,
unknowing of rising, is pressed down by setting; thus the citizen of Olympus
goes into exile, cast out, nor does he temper the omen of the exile.

Spes reditus, spes omnis abest ceditque timori.
O fastus uitanda lues, fugienda Caribdis,
Culpa grauis, morbus communis, publica pestis,
Ianua peccati, viciorum mater, origo
Nequicie, semen odii, uenacio pugne!
Que cadit ascendens, elata perit, peritura
Erigitur, promota ruit, ruitura tumescit.

The hope of return, every hope is absent and yields to fear.
O haughtiness, a plague to be avoided, a Charybdis to be fled,
a grave fault, a common disease, a public pestilence,
the doorway of sin, the mother of vices, the origin
of iniquity, the seed of hatred, the lure to battle!
Which falls while ascending, exalted perishes, and, destined to perish,
is lifted up; promoted, it collapses; about to collapse, it swells.

Que se ferre nequit, supra se lata, ruinam
Infra se patitur nec sese sustinet, immo
Mole sua premitur, proprio sub pondere lapsa.
Extra se cogit hominem se querere, de se
Exit homo, factusque sibi contrarius a se
Discrepat oblitusque sui se nescit et ultra
Transgrediens euadit adhuc, plus esse laborans
Quam sit, nec propria contentus origine, sese
Esse cupit maior et se superare laborat;
Quod petit amitens, perdens quod postulat, optans
Quod sibi mentitur, falsum uenatur honorem.
Hec pestis rectum uiciat, deturpat honestum,
Fermentat mores, iustum fugat, utile perdit.

Which cannot bear itself, having been borne above itself, it suffers a ruin
beneath itself, nor does it sustain itself; rather,
it is pressed by its own mass, having slipped under its own weight.
It compels a man outside himself to seek himself; from himself
the man goes out, and, made contrary to himself, he
is at variance, and forgetful of himself he does not know himself, and beyond
transgressing he yet escapes, laboring to be more
than he is; and, not content with his own origin, himself
he desires to be greater and strives to surpass himself;
losing what he seeks, losing what he demands, desiring
what he lies to himself about, he hunts false honor.
This pestilence vitiates the right, disfigures the honorable,
ferments morals, puts the just to flight, destroys the useful.

Hec saliunca rosas, hec nubes nubilat astra
Virtutum, cuius tenebris paciuntur eclipsim.
Hac lue celestis regni proscriptus ab aula,
Delictum luit exilio penaque reatum
Angelus, a propria deiectus sede, tumore
Fractus, deiectus fastu, liuore solutus.

This saliunca clouds the roses, this cloud clouds the stars of the virtues,
by whose darkness they suffer an eclipse.
By this plague, proscribed from the court of the celestial kingdom,
the Angel paid the delict with exile and the guilt with punishment,
cast down from his own seat, broken by swelling,
cast down by haughtiness, undone by envy.

[332-368]

Aeris excurso spacio, quo nubila celi
Nocte sua texunt tenebras, quo pendula nubes
In se cogit aquas, quo grandinis ingruit imber,
Quo uenti certant, quo fulminis ira tumescit,
Ethera transgreditur Fronesis, quo gracia pacis
Summa uiget, quo grata quies, quo gracior aura
Cuncta fouet, quo cuncta silent, quo purior ether
Ridet et expellit fletum, quo nubilus aer
Ingemit et totus archano lumine floret.
Etheree lucis superatis tractibus, illa
Alcius ingreditur spacium, quo splendor et ignis
Iura tenent, lux grata micat, sed coniuga luci
Lucis blandicias retrahit uis ipsa caloris.
Hic rerum nouitas, rerum decus, unica rerum
Forma, decor mundi uisum demulcet euntis
Virginis et cantus species noua debriat aurem,
Sed parco tamen auditu sonituque minore
Concipit illa sonum, certa tamen imbibit aure,
Qualiter iste sonus cythare celestis obesis
Vocibus expirat, ubi lune spera remisso
Suspirat cantu, rauce sonat, immo sonando
Pene silet, languetque sonans, neruique iacentis
Inferius gerit illa uicem, cordamque minorem
Reddit et in cythara sedere uix illa meretur.

Having traversed the space of the air, where the clouds of heaven
with their own night weave darkness, where the hanging cloud
gathers waters into itself, where the shower of hail rushes on,
where the winds contend, where the wrath of the thunderbolt swells,
Fronesis crosses the ether, where the grace of peace
in the heights flourishes, where welcome rest, where a more gracious breeze
cherishes all, where all things are silent, where purer ether
smiles and drives out weeping, where the cloudy air
groans and altogether blooms with arcane light.
Having surpassed the tracts of ethereal light, she
goes higher into the space where splendor and fire
hold rights, welcome light sparkles, but the spouse of light—
the very force of heat—draws back the blandishments of light.
Here the newness of things, the ornament of things, the unique form
of things, the beauty of the world soothes the gaze of the maiden going,
and a new kind of song makes the ear drunk with delight,
yet with sparing hearing and with a lesser sound
she takes in the sound, with a sure ear nevertheless she imbibes it,
just how this sound of the celestial cithara with thickened
voices breathes out, where the sphere of the Moon with slackened
song sighs, sounds hoarsely—indeed, by sounding it almost is silent—
and, sounding, languishes; and the string lying slack
performs lower down its part, and renders the lesser chord,
and scarcely does it deserve to sit in the cithara.

Hic uidet explicito uisu Prudencia lune
Detrimenta, uices, cursus, momenta, labores,
Quomodo iunctus ei Phebus depauperat illam
Luce, uel econtra Phebo furatur honorem
Luminis et populos fallaci nocte timere
Cogit et effigiem noctis sine nocte figurat;
Humores cur luna parit, cur equora lune
Detrimenta luunt uel eadem diuite gaudent;
Quid notet in luna lune nota quidue notando
Signet, nec tenuem possit delere lituram
Splendoris cumulus, dum fonti luminis instat
Parua lues, nec ei dignatur cedere, cum quo
Litigat et radio lucis magis umbra diescit.

Here with unfolded sight Prudence sees the moon’s detriments, vicissitudes, courses, moments, labors,
how Phoebus, joined to her, impoverishes her of light, or conversely she steals from Phoebus the honor
of brightness, and compels peoples to fear in a fallacious night
Cogit et effigiem noctis sine nocte figurat;
why the moon begets humors, why the seas pay off the moon’s losses
or else rejoice in the same wealth; what the mark of the moon notes in the moon, or what by being marked
it signifies, nor can the heap of splendor erase the slight erasure,
while upon the fount of light there presses a small blemish, nor does it deign to yield to him with whom
it litigates, and by the ray of light the shadow more becomes day.

[369-392]

Alcius euadens, uirgo conscendit in altum,
Sol ubi iura tenet, ubi solis cereus ardet
Et lucis scaturit fons uiuus, uena caloris
Manat splendorisque noui thesaurus habundat.
Illic uirgo uidet que sit uia, semita, cursus
Solis et unde sibi sumat fomenta uigoris
Etheree lucis genitor, fons, mater, origo;
Qualiter in stellis regnans artansque planetas
Imperio seruire suo, nunc stare meantes
Cogit, nunc tumidos sectari deuia sola
Maiestate iubet, nunc libertate meandi
Concessa motus, reddit sua iura planetis;
Qualiter alternans uultus erroris in ortu
Fit puer inque die medio iuueneseit adultus,
Mentiturque uirum tandem totusque senescit
Vespere: sic uarias species etatis ad horam
Sol prefert unusque dies complectitur euum.
Iam lune sonitum fastidit uirginis auris
Quam dulcis meliorque sonus seducit, inescans
Aurem, nec cantus memorem sinit esse prioris.

Emerging higher, the maiden mounts into the height,
where the Sun holds jurisdictions, where the sun’s cereous taper burns,
and the living fount of light gushes, the vein of heat
flows, and the treasury of new splendor abounds.
Illic the maiden sees what is the way, the footpath, the course
of the Sun, and whence the begetter, fount, mother, origin
of aethereal light takes for himself fomentations of vigor;
how, reigning among the stars and constraining the planets,
he compels them to serve his command, now to stand though moving,
Cogit, now by his majesty he orders the swollen to pursue
bypaths alone, now, liberty of going being granted
to the motions, he gives back their own rights to the planets;
how, alternating the faces of wandering at his rising,
he becomes a boy and in the middle of the day grows youthful, adult,
and at last counterfeits a man and wholly grows old
at evening: thus the Sun displays various forms of age by the hour,
and a single day embraces an aeon.
Now the maiden’s ear grows weary of the moon’s sound,
than which a sweeter and better sound seduces, baiting
the ear, nor does it allow the song to be mindful of the former.

Hunc cantum Syrena parit, que solis adheret
Motibus et cytharam uocis dulcore fatetur.
Vox omnis miratur eam, ueneratur adorans,
Tociusque sonus cythare suspirat ad illam.

This song the Siren brings forth, who adheres to the motions of the sun,
and by the sweetness of her voice she avows the cithara.
Every voice marvels at her, venerates, adoring,
and the whole sound of the cithara sighs for her.

[393-413]

Egrediens solis regnum maturat in altum
Gressus uirgo suos, sed gressus impedit ipse
Limitis anfractus anceps, multeque uiarum
Ambages; tandem superato calle, laboris
Pondere, cautele studio, regione potitur
Qua Venus et Stilbons complexis nexibus herent.
Illic, precursor solis precoque diei,
Lucifer exultat, terris solacia lucis
Presignans, ortuque suo preludit ad ortum
Solis et auroram proprio predicit in ortu.
Gressibus hiis Stilbons comes indiuisus adheret,
Tanquam uerna sui comitans uestigia solis,
Obnubensque comas radiis solaribus, ignes
Temperat et solis obnubilat astra galero.

Going forth, out of the Sun’s realm, the maiden hastens her steps on high;
but her steps the very doubtful winding of the boundary impedes,
and the many meanderings of the ways. At length, the path overcome,
under the weight of labor and with the zeal of caution, she gains the region
where Venus and Stilbon cling with intertwined bonds.
There, the forerunner of the Sun and the herald of day,
Lucifer exults, presaging to the lands the solace of light,
and with his own rising he preludes the rising of the Sun
and foretells the dawn in his own rising.
With these steps Stilbon, an inseparable companion, adheres,
as a household-servant attending the footprints of his own Sun,
and, veiling his locks with solar rays, he tempers the fires
and overclouds the Sun’s stars with a broad-brimmed cap.

Speraque Luciferi motu leuis, ocior aura,
Motu parturiens sonitum, lasciuit acuta
Voce, nec in cythara Veneris plebea putatur
Musa, sed auditis assensum iure meretur.
Voce pari similique modo cantuque propinquo
Mercurii Syrena canit Venerisque camenam
Reddit et ex equo sonitu citarizat amico.

And the sphere of Lucifer, light by its motion, swifter than a breeze,
by its motion bringing forth a sound, it sports with a sharp
voice, nor is the Muse on the cithara of Venus thought plebeian,
but by the things heard it justly deserves assent.
With an equal voice and in a similar manner and with a neighboring song
the Siren of Mercury sings and renders the Muse of Venus,
and with an equal, friendly sound plays the cithara.

[414-462]

Progreditur Fronesis, flammata palacia Martis
Ingrediens, stupet insultus irasque caloris
Quem parit ille locus qui, totus in igne uaporans,
Nil nouit nisi feruores ignisque procellas.
Non ibi luget hyems, non ueris gracia ridet,
Non tumet autompnus, sed tantum fulminat estas.
Imperat hic Mars igne calens, fecundus in ira,
Bella serens siciensque lites nostrique sititor
Sanguinis, excuciens pacem fedusque recidens,
Qui regni uiolare fidem, mutare potentes
Gaudet, flammantis uestitus crine comete,
Qui parat arma uiris, cogit sperare furentes,
Seminat insultus, parit iras, laxat amores.

Phronesis advances, entering the flaming palaces of Mars,
she is astounded at the assaults and wraths of the heat
which that place begets, which, all steaming in fire,
knows nothing except fervors and tempests of fire.
There winter does not lament, nor does the grace of spring laugh,
nor does autumn swell, but only summer fulminates.
Here Mars commands, hot with fire, fecund in wrath,
sowing wars and thirsting for quarrels, and a thirster after our
blood, shaking off peace and cutting down the treaty,
he who rejoices to violate the faith of a realm and to change the powerful,
clad with the hair of a flaming comet,
who prepares arms for men, compels the frenzied to hope,
he sows assaults, begets wraths, loosens loves.

Quid gerat interius facies docet ipsa, rubore
Predicat interni rabiem pestemque furoris;
Tabe sua uiciat comitem, sociumque planetam
Vel seuum seuire docet, uel forte benignum
Nequicia docet esse trucem leditque ueneno.
Cuius spera ruens tonantis more tonando
Clamat et altisonos resonat clamore boatus.
Alcius exclamat reliquis Syrena tonantis
Martis, sed cantus dulcedo remittitur ipsa
Tempestate soni langens, minuitque fauorem
Asperitas, uocisque rigor fert damna fauori.

What she bears within, her very face teaches, by its blush;
it preaches the rabidity and the pest of inward furor;
with its own taint it vitiates a companion, and the allied planet
it teaches either, if savage, to rage, or perhaps, if benign,
iniquity teaches to be truculent, and it wounds with venom.
Whose sphere, rushing, by thundering in the manner of the Thunderer,
shouts and with its clamor resounds high-sounding bellowings.
Higher than the rest cries out the Siren of thundering
Mars, but the sweetness of the song itself is remitted,
languishing in a tempest of sound, and asperity diminishes favor,
and the rigor of the voice bears damages to favor.

[438-462]

Et jam Lemniacos uomitus ignisque uapores
Virgineus labor euadit nec flamma uiantem
Contigit aut eius ausa est contingere crinem.
Tunc Iouis ignocuos ignes, lucisque serene
Leticiam, risusque poli pertemptat eundo.
Hic regio stelle Iouialis lampade tota
Splendet et eterno letatur uere beata.

And now the Lemnian belchings and vapors of fire
the maidenly toil escapes, nor did the flame touch the wayfarer
or dare to touch her hair.
Then Jove’s innocuous fires, and the gladness of serene
light, and the laughter of the sky she feels through and through as she goes.
Here the region of the Jovial star, with its whole lamp,
shines and rejoices in eternal spring, truly blessed.

Hic sydus Iouiale micat mundoque salutem
Nunciat et Martis iram Martisque furorem
Sistit et occurit tranquilla pace furenti.
Cui si stella mali prenuncia, preuia casus
Iungitur, ille tamen inimicum sidus amicat,
Alternansque uices, in risus tristia, planctum
In plausus, fletusque graues in gaudia mutat;
Vel si forte Ioui societur stella salutis
Nuncia, stella Iouis uultu meliore salutem
Auget et euentus melioris dupplicat omen,
Fedus amans pacisque sator, nutritor amoris,
Extirpans iras, proscribens bella, furores
Compescens, delens lites Martemque refrenans.
Qui motu generans sonitum, non uerberat auram
Obtuso cantu, sed dulcibus allicit aures
Cantibus et dulcem Philomenam reddit amenans
Musa Iouis, tantoque sono letatur alumpno
Musica que proprie thesauros aggerat artis.

Here the Jovial sidereal body flashes and announces to the world salvation,
and it halts Mars’s wrath and Mars’s frenzy
and, with tranquil peace, runs to meet the raging one.
If to it a star fore-announcing evil, the forerunner of mishap,
is joined, yet it makes the hostile star friendly,
and, alternating turns, it changes sad things into laughter, lament
In applause, and grave tears into joys;
or if by chance a star of salvation, announcing good, be allied to Jove,
the star of Jove, with a better countenance, augments salvation
and doubles the omen of a better event;
a treaty-loving and peace-sowing one, a nourisher of love,
extirpating angers, proscribing wars, restraining frenzies,
quelling them, blotting out quarrels, and reining in Mars.
Which, generating sound by its motion, does not beat the air
with a blunted song, but with sweet songs allures the ears,
and, making pleasant, renders Philomel sweet; the Muse of Jove,
and Music rejoices in such a great-sounding pupil, who properly heaps up the treasures of art.

[463-483]

Vlterius progressa suos Prudencia gressus
Dirigit ad superos, superans Iouis atria cursu,
Saturnique domos tractu maiore iacentes
Intrat et algores hyemis brumeque pruinas
Horret et ignauum frigus miratur in estu.
Illic feruet hyems, estas algescit et estus
Friget, delirat splendor, dum flamma tepescit.
Hie tenebre lucent, hie lux tenebrescit et illic
Nox cum luce nitet et lux cum nocte diescit.

Further advanced, Prudence directs her steps to the supernal ones,
overpassing Jove’s atria in her course,
and she enters the houses of Saturn lying in a greater tract,
and she shudders at the chills of winter and the brumal rimes,
and marvels at the ignoble cold in the heat.
There winter seethes, summer grows cold and the heat
chills; splendor raves, while the flame grows tepid.
Here the darknesses shine, here light grows dark, and there
night gleams with light, and light with night grows to day.

Illic Saturnus spacium percurrit auaro
Motu progressuque graui longaque dieta.
Hie algore suo predatur gaudia ueris
Furaturque decus pratis et sidera florum,
Algescitque calens, frigens feruescit, inundat
Aridus, obscurus lucet iuuenisque senescit.
Nec tamen a cantu sonus eius degener errat,
Sed comitum uoces uox preuenit eius adulto
Concentu, quem non cantus obtusio reddit
Insipidum, cui dat uocis dulcedo saporem.

There Saturn runs through his span with avaricious
motion and with heavy progress and with a long duration.
Here, by his own chill, he preys upon the joys of spring
and he steals the adornment from the meadows and the stars of the flowers,
and, while warm, he grows cold; while cold, he seethes; the arid one floods,
the obscure shines, and the young man grows old.
Nor yet does his sound, degenerate, stray from song,
but his voice outstrips the voices of his companions with a mature
harmony, which the dulling of song does not render
insipid, to which the sweetness of the voice gives savor.

Hie dolor et gemitus, lacrime, discordia, terror,
Tristicies, pallor, planctus, iniuria regnant.

Here dolor and groaning, tears, discord, terror,
sadness, pallor, lamentation, injury reign.

LIBER QUINTUS

BOOK FIVE

[1-39]

Lucis inoffense spacium fontemque nitoris,
Quo radiant stelle, quo certant fulgure multo
Astra poli propriumque diem sine fine perhennant,
Quo celi faciem depingunt sidera, uirgo
Exhilarata subit, hausto pro parte laboris
Pondere, letaturque poli perflata sereno.
In stellis ibi preradiant celoque fruuntur
Quos uel fama deos facto, uel fabula uerbo
Effinxit, retinentque sibi sine munere nomen.
Hic nouus Alcides celo summittitur, illic
Perseus ardentis gladio metit ora Meduse;
Illic ense carens, ensem mentitur Orion,
Sub pugne facie sine bello bella minatur
Emoniusque senex, archu dictante, sagitam
Excitat ad motum, nullo tamen illa uolatu
Effugit, aut monitus arcus euadit eundo.

The unoffending space of light and the fount of brilliance,
wherein the stars radiate, wherein they vie with much effulgence;
the stars of the pole and their own day perennially endure without end;
where the stars depict the face of heaven, the Maiden,
exhilarated, ascends, the burden of toil in part drained,
and she rejoices, wafted-through by the pole’s serenity.
There in the stars they out-radiate and enjoy the heaven
those whom either fame by deed, or fable by word,
has fashioned as gods, and they retain for themselves the name without any meed.
Here a new Alcides is admitted to heaven, there
Perseus with his sword mows the face of burning Medusa;
there, lacking a sword, Orion feigns a sword,
under the face of combat, without war he threatens wars,
and the Haemonian old man, with the bow dictating, the arrow
excites to motion; yet by no flight does that one
escape, nor by going does it evade the admonitions of the bow.

Hic proles Ledea micat nec pignus amoris,
Quem prius in terris gessit, deponit in astris.
Vertitur in sidus, stellatus sidere fame,
Hic cuius dono medicine stella caducis
Illuxit, contra morbos dans arma salutis.
Ablatos redimit uultus et damna pudoris
Parrasis in celum translata; repensat eidem
Iupiter ablatum florem, pro flore pudoris
Eterno largitus ei florere nitore.

Here the Ledaean offspring gleams, and he does not lay down among the stars the pledge of love
which formerly he bore upon the earth. He is turned into a constellation, starry with sidereal fame,
here he by whose gift the star of medicine has shone for the falling-sick,
giving the arms of health against diseases. He redeems the stolen looks and the losses of modesty
for the Parrhasian translated into heaven; Jupiter repays to the same the plucked flower, and in place of the flower of modesty
has bestowed on her to bloom with eternal brightness.

Preterea uariis stellis inscribitur aula
Celi, quas uario titulauit nomine quondam
Musa poetarum, ueri sub ymagine ludens.
Signorum duodena cohors prefulget in astris,
Ex quo fulgore nitens infraque relinquit
Stellarum uulgus reliquasque superuenit astro.
Hic ardet Cancer, urit Leo, Virgo resultat.

Moreover the hall of Heaven is inscribed with various stars,
which the Muse of poets once entitled with a various name,
playing beneath the image of truth.
The twelvefold cohort of the Signs shines foremost among the stars,
and, shining with that radiance, leaves beneath it the common crowd of stars,
and overtops the rest by its star.
Here Cancer burns, Leo sears, the Virgin rebounds.

Equat Libra diem, crudescit Scorpius, alget
Chyron, Capra riget, diffunditur Vrna, madescunt
Pisces, exultat Aries, vexilla gerendo
Veris, preradiat Taurus Geminique Latones.
Hanc celi speciem Fronesis delibat ocellus,
Quam penetrare nequit uisus notamque requirit
Materiem tanteque stupet miracula lucis.

Libra equalizes the day, Scorpius grows cruel, Chiron grows cold,
the Goat stiffens, the Urn is poured out, the Fishes grow moist,
Aries exults, by bearing the banners
of spring; Taurus and the Latonian Twins pre-radiate.
The little eye of Phronesis tastes this appearance of heaven,
which the sight cannot penetrate, and it seeks the mark and the matter,
and it is astonished at the miracles of so great a light.

[40-82]

Postquam celestes aditus celique profundum
Astrorumque uagos reditus emensa reliquit,
Inque supercilio mundi stetit anxia, mente
Fluctuat, in uarios motus deducitur; heret
Mens animusque fluit, dubitat cum mente uoluntas
Ipsa nec in certo defigitur anchora mentis.
Namque timet dubitatque, timens ambage locorum
Seduci, quos ulterius uia porrigit anceps;
Que nullos hominum gressus uolucrumque uolatus
Noscit, ab incursu rerum strepituque uiantum
Funditus excipitur, nullo uexata tumultu.
Hic hominis gressus nutans peccaret eundo,
Hebrius erraret pes ipse pedisque lucerna
Occia uisus hebens ageret, pedibusque negaret
Ducatum, lumenque foret sub lumine cecum,
Non quod regnet ibi noctis caligo, sed illam
Emphatice lucis splendor purgatus inungit.

After she had measured and left behind the celestial approaches and the heaven’s profundity
and the wandering returns of the stars,
and, anxious, stood upon the brow of the world, in mind
she fluctuates, she is led down into various motions; she clings,
mind and animus flow, the will doubts along with the mind,
nor is the very anchor of the mind fixed in the certain.
For she fears and hesitates, fearing by the winding-ways of the places
to be seduced, which further on a two-headed road stretches;
which knows no steps of men nor flights of birds,
is from the incursion of things and the din of wayfarers
wholly excepted, vexed by no tumult.
Here a man’s wavering step would err in going,
the very foot, inebriate, would wander, and the foot’s lamp,
sluggish, with dulled sight, would act, and would deny to the feet
a guidance, and the light would be blind under the light,
not because there the murk of night rules, but because
emphatically a purified splendor of light anoints it.

Difficilis conscensus ad hanc facilisque recessus,
Accessus paucis, casus patet omnibus, in quam
Vix aliquis transire ualet, ualet omnis ab illa
Declinare uia, que paucis peruia multis
Clauditur, arta nimis uirtuti, larga ruine:
Non huc nobilitas generis, non gracia forme,
Non gaze deiectus amor, non gloria rerum,
Non mundanus apex, non uirtus corporis, audax
Improbitas hominis, preceps audacia tendit,
Sed solum uirtus animi, constancia mentis
Factaque nobilitas, non nata sed insita menti,
Interior species, uirtutum copia, morum
Regula, paupertas mundi, contemptus honoris.
Difficiles igitur aditus facilemque ruinam
Cum Fronesis uideat, magno succenditur estu
Sollicite mentis, uictique labore iugales
Nec iuga ferre uelint nec soluere iura magistre,
Ignarique uie, callem mirentur ineptum
Gressibus, et pedibus gradiendi iura negantem;
Non Racio sursum deflectere possit habenas,
Quas retinent instanter equi domineque repugnant
Effrenes, ultraque negant seruire jubenti.
Dum mentem Fronesis anceps sentencia motus
Distrahit in uarios nec pretemptare locorum
Abdita sola potest, nisi quis premonstret eidem,
Vel conducat eam, gressum moderatus euntis.

Difficult is the ascent to this, and easy the recess;
access for few, the fall lies open to all, into which
scarcely anyone is able to cross; everyone is able from it
to decline by the way, which, passable to few, to many
is shut; too narrow for virtue, broad for ruin.
Not hither does nobility of race, not the grace of form,
not the abject love of treasure, not the glory of things,
not the worldly summit, not the virtue of the body, the bold
wickedness of man, headlong daring, tend,
but only the virtue of the spirit, constancy of mind,
a nobility made, not born but inborn in the mind,
an interior beauty, a plenty of virtues, a rule
of morals, poverty of the world, contempt of honor.
Therefore, since Phronesis sees the difficult approaches and the easy ruin,
she is kindled with a great heat of an anxious mind,
and the yoked pair, conquered by toil, neither wish to bear the yokes
nor to unloose the ordinances of their mistress;
and, ignorant of the way, they marvel at a track unfit
for steps, denying to the feet the laws of walking;
nor can Reason bend the reins upward,
which the horses hold fast, and, unbridled, resist their mistress,
and furthermore refuse to serve the one commanding.
While a wavering sentence of motion distracts the mind of Phronesis
into various [courses], nor can she alone pre-attempt the hidden
places, unless someone should point them out to her,
or conduct her, moderating the step of one going.

[83-153]

Ecce puella poli residens in culmine, celum
Despiciens, sursum delegans lumina, quiddam
Extramundanum toto cognamine uisus
Vestigans, nil corporeum uenata sed ultra
Transcendens, incorporei scrutata latentem
Causam, principium rerum finemque requirens,
Visibus offertur Fronesis, uisumque nitore
Luminis offendens, mentem nouitate relaxat.
Nec mirum quoniam tanto fulgore decoris
Preminet ut Stellas preditet fulgure, lumen
Lumine multiplicans et lucem luce, nec ipsi
Lumen adoptiuum largiri censet Olimpo.
Nil terrestre gerens facie, nil ore caducum
Insinuans, mortale nichil genitumque puelle
Demonstrat facies, tantum celeste quod offert
Forma puellaris.

Behold a maiden, sitting on the summit of the sky, the heaven
looking down, directing her lights upward, tracking something
extramundane with the whole cognomen of vision,
hunting nothing corporeal but, beyond, transcending,
having scrutinized the hidden cause of the incorporeal, seeking
the principle and the end of things,
Phronesis is offered to the sight, and, offending the sight with the brilliance
of light, she relaxes the mind by her novelty.
Nor is it a wonder, since with so great a splendor of decor
she is preeminent that she outshines the stars with her flash, a light
multiplying light with light and brightness with brightness, nor does she
judge to bestow an adoptive light upon Olympus itself.
Bearing nothing terrestrial in her face, insinuating nothing caducous
with her mouth, the face shows nothing mortal and generated of the girl,
only the celestial which the girl-form offers.

Hanc argumenta decoris
Esse deam monstrant, instancia nulla refellit
Quod decor ipse probat faciesque simillima celo.
Inflammat diadema caput quod, lampade multa
Gemmarum radians, auro flammatur et extra
Scintillans, lapidum duodeno sidere fulget.
Librum dextra gerit, sceptrum regale sinistra
Gestat et ad librum plerumque recurrit ocellus;
Sed raro tendit ad uirgam, tandemque reuertens
Circuit ille manum solers, ne leua uacillet,
Succumbens honeri uirge, sceptrumque resignet.

The evidences of beauty show her to be a goddess; no insistence refutes
what Beauty itself and a face most similar to heaven prove.
A diadem inflames her head, which, radiant with many a lamp of
gems, is enflamed with gold and, scintillating outward, gleams with the
twelvefold star of stones.
She carries a book in her right hand, bears a royal scepter in her left,
and the little eye for the most part runs back to the book;
but rarely does it tend toward the rod, and at length returning
that clever little one circles the hand, lest the left hand wobble,
succumbing to the burden of the rod, and resign the scepter.

Claudit eam uestis auro perfusa, refulgens
Argento, plus ueste decens habituque decenti
Gracior et puro celi fulgencior astro,
Quam diuina manus et solers dextra Minerue
Texuit, ut forme nobis exponit honestas.
Hie archana Dei, diuine mentis abyssum
Subtilis describit acus formaque figurat
Informem, locat immensum monstratque latentem.
Incirconscriptum describit, uisibus offert
Inuisum, quod lingua nequit pictura fatetur:
Quomodo Nature subiectus sermo stupescit,
Dum temptat diuina loqui, uiresque loquendi
Perdit et ad ueterem cupit ille recurrere sensum,
Mutescuntque soni, uix barbutire ualentes,
Deque suo sensu deponunt uerba querelam;
Qualiter ipse Deus in se capit omnia rerum
Nomina, que non ipsa Dei natura recusat,
Cuncta tamen, mediante tropo, dictante figura
Concipit et uoces puras sine rebus adoptat.

A vestment perfused with gold encloses her, refulgent
with silver, more becoming than the dress and, with a becoming bearing,
gracier and more fulgent than the pure star of heaven,
which the divine hand and the skillful right hand of Minerva
wove, as it sets forth for us the comeliness of form.
Here the subtle needle describes the arcana of God, the abyss
of the divine mind, and with form it figures
the formless, it places the immense and shows the latent.
It describes the uncircumscribed, offers to the sight
the invisible; what the tongue cannot, painting confesses:
how speech subject to Nature is astonied,
while it attempts to speak divine things, and the powers of speaking
it loses, and it longs to return to its former sense,
and the sounds fall mute, scarcely able to stammer,
and words lay down a complaint about their own sense;
how God himself takes into himself all the names
of things, which the very nature of God does not refuse,
yet all, by a mediating trope, with figure dictating,
he conceives, and adopts pure voices without the things.

Ens iustus sine iusticia, uiuens sine uita,
Principium sine principio, finis sine fine,
Immensus sine mensura, sine robore fortis,
Absque uigore potens, sine motu cuncta gubernans,
Absque loco loca cuncta replens, sine tempore durans,
Absque situ residens, habitus ignarus habendo
Cuncta simul, sine uoce loquens, sine pace quietus,
Absque nouo splendore nitens, sine luce choruscans.
Nec solum iustus uera racione, sed ipsa
Iusticia est, non solum lucidus ipse, sed ipsa
Lux est nocte carens, nec solum nomine solo
Dicitur immensus, uerum mensura caduca
Singula describens et certis finibus aptans,
Nec fortis sola dicti racione sed ipsum
Robur subsistit, eterno robore nitens.
Solus iure potens, qui summa potencia solus
Cuncta potest, a quo procedit posse potentum,
Nec solum loca cuncta replet, sed singula solus
Infra se claudit, quasi meta locusque locorum.

a just Being without justice, living without life,
a beginning without beginning, an end without end,
immense without measure, strong without strength,
powerful without vigor, governing all things without motion,
without place filling all places, enduring without time,
residing without site, unknowing of possession, by having
all things at once, speaking without voice, quiet without peace,
shining without new splendor, coruscating without light.
not only just in true reason, but Justice itself
he is, not only bright himself, but Light itself
lacking night; nor only by name alone
is he called immense, rather the caducous measure
describes each single thing and fits them with fixed bounds,
nor strong by the reason of a saying alone, but Strength itself
subsists, shining with eternal strength.
alone by right powerful, who by highest potency alone
can do all things, from whom proceeds the being-able of the potent,
not only does he fill all places, but each single thing he alone
encloses within himself, as the boundary and the place of places.

Hic legitur tamen obscure tenuique figura
Qualiter una, manens, simplex, eterna potestas,
Fons, splendor, species, uia, uirtus, finis, origo,
Ingenitus genitor, uiuens Deus, unicus auctor,
Unus in usya, personis trinus, in uno
Vnicus esse manet, quem trina relacio trinum
Reddit et in trino manet unus, trinus in uno.

Here, however, it is read, in an obscure and slender figure,
how the One, abiding, simple, eternal Power,
Fountain, Splendor, Species, Way, Virtue, End, Origin,
the Unbegotten Begetter, the living God, the unique Author,
one in ousia, three in persons, in the One
remains unique Being, whom the triple Relation makes triune,
and in the Triune he remains one, triune in One.

[154-165]

Qua racione Patris speculum, lux, splendor, ymago,
Filius est a Patre Deo Deus unus et idem,
Principium de principio, de lumine lumen,
Sol de sole micans, splendor productus ab igne,
A simili similis, a uero uerus, ab uno
Vnus, ab eterno nascens eternus, ab equo
Equalis, bonus a summo, sublimis ab alto;
Qualiter ardor, amor, concordia, forma duorum
Spiritus est, in quo proprie Pater oscula proli
Donat et in nato sese Pater inuenit, in quo
Se uidet ipse parens, dum de se nascitur ipse
Alter et in genito splendet gignentis ymago.

By what rationale the mirror of the Father, light, splendor, image,
the Son is from the Father God, God one and the same,
Principle from principle, light from light,
sun from sun gleaming, splendor brought forth from fire,
from the like, like; from the true, true; from the one,
One; from the eternal, being born, eternal; from the equal,
equal; good from the highest, sublime from on high;
how ardor, love, concord, the form of two,
is the Spirit, in whom properly the Father gives kisses to the offspring
and in the Son the Father finds himself, in whom
the parent sees himself, while from himself he is born, he himself
as an other, and in the begotten the image of the begetter shines.

[166-177]

[166-177] The source lines to translate are not included in the prompt; please provide the Latin text for lines 166–177 so I can supply an English translation.

Cultibus hiis afflata poli regina caduca
Deserit atque Dei secretum consulit, heret
Diuinis, mentem terrenis exuit, ipsam
Haurit mente Noym, diuini fluminis haustu
Ebria, sed pocius dicatur sobria, namque
Ebrietas nascens ex tali nectare, plena
Sobrietate uiget nec mentem cogit ab usu
Degenerare suo, uerum generosius ipsam
Erigit, elimans nostre contagia sordis.
Hanc humilis gressu, uultu submissa, modesta
Gestibus assequitur Fronesis primoque salutem
Delibans, tali pingit concepta loquela:

Inspired by these rites, the queen of the heavens abandons perishable things
and consults the secret of God; she clings to divine things, strips her mind of earthly things,
and draws Nous itself into her mind; drunk with a draught of the divine river,
yet rather let her be called sober, for intoxication arising from such nectar,
full of Sobriety, flourishes and does not compel the mind to degenerate
from its proper use, but more nobly raises it, refining away the contagions of our filth.
Her, with humble step, downcast in countenance, modest in gestures,
Phronesis follows, and first, sipping a greeting, she paints her conceptions with such speech:

[178-264]

I’m missing the actual Latin text for lines [178–264]. Please paste those lines (with their original formatting, including any
and ) so I can translate them into English while preserving the formatting.

"O regina poli, celi dea, filia summi
Artificis, facies nec enim diuina caducam
Te docet, aut nostri generis defflere litturam,
Quam probat esse deam uultus sceptrumque fatetur
Reginam natamque Deo tua gloria monstrat,
Cui superum sedes, celi uia, limes Olimpi,
Extramundanus orbis regioque Tonantis
Tota patet, soliumque Dei fatumque quod ultra est,
Me moderare uagam, stupidam rege, siste timentem
Indoctamque doce, fluitantem corripe, tristem
Letifica, gaudens peregrine consule, ceptum
Perfice, nutantem firma, succurre cadenti;
Nam uaga sum, tremebunda, stupens, indocta, laborans,
Defficiens, ignara loci, peregrina, fatiscens;
Que, nitens superare polos sedesque supernas
Inuadens, penetrale Dei talamumque Tonantis
Consiliumque Iouis nutans, uaga, sola pererrans,
Aggredior, celique uias pertempto latentes.
Nec tamen inconstans, preceps, improuida, casu
Precipitante uias, istos inuado labores;
Sed precibus cedens et tandem uelle coacta
Nature monitu, Virtutum numine, nutu
Precipue Racionis ad hoc ego mittor, ut ipsa
Nature summo presentem uota Tonanti.
In multis errare manum Natura recordans,
Erratum reuocare uolens culpasque priores
Tergere, uel ueteres operis nouitate beati
Excusare notas, hominem formare, beatum
Cudere, perfectum complere, creare modestum
Temptat, quo possit ueteres uelare reatus,
Erranti mundo dans de tot milibus unum,
Qui rectum sibi deffendat, scrutetur honestum,
Damnet avariciam, diffundat munera, curet
Excessus, medium teneat, proscribat abusus.

"O queen of the pole, goddess of heaven, daughter of the highest
Artificer, for your divine face does not, in fact, teach you to be perishable,
or to bewail the blotting-out of our race;
which visage proves you to be a goddess, and the scepter confesses you
a queen, and your glory shows you born from God,
to whom the seats of the supernal ones, the way of heaven, the boundary of Olympus,
the extramundane orb and the region of the Thunderer
lie wholly open, and the throne of God and that which is beyond Fate;
govern me, a wanderer; rule the stupid one; check the fearful;
teach the unlearned; correct the drifting; make the sad joyful;
rejoicing, have care for the peregrine; complete what has been begun;
make firm the tottering; run to help the falling;
for I am wandering, trembling, stupefied, unlearned, laboring,
failing, ignorant of the place, a stranger, flagging;
who, striving to overpass the poles and invading the supernal seats,
the innermost shrine of God and the bridal-chamber of the Thunderer
and the counsel of Jove—wavering, wandering, roaming alone—
I attempt, and I assay the hidden ways of heaven.
Nor yet, inconstant, headlong, improvident, with chance
hurling down the paths, do I rush upon these labors;
but yielding to prayers and at length compelled to will,
by Nature’s monition, by the numen of the Virtues, by the nod
especially of Reason, to this I am sent, that I myself
may present Nature’s vows to the Most High Thunderer.
Remembering that her hand has erred in many things, Nature,
wishing to call back the error and to wipe earlier faults,
or to excuse old marks by the newness of a blessed work,
tries to form a human being, to forge a blessed one,
to complete a perfect one, to create a modest one,
whereby she may be able to veil the old guilt,
giving to the erring world one out of so many thousands,
who might defend the right for himself, search out the honorable,
condemn avarice, pour forth gifts, care for excesses,
hold to the mean, proscribe abuses.

Nec sine consiliis, nutu, moderamine, uoto
Virtutum discernit opus, sed tota sororum
Concio conceptus assensu nutrit eodem.
Sed quoniam tantum circa terrena potentis
Nature uiget officium languetque potestas,
In superis nil iuris habens animamque creare
Nescia, quam sola pictoris dextra superni
Format et in nullo Nature iura requirit,
Hac racione diu nitens multumque reluctans,
Huc agor et superos perquiro sola recessus,
Quo possim conferre Deo quod concipit ipsa
Nature racio, quod uirtus optat, ut ipsum
Velle Dei nostrum confirmet uelle precesque
Audiat et nostris aspiret gracia uotis:
Vt diuina manus animam demittat ab alto,
Que sit mente sagax, uirtute referta, pudore
Predita, presignita fide, pietate refulgens,
Que, carnis uestita toga, sic uisitet orbem
Quod facinus redimat pietas uirtusque reatum,
Incestumque pudor, fraudem ius, gloria casum,
Quod superet terrena domus, uis terrea, uestis
Corporee masse, corpus mortale, potentis
Nature ducatur opus, sic dote beatum
Multiplici, nullo fraudatum munere forme,
Vt jam corporeum non dedignetur habere
Spiritus hospicium nec tantus defleat hospes
Hospicii tabem, sed carnis regnet in aula.
Ergo mihi describe uiam qua callis ad arcem
Superni Iouis erigitur, nec deuia passim
Errabunda ferar, nec nostrum deuius error
Propositum perdat, uiduans mercede laborem."
Hiis uerbis gauisa, poli regina benigno
Reddidit affatu quod se preberet eunti
Consortem callisque ducem gressusque magistram.

Nor without counsels, nod, governance, vow
of the Virtues does she discern the work, but the whole assembly of the sisters
nourishes the conceptions with the same assent.
But since the office of mighty Nature thrives only around earthly things
and her power languishes,
having no right in the things above and not knowing how to create the soul,
which the right hand of the supernal painter alone
fashions and in no respect requires Nature’s rights,
striving long by this reasoning and much resisting,
hither am I driven and I seek alone the recesses of the supernals,
that I may be able to lay before God what Nature’s own reason conceives,
what virtue desires, that the very Will of God may confirm our will
and may hear our prayers, and grace may breathe upon our vows:
That the divine hand may send down a soul from on high,
which may be sagacious in mind, filled with virtue, endowed with modesty,
pre-marked with faith, shining with piety,
which, clothed with the toga of flesh, may thus visit the world
such that piety may redeem the crime and virtue the guilt,
and modesty the incest, law the fraud, glory the fall,
such that it may surpass the earthly house, the earthly force, the garment
of the corporeal mass, the mortal body; that the work of mighty
Nature may be led thus, blessed with manifold dowry,
defrauded of no gift of form,
so that now the spirit may not disdain to have
a bodily lodging, nor may so great a guest lament the wasting
of the lodging, but may reign in the hall of flesh.
Therefore describe for me the way by which the path is raised to the citadel
of supernal Jove, and let me not be borne wandering at random by byways,
nor let our straying error destroy the purpose,
bereaving the labor of its wage."
Rejoicing at these words, the queen of the sky with kindly address
returned that she would offer herself to the one going as a companion
and as guide of the paths and mistress of the steps.

Sed soli Fronesi ducatum spondet et ipsi
Consulit instanter, precepti robur eidem
Consilio miscens, ut currum deserat, ipsos
In celo deponat equos comitemque relinquat
Inferius, que sit stabilis custodia tanti
Depositi, currum sistens frenansque iugales,
Ne si currus, equi, Racio nitantur in altum
Tendere, nec talem dignetur habere uiantem
Semita celestis, alios experta meatus,
Erret equs, nutet Racio currusque uacillet.
Explentur mandata dee uotisque fauetur;
Stat Racio, sistuntur equi, quadriga quiescit.
Omnibus exclusis, solum regina secundum
Consorti concedit equm, qui parcius ipsum
Admiretur iter nec multum deneget ipsos
Ascensus, fractus freni melioris habena.

But to Fronesus alone she pledges the leadership and urgently advises him,
blending the strength of a precept with the counsel itself, that he abandon the chariot,
set down the horses themselves in heaven, and leave the companion
below, who may be the stable guardianship of so great a
deposit, stopping the chariot and restraining the yoke-fellows,
lest, if the chariot, the horses, Reason strive to reach on high
to stretch upward, and the celestial pathway, experienced in other courses, deign not
to have such a wayfarer, the horse err, Reason nod, and the chariot waver.
Exploits are fulfilled of the goddess’s commands, and favor is shown to the prayers;
Reason stands, the horses are halted, the four-horse chariot rests.
With all others excluded, the queen grants only a second
horse to the companion, who may admire the journey itself more sparingly
and not greatly deny the ascents themselves, broken by the strap of a better bridle.

Fertur equo Fronesis, se fert regina, uolatu
Fertur equs, dea certat equo gressuque uolantem
Preuenit et comiti pretemptat preuia gressum.

Fronesis is borne on the horse; the queen bears herself, by flight;
the horse is borne; the goddess competes with the horse and with her stride outstrips the flying one,
she precedes and, as one going before, pre-tests the step for her companion.

[265-277]

Hactenus insonuit tenui mea Musa susurro,
Hactenus in fragili lusit mea pagina uersu,
Phebea resonante cheli; sed parua resignans,
Maiorem nunc tendo liram totumque poetam
Deponens, usurpo michi noua uerba prophete.
Celesti Muse terrenus cedet Apollo,
Musa Ioui, uerbisque poli parencia cedent
Verba soli, tellusque locum concedet Olimpo.
Carminis huius ero calamus, non scriba uel actor,
Es resonans, reticens scriptoris carta, canentis
Fistula, sculptoris scalprum uel musa loquentis,
Spina rosam gestans, calamus noua mella propinans,
Nox aliunde nitens, lucteum uas, nectare manans.

Thus far my Muse has sounded with a thin whisper,
thus far my page has played in fragile verse,
with the Phoebean chelys resounding; but, resigning small things,
I now stretch a greater lyre, and laying down the whole poet,
I usurp for myself the new words of a prophet.
To the celestial Muse the earthly Apollo will yield,
the Muse to Jove, and the words of the sky, in obeying, will yield
to the words of the Sole One, and the earth will grant place to Olympus.
Of this song I shall be the calamus, not scribe or performer,
you are—resounding, yet reticent—the scribe’s sheet, the singer’s
pipe, the sculptor’s chisel, or the Muse of the one speaking,
a thorn bearing a rose, a reed proffering new honeys,
a night shining from elsewhere, an earthen vessel, streaming with nectar.

[278-305]

Summe parens, eterne Deus uiuensque potestas,
Vnica forma boni, recti uia, limes honesti,
Fons ueri, sol iusticie, pietatis asylum,
Principium finisque, modus, mensura, sigillum,
Rerum causa, manens racio, noys alma, sophya
Vera, dies uerus, lux nescia noctis, origo
Summa, decor mundi perfectus, uita perhennis,
Nata regens, uentura serens, nascencia seruans,
Omnia sub numero claudens, sub pondere sistens
Singula, sub stabili mensura cuncta choercens,
Qui rerum species et mundi sensilis umbram
Ducis ab exemplo mundi mentalis, eumdem
Exterius pingens terrestris ymagine forme,
Qui ueterem massam de uultus sorde querentem
Inuestis meliore toga, formeque sigillo
Signans, excludis nexu mediante tumultum.
Efficiens causa, qui rem producis ad esse,
Formalis, dum pingis eam, finalis in esse,
Dum rem conseruans certo sub fine cohartas,
Tu mihi preradia diuina luce meamque
Plenius irrorans diuino nectare mentem,
Complue, terge notas animi, tenebrasque recindens
Discute meque tue lucis splendore serena.
Tu repara calamum, purga rubigine linguam,
Da bleso tua uerba loqui mutoque loquelam
Prebe, da fontem sicienti, dirige callem
Erranti, due nauta ratem portumque timenti
Dona, celesti perflans mea carbasa uento.

Highest parent, eternal God and living power,
the unique form of the good, the way of the straight, the boundary of the honorable,
fount of the true, sun of justice, asylum of piety,
beginning and end, mode, measure, seal,
cause of things, abiding reason, nurturing Nous, true Sophia,
true day, light unknowing of night, highest origin,
perfect beauty of the world, everlasting life,
governing the things born, sowing the things to come, preserving the things being born,
enclosing all under number, establishing each under weight,
and coercing all under a stable measure,
you who lead forth the species of things and the shadow of the sensible world
from the exemplar of the mental world, and the same
you paint outwardly in the image of earthly form;
you who, the old mass complaining of the filth of its face,
clothe with a better robe, and, sealing with the seal of form,
shut out tumult by means of a mediating bond.
Efficient cause, you who bring a thing forth into being,
formal, when you paint it; final, in being,
when, preserving the thing, you constrain it under a fixed end—
pre-radiate me with divine light, and more fully bedew
my mind with divine nectar;
rain upon me, wipe the stains of the spirit, and, cutting back the darkness,
dispel it, and make me serene by the splendor of your light.
Repair the pen, purge the tongue of rust;
grant the stammerer to speak your words, and give the mute a voice;
give a fountain to the thirsty; direct the path
for the erring; as pilot, lead the ship and to the one fearing grant a harbor,
filling my sails with a celestial wind.

[306-372]

Jam Fronesis, dictante dea, superauerat arces
Sydereas, callemque nouum nodosque uiarum
Mirans, que tante quereretur pondera molis,
Ni proprios uisus rerum nouitate foueret
Et proprii partem ferret regina laboris.
Dum transit, miratur aquas, quas federat igni
Indiuisa loci series, nec flamma liquorem
Impedit, aut flamme certat liquor ille repugnans,
Sed pocius sua deponunt certaminis arma.
Nec iam natiuos querunt memorare tumultus
Quos ligat assensus discors, discordia conchors,
Pax inimica, fides fantastica, falsus amoris
Nexus, amicicia fallax, umbratile fedus.

Now Phronesis, with the goddess dictating, had overpassed the sidereal citadels,
and, marveling at the new path and the knots of the ways,
what burdens of so great a mass would be lamented,
if the novelty of things did not warm her own sight
and the queen did not bear a portion of her proper labor.
As she passes, she marvels at the waters, which the indivisible series of the place
has federated with fire; nor does the flame hinder the liquid,
nor does that liquid, resisting, contend with the flame,
but rather they lay down their arms of contest.
Nor now do they seek to recall their native tumults
which a discordant assent binds, a concordant discord,
inimical peace, fantastic faith, the false nexus of love,
fallacious friendship, a shadowy compact.

Figit in hiis uisum mentemque Sophia, sagaci
Perquirens animo quis pacem fecit adesse,
Pax ubi nulla manet; quis Martem iussit abesse,
Mars ubi iura tenet; quis fedus nexuit illic,
Fedus ubi nullum; quis pacem miscuit ire,
Litigio fedus, liti coniunxit amorem.
Alcius inquirit Fronesis, feruencius instans,
An liquor iste fluat, sibi quem uicina maritat
Flamma poli flammeque truces contemperat iras;
An nebule faciem gestans formamque uaporis,
In speciem nubis expassus, in ethere summo
Pendeat et donet sicienti pocula flamme;
An glaciem gerat in specie reddatque figuram
Cristalli perdatque suum liquor ipse liquorem.
Sed tamen a Fronesi uiua racione probatur
Quod nullos illic possit torquere recursus
Humor nec proprio ualeat discurrere fluctu,
Cum gremium nullus ibi prebeat alueus illi,
Nec matrix terrena sinus expendat eidem,
Nec centrum repetens, natiuo pondere tractus,
Humor ad ima ruat, proprie grauitatis amicus,
Descensum cum flamma neget, sursumque manere
Cogat aquas, supraque liget quasi carcere clausas.

Sophia fixes her sight and her mind on these things, with a sagacious
spirit seeking who made peace be present,
where no peace abides; who ordered Mars to be absent,
where Mars holds the laws; who bound a federal pact there,
where there is no pact; who mingled peace with wrath,
a federate pact with litigation, joined love to a lawsuit.
Phronesis inquires more loftily, pressing more fervently,
whether that liquid flows, which a neighboring flame weds to itself,
the flame of the sky and tempers the fierce wraths of flame;
or, bearing the face of a mist and the form of vapor,
spread into the likeness of a cloud, in the highest ether
it hangs and gives cups to the thirsty flame;
or it bears ice in its appearance and renders the figure
of crystal, and the liquid itself loses its own liquidity.
But yet by Phronesis it is proven by living reason
that no back-currents can twist there,
nor can the moisture run with its proper surge,
since no channel there offers it a bosom,
nor does the earthly matrix expand its recess to the same,
nor, seeking back the center, drawn by native weight,
does the moisture rush to the depths, friend to its own gravity,
since the flame denies descent, and compels the waters to remain aloft,
and binds them above as if shut up in a prison.

Nam qui furtiuo lapsu quasi nesciat ignis
A superis rorem descendere, sompniat ille
Philosophus, racione caret falsumque prophetat,
Occia sectatur, nubes et inania captat,
In scirpo nodum querens, in lumine fumum,
In piano scrupulum fingens, in luce tenebras.
Hac eciam racione probat quod nullus ibidem
Exalat uapor in nebulas, nec pendulus humor
Ethera uelat aquis, ubi nullas euomit auras
Terra, nec ignis ibi suspendit in ethere nubes.
Ex hiis concludit Fronesis quod celicus humor
Cristalli retinet speciem glaciemque figurat.

For he who, by a furtive slip, as if he did not know that dew descends from the heights by means of the fire,
is a dreaming Philosopher, lacks reason and falsely prophesies,
he pursues idleness, and snatches at clouds and inanities,
seeking a knot in a rush, smoke in the light,
feigning a pebble on a level plain, darkness in the light.
By this reasoning also he proves that no vapor there exhales into clouds,
nor does hanging moisture veil the aether with waters, where the earth emits no breezes,
nor does fire there suspend clouds in the aether.
From these things Fronesis concludes that the celestial moisture
retains the appearance of crystal and shapes the figure of ice.

Que glacies, ignara gelu nec conscia brume,
Estatem magis agnoscit celique calores,
Ad uultus ignis minime dignata liquari.
Hoc solo magis illa stupet meliusque mouetur,
Qua nexus mediante fide, quo federe pacis
Frigida conueniunt calidis, fluitancia pigris.
Hic ubi nullus adest pacis mediator et omne
Fedus abest extrema ligans, quod pace reperta
Deleat hostiles rixas pugnamque recidat,
Defficit inquirens, querendo uincitur illa;
Quesitu superata suo sed uicta querelis
Deffectus queritur proprios; sic ista querela
Questio fit, Fronesi suspiria sola relinquens.

Which ice, unknowing of gelid frost nor conscious of brumal winter,
more recognizes summer and the heats of heaven,
not at all deigning to be liquefied before the face of fire.
By this alone the more does she marvel and is the better moved,
in that, with a linkage and faith mediating—by what covenant of peace—
the cold come together with the hot, the flowing with the sluggish.
Here, where no mediator of peace is present and every
treaty is absent that binds extremes, which, once peace is found,
would abolish hostile quarrels and prune the combat,
she fails inquiring; by querying she is conquered;
overcome by her own quest but, conquered by complaints,
she laments her own defects; thus that complaint
becomes a question, leaving to Fronesis only sighs.

Nec mirum si cedit ad hec Prudencia, que sic
Excedunt matris Nature iura, quod eius
Exuperant cursus, ad que mens defficit, heret
Intellectus, hebet racio, sapiencia nutat,
Tullius ipse silet, mutescit musa Maronis,
Languet Aristotiles, Ptholomei sensus obumbrat.

Nor is it a wonder if Prudence yields to these things, which thus
exceed the laws of mother Nature, so that they
overtop her courses; at which the mind fails, the understanding sticks,
reason is dull, wisdom wavers,
Tully himself is silent, the Muse of Maro grows mute,
Aristotle languishes, the sense of Ptolemy is overshadowed.

[373-442]

Vlterius producit iter Prudencia, gressum
Informans gressu comitis, tandemque labore
Magno, multiplici nisu, cognamine multo
Ascendit loca leticie, loca plena fauoris,
Celesti loca grata Deo, loca grata Tonanti.
Hic risus sine tristicia, sine nube serenum,
Delicie sine deffectu, sine fine uoluptas,
Pax expers odii, requies ignara laboris,
Lux semper rutilans, sol ueri luminis, ortus
Nescius occasus, gratum sine uespere mane;
Hic splendor noctem, sacies fastidia nescit;
Gaudia plena uigent, nullo respersa labore.
Non hic ambiguo graditur Fortuna meatu,
Non risum lacrimis, aduersis prospera, leta
Tristibus in firmans, non mel corrumpit aceto,
Aspera commiscens blandis, tenebrosa serenis,
Connectens luci tenebras, funesta iocosis,
Sed requies transquilla manet, quam fine carentem
Fortune casus in nubila uertere nescit.

Further Prudence brings forth the journey, shaping the step
by the step of her companion; and at length, with great labor,
with manifold exertion, with much endeavor,
she ascends the places of gladness, places full of favor,
heavenly places pleasing to God, places pleasing to the Thunderer.
Here laughter without sadness, a clear sky without cloud,
delights without defect, pleasure without end,
peace devoid of hatred, rest ignorant of labor,
light ever rutilant, the sun of true light, a rising
knowing not a setting, a morning welcome without evening;
here splendor knows no night; satiety knows not distastes;
full joys flourish, sprinkled with no labor.
Here Fortune does not walk with an ambiguous course,
nor does she weaken laughter with tears, the prosperous with adversities, the glad
with sad things; she does not spoil honey with vinegar,
commixing rough with smooth, dark with serene,
connecting darkness to light, deadly things to jocose;
but tranquil rest remains, which, lacking an end,
the falls of Fortune cannot turn into clouds.

Hic sua preradiat celestis regia solis,
Que sordes hominum, mundi contagia spernit.
Extramundanus orbis mundique beata
Porcio, munda magis quam mundus, purior ipso
Puro, lucidior claro, fulgencior auro,
Que blando splendore micat, que fulgurat igne
Innocuo, feruore carens, fulgoris habundans,
Blandicias splendoris habens, feruoris haborrens
Nequiciam, splendore fouet nec uerberat estu.
Hic ignis minus igne calet, plus igne nitescit,
Sicque manens unus minor est et maior eodem.

Here the celestial royal palace of the sun radiates its own,
which spurns the filth of men, the contagions of the world.
An extramundane orb and the blessed portion of the world,
cleaner than the world, purer than Pure itself,
brighter than the bright, more refulgent than gold,
which glitters with a coaxing splendor, which flashes with an innocuous fire,
lacking fervor, abounding in brightness,
having the blandishments of splendor, abhorring the nequity of fervor,
it warms by brilliance and does not lash with heat.
Here fire is less hot than fire, more than fire it shines,
and thus, remaining one, it is lesser and greater than the same.

Sed quoniam totus scintillat in igne beato
Hic locus et flamme nutu blanditur amico,
Censetur polus empireus cui flamma benignis
Ignibus arridet aulamque nitoribus ornat.
Hic habitant ciues superi proceresque Tonantis,
Angelici cetus diuinaque numina, mundi
Rectores, turme celestes, agmina celi,
Excubie nostri, uarius quos diuidit ordo,
Munus et officium, uirtus diuersa, potestas
Plurima dissimilisque gradus, distancia facti.
Hic ardent Seraphin, flammata calore superne
Lucis et eterni solis radiata nitore.

But since this place all scintillates in blessed fire
and the flame, by its nod, caresses with friendly favor,
it is reckoned the Empyrean pole, to which the flame with benign
fires smiles, and adorns the hall with brilliances.
Here dwell the heavenly citizens and the nobles of the Thunderer,
the angelic choirs and the divine powers, the world’s
Rulers, the celestial troops, the hosts of heaven,
our sentries, whom a various order divides—
by function and office, differing excellence, manifold power,
and dissimilar rank, by the distinction of their acts.
Here the Seraphim burn, enflamed by the heat of supernal
light and irradiated by the splendor of the eternal sun.

Diuini fontis Cherubin saciata liquore,
Plus sapiunt mentique Dei perfectius herent,
Inque Tronis censura Dei librata resultat,
In quibus ipse Deus residens examina librat.
Nomen ab officio Dominancia numina sumunt,
Que sicut superis cedunt, sic ceditur ipsis
A reliquis, pariterque iubent parentque iubenti.
Princeps turma suos disponit in ordine ciues
Atque suis uotis astringit uota suorum.

Satiated with the liquor of the divine fount, the Cherubim are more sapient and cling more perfectly to the Mind of God,
and in the Thrones the judgment of God, balanced, resounds,
in which God himself, sitting, balances the weighings.
The divine powers called Dominations take their name from their office,
which, just as they yield to their superiors, so they are yielded to by the rest,
and equally they command and obey the One who commands.
The troop of the Principalities arranges its citizens in order
and binds the vows of its own to its own wishes.

Aeris istius rectores, immo tyrannos
Turba Potestatum uincit celestibus armis.
Legibus occurrunt Nature iuraque soluunt
Virtutes, formisque nouis antiqua reformant.
Mistica denudat, aperit secreta, reuelat
Abdita queue magis latitant archangelus orbi
Nunciat et celi pandit misteria terris.

The rulers of this air, nay rather, tyrants
The troop of the Powers conquers with celestial arms.
By laws they confront, and they dissolve the rights of Nature
The Virtues, and by new forms they re-form ancient things.
Mystical things he unveils, he opens secrets, he reveals
Hidden things which lie more concealed the archangel to the world
He announces, and he lays open to the earth the mysteries of heaven.

Maior in obsequiis sed ei uirtutibus impar,
Angelice plebis exercitus omnibus istis
Persoluit ius obsequii mundoque minora
Predicat et uarios nobis discurrit in usus.
Hic ciues habitant suppremi regis in urbe.
Ciuibus hiis seruanda datur respublica celi,
Inter quos hec lex sanctitur ut imperet unus,
Hic operetur agens, reliquis obtemperet ille.

Greater in obediences, but unequal to it in virtues,
the army of the angelic people to all these
pays the right of obedience, and to the world proclaims lesser things,
and runs about for us into various uses. Here the citizens of the supreme King dwell in the city. To these citizens the Republic of heaven to be preserved is given,
among whom this law is sanctioned: that one should command;
let this one operate as agent, let that one obey the rest.

Quilibet in libro diuine mentis agenda
Discit ibique legit que sint uentura, Deumque
Consulit, in speculo deitatis singula cernens:
Non solul tantam sibi uendicat angelus urbem.

Each one in the book of the divine mind learns the agenda,
and there he reads what things are to come, and God
he consults, beholding each particular in the mirror of Deity:
nor does an angel alone claim so great a city for himself.

[443-470]

Hic habitat quem uita deum uirtusque beatum
Fecit et in terris meruit sibi numen Olimpi,
Corpore terrenus, celestis mente, caducus
Carne, Deus uita, uiuens diuinitus, extra
Terrenum sapiens, intus diuina repensans;
Quem non erexit fastus, non gloria rerum,
Non mundi deiectus amor, non lubrica fregit
Luxuries, non luxus opum, non ardor habendi
Succendit, non liuor edax, non anxia fedat
Pestis auaricie, non laudis ceca cupido,
Sed pocius donauit eum Prudencia, mundi
Contemptus, rerum paupertas arctaque uictus
Regula, despectus carnis, deiectio uite;
Qui calcauit opes animo uictore, malignum
Deiecit carnemque sibi seruire coegit.
Cetibus angelicis tales ascribit honestas
Vite, uirtutis meritum mercesque laboris,
Quos uel uirgineus candor uel purpura uestit
Martirii, uel doctoris sua laurea ditat,
Vel quos aureole munus non excipit, omnes
Laurea communi fretos mercede coronat.
Cum sint diuersi merito meritique resultet
Splendor inequalis, lux dispar, gaudia cunctis
Equa manent risusque pares, ubi dissona merces.

Here dwells the one whom life and Virtue made blessed like a god, and who on earth merited for himself the divinity of Olympus,
earthly in body, celestial in mind, perishable
in flesh, a god by life, living divinely, wise beyond
the earthly, within reweighing divine things;
whom pride did not raise up, nor the glory of things,
nor did the cast‑down love of the world, nor slippery
luxury break him, nor the luxury of riches, nor the ardor of having
inflame him, nor devouring envy, nor the anxious befouling
plague of avarice, nor blind desire of praise,
but rather Prudence endowed him, contempt
of the world, poverty of things, and the strait rule of fare,
despising of the flesh, the abasing of life;
who trampled wealth with a conquering spirit, cast down
the malignant one and forced the flesh to serve him.
Cetibus angelicis such men the honorableness
of life, the merit of virtue, and the wage of toil enroll,
those whom either virginal candor or the purple clothes
of martyrdom, or the teacher’s own laurel enriches,
or those whom the gift of the aureole does not receive—he crowns them all,
relying on a common laurel, with recompense.
Though they are diverse in desert and there results
an unequal splendor of merit, a differing light, for all remain
equal joys and smiles alike, where the recompense is dissonant.

Nec mirum si leticie par gracia cunctos
Expectat, quibus una datur pro munere uita,
In quibus ipse Deus est omnibus omnia, donum
Et donans, uni dans plurima, pluribus unum.

Nor is it a marvel if an equal grace of joy awaits all,
for whom one life is given as a gift,
in whom God himself is all things to all, both the gift
and the giver, giving to one many things, to many one.

[471-486]

Hic superos ciues proprio precellit honore
Virgo que proprium pariendi lege pudorem
Non perdens, matris meruit cum uirgine nomen,
In qua concordant duo nomina, lite sepulta,
Que secum pugnare solent litesque mouere,
Nec iam discordant mater uirgoque, sed ipsis
Litibus exclusis, se pacis ad oscula uertunt.
Hic natura silet, logice uis exulat, omnis
Rethorice perit arbitrium racioque uacillat.
Hec est que miro diuini muneris usu
Nata patrem natumque parens concepit, honorem
Virgineum retinens nec perdens iura parentis,
In cuius uentris thalamo sibi summa parauit
Hospicium deitas, tunicam sibi texuit ipse
Filius artificis summi, nostreque salutis
Induit ipse togam, nostro uestibus amictu.

Here she outstrips the heavenly citizens by her own honor—
the Virgin who, by the law of bearing, not losing her proper modesty,
deserved the name of mother together with that of virgin,
in whom the two names agree, with strife buried,
which are wont to fight with each other and to stir up quarrels;
nor now do mother and virgin disagree, but, those very quarrels shut out,
they turn themselves to the kisses of peace.
Here nature is silent, the force of Logic is exiled, all
the arbitration of Rhetoric perishes and Reason wavers.
She it is who, by the wondrous use of a divine gift,
the daughter conceived her Father, and as parent the begotten Son,
retaining virgin honor and not losing the rights of a parent,
in whose womb’s bridal-chamber the Highest prepared for himself
a lodging, the Deity; for himself the Son of the highest Craftsman
wove a tunic, and he himself put on the toga of our salvation,
with our vesture for his mantle.

[487-543]

Hec est stella maris, uite uia, porta salutis,
Regula iusticie, limes pietatis, origo
Virtutis, uenie mater thalamusque pudoris,
Ortus conclusus, fons consignatus, oliua
Fructiferans, cedrus redolens, paradisus amenans,
Virgula pigmenti, uinaria cella, liquore
Predita celesti, nectar celeste propinans,
Nescia spineti florens rosa, nescia culpe
Gracia, fons expers limi, lux nubila pellens,
Spes miseris, medicina reis, tutela beatis,
Proscriptis reditus, erranti semita, cecis
Lumen, deiectis requies, pausacio fessis.
Hec est que primos casus primeque parentis
Abstersit maculas, uincens uirtute reatum,
Diruta restituens, reddens ablata, rependens
Perdita, restaurans amissa, fugata repensans,
Post uespertinos gemitus noua gaudia donans,
Post mortis tenebras uite nouitate relucens;
Cuius ad aduentum redit etas aurea mundo,
Post facinus pietas, post culpam gracia, uirtus
Post uicium, pax post odium, post triste iocundum.
Vt rosa spineti compensat flore rigorem,
Vt dulcore suo fructum radicis amare
Ramus adoptiuus redimit, sic crimina matris
Ista luit, matrem facit sua nata renasci,
Vt sic munda ream, corruptam uirgo, pudica
Effrontem, miseram felix humilisque superbam
Abluat et uite pariat sua filia matrem.

This is the star of the sea, the way of life, the gate of salvation,
the rule of justice, the boundary of piety, the origin
of virtue, the mother of pardon and the bridal-chamber of modesty,
the enclosed garden, the sealed spring, the fruit-bearing olive,
the fragrant cedar, the pleasing paradise,
the little rod of pigment, the wine-cellar, endowed
with heavenly liquor, proffering celestial nectar,
the blooming rose that knows nothing of thorn-brake, the grace that knows nothing
of fault, a fount free of mud, a light dispelling clouds,
hope for the wretched, medicine for the guilty, protection for the blessed,
a return for the proscribed, a pathway for the wanderer, a light
for the blind, rest for the cast-down, repose for the weary. Hec est who wiped away the first falls and the stains
of the first parent, conquering by virtue the guilt,
restoring what was torn down, giving back what was taken, repaying
what was lost, repairing what had been missed, making amends for what had been put to flight,
after evening groans bestowing new joys,
after the darkness of death shining anew by the newness of life;
at whose advent the golden age returns to the world,
after crime, piety; after fault, grace; virtue
after vice, peace after hatred, after the sad, the joyful.
As the rose compensates by its flower the harshness of the thorn-thicket,
as by its own sweetness the adoptive (grafted) branch redeems the bitter fruit
of the root, so this one atones the mother’s crimes,
makes her mother be reborn by her daughter,
so that thus the pure may cleanse the guilty, the virgin the corrupted, the modest
the brazen, the happy the wretched, and the humble the proud,
and that into life her daughter may bear her mother.

Huius ab imperio celestis curia pendet,
Huius ad imperium deuota mente parata,
Cum qua celestis regni moderatur habenas,
Qui pater et proles eiusdem, natus et actor
Cuncta regit, sine fine regens, quo rege triumphat
In celo miles, in terris militat exul.
Hic est qui carnis intrans ergastula nostre,
Se pena uinxit ut uinctos solueret, eger
Factus ut egrotos sanaret, pauper ut ipsis
Pauperibus conferret opem, deffunctus ut ipse
Vita donaret deffunctos, exulis omne
Passus ut exilio miseros subduceret exul.
Sic liuore perit liuor, sic uulnere uulnus,
Sic morbus damnat morbum, mors morte fugatur,
Sic moritur uiuens ut uiuat mortuus, heres
Exulat ut seruos heredes reddat, egenus
Fit diues pauperque potens, ut ditet egenos.

From his imperium the celestial curia depends,
to his imperium, with devoted mind, it is prepared;
with him he moderates the reins of the celestial kingdom,
who is Father and progeny of the same, born and agent,
he rules all, ruling without end; under which King the soldier
triumphs in heaven, the exile serves as soldier on earth.
This is he who, entering the prisons of our flesh,
bound himself with penalty that he might loose the bound, made
sick that he might heal the sick, poor that to the very
poor he might confer aid, defunct that he himself
might grant life to the defunct, an exile who suffered all
of exile that, an exile, he might draw the wretched from exile.
Thus by spite spite perishes, thus by wound the wound,
thus disease condemns disease, death is put to flight by death;
thus the Living One dies that the dead may live; the heir
goes into exile that he may render slaves heirs; the needy
becomes rich and the poor man powerful, to enrich the needy.

Sic liber seruit ut seruos liberet, imum
Summa petunt ut sic ascendant infima summum.
Vt nox splendescat, splendor tenebrescit, eclipsi
Sol uerus languescit, ut astra reducat ad ortum,
Egrotat medicus, ut sanet morbidus egrum.
Se celum terre conformat, cedrus ysopo,
Ipse gigas nano, fumo lux, diues egeno,
Egroto sanus, seruo rex, purpura sacco.

Thus the free one serves so that he may free slaves; the lowest
the highest seek, so that thus the lowest may ascend to the highest.
So that night may shine, splendor grows dark; by eclipse
the true Sun languishes, so that he may lead the stars back to their rising,
the physician sickens, so that, morbid, he may heal the ailing.
He conforms heaven to earth, the cedar to hyssop,
he himself a giant to a dwarf, light to smoke, rich to the needy,
healthy to the sick, king to the slave, purple to sackcloth.

Hic est qui nostram sortem miseratus, ab aula
Eterni patris egrediens, fastidia nostre
Sustinuit sortis, sine crimine criminis in se
Deffigens penas et nostri damna reatus.

This is he who, pitying our lot, going forth from the hall
of the Eternal Father, endured the disgusts of our
lot, without crime, fixing in himself the penalties of the crime,
and the damages of our guilt.

LIBER SEXTUS

BOOK SIX

[1-72]

Postquam uirgo Dei solium sedesque superbas
Ingrediens, uoluit noua prelibare uidendo,
Offendit splendor oculos mentemque stupore
Percussit rerum nouitas, defecit in illis
Visus et interior mens caligauit ad illas.
Sic sopor inuasit uigilem, sic somnus adulter
Oppressit Fronesis animum, sompnoque soporans
Extasis ipsa suo, mentem dormire coegit.
Et jam precipitem pateretur lapsa ruinam,
Ni comes occurrens manibus complexa cadentem
Sisteret, et blando complexu uirginis artus
Confortans, tantos lapsus eluderet, ipsam
Mittibus aggrediens uerbis mentisque stuporem
Demulcens; mens plena tamen non redditur illi.

After the virgin, entering the throne of God and the proud seats,
wished to pre-taste by seeing new things,
the splendor offended her eyes, and the novelty of things struck her mind with stupor;
her sight failed amid them, and the inner mind grew dark at them.
Thus slumber invaded the wakeful one, thus adulterous sleep
oppressed the mind of Fronesis, and, lulling with sleep,
Ecstasy herself compelled the mind to sleep.
And now, fallen, she would have suffered a headlong ruin,
had not her companion, running up and with her hands clasping the falling one,
stopped her, and by a coaxing embrace strengthening the maiden’s limbs
warded off such great falls, addressing her with gentle words
and soothing the mind’s stupor; yet her full mind is not restored to her.

Sed postquam ualuit nulla racione stuporis
Extirpare malum totamque reducere mentem,
Vt Fronesi ferat auxilium totumque soporem
Excuciens, reddat mentem cogatque reuerti,
Sollicitat precibus propriam regina sororem,
Que superum solio residens, celeste profundum
Scrutatur solisque Dei penetralibus heret,
Cui Racio nichil affirmat, cui sufficit ipsa
Credulitas et sola Fides, Racione remota.
Ipsam namque Fidem Racio non prevenit, immo
Ipsa Fides hanc anticipat Fideique docenti
Obsequitur tandem Racio, sequiturque docentem
Articulos Fidei, diuinaque simbola carnis
Inserit hec, scribens animo quod arundine pingit.
Purpureis clauata notis niueumque colorem
Intermixta rubet uestis candore represso,
Qua mulier predicta nitet, cultusque fatetur
Arbitrium mentis, mens ipsa uidetur in illo.

But after she was able by no reasoning to extirpate the malady of stupor and to bring back the whole mind, that she might bear aid to Phronesis and, shaking off the whole sleep, restore the mind and compel it to return, the queen with prayers solicits her own sister, who, sitting on the throne of the supernals, scrutinizes the heavenly deep and cleaves to the innermost chambers of God alone, to whom Reason affirms nothing, to whom Credulity itself and Faith alone suffice, Reason being set aside. For Reason does not forestall Faith itself; rather Faith herself anticipates it, and to Faith as teacher Reason at length yields obedience, and follows the teacher, and inserts the Articles of Faith and the divine symbols of the flesh, writing on the soul what she paints with the reed. Striped with purple marks and, intermingled with snowy color, the garment glows red with its whiteness restrained, in which the aforesaid woman shines; and her attire confesses the decision of the mind—the mind itself is seen in it.

Picture cedit uestis que tota figuris
Scribitur et forma pretendit scripta libelli.
Hic renouat ueteres uiuens pictura magistros,
Per quos nostra fides totum diffusa per orbem
Claruit et laudum titulis preclara refulsit.
Hic Abraham, nostre fidei pater, exuit actus
Patris, dum summo Patri parere libenti
Contendens animo, nato pater esse recusat,
In quo discordes Natura Fidesque duellum
Exercent unamque trahunt in dissona mentem;
Nam Natura docet genitorem parcere nato.

The garment yields to the picture, which is all inscribed with figures,
and by its form it puts forward the writings of a little book.
Here the living picture renews the ancient masters,
through whom our Faith, diffused through the whole orb,
has shone and, preeminent with titles of praises, has flashed forth.
Here Abraham, father of our faith, puts off the acts
of a father, while, striving with a willing mind to obey the highest Father,
he refuses to be a father to his son,
in whom discordant Nature and Faith exercise a duel
and draw the one mind into dissonant things;
for Nature teaches the begetter to spare the son.

Econtra stat firma Fides que spernere natum
Imperat, ut summo faueat Natura parenti.
Quod non uult cupit ergo pater; nunc parcere temptans,
Nunc offerre uolens, tandem negat ipse quod optat.
Ergo succumbit Fidei Natura dolensque
Cedit uictrici, quod non uult uelle coacta.

On the contrary firm Faith stands, which commands to spurn the son,
that Nature may favor the highest Parent.
Therefore the father desires what he does not will; now attempting to spare,
now willing to offer, at last he himself denies what he longs for.
Therefore Nature succumbs to Faith and, grieving,
yields to the victress, compelled to will what she does not will.

In robur Fidei, uirtutum luce choruscat
Petrus et ipsius uirtus splendescit in umbra.
Armatus uite meritis et dote sophye,
Blandiciis, racione, minis, uirtutibus instat
Paulus et introitum fidei gentibus offert.
Nec solum signis, uerum racione, rebelles
Vincit nec satis est concesso calle meare:
Plus cupit atque uiam gaudet racione parare.

For the strengthening of Faith, Peter coruscates with the light of virtues, and his very virtue shines in the shadow.
Armed with the merits of life and the endowment of sophia (wisdom),
with blandishments, with reason, with threats, with virtues Paul presses on and offers the entrance of faith to the nations.
Not only by signs, but by reason, he conquers the rebellious, nor is it enough to go by the granted path:
he desires more and rejoices to prepare the way by reason.

Illic blanda, minas, ergastula, uerbera, mortes
Expugnat, clipeo Fidei protectus et armis
Iusticie, superatque suos Laurencius ignes.
Par pugne meritis et eisdem miles in armis
Mundum deuincens, Vincencius omnia uictor
Calcat et in uiuos pugnans in morte triumphat.
Hunc habitum, quamuis scripture pingat honestas,
Nulla tamen uestem lasciuia deprimit, immo
Talis erat qualem matrone postulat etas,
Que senii metas attingit plena dierum,
Canicie respersa caput seniique pruina.

There he overcomes blandishments, threats, dungeons, lashes, deaths,
protected by the shield of Faith and the arms
of Justice; and Lawrence overmasters his own fires.
Equal to the fight in merits and a soldier in the same arms,
conquering the world, Vincent, victor over all,
treads it underfoot, and, fighting while alive, he triumphs in death.
This garb—although Scripture paints its propriety—
yet no lasciviousness debases the garment; rather,
such it was as the age demands for a matron,
who, full of days, reaches the bounds of old age,
her head besprinkled with hoariness and the frost of eld.

Nec tamen illius faciem matura senectus
Exarat in sulcos; facies discordat ab euo,
Que iuuenile docet euum, contraque loquntur
Cani, cum canis sic uultus gracia certat.

Nor yet does mature old age plough his face into furrows;
his face is discordant from his age,
which proclaims a juvenile age, and, contrariwise, the gray hairs
speak, since with the gray hairs thus the grace of his countenance contends.

[73-184]

Hec mulier, motu proprio precibusque sororis
Tacta, mouet gressus illuc ubi lesa sopore
Letargi languet Fronesis mortisque figuram
Exemplans, moritur uiuens et mortua uiuit.
Sed postquam ueniens signis dictantibus illam
Agnouit, uidit stupidam stupuitque iacentem.
Hos casus miserata dolet mentisque rigorem
Exuit, in gemitus erumpens, fractaque parumper
Magestas animi molescere cogitur, exit
Duricies et sola tenet miseracio mentem.

This woman, touched by her own motion and by her sister’s prayers,
moves her steps thither where, hurt by the sleep
of lethargy, Fronesis languishes and, exemplifying the figure
of death, dies while living, and, dead, lives.
But after, coming, by signs that dictated it, she
recognized her, she saw her stupefied and was herself astonished at her lying there.
Pitying these misfortunes she grieves, and the rigor of her mind
she puts off, bursting into groans, and the majesty of her spirit,
broken for a little while, is compelled to soften; hardness departs,
and pity alone holds the mind.

Hec igitur magis accedit propiusque iacentem
Visitat et querit languoris semina, temptat
Cuncta, locum, tempus, causam, sinctomata morbi
Caute disquirens, cuius uestigia tandem
Inuenit et Fronesim letargi sompnia passam
Noscit, ut exterius languoris signa fatentur.
Inuenta racione mali morbique reperta
Materie, disquirit adhuc que causa salutis
Languoris causas ualeat secludere, pestem
Perdere, supplantare luem morbumque fugare.
Ergo minis, precibus, plausu, clamore, soporem
Expugnare parat, sed talis sompnus obaudit.

Therefore she draws nearer and, coming closer, visits the one lying there and seeks the seeds of languor; she tests everything—place, time, cause, the symptoms of the disease—carefully disquiring, and at last she finds its vestiges, and recognizes that Fronesis has suffered the dreams of lethargy, as the outward signs of languor confess.
With the rationale of the evil found and the material of the disease discovered, she further inquires what cause of health might be able to seclude the causes of languor, to destroy the pest, to supplant the plague, and to drive the disease to flight.
Therefore with threats, prayers, clapping, shouting, she prepares to storm the sleep, but such a sleep gives ear.

Nec mirum si morbus ad hec contempnit abire.
Non erat iste sopor somni, sed mortis ymago,
Que uite tenebrat lucem uitamque soporat
Plus sompno, sed morte minus, maiorque sopore,
Morte minor, sed fida tamen prefactio mortis.
Cum talis nequeat medicina refellere morbum
Nec tantum ualeat morbi superare uigorem,
Celesti confecta manu, condita sapore,
Mellifluo gustu mellita, suauis odore,
Secretas redolens species, terrena repellens
Condimenta, nouum celi thimiama propinans,
Exquisita datur languenti pocio, totum
Que corpus peragrat, uitalia circuit, intrat
Venas, disquirit neruos penetratque medullas.

Nor is it a wonder if the disease, at these things, disdains to depart.
This was no slumber of sleep, but an image of death,
which darkens the light of life and lulls life to sleep
more than sleep, yet less than death; greater than slumber,
less than death, yet a faithful preface of death.
Since such a medicine cannot refute the disease
nor avail so much as to overcome the vigor of the disease,
prepared by a celestial hand, seasoned with savor,
honeyed with mellifluous taste, sweet with odor,
redolent of secret spices, repelling earthly seasonings,
proffering a new incense of heaven,
an exquisite potion is given to the languishing one, which
traverses the whole body, encircles the vital parts, enters
the veins, searches out the nerves, and penetrates the marrow.

Huius ad aduentum Fronesis sibi redditur, ad se
Dum redit, et totus mentis seducitur horror.
Hic stupor ipse stupet medicinam posse; fugatus
Miratur talem medicine cedere morbum,
Sed quamvis oculus mentis resplendeat intra,
Languescit tamen exterior nec ferre nitorem
Sustinet empireum nec tantum fulgur Olimpi.
Ergo suam solers matrona recurrit ad artem
Et presigne, decens, rutilans, immitabile, tersum,
Grandi diffusum spacio scriptumque figuris
Presentat Fronesi speculum, quo cuncta resultant
Que locus empireus in se capit, omnia lucent,
Que mundus celestis habet, sed dissona rerum
Paret in hiis facies.

At this one’s advent Fronesis is given back to herself, to herself
as she returns; and all the horror of her mind is led away.
Here stupor itself is stupefied that medicine can do this; put to flight,
it marvels that such a disease yields to medicine;
but although the eye of the mind shines within,
the outward part nevertheless languishes and does not endure to bear the brilliance
empyréan, nor so great a lightning of Olympus.
Therefore the skillful matron returns to her art
and a preeminent, comely, rutilant, inimitable, polished
mirror, spread over a great space and inscribed with figures,
she presents to Fronesis, in which all things are reflected,
which the empyrean place holds in itself—everything shines—
which the celestial world possesses; but a face dissonant from the things
appears in these.

Hic res, hic umbra uidetur,
Hic ens, hic species, hic lux, ibi lucis imago.
Detinet hoc speculum mentem uisumque Sophye
Sistit, ne maior oculis lux obuiet, illos
Offendens, uisumque simul cum mente fatiget.
Hoc speculum mediator adest, ne copia lucis
Empiree, radians uisum, depauperet usum.

Here the thing, here the shadow is seen,
here being, here appearance, here light; there the image of light.
This mirror holds back the mind and the sight of Sophia,
it halts, lest a greater light meet the eyes, offending them,
and at the same time fatigue the vision together with the mind.
This mirror is present as a mediator, lest the copiousness of light
of the Empyrean, radiating upon the sight, depauperate its use.

Visus in hoc speculo respirat, lumen amicum
Inuenit et gaudet fulgens cum lumine lumen.
Cernit in hoc speculo uisu speculante Sophia,
Quicquid diuinus in se complectitur orbis.
Dum noua queque uidet, miratur ad omnia, gaudet
In cunctis, nouitas noua rerum gaudia gingnit;
Eius cum uisu mens delectatur et omnes
Eroris pellit nebulas et gaudia mentem
Perfundunt; perit omne sui sintoma doloris.

Sight in this mirror breathes again, finds a friendly light,
and rejoices, shining—light with light.
In this mirror, with a contemplating gaze, Sophia discerns
whatever the divine orb embraces in itself.
While she sees each new thing, she marvels at everything, she rejoices
in all; novelty begets new joys of things;
with her sight the mind is delighted and drives away all
clouds of error, and joys suffuse the mind;
every symptom of its pain perishes.

Si qua minus plene cognoscit, plenius illam
Asistens matrona docet suppletque minorem
Intuitum panditque latens aperitque reclusum.
Hic uidit angelice plebis superique senatus
Miliciam, palmamque simul dulcesque triumphos
Sanctorum, meritum dispar fructusque laborum.
Virginis illius meritum miratur, adorat
Partum quod peperit, non marcescente pudoris
Flore, nec atrito feruente libidinis estu.

If she in any respect recognizes less fully, the assisting matron teaches her more fully and also supplies the lesser
intuition, and lays open the latent and opens the enclosed.
Here she saw the militia of the angelic people and of the senate above,
and at the same time the palm and the sweet triumphs
of the Saints, the unequal merit and the fruits of labors.
She marvels at the merit of that Virgin, she adores
the birth which she bore, with the flower of modesty not withering,
nor rubbed away by the fervent heat of libido.

Conceptus partusque modum floremque pudoris
Intactum stupet admirans, non inuenit unde
Sit matri que nulla uiri commercia nouit.
Confugit ad logice leges; hec ergo parentis
Iura negat, cui uirginitas concedit honorem
Virginis, a simili uult supplantare pudorem
Virgineum matri, quam disputat esse parentem
Partus, et ad matrem natiuo iure refertur.
Ista tamen racio nutat, cum uirgine matrem
Inuenit et logices uidet argumenta iacere.

The conception and the mode of birth, and the flower of modesty
untouched, he marveling stands astonied; he does not find whence
it might be for a mother who has known no commerce with a man.
He takes refuge in the laws of logic; therefore this denies
the rights of a parent to her to whom virginity grants the honor
of a virgin; by an argument from similitude it wishes to supplant the virginal modesty
of the mother, whom it argues to be the parent
of the birth, and by native right the offspring is referred to the mother.
Yet that reasoning wavers, when it finds a mother with her virginity,
and sees the arguments of logic lying prostrate.

Amplius admirans, magis hesitat, amplius herens,
Inquirit quo iure poli, qua lege beata
Nata patrem, terrena Deum, casura manentem,
Flos cedrum, sidus solem, scintilla caminum
Proferat, et mellis desudet petra liquorem.
Miraturque Deum nostram uestire figuram,
Et nostras habitare casas flammantis Olimpi
Rectorem, floremque rose latitare sub alga,
Et gemmam uestire lutum, uiolamque cicuta
Velari, uitamque mori, tenebrescere solem,
Qui gunfi, que iuncture, quis nexus et unde
Connectant humana Deo, diuina caduco
Consocient hominique Deum, quis federet ordo.
Singula dum Fronesis miratur et omnia temptat
Vestigare sue racionis legibus, illam
Asistens matrona monet, ne sompniet illic
Humanas leges mundanaque federa, cursus
Nature nostrasque uices, ubi nulla potestas
Illius, sed cuncta silent decreta, pauescunt
Leges, iura stupent, ubi regnat sola uoluntas
Artificis summi, que uult a canone nostro
Excipiens, ubi iura pauent et regula cedit
Artifici, canonque silet, dictante magistro.

Admiring more, he hesitates more, clinging more; he inquires by what right of heaven, by what law the blessed Daughter might proffer the Father, the earthly one God, the destined-to-fall the abiding, the flower of cedars the sun as a star, a spark the hearth, and the rock sweat out the liquid of honey.
And he marvels that God clothes our form, and that the ruler of flaming Olympus inhabits our houses, and that the flower of the rose lies hidden beneath the algae, and that a gem dons mud, and a violet is veiled by hemlock, and that Life dies, the sun grows dark—what joints, what junctions, what nexus and whence connect human things to God, consociate divine things to the caducous, and federate God to man, what federating order.
While Phronesis marvels at each particular and attempts to investigate all things by the laws of her own reason, the attending matron warns her not to dream there of human laws and worldly federations, the courses of Nature and our vicissitudes, where none of that has any power, but all decrees are silent, laws grow afraid, rights are stupefied, where the sole will of the highest Artificer reigns, which wills by making exception from our canon, where laws are afraid and the rule yields to the Artificer, and the canon is silent, with the Master dictating.

Non Racio sed sola Fides ibi queritur, illic
Transcendit causas celestis causa, minores
Exuperat leges lex summa et federa legum.
Ergo sufficiat Fides, disquirere cesset
Hic Racio, sistatque Fides Racionis habenas.

Not Reason but Faith alone is sought there; there
the celestial Cause transcends causes, the highest Law
surpasses the lesser laws and the compacts of laws.
Therefore let Faith suffice; let Reason cease to inquire
here, and let Faith stay the reins of Reason.

[185-272]

His monitis fert assensum Prudencia, cedit
Doctrine, sequiturque Fidem totumque superno
Deputat aetori quod nostram uincere legem
Cernit et excepti iuris racione moueri.
Hiis edocta uiam maturius arripit, eius
Informat regina gradum gressumque sigillat
Incessu proprio, ne locus abditus, anceps
Callis, distortus limes, uia dissona gressus
Virginis impediat, comitem sibi destinat illam,
Que Fronesi mentem proscriptam reddidit, eius
Resiituens uisum, cui cessit abusio morbi,
Quam uia nulla latet, nullus locus abditur illi,
Non delirus obest limes, non semita fallit.
Hiis comitata uie Fronesis securius instat
Ancipitesque uias transit, loca dissona, calles
Ignotos; nec iam posset superare locorum
Anfractus; sed nutanti soror utraque uires
Suppeditat, firmatque gradum, gressusque recidit
Pondus, et extenuans penam fastidia tollit.

By these admonitions Prudence bears assent, yields
to Doctrine, and follows Faith, and she deputes to the supernal
Author the whole, since she sees that it overcomes our law
and is moved by the reason of accepted law.
Taught by these she more quickly seizes the way; her
queen informs the step and seals the stride
with her own gait, lest a hidden place, a doubtful
track, a twisted boundary, a dissonant road impede the steps
of the Virgin; she appoints for herself as companion that one
who gave back to Phronesis the proscribed mind, restoring
her sight, to whom the abuse of the disease yielded—
whom no way hides, no place is hidden from her,
no delirious boundary harms, no footpath deceives.
Accompanied on the road by these, Phronesis presses on more securely
and crosses uncertain ways, discordant places, unknown
tracks; nor now could she overcome the windings of the places;
but for the wavering one each sister supplies strengths
and makes firm the step, and cuts down the weight of the steps,
and, attenuating the pain, removes the distastes.

Oblatum Fronesi uisum deffendit ab omni
Luminis occursu speculum, ne debriet illam
Celestis splendor oculosque reuerberet ignis.
Tandem fessa, tremens, admirans, uirgo dietam
Explet et eterni supprema palacia regis
Intrat et expleti superata mole laboris
Letatur; sed cuncta stupet que nuncius offert
In speculo uisus, ubi nil mortale, caducum,
Defficiens, terrestre micat, solumque refulget
Eternum, celeste, manens, immobile, certum.
Hic uidet ingenitas species, speculatur ydeas
Celestes, hominum formas, primordia rerum,
Causarum causas, racionum semina, leges
Parcarum, fati seriem mentemque Tonantis,
Cur Deus hos reprobat, illos predestinat, istum
Preparat ad uitam, sua munera substrahit illi;
Cur alios humiles paupertas cogit, egenos
Opprimit et solum lacrimis saciatur egestas;
Cur aliis prediues opum pluit alueus omnes
Diuicias diuesque natat fecundus in auro;
Cur istos ditat sapiencia, nubilat illos
Sensus inops, animus pauper, mendica uoluntas;
Cur forme species purgata serenat Adonim,
Dauus abusiuam speciem gerit, Hector in armis
Fulgurat, ingenii radio scintillat Vlixes;
Cur Cicero rethor, cur Tiphis nauita, pictor
Milo, pugil Pollux, rigidus Cato, Naso poeta.

The mirror defends the sight offered to Phronesis from every
encounter of light, lest the celestial splendor inebriate her
and the fire reverberate the eyes.
At length, weary, trembling, wondering, the virgin her day’s march
completes and enters the highest palaces of the eternal king,
and, the mass of the task completed and overcome,
she rejoices; but she is astonished at all that the messenger offers
in the mirror of sight, where nothing mortal, caducous,
failing, terrestrial glitters, and only there shines forth
what is eternal, celestial, abiding, immobile, certain.
Here she sees innate species, she speculates the celestial Ideas,
the forms of men, the beginnings of things,
the causes of causes, the seeds of reasons, the laws
of the Fates, the series of fate and the mind of the Thunderer—
why God rejects these, predestines those, prepares this one
for life, withdraws his gifts from that one;
why poverty compels some to lowliness, oppresses the needy,
and indigence is sated only with tears;
why for others the channel, pre-rich in wealth, rains all
riches, and, rich, swims prolific in gold;
why sapience enriches these, clouds those
an indigent sense, a poor mind, a begging will;
why the purged beauty of form makes Adonis serene,
Davus bears an abusive appearance, Hector in arms
gleams, Ulysses scintillates with the ray of ingenium;
why Cicero is a rhetor, why Tiphys a navigator, Milo a painter,
Pollux a pugilist, rigid Cato, Naso a poet.

Nec hec sola fauent Fronesis conspectibus; ultra
Progrediens uisus alia nouitate uidentem
Demulcet, redituque suo miranda reportat.
Hic uidet irrigui fontis radiare nitorem
Qui prediues aquis, reliquo conspectior anne,
Sidera luce domat, precellit mella sapore.
Cuius deliciis cedit paradisus, odore
Balsama uincuntur, nardus summittitur illi.

Nor do these alone favor Phronesis’s conspects; further
the advancing sight soothes the seer with another novelty,
and by its return brings back marvels.
Here she sees the brilliance of an irrigant spring to radiate
which, rich in waters, more conspicuous than any other stream,
masters the stars with its light, excels honeys in savor.
To whose delights Paradise yields; in odor
balsams are vanquished, spikenard submits to it.

A quo procedens riuus non immemor horum
Que fons ille gerit, totum sibi fontis honorem
Assumit, fontique pari respondet honore;
Non tamen irriguum minor afflat gratia fontem.
Ergo fons riuum, riuus cum fonte fluentum
Producit, retinens fontis riuique saporem.
Cum sint diuersi, fons, riuus, flumen in unum
Conueniunt eademque trium substancia, simplex
Esse, sapor similis, color unus, splendor in illis
Vnicus et uultus horum conformis et idem
Ad speciem fontis sol uincens lumine solem.

From which proceeding, the rivulet, not unmindful of those things
which that fountain bears, assumes to itself the whole honor of the fountain,
and to the fountain answers with equal honor;
yet a grace no less breathes upon the irrigating fountain.
Therefore the fountain brings forth the rivulet, the rivulet with the fountain the flowing
river produces, retaining the savor of the fountain and the rivulet.
Although they are diverse, fountain, rivulet, river into one
come together, and the same is the substance of the three, simple
in being; the taste is similar, the color one, the splendor in them
unique, and the face of these conformed and the same
to the aspect of the fountain—a sun conquering the sun with light.

Hic radium fundit quem sol mundanus adorat,
Cui celum stelleque fauent et supplicat orbis.
Occasum nunquam patitur sol iste, nec ullam
Sustinet eclipsim, nec nubis nubila sentit,
A quo procedens radius Solaris adequat
Luce patrem loquiturque suo splendore parentem:
Idem sol, species eadem, lux una, coeuus
Splendor, nequaquam proprio decliuus ab ortu,
Sol alius sed non aliud, sol unus et unum
Cum gignente manens, lux luci consona, fulgor
Fulgori splendorque sui non immemor ignis.
De se producit radius cum sole calorem
Qui mulcens urit, urendo mulcebris et ardens
Mitigat, incendens demulcet, temperat urens.

Here it pours out a ray which the worldly sun adores,
to which heaven and the stars show favor, and the orb supplicates.
This sun never suffers a setting, nor does it endure any
eclipse, nor does it feel the cloudiness of a cloud,
from whom proceeding the Solar ray equals
in light the father and with its own splendor speaks the parent:
the same sun, the same species, one light, a coeval
splendor, by no means declining from his proper origin,
another sun but not another thing, one sun and one
abiding with the begetter, light consonant with light, radiance
to radiance, and the fire not unmindful of its own splendor.
From itself it brings forth the ray; with the sun, the heat
which, soothing, burns—soothing in its burning and ardent—
mitigates; enkindling it caresses; burning it tempers.

Iste calor siccat uiciorum flumina, sordes
Purgat et a uicio uirtutis decoquit aurum.
Iste calor perimit peccati frigora, flammas
Ire, torporis hyemes Venerisque calorem.
Sic calor expugnat ignem, sic flamma repellit
Flammam, sic estus estum splendorque caminum.

This heat dries the rivers of vices, purges filth, and decocts from vice the gold of virtue.
This heat does away with the colds of sin, the flames of Wrath, the winters of torpor, and the heat of Venus.
Thus heat overcomes fire, thus flame drives back flame, thus heat overcomes heat, and splendor overcomes the furnace.

Pullulat in flores mens isto tacta calore,
Et terram mentis uirtutum flore beato
Purpurat iste calor, dum uer celeste reducit.

The mind, touched by this heat, pullulates into flowers,
And this heat purples the soil of the mind with the blessed flower of virtues,
while it brings back the celestial spring.

[273-295]

Hec mirata diu Fronesis multumque retractans
Singula, que uisus pregustat, freta sororum
Ducatu, summi regis conscendit in arcem
Qua residet rex ipse poli, qui cuncta cohercet
Legibus imperii, qui numine numina celi
Constringit, cuius nutu celestia nutant.
Hec igitur uicina Deo uix sustinet eius
Immortale iubar, ius magestatis inundans,
Expectat lumen, sed eam deffendit ab isto
Fulgure planicies speculi, quam uisibus offert
Illa suis, lucem speculo mediante retardans.
Tunc uirgo, genibus flexis et supplice uultu,
Submisse uocis modulo gestuque timentis
Supplicat eterno regi, uerbumque salutis
Prelibat, mixtaque tremunt formidine uerba.

This Phronesis, having marveled long and much re-considering
each particular which sight pre-tastes, relying on her sisters’
leadership, ascends into the citadel of the Most High King,
where the king himself of the sky resides, who constrains all things
by the laws of his empire, who by his numen the numina of heaven
binds fast, at whose nod the celestial things nod.
She therefore, neighbor to God, scarcely sustains his
immortal radiance, the right of majesty overflowing;
she awaits the light, but from that lightning a level expanse
of mirror defends her, which she offers to her own sight,
delaying the light by the mirror’s mediating.
Then the virgin, with knees bent and a suppliant countenance,
with subdued modulation of voice and the gesture of one fearing,
supplicates the eternal king, and tastes beforehand the word of salvation,
and her words, mingled with fear, tremble.

Sed superum genitor, reddens sua iura saluti,
Erigit hanc et stare iubet motusque timoris
Sistere, ne terror animum uocemque retardet.
Erigitur mentemque regit, partimque retardat
Virgo metum, stat mens cum corpore, corporis equat
Mens erecta situm. Sic mens submissa resumit
Vires, erectam mentem sua uerba sequntur.

But the begetter of the supernals, restoring to salvation its rights,
raises her and bids her to stand, and the motions of fear
to cease, lest terror retard mind and voice.
She is raised up, and he rules her mind, and in part the maiden
retards fear; the mind stands with the body; the mind erect matches
the body’s position. Thus the submissive mind resumes
powers, her words follow the mind set erect.

Exit in has uoces animus uerbumque redundat:

The spirit goes forth into these voices, and the word redounds:

[296-381]

"Si nostros gemitus et nostre tedia sortis,
Mundanos casus mundanaque fata, caducos
Ortus, instantes obitus uiteque propinquos
Lapsus et nostre pensemus originis omen,
Que nostrum tantos fastus inuadat ut ante
Conspectum faciemque Dei presumat habere
Colloquium noctisque lues cum luce loquatur,
Conueniat regem seruus pauperque potentem,
Factorique suo moueat factura querelam?
Sed quia te fontem pietatis nouimus, a quo
Liuoris stimulum bonitas innata relegat,
Cuius iusticie pietas adiuncta rigorem
Temperat et multum discurrere non sinit illam,
Ad te confugimus proscripte quas fugat orbis,
Persequitur mundus, homo respuit, improbat omnis
Viuens, sicque tuis, si fas est dicere, mundus
Legibus excipitur, dum nostri jura nefandis
Actibus expugnat, etiam tibi bella minatur,
Nam tua res agitur, paries cum proximus ardet.
Hos casus Natura uidet lapsusque cadentis
Mundi, uirtutem uicio succumbere, fraudi
Fedus, amiciciam liti pacemque furori.

"If we weigh our groans and the tedium of our lot,
the mundane mishaps and mundane fates, the falling
births, the impending deaths and life’s near
slips, and the omen of our origin,
which should invade our so great haughtiness that, before
the sight and face of God, it would presume to have
a colloquy, and the plague of night would speak with light;
let the slave meet the king and the poor man the potent one,
and let the thing-made move a complaint against its Maker?
But because we know you as the fountain of piety, from whom
innate goodness relegates the goad of ill-will,
whose justice, with piety adjoined, tempers
rigor and does not allow it to run too far,
to you we flee—we, the proscribed, whom the orb puts to flight,
the world persecutes, man spits out, every living one disapproves—
and thus, by your laws, if it is right to say so, the world
is arraigned, while it assaults our rights by nefarious
acts, and even threatens wars against you;
for your cause is at stake, when the neighboring wall burns.
These mishaps Nature sees, and the slips of the falling
world: virtue succumbing to vice, covenant to fraud,
friendship to strife, and peace to fury."

Hos gemit excessus, errores luget, abusus
Deplorat mundumque dolet sub nocte iacere.
In multis etiam damnat sua fata, reatus
Excusare uolens facto meliore nouisque
Artibus, atque noua medicina tergere morbum.
Qualiter ergo malum superet morbumque recidat,
Putrida membra secet, ne pars sincera trahatur,
Occurrat uicio, ne totum diruat orbem,
Vix cognoscit adhuc, sed tandem freta sororum
Colloquio, meliore uia procedit, in istud
Consilium ueniens, ut totum uiribus unum
Cudat opus, per quod proprio succurat honori.

She groans these excesses, she laments the errors, deplores the abuses,
and grieves that the world lies beneath night. In many respects also she condemns her fates, wishing
to excuse the guilt by a better deed and by new arts,
and to wipe the disease with a new medicine. How therefore she may overcome the evil and cut back the sickness,
cut off the putrid limbs, lest the sound part be drawn along,
meet the vice, lest it ruin the whole world,
she scarcely yet recognizes; but at length, relying on the sisters’
colloquy, she proceeds by a better way, coming to this
counsel: that with forces all as one she may forge a single work,
through which she may succor her own honor.

Quo ueteres hominum possit pensare ruinas,
Vult hominem formare nouum, qui sidere forme
Et morum forma reliquos transcendat, et omnes
Excessus resecans, regali limite gressum
Perducat, mediumque tenens extrema relinquat,
Vt saltem mundo sydus prefulguret unum
Qui iacet errorum tenebrosa nocte sepultus,
Vt sic respiret uirtus, excuset in isto
Erores Natura suos, et conferat uni
Quod multis conferre nequit meritumque fauoris
Et laudum titulos saltem lucretur in uno.
Que iacet in multis dampnata suumque decorem
Amittit, dum sola sui jam restat ymago,
Sed nullo firmata manent concepta tenore,
Ni tua conceptis applaudat gracia, ceptum
Roboret atque suo confirmet munere uotum.
Nature langueret opus penitusque iaceret
Incultum, ueteris retinens fastidia masse,
Ni tua mature firmaret dextera factum
Infirmamque manum regeret, conduceret huius
Scribentis calamum, lapsum suppleret euntis.

By which she may be able to weigh the ancient ruins of men,
she wishes to form a new man, who with a sidereal form
and the form of morals may transcend the rest, and, pruning all
excesses, may conduct his step within a regal limit,
and, holding to the mean, may leave the extremes,
so that at least one star may shine brightly for the world,
which lies buried in the tenebrous night of errors,
that thus virtue may breathe, Nature may excuse in this one
her own errors, and may confer upon one what she cannot confer upon many,
and may at least gain in one the merit of favor
and may win the titles of praises at least in one.
She who lies condemned in many and loses her own decorum,
while only the image of herself now remains,
but the conceived things remain established by no fixed tenor,
unless your grace should applaud what is conceived, and should the undertaken thing
fortify and confirm the vow by its gift.
The work of Nature would languish and lie utterly
uncultivated, retaining the distastes of the old mass,
unless your right hand should in timely fashion strengthen the deed
and rule the feeble hand, guide the reed of this writer,
and make up for the lapse of one as he goes.

Corporis effigiem sibi deputat, exigit a te
Quod superest Natura bonum munusque quod ipse
Solus habes, animamque petit que sola superni
Postulat artificis sensum limamque requirit.
Nostras namque manus terrestris fabrica tamen
Exposcit, sed eas anime celestis origo
Ignorat, solique suum sibi deputat ortum.
Ergo tuo nutu, numen celeste caduca
Visitet et corpus celestis spiritus intret;
In terra positus, in celo mente beata
Viuat et in terris peregrinet corpore solo,
Virtutum diues opibus, fecundus amore
Celesti, carnisque domet racione tirannum,
Teque tuum fateatur opus, quis fecerit actor
Predicet artificemque suum factura loquatur.

He assigns to himself the effigy of the body, he demands from you
what remains: from Nature the good and the gift which you alone
possess; and he seeks the soul, which alone demands the sense of the supernal
craftsman and requires the file (polish).
For the earthly fabric indeed
requires our hands, but the origin of the heavenly soul
is ignorant of them, and to the One alone assigns its own origin.
Therefore at your nod, let the celestial numen visit the perishable,
and let the heavenly Spirit enter the body;
placed on earth, let him live in heaven with a blessed mind,
and on earth let him sojourn as a pilgrim with the body alone,
rich in the resources of virtues, fruitful in celestial love,
and let him tame the tyrant of the flesh by reason,
and let him confess you and your work; let it proclaim what author
has made it, and let the thing fashioned speak its own craftsman.

Sic ad nos diuinus homo descendat, ut ipsis
Virtutum titulis aliorum moribus instet.
Te saltem moueant Nature dampna, pudoris
Exilium, iactura boni, detractio morum,
Error honestatis, fidei proscriptio, legum
Contemptus nostreque preces; si pondera rerum
Vel momenta sumus, noli confundere dudum
Confusas: fuimus et nos quandoque beate.
Si te nulla mouent rerum discrimina, saltem
Te gratis moueat tua gracia, suscipe uota
Que damus et precibus deuotis pondera dona.

Thus let the divine man descend to us, so that with the very titles of Virtues he may press upon the morals of others.
Let at least the losses of Nature move you, the exile of modesty, the loss of the good, the detraction of morals,
the error of honesty, the proscription of faith, the contempt of laws, and our prayers; if we are of weight in matters
or of moment, do not confound those long since confounded: we too were once blessed.
If no discriminations of things move you, at least let your grace move you gratuitously; receive the vows
which we offer, and grant weight to devout prayers.

Si nos a patriis proscriptas sedibus omni
Destituis uoto, deserte uincimur, omne
Perdimus officium nostrasque relinquimus artes".
Hiis donat precibus assensus arbiter aule
Celestis, mentemque foras uox prouocat ista:

If, with us proscribed from our ancestral seats, you disappoint every
vow, abandoned we are overcome; we lose all office and relinquish our arts."
To these prayers the arbiter of the celestial hall grants assent,
and this voice calls the mind forth:

[382-424]

"Virgo parens rerum, superum germana meique
Filia, celestis ortu, tamen incola terre,
In terris que sola sapis diuina meeque
Exemplum deitatis habes, fastidia mundi
Que relevas fletusque tuo solamine tergis,
Non tua degenerat a summa mente uoluntas,
Nam patris ad uotum suspirat nata; parentem
In uoto sequitur patri non dissona proles.
Hoc mihi iampridem Racio dictauit ut uno
Munere respicerem terras mundumque bearem
Numine celestis hominis, qui solus haberet
Tot uirtutis opes quot munera digna fauore,
Tot dotes anime quo saltern mundus oberrans
Floreret, uiciis aliorum marcidus, immo
Iam defloratus in flore resurgeret uno.
Si terre uicium, scelus orbis, crimina mundi
Ad meritum pensans, uellem persoluere penas,
Aut iterum terras uelarem fluctibus, undis
Vestirem montes iterum, totumque periret
Diluuio genus humanum, nec fluctibus ullum
Exciperet uite meritum, nec uiueret alter
Deucalion alterque Noe concluderet archam.

"Virgin mother of things, sister of the supernal ones and my
Daughter, of celestial origin, yet an inhabitant of earth,
who alone on earth are wise in divine things and have the exemplar of my
Deity, you who relieve the disgusts of the world and wipe away tears with your consolation,
your will does not degenerate from the highest mind,
for the daughter sighs after the vow of the father; the offspring,
not dissonant to the father, follows the parent in wish.
This long since Reason dictated to me, that with one
Gift I should regard the lands and bless the world with the numen
Of a celestial man, who alone would have
As many riches of virtue as gifts worthy of favor,
So many endowments of soul that at least the erring world,
Withered by the vices of others, nay rather
Already deflowered in its bloom, might rise again in a single flower.
If, weighing the vice of the earth, the crime of the orb, the crimes of the world
According to their desert, I should wish to pay the penalties,
Either I would again veil the lands with billows, with waves
Clothe the mountains again, and the whole human race would perish
By a deluge, nor would any merit of life be exempted
From the billows, nor would another Deucalion live, and another Noah
Shut up the ark.

Sed pocius mundus, qui crimine uiuit in uno,
Ad uite meritum pena moreretur in una,
Aut terre delicta nouus consumeret ignis,
Inuoluens homines una sub clade, nec unum
Exciperet tante generalis regula cladis,
Aut scelerum pestes alia sub peste perirent.
Sed quia iusticie uincit miseracio normam
Iudiciique rigor cedit pietate remissus,
Non penas equabo malis, non premia culpis,
Non ferro purgabo luem, non uulnere morbum,
Sed uictus dulcore precum uestrique misertus
Exilii, meliora dabo medicamina mundo.
Munere diuino donis celestibus auctus,
Spiritus a celo terre dimissus in orbe
Terreno peregrinus erit, carnisque receptus
Hospicio, luteum tegimen nouus hospes habebit.

But rather the world, which lives in a single crime,
would, according to the desert of life, die by a single penalty,
or a new fire would consume the earth’s delicts,
wrapping men beneath one catastrophe, and not a single one
would the rule of so great a general disaster exempt,
or the plagues of crimes would perish under another pest.
But because miseration conquers the norm of justice
and the rigor of judgment, relaxed, yields to piety,
I will not equate penalties to evils, nor rewards to faults,
I will not purge the plague with iron, nor the disease with a wound,
but, conquered by the sweetness of prayers and pitying your
exile, I will give better medicaments to the world.
By a divine munus, augmented with celestial gifts,
a Spirit sent down from heaven into the earth’s orb
will be a pilgrim in the terrestrial, and, received into the hospitality of flesh,
the new guest will have a clayey covering.

Hoc superest ut uestra manus concedat honestum
Huic anime thalamum, regi respondeat aula,
Ne nouus hospicii contagia senciat hospes,
Ne nucleum ledat teste putredo, saporem
Corrupti uasis sibi res contenta maritet".

This remains: that your hand grant an honorable bridal-chamber to this soul, let the hall answer to the king;
lest the new guest of the hostel feel contagions,
lest the rottenness of the shell injure the kernel, let not the thing contained marry to itself the savor
of a corrupted vessel."

[425-451]

Hiis hylarata magis propriumque oblita laborem
Virgo, nec ulterius pondus conquesta uiarum,
Persoluit grates et celi numen adorat.
Ipse Deus rem prosequitur, producit in actum
Que pepigit. Vocat ergo Noym, que preparet illi
Numinis exemplar, humane mentis ydeam,
Ad cuius formam formetur spiritus omni
Munere uirtutum diues, qui, nube caduce
Carnis obumbratus, ueletur corporis umbra.

By these things more gladdened and forgetful of her own labor
the Virgin, and no longer complaining of the burden of the ways,
pays thanks and adores the numen of heaven.
God himself pursues the matter, brings forth into act
what he has covenanted. He therefore calls Noym, that she may prepare for him
the exemplar of the Numen, the idea of the human mind,
according to whose form the spirit may be formed, rich with every
gift of virtues, who, overshadowed by the caducous cloud
of flesh, may be veiled by the body’s shadow.

Tunc Noys ad regis preceptum singula rerum
Vestigans exempla, nouam perquirit ydeam.
Inter tot species speciem uix inuenit illam
Quam petit; offertur tandem quesita petenti.
In cuius speculo locat omnis gracia sedem:
Forma Ioseph, sensus Ytide, potencia justi
Iob, zelus Finees Moysique modestia, Iacob
Simplicitas Abraheque fides pietasque Thobie.

Then Noys, at the king’s precept, tracking the individual examples of things,
searches thoroughly for a new idea.
Amid so many species he scarcely finds that species
which he seeks; at last the thing sought is offered to the seeker.
In whose mirror all grace places its seat:
the form of Joseph, the sense of Tydides, the potency of the just
Job, the zeal of Phinehas and the modesty of Moses, Jacob
Simplicity and Abraham’s faith and the piety of Tobias.

Hanc formam Noys ipsa Deo presentat, ut eius
Formet ad exemplar animam. Tunc ille sigillum
Sumpsit, ad ipsius forme uestigia formam
Dans anime, uultum qualem deposcit ydea
Imprimit exemplo, totas usurpat ymago
Exemplaris opes, loquiturque figura sigillum.
Adsunt factori Parce cumulantque decorem
Facture, non inuidie liuore retracte
A donis anime, sed multa dote salutant
Ortam, felici claudentes omine fatum.

This form Noys herself presents to God, that he may form the soul according to its exemplar.
Then he took the seal, giving to the soul a form after the vestiges of that form;
the countenance such as the Idea requires he imprints by the exemplar, the image
appropriates all the riches of the exemplar, and the figure—the seal—speaks.
The Fates are present to the Maker and heap up the beauty of the facture,
not drawn back from the gifts of the soul by the livor of envy,
but with many an endowment they salute the one born, closing the fate with a happy omen.

[452-465]

Hiis donis ditans facturam, factor eandem
Commendat Fronesi, monet hanc et precipit, addens
Preceptis monitisque minas, ne tanta remisse
Conseruet commissa sibi, sed caucius illam
Conducat, meliore uia moderata meatum,
Ne uel Saturni glaciali frigore tacta
Senciat algorem nimium, uel Martis in estu
Torreat, aut dulci pruritu lesa Dyones
Langueat, aut lune fluitet torrentibus acta.
Tunc Noys unguenti specie, que funditus omnem
Aeris insultum sistat morbique procellam,
Frigus auaricie, fedeque libidinis estum,
Inuidieque sedet stimulum, contemperet iram,
Perfundens animam celesti rore perungit.

Enriching the facture with these gifts, the Maker commends the same to Phronesis, warns her and enjoins, adding threats to the precepts and admonitions, lest she keep so great a trust remissly, but rather conduct it more cautiously, its course moderated by a better way, lest, touched by Saturn’s glacial cold, it feel excessive chill, or be scorched in the heat of Mars, or, hurt by the sweet prurience of Dione, languish, or under the Moon be made to flow, driven by torrents. Then Nous, in the guise of an unguent—which at the root stays every assault of the air and the tempest of sickness, the frost of avarice, and the foul heat of lust, quells the goad of envy, and tempers wrath—bathing the soul, anoints it with heavenly dew.

[466-488]

I’m missing the actual Latin text for lines [466-488]. Please provide the source lines [466-488], and I will translate them into English while matching your formatting exactly.

Ergo potens uoti, celo demittitur alto
Virgo, gradum properat illucque reuertitur unde
Venerat; in celum stellis radiantibus ardens.
Peruenit; occurrit Racio uotoque potitam
Laudat et actoris miratur dona superni.
Tunc comites, quarum ductu Prudencia sursum
Euasit, reddens grates soluensque salutem
Deserit, ad currum rursus solitumque recurrens
Aurigam, ueteremque uiam gauisa resumit.

Therefore, powerful in her vow, from high heaven the Maiden is sent down;
she hastens her step and returns to that place whence she had come;
ardent, into heaven with stars beaming she arrives.
She reaches it; Reason meets her and praises her as having won her vow,
and marvels at the gifts of the heavenly Author.
Then to the companions, by whose guidance Prudence had escaped upward,
giving thanks and offering greeting, she leaves them, and, returning to the chariot and the accustomed
charioteer, she, rejoicing, resumes the old road.

Tunc loca pertransit Saturno proxima, caute
Decipit illa senem, gressum secludit et illi
Se procul absentat fugiens, callemque remotum
Intrat, ut illius queat expugnare furorem.
Saturnique tamen sensisset spiritus iram,
Ni liquor unguenti contra pugnasset et illum
Vincens, feruorem superasset celicus imber.
Sic Veneris pestes, sic Martis decipit estus,
Lunaremque globum que tandem singula uincens,
Immensum consummat iter uotisque sororum
Expectata diu Prudencia redditur; offert
Nature celeste datum; miratur in illo
Artificis Natura manum, munusque beatum
Laudat et in dono laudatur gracia dantis.

Then she passes the places nearest to Saturn; cautiously
she deceives that old man, shuts off his step and, fleeing, keeps herself
far away from him, and enters a remote by-path,
so that she may be able to storm his frenzy.
And yet Saturn’s spirit would have felt wrath,
had not the liquor of the unguent fought against it, and, conquering him,
a heavenly shower overcome his fervor.
Thus she deceives the plagues of Venus, thus the heat of Mars,
and, the lunar globe too, while at length conquering things one by one,
she consummates the immense journey; and, to the sisters’ vows
long expected, Prudence is restored; she offers
to Nature the celestial gift; in it Nature marvels
at the hand of the Artificer, and the blessed munus
she praises, and in the gift the grace of the giver is praised.

LIBER SEPTIMUS

BOOK SEVEN

[1-55]

Occurrit Fronesi uirtutum turba suoque
Pendet in amplexu, collum ligat, oscula prebet,
Felicem laudat reditum, cum grata labori
Reddatur merces, felici fine laborem
Concludens, nec iam risus et gaudia uendat
Spem timor offendens, cum res superata timorem
Sorbeat et longo succedant gaudia uoto.
Ergo sollerti studio Natura requirit
Materie summam, de qua presigne figuret
Hospicium, carnisque domum quam spiritus intret
Celestis, radietque suo domus hospite digna.
Excipit a terra quicquid purgacius in se
Terra tenet, quicquid sibi puri uendicat humor,
Quidue magis purum purus sibi destinat aer,
Vel defecatum retinet sibi purior ignis.

The crowd of virtues runs to meet Phronesis and
hangs in his embrace, binds his neck, offers kisses,
praises the felicitous return, when to labor
the welcome reward is rendered, concluding the labor with a felicitous end,
and no longer let fear, offending hope, vend laughter and joys,
when the affair, once overcome, absorbs fear
and joys succeed to the long vow.
Therefore with skillful zeal Nature seeks
the choicest of Matter, out of which she may pre-eminently figure
a hospice, and the house of flesh which the celestial spirit may enter
and the house may radiate, worthy of its own guest.
She takes from earth whatever more purified the earth
holds in itself, whatever of pure the humor claims for itself,
and what the pure air destines to itself as more pure,
or what the more purified fire retains for itself, refined.

Diuidit a toto, diuisaque rursus in unum
Colligit in summa commiscens, dumque futurum
Sic prelibat opus, humani corporis aptat
Materiam, signans operis uexilla futuri.
Ergo materiam colere uis ignea donat
Que, quamuis soleat totam turbare quietem
Corporis et bellum plus quam ciuile mouere,
Hic pacata iacet, nullos motura tumultus.
Materiam purus traducit ab aere sanguis,
Nec iam luxuriat proprio torrente superbus,
Sed pacem seruat reliquis humoribus humor
Sanguineus nullasque mouet cum fratribus iras.

She divides from the whole, and the things divided she gathers back into one, commixing them in a sum; and while she thus pre-tastes the work to be, she adapts the matter of the human body, marking the banners of the future work.
Therefore the igneous force grants power to cultivate the matter, which, although it is wont to disturb the whole quiet of the body and to move a more-than-civil war, here lies pacified, destined to stir no tumults.
The pure blood translates the matter from the air, nor now does it luxuriate, proud in its own torrent, but the sanguine humor keeps peace with the remaining humors and moves no angers with its brothers.

Mis inferior infra decurrit aquosus
Humor et in morbos iam declinare recusat,
Quamuis germane soleat putredinis esse
Proximus et uarias morborum gignere pestes.
Hic fex humorum fecem deponit et omnes
Ingenitos mores melius morata recidit.
Ex hiis materiam ductam Natura monetat
In speciem, uultus humani corporis aptans
Materie, cuius miratur turba decorem,
Parque suum stupet in terris decor ipse decorum.

The lower mixture runs down below, a watery Humor,
and now refuses to incline into diseases,
although by kinship it is wont to be nearest to putrefaction
and to beget various plagues of diseases.
Here the dregs of the humors deposit their dregs, and all
inborn traits it, better-mannered, prunes away.
From these Nature draws the material and mints it
into a species, fitting the visage of the human body
to the matter, at whose decor the throng marvels,
and Beauty itself, equal to itself, on earth stands amazed at the beauty.

Omnes diuicias forme diffundit in illo
Nature prelarga manus; post munera pauper
Pene fuit Natura parens que dona decoris,
Forme thesauros uultu deponit in uno.
Spirat in hac forma Narcisus et alter Adonis
Spirat in hac facie quam, si Venus altera rursum
Cerneret, in solitum decurreret illa furorem.
Hoc magis in signum speciei donaque forme
Cedit, quod nulla corpus pinguedine surgit,
Sed magis in maciem tendit, sic omnia iuste
Possidet et nullo decor eius claudicat, immo
Nil maius conferre potest Natura uel ultra;
Nil imperfectum, quia perfectissimus actor,
Nec maius uoluit quam quod satis omnibus esset,
Nec decuit fecisse minus qui plus potuisset.

The over-bountiful hand of Nature diffuses all the riches of form in him; after the gifts the parent Nature was almost poor, she who deposits the gifts of comeliness, the treasures of form, in a single countenance.
In this form breathes Narcissus and another Adonis; breathes in this face which, if a second Venus again should behold, she would run back into her wonted fury.
This the more makes for the badge of beauty and the gifts of form, because the body rises with no fatness, but rather inclines toward leanness; thus he possesses all things justly and in nothing does his beauty limp—indeed, Nature can confer nothing greater or beyond;
nothing imperfect, since the most perfect agent; nor did she will anything greater than what would be enough for all, nor did it befit her, who could have done more, to have made less.

Hec igitur species tantum pretendit honoris
Quod sese possit tute committere laudi
Inuidie laudemque suam mereatur ab hoste.

Therefore this appearance claims so much honor
that it can safely entrust itself to praise,
and may merit Envy’s praise and its own praise from an enemy.

[56-116]

Postquam materiem Nature dextra beauit
Vultibus humanis, animam Concordia carni
Federat et stabili connectit dissona nexu.
Iunctura tenui, gunfis subtilibus aptat
Composito simplex, hebeti subtile, ligatque
Federe complacito, carni diuina maritat.
Sic nocti lucem connectit et ethera terre,
Sic diuersa tenent pacem, sic dissona litem
Deponunt propriam nec iam caro bella minatur,
Spiritui cedens sed non sine murmure multo.

After the right hand of Nature beautified the matter
with human faces, Concord federated the soul to the flesh
and connects the dissonant with a stable nexus.
By a tenuous juncture, with subtle cords she fits
the simple to the composite, the subtle to the dull, and binds
with a pleasing covenant, marries the divine to the flesh.
Thus she connects light to night and the aether to the earth,
thus the diverse hold peace, thus the dissonant lay down their own quarrel
and the flesh no longer threatens wars,
yielding to the spirit, but not without much murmur.

Nec iam corpoream uestem fastidit abhorrens
Spiritus, hospicio tali letatus et umbra.
Vt melius concludat opus Concordia, uirgo
Que nobis numeri doctrinam spondet et illa
Que monstrat uocum nexus et uincla sonorum,
Assistunt operi cepto firmantque duorum
Connubium, numerisque ligant et federe certo
Nectunt, ut carni nubat substancia celi.
Ergo nouus formatur homo: miratur in illo
Se tantum potuisse potens Natura stupensque
Vix opus esse suum credit quod fecerat ipsa.

Nor now does the Spirit, shrinking, loathe the corporeal garment,
gladdened by such lodging and shade. That Concord, the maiden,
who promises to us the doctrine of number, and that one
who shows the nexus of voices and the bonds of sounds,
assist the work begun and strengthen the marriage of the two,
and by numbers they bind and weave with a sure covenant,
so that the substance of heaven may wed the flesh.
Therefore a new man is formed: powerful Nature marvels
that she could have been able so much in him, and, astonished,
she scarcely believes the work to be her own, which she herself had made.

Dat iuueni dotes predictas Copia, pleno
Perfundens cornu Nature munera, nullam
Mensure metam retinens in munere tanto.
Et cornu quod nulla prius munuscula, nullum
Exhausit munus, totum diffunditur, in quo
Se probat et quantum possit metitur in illo.
Accedit Fauor in dotem, ne tanta priorum
Munera perfecte perdant preconia laudis.

Plenty gives to the youth the aforesaid dowries, flooding with a full
horn the gifts of Nature, restraining no bound of measure in so great a
munus. And the horn, which no little gifts before, no gift, has
exhausted, is poured out entirely; in this it proves itself and measures
how much it can do. Favor too is added to the dowry, lest so great the
gifts of the former lose the proclamations of praise completely.

Hiis fauet ergo Fauor, donans ut dona placere
Possint et celeri perfiat tot munera Fama.
Que, quamuis soleat uerum corrumpere falso,
Hic nescit nisi uera loqui moresque uetustos
Exuit et de se retinet sibi nomina fame.
Non ibi laus sine re, non res sine laude, suamque
Curat ab ypocrisi laudem res digna fauore.

To these, therefore, Favor shows favor, granting that the gifts may be able to please
and that swift Fame may bring so many gifts to fulfillment.
She, although she is wont to corrupt the true with the false,
here knows to speak nothing except truths, and casts off her ancient manners
and keeps for herself, from herself, the names of fame.
There, no praise without a thing, no thing without praise, and its own
praise a thing worthy of favor takes care to keep away from hypocrisy.

Munera leticie largitur grata Iuuentus,
Et quamuis huius soleat lasciuia semper
Esse comes, deponit eam moresque seueros
Induit atque senis imitatur moribus euum:
In senium transit morum grauitate Iuuentus.
Sic etate uiret iuuenis, quod mente senescit,
Etatem superat sensus, primordia floris
Anticipat fructus et riuum preuenit amnis.
Euo concludit animus, dum dispare ritu
Pugnant: Hoc iuuenem loquitur, probat ille senectam.

Welcome Youth lavishes the gifts of felicity,
And although wantonness is wont always
To be its companion, it lays it aside and dons severe mores
And imitates, in the mores of an old man, that age:
Into senility Youth passes by the gravity of its mores.
Thus in age the youth is verdant, in that in mind he grows old,
Sense surpasses age, the fruits anticipate the beginnings of the flower,
And the river forestalls the rivulet.
The mind sums up the aeon, while with unlike rite
They contend: this one voices youth, that one proves old age.

Risus adest, non ille tamen quem sepe maligna
Gignit abortiuum derisio, liuor ab intus
Parturit, aut extra falsi describit amoris
Forma, uel instabilis crebro lasciuia pingit;
Sed multum grauitatis habens uultumque modeste
Inscribens, nullo deformans ora cachino,
Talis erat risus, nullo corruptus abusu,
Qualem causa, locus, tempus, persona requirit.
Hiis Pudor accessit, longe fermenta relegans
Luxurie, Veneris declinans dulce uenenum,
Incestusque sitim redeuntem grata Pudoris
Extinguit sacies, fluctusque libidinis a se
Depellit, uincitque fuga, non mente Dyonem.
Ypolitus redit ad uitam, redit alter in orbem
Helyas ueteremque Joseph nouus alter adequat.

Laughter is present, not that, however, which often a malignant
derision begets abortive, which envy from within
labors to bring forth, or outwardly the form of false love
depicts, or fickle wantonness frequently paints;
but having much gravity and inscribing a modest countenance,
disfiguring the features with no guffaw,
such was the laughter, corrupted by no abuse,
such as cause, place, time, and person require.
To these Modesty (Pudor) came, banishing far the ferments
of Luxury, declining the sweet venom of Venus,
and the welcome satiety of Pudor quenches the returning thirst
for incest, and drives away from itself the waves of lust,
and conquers Dione by flight, not in mind.
Hippolytus returns to life, another Elias returns into the world,
and a new other equals the ancient Joseph.

[117-165]

Forma pudicicie custosque Modestia dotes
Apponit proprias et donum cetera uincens
Dona, nec in dando mensuram deserit, immo
Singula describit certo moderamine finis.
Totum componit hominem, contemperat actus
Verbaque metitur, libratque silencia, gestus
Ponderat, appendit habitus sensusque refrenat.
Admonet instanter ut nil agat unde pudendum,
Vnde pudor frontem signet mentemque reatus
Torqueat, aut fame titulos infamia ledat.

The form of pudicity and the guardian Modesty apposes her own endowments,
and, surpassing the other gifts, the gift; nor in giving does she forsake measure, rather
she delineates each by a sure governance of limit.
She composes the whole human being, tempers deeds,
measures words, and balances silences; she weighs gestures,
assesses bearing, and reins in the senses.
She urgently admonishes that one do nothing whence something shameful may arise,
whence shame may mark the brow and guilt may torment the mind,
or infamy may damage the titles of fame.

Demonstrat que uerba, quibus uel quando tacenda
Queue loqui deceat, ne uel dicenda tacendo
Strangulet, aut nimio largus sermone tacenda
Euomat atque seram diffuso subtrahat ori.
Describit gestum capitis faciemque uenuste
Suscitat ad recti libram, ne fronte supina
Ad superos tendens, uideatur spernere nostros
Mortales, nostram dedignans uisere uitam,
Vel nimis in faciem terre demissus, inhertem
Desertumque notet animum; moderancius ergo
Erigitur, nec enim surgit uel decidit ultra
Mensuram. Signans mentem, Constancia uultus
Scurriles prohibet gestus nimiumque seueros
Abdicat incessus, ne uel lasciuia scurram
Predicet, aut fastus nimius rigor exprimat usum.

She demonstrates the words, by which or when things-to-be-kept-silent should be kept silent,
and which it is fitting to speak, lest by keeping silence he strangle even things-to-be-said,
or, lavish with too excessive speech, vomit out the things-to-be-kept-silent
and pull back the bolt from a loosened mouth.
She describes the bearing of the head and the face becomingly,
raises it to the balance of the right measure, lest with upturned brow
tending toward the heights, he seem to despise us mortals,
disdaining to look upon our life,
or, too cast down toward the face of the earth, mark an inert
and deserted spirit; therefore, more moderately,
it is raised, for neither does it rise nor sink beyond
the measure. Marking the mind, the Constancy of the countenance
forbids scurrilous gestures and dismisses an overly severe gait,
lest either wantonness proclaim a buffoon,
or excessive haughtiness, a rigidity too great, express itself in conduct.

Et ne degeneres scurrili more lacertos
Exerat et turpi uexet sua brachia gestu,
Aut fastum signans ulnas exemplet in arcum,
Admonet illa uirum, uel ne delibet eundo
Articulisque pedum terram, uix terrea tangens,
Eius legitimo firmat uestigia gressu.
Ne cultu nimium crinis lasciuus adequet
Femineos luxus sexusque recidat honorem,
Aut nimis incomptus iaceat, scalore profundo
Degener et iuuenem proprii neglectus honoris
Philosophum nimis esse probet, tenet inter utrumque
Illa modum proprioque locat de more capillos.
Non habitum cultus nimio splendore serenat,
Non scalore premit, mediocriter omnia pensat.

And lest he stretch forth degenerate arms in scurrilous fashion,
and vex his own forearms with a shameful gesture,
or, signaling haughtiness, mold his elbows into an arch,
she admonishes the man, lest in walking he skim
the earth with the articulations of his feet, scarcely touching the earthly thing;
with a legitimate gait she makes his footfalls firm.
Lest too lascivious a tending of the hair equate
to feminine luxuries and cut back the honor of his sex,
or lie too unkempt, in deep squalor,
and, degenerate, the neglect of his own honor prove the youth
to be too much a philosopher, she holds the mean between the two
and sets his hair in its proper manner.
She does not make bright the attire by the excessive splendor of grooming,
nor press it down with grime; she weighs all things moderately.

Ne uitanda foris oculus uenetur et auris,
Melliflue uocis dulci seducta canore,
Seducat mentem deceptaque naris odore
Deffluat in luxus, uisum castigat et aurem,
Frenat odoratum; uel ne dulcore saporis
Desipiens, gustus mentem nimium sapiendo
Decipiat, sensum gustus contemperat, usum
Tactus componit, ne deuius erret et intus
Mentem sollicitet, Veneris preludia querens
Exterius nostreque ferens uexilla Dyones.

Lest the eye and the ear hunt outside for things to be shunned,
enticed by the honey-flowing sweet canorous sound of a voice,
and, the nose deceived by odor, seduce the mind
and spill into luxury, she chastens sight and hearing,
she reins in smell; or lest, by the sweetness of savor,
taste, playing the fool by over-savoring,
deceive the mind, she tempers the sense of taste, its use,
she composes touch, lest, straying, it err and within
solicit the mind, seeking the preludes of Venus
Outwardly and bearing the banners of our Dione.

[166-201]

Non minor in donis Racio succedit et omne
Diffundit munus, nunc primum prodiga donis,
Iampridem que parca fuit jam parcere dono
Desinit, ipsa tamen redeunt cum fenore dona.
Illa monet iuuenem monitu seniore senisque
Largitur mores iuueni. Docet ergo repente
Ne quid agat subitumue nil presumat, at omne
Factum preueniat animo, deliberet ante
Quam faciat, primumque suos examinet actus;
Diuidat a falso uerum, secernat honestum
A turpi, uicium fugiens, sectator honesti,
Promittat raro, det crebrius, immo petentem
Munere preueniat nec sit res empta rogatu;
Si quid promittat, promissum munus adequet
Vel superet, ne re maior spes gaudia uincat.

Reason succeeds no less in gifts and diffuses every bounty,
now for the first time prodigal of gifts; and she who long was sparing now ceases to spare in giving;
yet the gifts themselves return with interest.
Illa warns the youth with elder admonition, and bestows the old man’s manners upon the youth.
Therefore she teaches at once that he do nothing sudden nor presume anything, but that he
anticipate every deed in mind, deliberate before he acts, and first examine his own actions;
let him divide the true from the false, separate the honorable from the base, fleeing vice, a follower of the honorable,
let him promise rarely, give more frequently; nay rather let him forestall the petitioner with a gift, and let the thing not be bought by request;
if he promises anything, let the gift equal the promise or even surpass it, lest a hope greater than the reality overcome the joy.

Promissum comittetur opus, ne tarda sequantur
Munera, ne doni merito dantisque fauori
Detractet, donum minuat dilacio dantis;
Non fluat in motus uarios, sed firmiter uni
Insistat mens fixa bono, ne singula temptans
Nil teneat nec sic animus discurrat ubique,
Quod nusquam; ne planta recens translata frequenter
Areat, aut uarii temptans medicaminis usum,
Inualeat morbus; ne mens sic omnibus assit
Quod nulli, sic cuncta probet quod singula perdat;
Nec petat impelli populari laude, nec ipsam
Respuat oblatam, nisi sit uelata colore
Ypocrisis, uerbo querens emungere lucrum;
Nam nimis austerum redolet qui despicit omnem
Famam, molescitque nimis qui singula fame
Blandimenta petit, populari deditus auri.
Non animo facili, non aure bibente fauorem
Audiat ypocritas laudes, mendacia fame,
Palponis phaleras, qui uerba sophistica pingit,
Et dulci laudum sonitu citarizat in aure
Diuitis et uendit laudes ad pondera doni.

Let the promised work be committed, lest belated gifts follow,
lest it detract from the merit of the gift and the favor of the giver,
lest the delay of the giver diminish the gift;
let the mind not flow into various motions, but stand firmly upon one
good, fixed, lest by trying things one by one it hold nothing, and thus the spirit
run about everywhere, which is nowhere; lest a plant newly transplanted,
being moved often, wither, or, trying the use of various medicines,
the disease grow strong; lest the mind be thus present to all
that it is to none, thus approve all things that it lose each particular;
nor let him seek to be impelled by popular praise, nor spurn
it when offered, unless it be veiled with the color of
hypocrisy, seeking to squeeze out profit by a word;
for he who despises all reputation savors too austere,
and he grows too soft who seeks every blandishment of fame,
given over to popular gold. Not with an easy spirit, not with an ear drinking in favor,
let him listen to hypocrites’ praises, the lies of fame,
the trappings of the fawner, who paints sophistic words,
and with the sweet sound of praises makes a cithara-like ringing in the ear
of the rich man and sells praises by the weights of the gift.

[202-227]

Post Racionis opes et tantum munus, Honestas
Thesaurum reserat proprium iuuenemque suarum
Custodem decernit opum, deponit in illo
Quidquid habet, ius omne boni transfundit in illum.
Infames uitare monet, ne fama laboret,
Ne uicina bonos ledant contagia mores,
Vt uicium fugiat, Naturam diligat, illud
Quod facinus peperit damnans, quod praua uoluntas
Edidit, amplectens quicquid Natura creauit;
Non homines sed monstra cauens et crimina uitans.
Sic instet uicio quod rerum parcat honori,
In commune bonum ne lux abscondita parce
Luceat et uirtus det fructus clausa minores,
Interius sibimet ut pauci uiuat et extra
Vt plures, intus sibi uiuens, pluribus extra;
Vt mundo natum se credat, ut omnibus omnis
Pareat et sapiens sese cognoscat in illo;
Ne loca denigrent famam, ne tempora reddant
Suspectum uiteque modus rerumque facultas.

After the resources of Reason and so great a gift, Honesty
unseals her own treasure and appoints the youth as the custodian
of her wealth, she deposits in him whatever she has, and transfuses
all right of the good into him. She warns him to avoid the infamous,
lest fame suffer, lest neighboring contagions harm good morals,
that he flee vice, love Nature, condemning that which crime begot,
which a crooked will produced, embracing whatever Nature created;
being wary not of men but of monsters, and avoiding crimes.
Thus let him press upon vice in such a way that he spare the honor of things,
for the common good, lest hidden light shine sparingly
and virtue, shut within, give lesser fruits,
that inwardly he live to himself as few do, and outwardly
for more; living within for himself, for more outside;
that he believe himself born for the world, that he be all to all,
and, being wise, know himself in it;
lest places blacken his fame, lest times render him
suspect, and the mode of life and the resources of things.

Predictis succedit Honor, predicta colorans
Luce sua, nullamque sinit sentire lituram
Dedecoris, sed cuncta suo perlustrat honore
Muneris, et cultu proprio Decus omnia uestit,
Non minus irradians aliarum facta sororum
Quam rosa cognatos flores, quam Lucifer ignes
Sydereos, lapidumque iubar carbunculus auget.

To the things aforesaid Honor succeeds, coloring the aforesaid with his own light, and he allows no blot of disgrace to be felt, but with the honor of the gift he thoroughly illumines all things, and with his own adornment Decus clothes everything,
no less irradiating the deeds of the other sisters than the rose its kindred flowers, than Lucifer the Morning Star the sidereal fires,
and the carbuncle augments the radiance of gems.

[228-260]

Assistens, Fronesis pluit omnia dona Sophye,
Non illas largitur opes que sepe potentum
Excecant animos et magestatis honorem
Inclinant, minuunt leges et iura retardant,
Sed pocius donat thesaurum mentis et omnes
Diuicias animi, quas qui semel accipit, ultra
Non eget, immo semel ditatus semper habundat,
Quarum rectus amor, possessio nobilis, usus
Vtilis, utilior largicio, fructus habundans.
Hec est gaza poli, celi thesaurus, inundans
Gracia que doctos ditat, que prodiga largos
Vult possessores et dedignatur auaros.
Clausa perit, diffusa redit; nisi publica fiat,
Labitur et multas uires adquirit eundo.

Assisting, Phronesis rains down all the gifts of Sophia,
She does not lavish those wealths which often of the powerful
blind the minds and bow down the honor of Majesty,
diminish laws and retard rights;
but rather she bestows the treasure of the mind and all
the riches of spirit, which whoever once receives, thereafter
has no need; nay, once enriched, he always abounds,
whose right love, noble possession, useful use,
more useful largess, abundant fruit.
This is the treasure of the pole, the treasury of heaven, the flooding
Grace which enriches the learned, which, prodigal, wants as possessors
the bountiful, and disdains the avaricious.
Closed, it perishes; diffused, it returns; unless it be made public,
it slips away, and it acquires much power as it goes.

Non istas depascit opes rubigo, nec ignis
Deuorat, aut furis minuit subreptio, mergit
Naufragium, tollit predo, depauperat hostis.
Nec solum Fronesis confert sua dona, sed ultra
Procedit, iubet ancillas exponere quicquid
Possunt et quodam certamine fundere dona:
Gramatice doctrina prior precepta Sophye
Complet et in iuuenem descendit tota, nec in se
Fit minor, immo, magis crescens, grandescit in illo.
Omne quod ipsius discernit regula, canon
Precipit et dictat artis censura magistre,
In dotem iuuenis confert, ne uerba monetet
Citra gramaticam, ne uerbo barbarus erret.

Not these riches does rust feed down, nor does fire
devour, or a thief’s stealthy subreption diminish, shipwreck
drown, a brigand take away, an enemy impoverish.
Nor does Phronesis only bestow her gifts, but goes beyond
she proceeds, she bids the handmaids to set forth whatever they
can and, in a certain contest, to pour forth gifts:
the doctrine of Grammar, first, completes the precepts of Sophia
and descends whole into the youth, nor in herself
does she become less; rather, growing more, she waxes great in him.
Everything that her rule discerns, the canon
prescribes and the censure of the mistress-art dictates,
she confers into the youth’s dowry, lest he coin words
apart from grammar, lest, barbarous in word, he err.

Barbaries quam nulla notat, sic ergo loquendi
Recte scribendique uiam sectatur et artem
Assequitur, damnat uicium toleratque figuram,
Perfundensque uirum Pegasei nectare fontis,
Turba poetarum docet illum uerba ligare
Metris et dulci carmen depingere rithmo.

With no barbarism marking him, thus he follows the way of speaking
and of writing rightly, and he attains the art,
condemns the vice and tolerates the figure;
and, bathing the man with the nectar of the Pegasean fountain,
the throng of poets teaches him to bind words in meters
and to paint the song with sweet rhythm.

[261-269]

Succedit Logice uirtus arguta, nec alget
Munere pigmeo, uerum contendit in illo
Spargere diuicias et dandi laxat habenas.
Hec docet argutum Martem racionis inire,
Aduerse parti concludere, frangere uires
Oppositas partemque suam racione tueri,
Vestigare uiam ueri falsumque fugare,
Scismaticos logice falsosque retundere fratres
Et pseudologicos et denudare sophistas.

There succeeds the keen virtue of Logic, nor does it grow cold
with a pygmy office, but it strives therein
to scatter riches and loosens the reins of giving.
This teaches one to enter the keen Mars of reason,
to conclude against the adverse party, to break the forces
opposed, and to defend its own side by reason,
to track the way of truth and to put the false to flight,
to blunt schismatics and false brethren and pseudological men,
and to strip the sophists bare.

[270-284]

Assunt Rethorice cultus floresque colorum,
Verba quibus stellata nitent, et sermo decorem
Induit, et multo splendescit clausula luce.
Has sermonis opes, cultus et sidera uerbi
Copia Rethorice iactat iuuenisque loquelam
Pingit et in uario presignit uerba colore.
Succincte docet illa loqui sensusque profundos
Sub sermone breui concludere, claudere multa
Sub paucis nec diffuso sermone uagari,
Vt breue sit uerbum, diues sentencia, sermo
Facundus, multi fecundus pondere sensus.

There are present to Rhetoric the adornments and the flowers of colors,
by which starry words shine, and discourse puts on decor
and the clausula gleams with much light.
These resources of speech, the adornments and the stars of the word
the abundance of Rhetoric vaunts, and it paints the youth’s utterance
and pre-signs the words in variegated color.
She teaches to speak succinctly, and to enclose deep senses
under brief speech, to shut up many things
under few, and not to wander with a diffuse discourse,
so that the word may be brief, the sentence rich, the speech
facund, fruitful with the weight of many senses.

Vel si forte fluat sermo sub flumine uerbi,
Fulminet ulterius sentencia, copia fructus
Excuset folii siluam, paleasque uagantes
Vbertas grani redimat sensusque loquelam.

Or if by chance the speech flows beneath the flood of verbiage,
let the meaning fulminate further; let a plenty of fruit
excuse the forest of leaf, and the wandering chaff
let the uberty of grain redeem—both the sense and the speech.

[285-296]

Donat opes ars illa suas, que semina rerum,
Federa, complexus, causas et uincula certis
Legibus inquirit, numeros uestigat et omnes
Discutit effectus, quibus omnia fixa tenentur,
Sub uicibus constricta suis numerisque ligantur
Cuncta simul, pacemque tenent, cessante tumultu.
Ergo uirum, sua denudans secreta Minerve,
Heredem facit esse suum, iuuenique reuelat
Scibile quicquid habet, quicquid sua copia fundit,
Que racio numeris, que uirtus queue potestas
Insit, et in numeris que tanta potencia regnet,
Vt numeri nodo stabilis liget omnia nexus.

That art grants its own wealth, which inquires into the seeds of things,
covenants, embraces, causes and bonds by fixed laws,
tracks the numbers and discusses all the effects,
by which all things are held fast, and under their own vicissitudes are constricted
and by numbers are bound all together, and they hold peace, tumult ceasing.
Therefore, unveiling its secrets by its own Minerva,
it makes the man to be its heir, and reveals to the youth
whatever knowable thing it has, whatever its abundance pours forth,
what ratio/reason there is for numbers, what virtue and what power
is in them, and what so great potency reigns in numbers,
that by the stable knot of number the nexus binds all things.

[297-310]

[297-310] The source text for lines 297–310 is not included. Please provide the actual lines 297–310 so I can translate them into English while preserving all formatting.

Musica diuicias aperit, sua munera multo
Plena fauore uiro concedit, adoptat eundem,
Omne suum uelud heredi delegat eidem.
Que uox displiceat uoci, que consonet illi
Monstrat, amicicias uocum rixasque sonorum
Edocet, et que uox trahat, que debriet aurem.
Explicitas in dona manus ars illa relaxat,
Que terre spacium, tractus maris, aeris altos
Discursus, celi fines metitur, et omne
Corpus sub certo describit fine nec altum
Impedit, immensum tardat retrahitque profundum.

Music opens riches, grants its gifts, full with much favor, to the man, adopts the same,
Delegates all its own to him as to an heir.
Which voice displeases a voice, which consonates with it
It shows; it thoroughly teaches the friendships of voices and the quarrels of sounds,
And which voice draws, which inebriates the ear.
That art relaxes its outspread hands into gifts,
Which measures the space of the earth, the stretches of the sea, the high
Courses of the air, the boundaries of heaven, and every
Body it describes within a fixed limit, nor does height
Hinder it; it retards the immense and draws back the profound deep.

Illa uirum docet in spacium concludere terram,
Aera metiri, mare sistere, claudere celum
Finibus et teretem mundi describere formam.

That art teaches a man to enclose the earth within space,
to measure the air, to set fast the sea, to close the heaven
with boundaries, and to describe the rounded form of the world.

[311-328]

Astrorum doctrina suum componit in illo
Hospicium, quo nulla magis sibi complacet aula.
Illa docet quis motus agat celestia, stellas
Excitet, aut celi quis spiritus incitet orbem.
Hoc doni titulo mundi Sapientia ditat
Presignitque uirum, sed eum diuinius afflans,
Ars diuina poli, ueri uia, nescia falsi,
Ars que sola fide gaudet subnixa nec arte
Nititur, humane fugiens racionis asilum,
Gracius arrisit, animam cum celicus ignis
In superis retineret adhuc splendorque serenes
Aspiraret eius, nec nostras etheris imi
Pressuras pateretur adhuc nec tedia mundi.

The doctrine of the stars composes its own hospice in him,
a lodging than which no hall is more pleasing to itself.
It teaches what motion drives the celestials, what stirs the stars,
or what spirit of heaven incites the orb of the sky.
Under this title of a gift, Wisdom of the world enriches
and pre-signs the man, but breathing upon him more divinely,
the divine Art of the sky, the way of the true, unknowing of the false,
and the Art which rejoices propped up by faith alone and does not lean upon art,
fleeing the asylum of human reason,
has smiled more graciously, when the heavenly fire
still kept his soul in the heights and the serene splendor
breathed upon him, nor did he yet suffer our pressures of the lowest aether
nor the tediums of the world.

Illa docet celeste sequi, uitare caducum,
Viuere lege poli, sursum suspendere mentem,
Fastidire solum, celum conscendere mente,
Corporis insultus frenare, reffellere luxus
Carnis et illicitos racioni subdere motus.

She teaches to follow the celestial, to shun the caducous,
to live by the law of heaven, to suspend the mind upward,
to disdain the soil, to ascend heaven with the mind,
to bridle the assaults of the body, to refute the luxuries
of the flesh, and to subject illicit motions to reason.

[329-343]

Succedens Pietas se totam donat et offert
In munus, tantumque uiro committit ut ipse
Credatur Pietas, tante pietatis alumpnus.
Hec docet ut maculas animi complanet et omnes
Deponat nubes odii, mens cerea fiat,
Si respersa semel fuerit pietatis oliuo,
Sic tamen ut nunquam firme constancia mentis
Deuiet a recto, ne, si pietate remissus
Mollescat iuuenis, magnos effeminet actus
Mollicies, perdatque uiri mens fracta rigorem.
Hec docet ut miseri lacrimas, incommoda, casus
Iudicet esse suos, ne se putet esse beatum,
Dum superesse uidet in multis unde dolendum,
Deffendat uiduas, miseros soletur, egenos
Sustentet, pascat inopes faueatque pupillos.

Succeeding, Piety gives and offers herself whole
as a gift, and entrusts so much to the man that he himself
is believed to be Piety, a fosterling of such great piety.
This teaches that he smooth the stains of the mind and
lay down all clouds of hatred, the mind become waxen,
if once it has been sprinkled with the olive‑oil of piety,
yet thus that the firm constancy of mind may never
deviate from the right, lest, if relaxed by piety,
the youth grow soft, softness effeminate great acts,
and the mind of a man, broken, lose its rigor.
This teaches that he judge the tears, discommodities, and falls
of the wretched to be his own, lest he think himself blessed,
while he sees that in many there remains matter for grieving,
that he defend widows, console the wretched, sustain the needy,
feed the indigent, and favor orphans.

[344-377]

Adnectens sua dona Fides in munere multo
Se probat esse Fidem, nec se sibi subtrahit, immo
Monstrat et in dono se disputat esse fidelem.
Illa docet uitare dolos, contempnere fraudes,
Fedus amicicie, fidei ius, pignus amoris
Illesa seruare fide, nec nomine falso
Pseudo uel ypocritam simulare latenter amicum.
Preterea monet illa uirum ne querat amicos
Fortune comites, cum qua mutentur et assint,
Vel fugiant, casusque uices et fata sequantur,
Qui cum fortune fugitiuo uere recedant,
Aduersi casus hyemes et nubila uitent.

Connecting her gifts, Faith in a abundant munus proves herself to be Faith, nor does she withdraw herself from herself; rather she shows, and in the gift argues herself to be faithful.
Illa teaches to avoid deceits, to contemn frauds,
to keep the league of amity, the right of faith, the pledge of love inviolate by faith, and not under a false name
to simulate covertly a pseudo- or hypocrite-friend.
Moreover she warns the man not to seek friends, companions of Fortune, with whom they both change and attend, or flee, and follow the vicissitudes of chance and the fates,
who truly withdraw when Fortune is fugitive,
and avoid the winters and clouds of adverse chance.

Hec iuuenem docet ut nunquam mercetur amicum
Munere, nec doni merito uenetur amorem,
Nam precio quesitus amor cum munere cedit,
Et quantum durat largicio durat amicus.
Perstat talis amor, mensuram muneris implens.
Non ibi uera Fides ubi munus donat amorem;
Non donum largitur amor, dum pondus amoris
Ponderat ipsa dati merces et copia doni;
Sed precis et precii uenali lege relicta,
Querat quem uero sic complectatur amore
Illesaque fide quod amor lucretur amorem
Alterius, referatque nouos amor alter amores;
Sicque relatiua dilectio, mutuus adsit
Nexus amicicie, quam nec Fortuna nouercans
Soluat, nec casus agitet, nec gloria frangat.

This teaches the youth that he should never purchase a friend
by a gift, nor hunt for love by the merit of a present,
for love sought at a price yields along with the gift,
and as long as the largess lasts, so long does the friend last.
Perstat talis love, filling up the measure of the gift.
There is not true Faith there where a gift bestows love;
not by a gift does love lavish itself, while the weight of love
is weighed by the very price of what is given and the abundance of the gift;
but, the venal law of entreaty and of price left aside,
let him seek one whom he may thus embrace with true love,
and, with unharmed faith, that love may profit by the love
of another, and that the other’s love may render back new loves;
and thus let there be relative (reciprocal) dilection, let there be the mutual
nexus of friendship, which neither stepmothering Fortune
may loosen, nor chance agitate, nor glory shatter.

Querat cui possit se totum credere, uelle
Declarare suum totamque exponere mentem,
Cui sua committat animi secreta latentis,
Vt sibi conseruans thesaurum mentis in illo,
Nil sibi secretum quod non denudet eidem,
Vt suus in signo tali mensuret amicus
Pondus amicicie, quam lance rependat eadem.

Let him seek someone to whom he can wholly entrust himself, willing
to declare his own mind and to expose it entirely,
to whom he may commit the secrets of his hidden spirit,
so that, keeping in him the treasure of his mind for himself,
he may have nothing secret for himself that he does not lay bare to that same one,
so that his friend by such a sign may measure
the weight of friendship, which he may weigh back with the same balance.

[378-396]

Subsequitur uirtus que gaudet spargera dona,
Fundere diuicias et opum diffundere massam,
Que census nutrire uitat uel pascere nummos,
Nec sinit ignauam secum torpescere gazam,
Nec bursam saciat nummis, sed cogit eandem
Ad uomitum, si quid census absorbuit unquam.
Olim parca nimis, nunc uni prodiga, sese
Transcendit, uiresque suas excedit in uno.
Hec monet ut mentem dono suspendat ab omni,
Excuciatque manum nec opum succumbat amori;
Diuicias animo calcans et mente triumphans,
Sic conculcet opes ne conculcetur ab illis,
Ne manus ad donum currat nexuque tenaci
Viscus auaricie munus constringat adeptum,
Neue relatiuam mercedem munera querant,
Nec lucrum siciat nec premia munus adoret;
Sed sine spe reditus fundantur munera sparsim
Solaque nobilitas et simplex gratia mentis
Informet munus et doni condiat usum.

There follows a virtue which rejoices to scatter gifts,
to pour out riches and diffuse the mass of resources,
which avoids nourishing the census (revenue) or feeding coins,
nor does it allow the slothful treasure to grow torpid with it,
nor does it sate the purse with coins, but compels that same thing
to a vomiting, if ever the census has absorbed anything.
Once too sparing, now prodigal to one, it
surpasses itself, and exceeds its forces in one.
This counsels that one detach his mind from every gift,
and shake out his hand, and not succumb to the love of wealth;
treading riches underfoot in spirit and triumphing in mind,
thus let him trample wealth, lest he be trampled by them,
lest his hand run to the gift, and with a tenacious bond
the birdlime of avarice constrict the gift once obtained,
nor let gifts seek a relative/reciprocal recompense,
nor let it thirst for lucre nor let the gift adore rewards;
but without hope of return let gifts be poured out scatter-wise,
and let the sole nobility and the simple grace of mind
inform the gift and season the use of the gift.

[397-404]

Post alias sua dona libens et leta dedisset
Filia Fortune, Casus cognata propinqui
Nobilitas, si quid proprium cessisset in eius
Sortem, quod posset Nature lege tueri.
Sed quia nulla potest, nisi que Fortuna ministrat,
Nil sine consilio Fortune perficit, immo
Matris adire locum disponit filia, gressum
Aggreditur superatque uie dispendia gressu.

After other gifts of her own she had gladly and gaily bestowed,
the daughter of Fortune, Nobility, kinswoman of her near-kin Chance,
if anything proper had fallen into her lot
which she could uphold by the law of Nature.
But since nothing can, except what Fortune ministers,
she accomplishes nothing without the counsel of Fortune; nay rather,
the daughter arranges to approach her mother’s place, she undertakes the step
and with her step overcomes the road’s expenditures.

[405-457]

Est rupes maris in medio, quam uerberat equor
Assidue, cum qua corrixans litigat unda,
Que uariis agitata modis percussaque motu
Continuo, nunc tota latens sepelitur in undis,
Nunc, exuta mari, superas expirat in auras.
Que nullam retinet formam, quam singula mutant
In uarias momenta uices, que sidera florum
Iactat et in multo letatur gramine rupes,
Dum leni Zephirus inspirat singula flatu.
Sed cito deflorat flores et gramina seuus
Deperdit Boreas ubi, dum flos incipit esse,
Explicit et florum momento fallitur etas.

There is a crag in the midst of the sea, which the level sea assiduously lashes;
with it, brawling, the wave litigates,
which, agitated in various modes and struck by continuous motion,
now, hiding wholly, is buried in the waves,
now, stripped of the sea, it expires into the upper airs.
Which retains no form, as the moments change things
into various vicissitudes; which vaunts constellations of flowers
and the crag rejoices in abundant grass,
while gentle Zephyrus breathes upon each with his breath.
But swiftly the fierce Boreas deflowers the flowers and destroys the grasses,
where, while the blossom begins to be,
it is ended, and age is beguiled by the moment of the flowers.

Sicque furens Aquilo predatur singula, flores
Frigoris ense metit et pristina gaudia delet.
Hic nemus ambiguum diuersaque nascitur arbor:
Ista manet sterilis, hec fructum parturit; illa
Fronde noua gaudet, hec frondibus orphana plorat;
Vna uiret, plures arescunt, unaque floret,
Efflorent alie; quedam consurgit in altum,
Demittuntur humi relique. Dum pullulat una,
Marcescunt alie; uarius sic alterat illas
Casus et in uariis alternant motibus omnes.

And thus, raging Aquilo preys upon each, with the sword of frigidity he reaps the flowers and deletes the former joys.
Here a doubtful grove, and a diverse tree is born: that one remains sterile, this one brings forth fruit; that one rejoices in new frondage, this one, orphaned of leaves, laments;
one is green, several dry up, and one flowers, others lose their bloom; a certain one rises up on high, the rest are sent down to the ground. While one sprouts forth,
others wither; thus a various Chance alters them, and in various motions they all alternate.

Multa per antifrasim gerit illic alea casus:
Pigmea breuitate sedens demissaque cedrus
Desinit esse gigas et nana mirica gigantem
Induit: alterius sic accipit altera formam.
Marcescit laurus, mirtus parit, aret oliua,
Fit fecunda salix, sterilis pirus, orphana fructu
Pomus et in partu contendit uitibus ulmus.
Hic iaculis armata suis, spineta minantur
Vulnus et incautis manibus nocet hispida taxus.

Many outcomes does the die there enact by antiphrasis:
the cedar, sitting in pygmy shortness and brought low,
ceases to be a giant, and the dwarf tamarisk puts on the giant;
thus the one receives the other's form.
The laurel withers, the myrtle bears, the olive dries up,
the willow becomes fecund, the pear sterile, the apple-tree orphaned of fruit,
and the elm contends with the vines in bringing forth.
Here, thickets armed with their own javelins threaten a wound,
and the rough yew harms incautious hands.

Hic raro Philomena canit, citharizat alauda;
Crebrius hic miseros euentus bubo prophetat,
Nuncius aduersi casus et preco doloris.
Hic duo decurrunt fluuii quos diuidit ortus
Dissimilis, dispar uultus, diuersa coloris
Forma, sapor uarius, distans substancia fontis.
Predulces habet alter aquas mellitaque donans
Pocula, melle suo multos seducit et hauste
Plus siciuntur aque, potantes debriat, immo,
Dum saciat, parit unda sitim potusque sititur
Amnis et innumeros ydropicat ille bibentes.

Here rarely Philomel sings, the lark plays the cithara;
more frequently here the owl prophesies wretched events,
a messenger of adverse chance and a herald of sorrow.
Here two rivers run down, which their rising divides,
unlike, a differing countenance, diverse in color’s
form, varied in savor, a distanced substance of the spring.
The one has very-sweet waters and, bestowing honeyed
cups, with its honey it seduces many; and, once drunk,
the waters are thirsted for more; it inebriates the drinkers—nay,
while it satisfies, the wave begets thirst, and the drink is thirsted for,
and that stream makes innumerable drinkers dropsical.

Murmure lasciuit tenui dulcique susurro
Murmurat et placida rupem preterfluit unda.
Annis in ingressu multi sistuntur et ultra
Non patet accessus, qui dulces fluminis undas
Vix tangunt libantque parum, tantoque sapore
Pasci plus cupiunt, immergi plenius undis
Optant et totos perfundunt fluctibus artus.
Procedunt alii, quos alto gurgite mersos
Plenior annis habet et prouehit alcior unda,
Quos tamen imbutos tanta dulcedine fluctus
Ad ripam leuis unda refert terreque remittit.

With a murmur it sports, with a thin and sweet susurrus;
and the placid wave murmurs and flows past the rock.
At the river’s entrance many are halted, and beyond
access is not open: they who scarcely touch the sweet waves
of the river and sip a little, and by so great a savor
they desire to be fed more; they long to be immersed more fully in the waves,
and they drench their whole limbs with billows.
Others advance, whom, plunged in the deep whirlpool,
the fuller river holds and a higher wave bears forward;
whom, however, imbued with such sweetness, the gentle wave
bears back to the bank and sends back to the earth.

[458-480]

Precipiti lapsu fluuius dilabitur alter,
Sulfureis tenebrosus aquis; absincia gignit
Vnda sapore suo, reddit feruore caminum,
Sicque color uisum, gustum sapor, impetus aurem
Turbat et insipidum fastidit naris odorem.
Non has crispat aquas Zephirus, sed funditus illas
Euertens Boreas in montes erigit, undis
Indicens bellum cognataque prelia miscens.
Fluminis in ripa lacrimarum flumina multos
Demergunt, qui demergi torrentis abisso
Amne furente timent et fluctus ferre tumultum.

With a precipitous lapse another river glides away,
tenebrous with sulfurous waters; it begets absinthe
by its own savor, and by its fervor makes a furnace;
and thus color disturbs the sight, savor the taste, the onrush the ear,
and the nostril loathes an insipid odor.
Not Zephyr ruffles these waters, but Boreas, overturning them from the depths,
heaves them up into mountains, declaring war upon the waves and mixing kindred battles.
On the river’s bank, rivers of tears drown many
who fear to be submerged in the torrent’s abyss,
while the stream rages, and to bear the tumult of the billows.

Multus in hunc annem populus descendit et altis
Consepelitur aquis tumidoque impellitur anne.
Absorbet nunc unda uiros, nunc euomit; istos
Fluctibus immergit, hos respirare parumper
Permittit, sed quamplures sic sorbet abissus
Quod reuocare gradum superasque euadere in auras
Non licet et reditus uestigia nulla supersunt.
Hic fluuius, uariis currens anfractibus, intrat
Torrentem, preclusus aquis, cogitque fluentum
Degenerare luemque suam partitur eidem:
Nubilus obtenebrat clarum, fermentat amarus
Predulcem, tepidum calidus, fetosus odorum.

Many a people descends into this river and is buried together in the deep
waters and is driven by the swollen river.
Now the wave absorbs men, now it vomits them forth; those
it plunges into the billows, these it allows to breathe for a little while;
but very many the abyss thus swallows, because to retrace their step and
to escape into the upper airs is not permitted, and no footprints of return remain.
This river, running in various windings, enters
a torrent, hemmed in by the waters, and compels the current
to degenerate and shares its own pestilence with the same:
cloudy it darkens the clear, bitter it ferments the very-sweet,
hot it heats the tepid, reeking with odors.

LIBER OCTAVUS

BOOK EIGHT

[1-62]

Rupis in abrupto suspensa minansque ruinam,
Fortune domus in preceps descendit, et omnem
Ventorum patitur rabiem celique procellas
Sustinet, et raro Zephiri mansueta serenat
Aura domum flatusque Nothi Boreeque rigorem
Parcius abstergit lenis clemencia flatus.
Pars in monte sedet, pars altera montis in imo
Subsidet, et casum tanquam lapsura minatur.
Fulgurat argento, gemmis splendescit et auro
Resplendet pars una domus; pars altera uili
Materie deiecta iacet; pars ista superbit
Culmine sublimi, pars illa fatiscit hiatu.

Hanging on a cliff’s steep and threatening ruin,
the house of Fortune goes headlong into a precipice, and it suffers all
the rage of the winds and withstands the tempests of the sky;
and rarely does the gentle breeze of Zephyr make the house serene,
and the breath of Notus and the rigor of Boreas
more sparingly does the gentle clemency of a breeze wipe away.
Pars in monte sedet, pars altera montis in imo
settles down, and, as if about to slip, threatens a downfall.
It flashes with silver, it shines with gems and with gold—
one part of the house is resplendent; the other part, thrown down,
lies with cheap material; this part exults
in a lofty summit, that part gapes and sags with a fissure.

Hic est Fortune sua mansio, si tamen usquam
Res manet instabilis, residet uaga, mobilis heret,
Cuius tota quies lapsus, constancia motus,
Voluere, stare, situs discurrere, scandere casus,
Cui modus et racio racionis egere, fidesque
Non seruare fidem, pietas pietate carere.
Hec est inconstans, incerta, uolubilis, anceps,
Errans, instabilis, uaga, que, dum stare putatur,
Occidit et falso mentitur gaudia risu.
Aspera blandiciis, in lumine nubila, pauper
Et diues, mansueta, ferox, predulcis, amara,
Ridendo plorans, stando uaga, ceca uidendo,
In leuitate manens, in lapsu firma, fidelis
In falso, leuis in uero stabilisque mouendo,
Hoc firmum seruans quod nunquam firma, fidele
Hoc solum retinens quod nesciat esse fidelis,
Hoc solo uerax quod semper falsa probetur,
Hoc solo stabilis quod semper mobilis erret,
Ambiguo uultu seducit forma uidentem.

Here is Fortune’s own dwelling, if indeed anywhere
a thing unstable remains, the wandering sits, the mobile clings,
whose whole rest is a slipping, whose constancy is motion,
to roll is to stand, its position is to run about, to climb is a fall,
for whom measure and reason lack reason, and faith
does not keep faith, and piety is devoid of piety.
This one is inconstant, uncertain, voluble, ambivalent,
erring, unstable, wandering—who, while she is thought to stand,
falls and with a false smile lies of joys.
Harsh in blandishments, cloudy in the light, poor
and rich, gentle, fierce, very-sweet, bitter,
weeping while laughing, wandering while standing, blind while seeing,
remaining in levity, firm in slipping, faithful
in falsehood, light in truth and stable while moving,
keeping this as firm: that she is never firm; as faithful
retaining this alone: that she does not know to be faithful;
true in this alone: that she is always proved false,
stable in this alone: that she always wanders, mobile,
with ambiguous countenance her form seduces the onlooker.

Nam capitis pars anterior uestita capillis
Luxuriat, dum caluiciem pars altera luget.
Alter lasciuit oculus, dum profluit alter
In lacrimas; hie languet hebes dum fulgurat ille.
Pars uultus uiuit, uiuo flammata colore;
Pars moritur quam pallor habet, qua gracia uultus
Expirat, languet facies et forma liquescit.

For the front part of the head clothed with hair
luxuriates, while the other part mourns baldness.
Another eye is lascivious, while the other pours forth
into tears; this one languishes dull while that one flashes.
Part of the face lives, inflamed with living color;
part dies, which pallor holds, where the grace of the countenance
expires, the face languishes and the form liquefies.

Vna manus donat, retrahit manus altera donum:
Ampliat hec munus, nec munera contrahit; illa
Porrigit, hec auffert; hec comprimit, illa relaxat.
Gressus inequalis, retrogradus, hebrius, errans,
Progrediens retrograditur, multumque recedit
Procedens, pariter uelox et lentus eundo.
Nunc meliore toga splendet, nunc paupere cultu
Plebescens Fortuna iacet, nunc orphana ueste
Prostat et antiquos lugere uidetur honores.

One hand donates, the other hand retracts the gift:
this one amplifies the munus, and does not contract the munera; that one
extends, this one carries off; this one compresses, that one relaxes.
An unequal gait, retrograde, inebriate, errant,
advancing it retrogrades, and much it recedes
while proceeding, equally swift and slow in going.
Now it shines with a better toga, now with pauper attire
becoming plebeian Fortune lies low, now with orphan garb
it stands forth and seems to mourn its ancient honors.

Precipitem mouet illa rotam motusque laborem
Nulla quies claudit nec sistunt ocia motum.
Nam cum sepe manum dextram labor ille fatigat
Leua manus succedit ei fesseque sorori
Succurrit motumque rote uelocius urget.
Cuius turbo rapax, raptus celer, impetus anceps,
Inuoluens homines, a lapsus turbine nullum
Excipit et cunctos fati ludibria ferre
Cogit et in uarios homines descendere casus.

She drives the wheel headlong and the labor of motion
No rest encloses it, nor does leisure halt the motion.
For when often that labor wearies the right hand
The left hand succeeds to it and to her weary sister
Runs to help and urges the motion of the wheel more swiftly.
Whose rapacious whirlwind, swift seizure, double‑edged impetus,
Enwrapping men, from a downfall by its whirlwind it excepts no one
And compels all to bear the mockeries of fate
And for various misfortunes to descend upon men.

Hos premit, hos releuat; hos deicit, erigit illos:
Summa rote dum Cresus habet, tenet infima Codrus;
Julius ascendit, descendit Magnus et infra
Silla iacet; surgit Marius, sed cardine uerso
Silla redit, Marius premitur; sic cuncta uicissim
Turbo rapit uariatque uices Fortuna uolutans.

She presses these, she raises those; she casts these down, she lifts those up:
while Croesus holds the top of the wheel, Codrus holds the bottom;
Julius ascends, Magnus descends, and beneath
Sulla lies; Marius rises, but with the pivot turned
Sulla returns, Marius is pressed; thus all things in their turn
the whirlwind snatches, and Fortune, rolling, varies the turns.

[63-130]

Fortune loca predicto signata paratu
Nobilitas festiua petit matremque salutat
Adueniens causamque uie perstringit eidem
Sub breuibus uerbis et matri supplicat, orans
Vt si quid presigne gerat dignumque fauore,
Quod deceat uirtutis opus, quod competat illi
Nature facto, non illud deneget illi.
Quod Natura creat, recreat noua gracia, formant
Mores, informat uirtus, prudencia ditat,
Preditat pietas, afflat decus, ornat honestas,
Exornat racio, species presignit et omnis
Virtutum cumulus eius concurrit in usum.
Hiis dictis, modico risu Fortuna seueros
Exhilarans uultus, hec nate uerba rependit:
"Actus Nature, uirtutis fabrica nostrum
Non deposcit opus; nostro non indiget actu
Tam celebris factura Dei quam singula ditant
Munera Nature, diuinaque uota beatam
Efficiunt, nulloque caret uirtutis honore.

Fortune, the places marked by the aforesaid preparation
Festive Nobility seeks, and greets the mother
On arriving, and she skims for her the cause of the journey
Under brief words, and she supplicates the mother, praying
That if she bears anything pre-signified and worthy of favor,
What befits a work of virtue, what is competent to that
Thing made by Nature, she not deny that to it.
What Nature creates, new grace recreates; habits
Form, virtue informs, Prudence enriches,
Piety equips, decus breathes upon, Honesty adorns,
Reason further adorns, species marks her out beforehand, and the whole
Cumulus of virtues runs together to her use.
These things said, with a slight laugh Fortune, cheering
Her severe features, returns these words, “Daughter:
The act of Nature, the fabric of virtue, does not
Require our work; the making of God, so celebrated, does not need our act,
Inasmuch as the several gifts of Nature enrich her, and divine vows
Make her blessed, and she lacks no honor of virtue.”

Quid poterit casus ubi casu nulla reguntur?
Quid mea mobilitas ubi rem constancia seruat?
Quid leuitas ubi res stabilis?

What can chance do where nothing is governed by chance?
What can my mobility do where constancy preserves the matter?
What is levity where the thing is stable?

Quid mobile certa
Res ubi queque manet? Ferro non indiget aurum,
Non lumen tenebris; sic me non exigit actus
Nature, uirtutis opus, factura superni
Artificis nostreque manus non postulat usum.
Sed ne liuoris stimulus uideatur in istud
Deseuire bonum uel me suspendere fastus,
Dona feram; quecumque tamen sunt, illa negare
Nolo, ne donans pocius quam dona pudorem
Sustineat, donique nothe sint crimina danti.

What is mobile, when fixed
each thing remains? Gold has no need of iron,
Nor does light [need] darkness; thus no act
of Nature, a work of virtue, a facture of the supernal
Artificer, postulates the use of our hand.
Sed lest the goad of envy seem in this
to rage against the good, or that haughtiness suspend me,
I will bear gifts; whatever they are, those I am unwilling to deny,
lest the donor rather than the gifts bear shame,
and the gifts, being spurious, be indictments of the giver.

Addam que mea sunt, si qua tamen aut mea dici
Aut me posse decet alii conferre, quod absit!
Vt dem, sed pocius ad tempus presto nec unquam
Vila dedi, nisi que pro uelle resumere possem.
Sed tamen hic nostros cognabor uincere lapsus
Et uires conferre mini; mutabo propinquas
Fraudes atque mei deponam tedia casus.

I will add what are mine, if indeed any either may be called mine,
or it befits me to be able to confer to another—which far be it!
Grant that I give, but rather I stand ready for a time, and never
have I given vile/cheap things, except those which I could resume at will.
But yet here I shall be known to conquer my lapses
and to confer strength upon myself; I will mutate the neighboring
frauds and I will lay down the tedium of my case/mischance.

Me reddam stabilem, motum pro parte reddens,
Incipiam solers, sapiens discretaque, uerax
Et stabilis fieri, que stulta, improuida, mendax
Et preceps hucusque fui, mutabo priores
Excessus, nostrasque manus mirabor ad horam".
Arripit ancipites post hec Fortuna meatus
Et ceptum maturat iter. Comitatur euntem
Nobilitas sequiturque sue uestigia matris.
Ergo uiam superans incerto limite, gressu
Ambiguo, casu ductore, errore magistro,
Nature Fortuna domum perquirit et illam
Vix tandem forte uaga, preceps, mobilis, errans
Inuenit, aduentum cuius mirata stupescit
Curia.

“I will render myself stable, granting motion in part,
I shall begin to be skillful, wise and discriminating, truthful,
and to become steadfast—I who up to now have been foolish, improvident, mendacious
and headlong; I will change earlier
excesses, and for an hour I will marvel at our handiwork.”
After this, Fortune seizes ambiguous courses
and hastens the undertaken journey. Nobility accompanies the one going
and follows the footprints of her mother. Therefore, traversing the way with an uncertain boundary, with an ambiguous step,
with chance as guide, with error as master,
Fortune seeks out Nature’s house, and her—scarcely at last, by chance, wandering,
headlong, changeable, erring—finds; at whose arrival the Curia, amazed, is astounded.

Sed quamuis habitus mutacio, uultus
Degener, inconstans gestus terrere uidentem
Posset et a recto stupidam diuertere mentem,
Non tamen illa metu nutat, sed uisa parumper
Miratur nec mentis abest constancia firme.
Ergo Nobilitas dotes et munera profert,
Fortuna dictante modum, iuuenemque beatum
Nature dono, uirtutis munere, dote
Electi, nulla peccati labe iacentem
Afflat honore suo; tamen huius dona minore
Luce micant donis adiuncta prioribus, immo
Vix aliquid splendoris habent, dum luce premuntur
Maiore: sic flamma minor uicina camino
Languescit, sic stella latet contermina Phebo.
Confertur tamen ad laudem titulumque fauoris
Nobilitas augusta, genus presigne, parentes
Ingenui, libertas libera, nobilis ortus.

But although a change of appearance, a degenerate countenance, an inconstant bearing, could terrify the onlooker and turn a stupefied mind from the right path, nevertheless she does not waver from fear, but, having gazed for a little, she marvels, nor is the constancy of a firm mind absent. Therefore Nobility brings forth endowments and gifts, Fortune dictating the measure, and she inspires the blessed youth—by Nature’s gift, by the munus of Virtue, by the dowry of the Elect—lying with no stain of sin, with her own honor; yet the gifts of this one shine with a lesser light when joined to the former gifts—indeed, they scarcely have any splendor, while they are pressed by a greater light: thus a lesser flame near a hearth languishes, thus a star lies hidden neighboring Phoebus. Nevertheless there is contributed to praise and the title of favor august Nobility, preeminent lineage, freeborn parents, free liberty, noble birth.

[131-146]

Dum Fortuna parat alias apponere dotes,
Assistit danti Racio, ne forte priorum
Munera fermentet unius munus et uno
Depereat uicio multarum gloria rerum.
Non sinit aduersis respergere prospera, mestis
Gaudia, Fortunam se fallere cogit et auffert
Hanc sibi, mendacem ueram facit esse, fidelem
Falsam, constantem fluidam cecamque uidentem
Reddit, et ad tempus cogit cessare uagantem.
Ergo suas largitur opes Fortuna nec ultra
Mensuram citraue sinit decurrere donum
Fortune Racio, sed opes metitur et omnes
Librat diuicias, ne si nimis effluat harum
Alueus, in preceps mentem deducat et illam
Mergat opum torens, animum declinet in usus
Illicitos mentisque suos effeminet actus.

While Fortune prepares to set other endowments,
Reason stands by the giver, lest perchance the gifts
Of earlier things be soured by the gift of one, and through one
Defect the glory of many things perish.
She does not allow prosperous things to be spattered with adverse ones, joys
With mournful things; she compels Fortune to cheat herself and takes
This from her, makes the mendacious to be true, the faithful
False, the constant fluid, and the blind seeing,
And compels the wandering one to cease for a time.
Therefore Fortune lavishes her wealth, nor beyond
Measure nor short of it does Reason of Fortune allow the gift
To run, but she measures the resources and weighs all
Riches, lest, if the channel of these should overflow too much,
It lead the mind headlong and a torrent of wealth submerge it,
Incline the spirit to illicit uses, and emasculate the mind’s
Own acts.

[147-159]

[147-159] — Please provide the source text for lines 147–159; only the line-range marker was supplied, so I cannot translate without the actual text.

Jam perfectus erat in cunctis celicus ille
Et diuinus homo. Jam lubrica fama per orbem
Nature clamabat opus, jam rumor in aures
Multorum dilapsus erat, cum tristis ad istos
Horruit Alecto rumores; non tamen illis
Prebuit assensus faciles, sed credere tandem
Cogitur inuita, cum res et fama perorat.
Ergo dolos languere dolet gemitusque silere
Ingemit atque suos luget torpescere luctus.

Already in all things that heavenly and divine man was perfected.
Already slippery Fame throughout the orb was crying out the work of Nature,
already Rumor had slipped into the ears of many, when sad Alecto
shuddered at those rumors; yet she did not grant them easy assent,
but at last is compelled, unwilling, to believe, when fact and report perorate.
Therefore she grieves that her deceits grow languid and that groanings fall silent;
she groans and laments that her griefs grow torpid.

Cum letetur homo, plorat; cum rideat orbis,
Luget; languescit, cum mundus floreat; aret,
Cum uireat uirtus; cum res humana uirescat,
Marcessit; cum regnet homo proscribitur illa.

When man rejoices, she weeps; when the orb laughs,
she mourns; she grows languid when the world flowers; she is parched,
when virtue greens; when the human estate grows vigorous,
she withers; when man reigns, she is proscribed.

[160-171]

Ergo suas pestes pestis predicta repente
Conuocat, ad cuius nutum glomerantur in unum
Tartarei proceres, rectores noctis, alumpni
Nequicie, fabri scelerum, culpeque magistri,
Dampna, doli, fraudes, penuria, furta, rapine,
Impetus, ira, furor, odium, discordia, pugne,
Morbus, tristicies, lasciuia, luxus, egestas,
Luxuries, fastus, liuor, formido, senectus.
Is scelerum turbo, uiciorum turba, malorum
Conuentus, numerosa lues et publica pestis
Tartareas ruit in sedes, ubi regnat Herinis,
Imperat Alecto, leges dictante Megera.

Therefore the aforesaid pestilence suddenly convenes her pests;
at whose nod the Tartarean princes, the rulers of night, the alumni
of iniquity, smiths of crimes, and masters of guilt, are massed into one—
damages, wiles, frauds, penury, thefts, rapines,
impetus, wrath, fury, odium, discord, battles,
disease, sadness, lasciviousness, luxury, poverty,
luxuries, haughtiness, livid envy, dread, old age.
This whirlwind of crimes, the throng of vices, the convention of evils,
a numerous plague and a public pestilence,
rushes into the Tartarean seats, where Erinys reigns,
Alecto commands, with Megaira dictating the laws.

[172-217]

[172-217]: No source text was provided for these lines; please supply the original passage to translate.

Postquam turba furens, gens dissona, concio discors,
Plebs dispar, populus deformis sedibus illis
Insedit, dum murmur adhuc percurreret aures,
Dans tumidas uoces et uerba loquencia fastus,
Allecto prorumpit in hec: "Que iura, quis ordo,
Quis modus, unde quies, que tanta licencia pacis
Vt nostras Natura uelit proscribere leges
Et mundum seruire sibi, dampnare nocentes,
Et iustos seruare uelit, cum nostra potestas
Eius preueniat uires, nostroque senatu
Plebescat Natura minor, totiensque subacta
Legibus imperii nostri, mutare ualebit
Amplius et nostris subducere colla cathenis?
Proh pudor! incestus aberit, regnante pudore?

After the frenzied mob, the dissonant tribe, the discordant assembly,
the disparate plebs, the misshapen people, had sat down in those seats,
while the murmur still was running through their ears,
giving swollen voices and words speaking haughtiness,
Allecto bursts out into these: "What laws, what order,
what measure, whence repose, what so great license of peace
that Nature should wish to proscribe our laws
and make the world serve herself, damn the guilty,
and wish to preserve the just, since our power
foreprevents her forces, and by our senate
lesser Nature is carried by plebiscite, and, so often subdued
by the laws of our empire, will she be able further to change
and to draw necks away from our chains?
For shame! Will incest be absent, with modesty reigning?"

Languescet facinus mundum pietate regente
Cedet auaricia, si munera fundat ubique
Hostis auaricie? fraudis censura silebit,
Regna tenente fide? feret ira silencia pacis?

Will crime languish, with piety ruling the world?
Will avarice yield, if the foe of avarice pours out gifts everywhere?
Will the censure of fraud be silent, while faith holds the realms?
Will anger bear the silences of peace?

Ius nostrum pax subripiet, quod tempore tanto
Deffendens nobis prescriptio uendicat, usus
Confert et iusto titulo collata tuetur?
Sed pudeat nos iura sequi, quas uiuere iuste
Non decet, aut precibus uti. Pro legibus ergo
Sumende uires, uis pro uirtute feratur.

Will peace pilfer our right, which, defending through so great a time, prescription vindicates for us, which usage confers, and, once bestowed with a just title, safeguards?
Let it shame us to follow laws—we, whom it does not befit to live justly—or to use prayers. Instead of laws, therefore, let forces be taken up; let force be brought to bear instead of virtue.

Nos pro iure decet assumere robur et armis
Res dictare nouas et sanguine scribere leges.
In nos maturas euo bellique potentes,
In numero plures, maiores uiribus, unum
Expertem belli puerum, uirtute minorem
Armauit Natura parens: sic seuit in ursum
Hinnulus, in quercus armatur uirgula, uallis
In montes, lepus in catulos, in tigrida damme.
Si forti fortem clauoque retundere clauum
Vellemus, numquid uni concludere posset
E nostris unus, primo quem fouit ab euo
Thesiphone, quem lacte suo potauit Herinis?

It befits us, for right’s sake, to assume strength and with arms
to dictate new measures and to write laws in blood.
Against us—mature in age and powerful in war,
more in number, greater in strength—Nature the parent has armed one
boy inexperienced in war, lesser in manly virtue;
thus a fawn rages against a bear, a little twig is armed against oaks, a valley
against mountains, a hare against whelps, the does against the tigress.
If we wished to blunt the strong by the strong and a nail with a nail,
would one of ours be able to close with one—him whom from his first age
Tisiphone cherished, whom with her own milk an Erinys gave to drink?

Numquid Silla nouus, alter Nero uincere posset
Leges, antiquos rursus renouare furores
Rufinus, Katelina nouus peruertere mundum?
Sed melius gens nostra simul collecta nouellos
Nature teret insultus fastusque recentes
Demittet, ueteri reddens elata ruine.
Ergo pari strepitu, concordi Marte, furore
Equali lites et bella geramus in illum
Qui solus, puer et belli male conscius, in nos
Armatur cedrosque cupit delere murica".

Could a new Sulla, another Nero, overcome the laws,
Rufinus renew the ancient furies again,
a new Catiline pervert the world?
But better, our nation, gathered together at once, will wear down
Nature’s new insults and will let recent haughtiness sink,
returning what is exalted to old ruin.
Therefore with equal clamor, with concordant Mars, with equal fury
let us wage suits and wars against that one
who alone, a boy and ill-versed in war, against us
arms himself and desires to destroy the cedars and the purple."

[218-233]

Hiis dictis plebs tota suos clamore fatetur
Assensus, dominamque sequi quocumque feratur
Spondet et ad uotum confestim facta sequuntur.
Arma sitit belli Discordia, prima tumultus
Appetit et primi preludia Martis inire
Preparat; assistunt famuli, complentque iubentis
Preceptum, domineque parant insignia belli:
Liuor equos, Rabies currus, Furor arma ministrat;
Impetus auriga, Lis armiger, Ira maniplus
Preuenit incessum domine, sed Terror euntis
Asistit dextro lateri Damnumque sinistro
Heret, Deffectus sequitur, Mors ultima gressus
Arripit occiduos, et Mortis fldus Achates,
Pallor, et assiduo Cedes comitata Dolore.
Hos comites trahit ad pugnam Discordia, cunctos
Excitat et sociis infundit Martis amorem.

With these things said the whole plebs by a shout confesses its assents, and pledges to follow its mistress wherever she may be borne, and straightway deeds follow to the wish. Discord thirsts for the arms of war; she first seeks tumults and prepares to enter the preludes of the first Mars; the servants assist and fulfill the command of the one bidding, and they prepare for their mistress the insignia of war: Envy manages the horses, Madness the chariots, Fury supplies the arms; Impetus is the charioteer, Strife the armiger, Wrath the maniple; she goes before her mistress’s advance, but Terror of the one going attends at the right side, and Loss clings to the left; Defect follows, Death, ultimate, seizes the setting steps, and Death’s faithful Achates, Pallor, and Slaughter accompanied by assiduous Pain. These companions Discord drags to the fight; she rouses all and pours into her allies the love of Mars.

[234-273]

[234-273] — The source text for these lines is not included in your message, so I cannot translate them. Please provide the original text for lines 234–273, and I will render it into English while preserving formatting.

Post hos arma capit, humili de plebe creata
Pauperies, facie deiecta, paupere cultu,
Incessu tristi gradiens, sed prodiga uite;
Non mortis concussa metu, non fracta timore
Irruit et uendens in multo funere uitam,
Plus audet, dum nescit inops pauperque timere.
It pedes innumera peditum uallata corona,
Cuius in arraa ruit plebee turba cohortis:
Pena, Labor, Sitis, Esuries, Ieiunia, Cure.
Subsequitur uallata suis Infamia monstris;
Illius uexilla gerunt Contagia uite,
Factaque digna notis et Vita notabilis actu.

After these, Poverty, created from the low plebs, takes up arms,
with dejected face, in poor attire,
walking with a sad gait, yet prodigal of life;
not shaken by fear of death, not broken by dread
she rushes in and, selling life amid great slaughter,
she dares more, while the needy and poor one does not know how to fear.
It goes on foot, girded with an innumerable ring of foot-soldiers,
at whose earnest-pledge (arra) the plebeian throng of the cohort rushes:
Penalty, Labor, Thirst, Hunger, Fasts, Cares.
Infamy follows, walled about by her own monsters;
the Contagions of Life bear her standards,
and Deeds worthy of brands, and a Life notable for its act.

Despectus comittatur eam, Pudor heret eunti,
Serpit humi Murmur, currunt Conuicia, laudem
Fama per antiphrasim fundit risumque Cachini.
Morbida, mesta, tremens, fragilis, longeua Senectus,
Innitens baculo nec mentis robore firma,
Bella mouet bellique nouo iuuenescit in estu.
Debilitas, Morbi, Languores, Tedia, Lapsus
Illius comittantur iter, qui Martis amore
Succensi, pugne cupiunt impendere uitam.

Disdain accompanies her, Shame clings to her as she goes,
Murmur creeps along the ground, Invectives run; Fame,
through antiphrasis, pours out praise and the laughter of Guffaws.
Morbid, mournful, trembling, fragile, long-lived Old Age,
leaning on a staff and not firm in the strength of mind,
stirs wars, and in the new heat of war grows young again.
Debility, Diseases, Languors, Tediums, Slips
are made to accompany the journey of those who, by love of Mars
enkindled, desire to expend life in battle.

Ardet in arma furens, scisso uelatus amictu
Luctus et, irrorans lacrimis, arat unguibus ora.
Tristicies, Lamenta, Dolor, Pressura, Ruine
Eius in obsequium feruent, dominique fatentur
Miliciam, belloque calent cum rege ministri.
Martis in ardorem natiuos excitat ignes
Ignea Luxuries, multo comitata cliente.

He burns for arms, raging, veiled with a torn mantle;
and Grief, bedewing with tears, plows his features with fingernails.
Sadness, Laments, Dolor, Oppression, Ruin
seethe in his obedience, and acknowledge the lord’s militia,
and in war the ministers grow hot with the king.
To the ardor of Mars she rouses the inborn fires
Fiery Luxury, accompanied by many a client.

Eius in auxilium iurant Periuria, spondet
Falsus Amor, Leuitas animi, Lasciuia mendax,
Insipidus Dulcor, sapidus Dolor, egra Voluptas,
Prosperitas adversa, locus lugubris, amara
Gaudia, Paupertas diues, Opulencia pauper.
Post alios in bella furens et promptus in arma,
Sublimi prouectus equo gestuque superbus,
Excedens habitu uerboque superfluus, actu
Degenerans Excessus adest, bellique furorem
Preuenit, et cunctis bellandi suggerit iras.
Quo duce signa gerit et bellum uoce minatur
Hebrietas, Fastus, Iactancia, Crapula, Luxus.

Perjuries swear into his aid, False Love pledges; Levity of mind, mendacious Lasciviousness,
insipid Sweetness, sapid Pain, ailing Pleasure, adverse Prosperity,
a lugubrious place, bitter Joys, rich Poverty, poor Opulence.
After others, raging into wars and ready for arms,
borne forward on a lofty horse and proud in bearing,
Excess is present—exceeding in attire and superfluous in word, degenerating in deed—
and he anticipates the frenzy of war and instills in all the angers of fighting.
With him as leader, bears the standards and threatens war with its voice
Ebriety, Pride, Jactancy, Crapulence, Luxury.

[274-304]

Assiduus fomes scelerum carnisque tiranus,
Peccati stimulus, delicti flamma, reatus
Principium, predo nostre racionis et hostis,
In tantam pugne rabiem bellique furores
Currit, in auxilium cuius mouet arma Reatus,
Velle malum, Calor illicitus, damnosa Voluptas.
Stulticiam non turba minor, non rarior armat
Conuentus procerum; comes est Ignauia, Ludi,
Segnicies, Nuge, Garritus, Occia, Sompni.
Non minus Impietas seuit multoque superba
Milite, maiori uoto sitit arma nec ullam
Gaudet habere uiam, nisi fusa sanguinis unda.

The assiduous tinder of crimes and the tyrant of flesh,
the goad of Sin, the flame of Offense, the Principle of Guilt,
the robber of our reason and its enemy,
rushes into such rabidity of fight and furies of war;
to whose aid Guilt musters arms—
Evil Will, illicit Heat, ruinous Pleasure.
No lesser throng, no rarer gathering arms Folly—
an assembly of nobles; her companions are Sloth, Games,
Sluggishness, Trifles, Chatter, Idlenesses, Slumbers.
No less does Impiety rage, and with a far prouder soldiery;
with greater zeal it thirsts for arms, nor does it rejoice to have any way
save a wave of blood poured out.

Eius castra tenent illamque fatentur in armis
Nequicie, Strages, Facinus, Violencia, Clades.
In pharetris sua tela gerens arcuque doloso
Fraus armata furit; comes est Fallacia dupplex,
Calliditas, Dolus illicitus, Versucia fallax.
Peior Auariciam comittatur turba clientum,
Cura frequens, Vsura uorax turpisque Rapina,
Que uigili cura, studiosa mente recenset
Qui nummi uenentur opes, quis nummus in archa
Pigritat et nullos domine deseruit in usus.

His camps are held, and in arms acknowledge her, by Iniquity, Slaughter, Crime, Violence, Calamity.
Armed Fraud rages, bearing her own missiles in quivers and with a deceitful bow;
her companion is twofold Duplicity, Callidity, Illicit Guile, fallacious Cunning.
A worse throng of clients accompanies Avarice,
frequent Care, voracious Usury, and sordid Rapine,
which with wakeful care, with a studious mind, tallies
who hunt wealth with coin, which coin in the coffer
lies slothful and has served its mistress in no uses.

Hanc Ignobilitas sequitur gressusque sequentis
Dedecus assequitur, heret Deiectio, Verber
Assidet, applaudit Angustia, Casus adheret.
Que, quamuis onerosa foret, deiecta, malignans,
Plus sibi concillat Fortune matris honorem,
Plusque placet matri, tantoque remissior alget
Nobilitatis amor; et jam mutare priora
Facta cupit Fortuna parens, prolique secunde
Tota fauet, temptatque prius descindere factum.

Ignobility follows her, and Disgrace overtakes her following steps;
Dejection clings; the Scourge sits beside; Anguish applauds; the Fall adheres.
She, although she would be burdensome, cast down, maligning,
wins for herself more of the honor of mother Fortune,
and pleases the mother more; and by so much the love of Nobility grows more remiss and cold;
and now mother Fortune longs to change the earlier
deeds, and wholly favors the more fortunate offspring,
and attempts first to tear asunder what has been done.

[305-316]

Nuncia Fama uolat et ueris falsa maritans,
In superos Furias, in celum regna silentum
Conspirasse refert, Manes Herebique tirannum
Tartareum reserasse Chaos, fratrique negare
Regna, nec ulterius pacem concedere mundo;
Monstraque mentitur, monstris maiora loquendo,
Dum sceleri scelus accumulat Furiisque furorem
Addit et Eumenides solito plus posse fatetur.
Thesiphones cumulat iras augetque Megeram;
Seuior assurgit Pluto; fit maior Herinis;
Desinit esse triceps inferni ianitor, ora
Mille capit; proprios Alecto dupplicat angues.

Rumor the Messenger flies and, marrying falsehoods to truths,
reports that the Furies have conspired against the gods above, that the realms of the silent against heaven
have conspired; that the Manes and the tyrant of Erebus have unbarred Tartarean Chaos, and deny
the realms to his brother, and no longer grant peace to the world;
and she fabricates monsters, by speaking things greater than the monsters,
while she heaps crime upon crime and adds fury to the Furies, and confesses that the Eumenides
can do more than usual. She piles up Tisiphone’s wraths and augments Megaera;
Pluto rises more savage; an Erinys becomes greater;
the three-headed doorkeeper of hell ceases to be three-headed; he takes on
a thousand mouths; Alecto doubles her own serpents.

[317-337]

Proposito stat fixa suo Natura nec ullo
Concutitur uexata metu, sed mente timorem
Expugnat, crescit animus bellique uoluntas
Surgit, et affectus Virtutibus insidet idem.
Armatur celestis homo superumque beata
Progenies, que tanta noui discrimina Martis
Sola subit; dant arma uiro, uiresque ministrant
Virtutes, unumque suis insignibus armant:
Pax ocreas donat, Probitas calcaria confert,
Loricam Pietas, galeam Prudencia, telum
Vera Fides, ensem Racio, Constancia scutum;
Spes largitur equos, castus Timor addit habenas,
Armigeri gerit officium Concordia, preco
Fama canit cumulatque uiri preconia laude.
Militat a dextris Racio, Constancia leuam
Assequitur partem, totamque Modestia plebem
Ordinat, et peditum strepitus Prudencia frenat.

Nature stands fixed in her own purpose and, though vexed, is shaken by no fear,
but by her mind she routs fear; the spirit grows, and the will of war
rises, and her affect likewise settles upon the Virtues.
The heavenly man is armed, and the blessed progeny of the Supernal Ones,
who alone undergoes such great crises of a new Mars; the Virtues give the man
arms and supply strengths, and they arm the one with their insignia:
Peace gives the greaves, Probity bestows the spurs,
Piety the cuirass, Prudence the helmet, True Faith the missile,
Reason the sword, Constancy the shield; Hope grants the horses,
chaste Fear adds the reins; Concord bears the office of the armiger; as herald
Fame sings and heaps up the man’s proclamations with praise.
Reason fights at his right, Constancy takes the left
side, and Modesty marshals the whole host,
and Prudence bridles the clamor of the foot-soldiers.

Quelibet a simili Virtus gerit arma uiroque
Iurat in auxilium; que totum Martis honorem
Dat iuueni, cui bella mouet Natura, suamque
Donat ei palmam belli pugneque laborem.

Each Virtue in like fashion bears arms, and to the man
swears for aid; and she gives the whole honor of Mars
to the youth for whom Nature moves wars, and her own
palm of war and the labor of battle she grants to him.

[338-369]

Iam pestes Herebi, scelerum contagia, monstra
Inferni, ciues Plutonis, noctis alumpni,
Tartareum chaos egressi, funduntur in orbem,
Iamque diem nostrum multa caligine noctis
Inuoluunt mundique iubar delere laborant.
Insultus lux ipsa nouos miratur et ipsam
Noctem plus solito iam posse magisque morari,
Nec proprios seruare uices, nec cedere Phebo.
Sed tamen hoc solo pensat sua damna quod illic
Lux eterna manet nullisque decisa tenebris,
Continuusque dies, ubi celicus ille senatus
Turmaque Virtutum, Nature militat agmen.

Now the plagues of Erebus, the contagions of crimes, the monsters
of Hell, the citizens of Pluto, the nurslings of Night,
having gone forth from Tartarean chaos, are poured into the orb,
and now they wrap our day in much murk of night
and strive to destroy the radiance of the world.
Light itself marvels at new assaults, and that Night itself
now can do more than usual and linger longer,
nor keep its proper turns, nor yield to Phoebus.
But nevertheless it compensates its losses by this alone: that there
Eternal Light remains, cut off by no darkness,
and continuous day, where that celestial senate
and the Troop of the Virtues, the host of Nature, is on military service.

Iam se prospiciunt acies, jam prospicit hostem
Hostis et aspectus animos succendit in iras.
Ignescunt animi, mentes audacia maior
Erigit, exurgunt ire, jam mente cohortes
Se superant, animi iam mutua uulnera fingunt.
Mens ardore prius pugnat quam dextera ferro,
Impaciensque more Viciorum turba priores
Arripit insultus pugne, primumque furorem
Excitat, et magnis clamoribus intonat iras
Tota cohors, uerboque prius consurgit in hostem
Quam ferro, uerbis bellum prelibat et illi
Gestu, uoce, minis insultat.

Now the battle-lines catch sight of one another, now the foe beholds the foe;
and the very sight inflames their spirits into wraths.
The souls ignite, a greater audacity
raises their minds; angers rise up, now in mind the cohorts
surpass themselves; their spirits already fashion mutual wounds.
The mind fights with ardor before the right hand with steel,
and, impatient after the manner of the Vices, the crowd seizes
the first assaults of the fight, and rouses the primal frenzy,
and with great clamors the whole cohort thunders its wraths;
and with word it rises against the enemy sooner than with steel,
with words it preludes to war, and at him
with gesture, with voice, with threats it taunts.

Non tamen illum
Gestus, uerba, mine frangunt, sed fixus in alto
Mentis proposito, iuuenis constanter ad ista
Erigitur, uincitque metum constancia mentis.
Sed postquam sua uerba, mine gestusque uigoris
Nil habuere, locum dant uerba nec amplius illis
Est locus, immo minis factum succedit et armis
Cedunt uerborum pugne: iam mistica bella
Rem sapiunt, pugnas cum res non ipsa fatetur.

Not, however, do gestures, words, threats break him,
but, fixed in a lofty purpose of mind,
the youth is steadily lifted up against these things,
and the constancy of mind conquers fear.
But after their words, threats, and gestures of vigor
had had nothing, words give place, nor is there any longer room
for them; rather, action succeeds to threats—and arms.
The battles of words yield: now the mystic wars
savor of the reality, though the reality itself does not avow combats.

LIBER NONUS ET VLTIMUS

BOOK NINE AND LAST

[1-52]

Iam pedites in bella ruunt, iam sanguinis audent
Fundere primicias, iam libamenta cruoris
Prima dare affectant primeuaque uulnera belli.
Pulueris insurgunt nebule, nouus imber inundat
In terris, dum tela pluunt, dum pulueris imber
Funditur, et celum telorum nubila uelant,
Et ferri splendore nouo noua fulgura lucent.
Mente calens, feruens animo, flammata furore,
Prima uiro mouet assultus Discordia, primum
Aggreditur Martem, primo casura tumultu.

Now the foot-soldiers rush into wars, now they dare
to pour the first-fruits of blood, now they strive to offer the first libations
of gore and the primeval wounds of war.
Clouds of dust rise up, a new shower floods
upon the lands, while missiles rain, while a shower of dust
is poured out, and the sky is veiled by clouds of darts,
and by the new splendor of iron new lightnings shine.
Hot in mind, seething in spirit, inflamed with madness,
Discord moves the first assaults against the man, first
she attacks Mars, destined to fall at the first tumult.

Impetus urget equos, Lis suggerit arma, sagitam
Ira ministrat ei. Furor arcum preparat, ensem
Liuor et ad pugnam reliquis feruencius ardet.
Ergo sagita uolat, prenuncia Martis, et hostem
Impetuosa petit, quam totis uiribus actam
Dirigit in iuuenem Discordia. Nec tamen ictus
Dextre mittenti respondet, parma sagitam
Respuit et totos abiectus umbo repellit.

Impetus urges the horses, Strife suggests arms, the arrow
Wrath ministers to it. Fury prepares the bow, and Envy
burns for battle more fervently than the rest.
Therefore the arrow flies, a harbinger of Mars, and impetuous
it seeks the enemy, which, driven with all its forces,
Discord directs against the youth. Yet the blow, however,
does not answer the one sending it dexterously; the buckler spits back the arrow,
and the whole boss, thrust forward, repels it.

Tunc animi uires et totum robur in unum
Colligit et Marti se totum deuouet ille.
Indulget freno iuuenis, calcaribus urget
Cornipedem, nec segnis, hebes, pinguedine lassus,
Lentescit sonipes, sed eodem Martis amore
Militat, hostiles frangens cum milite turmas.
Aduersas igitur partes inuadit et ipsis
Hostibus occurrens, uagina liberat ensem.

Then he gathers the strengths of spirit and all his might into one,
and he devotes himself wholly to Mars.
The youth indulges the bridle, with spurs he urges
the hoof-footed steed, nor, sluggish, dull, or weary with fatness,
does the courser grow slack; but with the same love of Mars
he campaigns, breaking hostile squadrons along with the warrior.
Therefore he attacks the opposing sides, and, meeting
the very enemies, he frees his sword from the scabbard.

Nec tonat ille minis, sed solo fulminat ense,
Ferro cuncta probat nec uerbo disputat, immo
Verberibus multisque modis concluditur hosti.
Excipit a reliquis illam que prima furoris
Causa fuit, que prima dedit fomenta laborum.
Hanc igitur mucrone petens, a corpore uitam
Extorquet, cogitque mori quam uiuere mundo
Mors erat, et mundi mortem mors una retardat.

Nor does he thunder with menaces, but he fulminates with the sword alone,
with steel he proves all things and does not dispute by word; rather
he confutes the foe with beatings and in many modes.
He singles out from the rest her who was the first
cause of frenzy, who first gave the fomentations of labors.
Therefore, seeking her with the point, from the body he
extorts life, and compels her to die rather than to live to the world—
which was death—and one death delays the death of the world.

Non satis est uidisse mori, plus exigit hostis:
Ense metens caput, a trunco diffibulat ora,
Et merito caput a trunco discordat in illa
Per quam lis, odium, rabies, dissensio, rixa
Prima fuit, per quam primo conflictus et ire
Primeuique metus et belli prima cupido.
Ergo solo iacet exanimis que reddidit olim
Exanimes alios, sed ea moriente, suorum
Emoritur uirtus, unius pena redundat
In multas, morbus capitis descendit in artus.
Iam Timor ipse timet, Lis subditur, Ira tepescit,
Mitescit Rabies, cadit Impetus, occidit ipse
Liuor, languescit Odium, Furor arma resignat.

It is not enough to have seen her die, the enemy demands more:
Reaping the head with the sword, he unbuckles the visage from the trunk,
And deservedly the head is discordant from the trunk in that one
Through whom suit, hatred, rabies, dissension, brawl
Was first; through whom at first conflict and angers
And primeval fear and the first desire of war.
Therefore lifeless on the soil lies she who once
Rendered others lifeless, but as she dies, the prowess of her own
Dies out; the penalty of one overflows upon many; the disease of the head
Descends into the limbs. Now Fear itself fears, Strife is brought under, Ire grows tepid,
Rabies gentles, Impetus falls, Livor himself dies,
Odium grows languid, Furor resigns arms.

Assunt uirtutes iuueni, que Martis eodem
Succense stimulo, reliquos armantur in hostes;
Hos perimunt illosque fugant, bellatur in omnes.
Vera Fides perimit Odium, Concordia Litem,
Pax Iram, Rabiem Constancia Spesque Timorem.

The Virtues are present to the youth, who, inflamed by the same goad of Mars,
are armed against the remaining enemies;
these they slay and those they put to flight; battle is waged against all.
True Faith slays Odium, Concord Strife,
Peace Ire, Constancy Rage, and Hope Fear.

[53-107]

Non minor ad pugnam sed maior surgit in iram
Pauperies, non ense tonans, non fulgure teli
Bella minans, nulla lorice ueste refulgens,
Nec clipeo munita latus, nec casside uultus,
Sed nodis uariis callosa, nec arte polita;
Sed uultus ueteres retinens primamque figuram,
Claua uicem gerit armorum, sed quod minus arma
Dant, supplent animi, dat mens quod perdit in armis.
Pauperies ruit in iuuenem clauaque minatur
Funera, librat eam, librata percutit. Ictum
Ille stupet, tanto dum cassis subsidet ictu,
Sed tamen instantis ictus Constancia partem
Eludit mucrone suo; magis ergo furore
Vritur et magno strepitu bacchatur Egestas,
Dum uidet in cassum clauam seuire nec illam
Respondere sibi.

Poverty rises to the fight no less, but to greater wrath,
not thundering with a sword, not threatening wars with the lightning of a missile,
gleaming with no garment of the cuirass, nor the flank fortified with a shield,
nor the face with a helmet, but calloused with various knots, not polished by art;
but retaining old looks and the primal figure,
the club bears the place of arms; yet what arms give less
the spirits make up, the mind gives what it loses in arms.
Poverty rushes upon the youth and with the club threatens
funerals; she poises it, poised she strikes. At the blow
he is stunned, while the helmet sinks beneath so great a stroke,
but nevertheless Constancy with her own edge eludes a part
of the pressing blow; therefore Want burns more with fury
and raves with great clamor, while she sees the club rage in vain and that it
does not answer to her.

Tunc ictus dupplicat, immo
Multiplicat, sed claua suo nugatur in ictu;
Nam quociens claue Paupertas obicit ictus,
Argumenta suo Virtus mucrone refellit.
Sed postquam sua bella uidet nil posse, ministros
Acrius ad pugnam stimulat: Labor irruit, instat
Esuries, Sitis insultat, Ieiunia pugnant,
Insurgunt uigiles Cure, dant arma Labori
Gleba, lapis, fustes, telum de stipite querno.
Esuries armata capit carecta, ministrat
Tela Sitis, relique paribus bacchantur in armis.

Then she doubles her blows, nay rather
she multiplies them, but the club makes a jest of its own stroke;
for as often as Poverty with her club hurls blows,
Virtue refutes the arguments with her own blade.
But after she sees her wars can do nothing, she more sharply
goads her ministers to the fight: Labor rushes in, presses hard,
Hunger assails, Thirst makes an onslaught, Fasts fight,
the wakeful Cares rise up; they give arms to Labor—
a clod, a stone, cudgels, a missile from an oaken stock.
Armed Hunger takes up bundles of sedge, Thirst supplies
missiles, and the rest rage like Bacchants with equal arms.

Sed iuuenis prior occurrit, prior obuiat hosti,
Pauperiem prior aggreditur celerique uolatu
Cornipedis pariterque suo cognamine nitens,
Accumulat uires haste qua deicit illam
Que terre deiecta iacet. Petit ergo iacentem;
Non tamen illius scrutatur uiscera ferro,
Nec rotat ense caput, nec inhebriat ora cruore,
Funere famoso dedignans claudere uitam
Hostis et insigni leto pensare ruinam.
Sed conculcat eam, confundens ora iacentis,
Deiectamque solo pedibus triturat equinis.

But the youth runs to meet first, first meets the foe,
he first attacks Poverty, and with the swift flight
of his hoof-footed steed, and likewise relying on his own cognomen,
he accumulates strength with the spear, by which he casts her down,
and she, thrown to the earth, lies. He seeks, therefore, the one lying prone;
yet he does not probe her entrails with iron,
nor whirl the head with the sword, nor inebriate his lips with gore,
disdaining to close the life of an enemy with a notorious funeral
and to counterbalance the ruin with a signal death.
But he tramples her, confounding the face of the prone,
and, cast down to the soil, he threshes her with equine feet.

Cogitur ergo mori iamdudum mortua mundo
Pauperies nec mors animum predatur in illa,
Sed pocius mens una manet languetque repensa
Mors a mente minor, multumque diuque resistit
Mens morti, tandemque simul cum morte recedit;
Dum sic in fatum concedit iuraque fati
Paupertas, proprium moriens depauperat agmen.
Cetus eget: qui diues erat, dum uixit Egestas,
Ejus diuicie pereunt omnisque facultas
Pauperie pereunte perit; coguntur egere
Conciues, quos illa prius ditauit egendo.
Languescit Labor exhaustus, Sitis effugit, arma
Deicit Esuries, fugiunt Ieiunia, Cure
Depereunt; sic turba minor majore ruina
Deprimitur populusque perit pereunte magistro.

She is compelled therefore to die, Paupery long since dead to the world,
nor does Death prey upon the soul in her,
but rather the one mind remains and languishes, Death, when weighed, being lesser than the Mind,
and the Mind resists Death much and long, and at length together with Death it withdraws;
while thus Poverty yields to Fate and the laws of Fate,
dying she impoverishes her own host.
The cohort lacks: that which was rich, while Want lived,
her riches perish, and every faculty perishes;
with Paupery perishing, it perishes: the fellow-citizens are compelled to lack,
whom she earlier enriched by lacking.
Labor languishes exhausted, Thirst flees, Hunger throws down her arms,
Fasts flee, Cares perish; thus the lesser crowd is pressed down by the greater ruin,
and the people perishes with their master perishing.

Ergo Quies Penam, Sacies Ieiunia, Curas
Pax fugat, Esuriem deuicit Copia, languet
Vbertate Sitis et uicta Carencia cedit.

Therefore Quiet puts Punishment to flight, Satiety the Fasts; Peace puts Cares to flight,
Plenty has vanquished Hunger, Thirst languishes by Uberty,
and Want, conquered, yields.

[108-148]

Tunc comitum supplere uolens Intamia casus,
Forcior assurgit, sociorum uendere mortes
Temptat et hostili leto saciare dolorem.
Irruit in iuuenem, sed uerbo preuenit ictum,
Et uerbis accuens conuicia: "Proh pudor!" inquit,
"Gens euo, sensu, cautela, uiribus, armis
Pollens unius iuuenis subcumbet inhermi
Milicie nostraque feret de gente triumphum
Iste puer?" Nec plura loquens, delegat in illum
Telum, demonstrans facto quod uoce minatur.
Missile decurrens cum uerbo uerberat auram,
Nec uice legati pacem denunciat, immo
Bella gerit, cursuque ruens, Infamia telum
Insequitur, telo cursu contendit et hostem
Ense petit, mucrone uolens succurrere telo,
Vt, si forte uiri deludant arma sagitam,
Vel modica teli rabies deseuiat ira,
Teli mucro furens algentes suppleat iras.

Then Infamy, wishing to supply the mishaps of her companions,
rises stronger; she attempts to vend the deaths of her allies
and to sate her grief with an enemy’s death.
She rushes upon the youth, but a word forestalls the blow,
and, enflaming with words her revilings: “Ah, shame!” she says,
“Will a people powerful in age, in sense, in caution, in strengths, in arms
succumb to a single unarmed youth, and will this boy
bear a triumph over our nation from our race?” No longer speaking more, she assigns
a weapon at him, demonstrating by deed what she threatens by voice.
The missile, running down together with the word, lashes the air,
nor, in the role of an envoy, does it denounce peace—rather
it wages wars; and rushing at a run, Infamy pursues the spear,
she contends with the spear in speed and seeks the foe
with her sword, wishing the blade’s point to succor the spear,
so that, if perchance the man’s arms should elude the arrow,
or if the moderate fury of the dart should let its wrath die down,
the spear’s point, raging, may supply the chilling wraths.

Ergo sagita, memor dextre que miserat illam,
Insilit in frontem iuuenis, sed cassis euntem
Sistit, eam retinet, gressus negat, obstat eunti.
Sed teli supplere uolens Infamia lapsum,
Succurrit telo, nudo mucrone, sed ictum
Excipit a galea medius Fauor, ensis ab ictu
Decidit et comitis supplet male dampna sagite.
Sed postquam ducis insultus nil posse clientum
Turba uidet, magis in rabiem succenditur; ergo
Forcius arma rapit, pugnant Contagia, Murmur
Irruit, insurgunt Conuicia, Dedecus instat.

Therefore the arrow, mindful of the right hand which had sent it,
leaps at the young man’s forehead, but the helmet stops it going,
halts it, holds it back, denies it its steps, stands in the way to its going.
But Infamy, wishing to make good the lapse of the missile,
runs to help the missile, with naked point; but the stroke
Favor, intervening, receives from the helmet; the sword from the blow
falls away and ill supplies the losses of the comrade’s arrow.
But after the crowd sees that the leader’s assaults can do nothing
it is more inflamed into rabies; therefore
it snatches arms more forcefully; Contagia fight, Murmur
rushes in, Revilements rise up, Disgrace presses on.

Sed iuuenis nec mente iacet, nec frangitur hoste,
Nec terrore pauet, nec uulnere lesus oberrat,
Sed cornu quo Fama sue preconia laudis
Intonat, ad tempus Fame subducit et hostem
Hoc mucrone ferit, uires in uulnere multo
Monstrat et egressus crebro reseratur in ictu.
Hostis in occasu Pudor occidit, arma reponit
Murmur, mutescunt Conuicia, Dedecus iram
Nescit, Contemptus moritur, Contagia cedunt.
Dedecus ergo Fauor extinguit, Fama Pudorem;
Gloria supplantat Murmur, Conuicia Laudes,
Contemptum predatur Honor, Contagia Virtus.

But the youth neither lies low in mind, nor is he broken by the enemy,
nor does he quake with terror, nor, wounded by a blow, does he wander;
but the horn with which Fame thunders forth her proclamations of praise
he for a time withdraws from Fame and from the foe, and with this point he strikes the enemy,
he shows his forces in the great wound, and an egress is repeatedly unlocked in the stroke.
At the enemy’s fall Pudor dies, Murmur lays down arms,
Invectives fall mute, Disgrace knows not wrath, Contempt dies, Contagions yield.
Thus Favor extinguishes Disgrace, Fame [extinguishes] Pudor;
Glory supplants Murmur, Praises [supplant] Invectives,
Honor preys upon Contempt, Virtue [preys upon] Contagions.

[149-209]

Quamuis pigra foret, quamuis longeua Senectus,
Quamuis delirans, quamuis torpore fatiscens,
Prona tamen calet in bello, iuuenescit in armis,
Nec baculi iam querit opem, suffulta furore,
Nec regimen poscit que substentatur ab ira,
Debilitate potens, morbo robusta, dolore
Diues, segnicie fortis, pigredine prompta.
Ergo propinqua neci, morti uicina propinque,
Florida canicie, rugis sulcata Senectus
Oppositum ruit in iuuenem, nec primitus instat
Ense, nec aggreditur telo, nec cuspide pulsat,
Sed quadam specie lucte cognatur ut illum
In terram demittat, equm subducat et armis
Exutum liber gladius grassetur in hostem.
Sed monitu calcaris equs succensus in illam
Irruit et terre miseram deponit, at illa
Exurgens uires pariter cum mente resumit.

Although Sluggish Old Age might be, although long-lived Old Age,
although raving, although sagging with torpor,
prone, nevertheless, she burns in war, grows young in arms,
nor now does she seek the aid of a staff, propped by frenzy,
nor does she demand a regimen, since she is underpinned by wrath,
powerful in debility, robust in disease, rich
in pain, strong in sloth, prompt in sluggishness.
Therefore, near to slaughter, neighboring to death, close by,
blooming with hoariness, Old Age furrowed with wrinkles
rushes against the opposed youth, nor at first does she press
with the sword, nor does she attack with a missile, nor smite with a spear-point,
but by a certain kind of wrestling she strives so that she may
send him to the ground, draw away his horse, and, he stripped of arms,
that the free sword may stalk against the enemy.
But at the prompting of the spur the horse, enflamed against her,
rushes in and sets the wretch down on the earth; but she,
rising up, resumes her strength together with her mind alike.

Vertit in arma manus et spem deponit in armis,
Sed cassis torpore iacet, scalore senescit,
Atque situ scabre morsum rubiginis horret.
Parma suum multa rubigine computat euum
Nec uetat ingressum nudata crate sagitis.
Lorice fragiles mordens rubigo cathenas
Dissuit et iunctis addit diuorcia squamis.

She turns her hand to arms and deposits her hope in arms,
but the helmet lies in torpor, senesces with scale,
and by long disuse it shudders at the bite of scabby rust.
The buckler counts its age by much rust,
nor does its lattice, laid bare, forbid entry to arrows.
Biting rust unsews the fragile chains of the cuirass
and adds divorces to the joined scales.

Pigritat affixus uagine mucro nec extra
De facili prodit, longo tempore quiescens,
Quem Senium nudare parat; sed degener ensis
Respuit egressus istos dextreque monenti
Denegat officium, malens torpore quietis
Vti quam uarios belli sen tire tumultus.
Sed tamen a loculo tandem producitur ensis
Segnis, hebes, scalore iacens nec iam memor ire
Bellorum, pacemque magis quam bella requirit
Hic mucro, si mucro tamen de iure uocari
Debeat hic gladius et non mucronis ymago.
Impetit ergo uirum gladio munita Senectus,
Vulnus ab ense petit, sed uulneris immemor ensis,
In cassum pulsans, aditus ad uulnera nescit,
Sed stupet ad galeam, uario delirus in ictu.

Affixed to the sheath the point is slothful, nor does it easily go forth outside,
resting for a long time, which Senility prepares to bare; but the degenerate sword
refuses those egresses and denies service to the admonishing right hand,
preferring to use the torpor of quiet rather than to feel the various tumults of war.
Yet, however, from its little case at last the sword is produced—
sluggish, blunt, lying with scale-rust, and now no longer mindful to go
to wars; and this point seeks peace rather than wars, if the point, however,
by right ought to be called this sword and not the image of a point.
Therefore Old Age, armed with the sword, attacks the man;
she seeks a wound by the sword, but the sword, forgetful of the wound,
striking in vain, does not know the approaches to wounds,
but is stupefied at the helmet, delirious in its various stroke.

Ergo Senecta, uidens proprium nil posse furorem,
Miratur seseque dolet sine uulnere uinci;
Sed quamuis esset morti uicina, propinquam
Maturare uolens, hostis sibi prouocat ensem.
Sed iuuenis, miseratus eam nec digna rependens
Hosti pro meritis, nolenti uiuere uitam
Concedit fatumque negat sua fata uolenti.
Sistit equm, frenum retinens, sermone Senectam
Aggrediens animosque truces et uota retardans,
Prodit in hec: "Cur fata paras, cui proxima fatur
Mors finem, cui uita mori, cui uiuere fatum?

Therefore Old Age, seeing that her own fury can accomplish nothing,
marvels and grieves that she is vanquished without a wound;
but although she was near to death, wishing to hasten the near one,
she calls the enemy’s sword upon herself. But the youth, pitying her and not repaying
to an enemy according to her merits, grants life to one unwilling to live
and denies the doom to one wishing for her own fates.
He halts the horse, holding the bridle, addressing Old Age with speech,
approaching and checking her fierce spirit and prayers,
he proceeds to these words: "Why do you prepare the fates, you for whom near-at-hand
Death pronounces an end, for whom life is to die, for whom to live is fate?

Cur queris tibi concessum? Cur poscis inepte
Quod Natura parat, quod mors uicina minatur?
Vtere que restat uita nec quere propinquos
Anticipare dies; uite compendia mortem
Solentur, mortis dispendia uita repenset".
Ergo uicta fugit belloque renunciat, ensem
Deicit, expellit clipeum galeamque Senectus
Exuit, et solo baculo contenta recedit.

Why do you complain of what has been granted to you? Why do you ineptly demand
what Nature prepares, what near-at-hand Death threatens?
Use the life that remains, and do not seek to anticipate the approaching
days; the shortenings of life are wont to be death; let life repay the expenditures of death."
Therefore, conquered, she flees and renounces war; Old Age casts down the sword,
throws away the shield, and strips off the helmet, and, content with a single staff,
withdraws.

Debilitas perdit uires belloque recedens
Languescit Morbus, Langor fit morbidus, heret
Lapsus, labuntur Deffectus, Tedia languent.

Debility loses its powers, and, receding from war,
Disease grows faint, Languor becomes morbid, Lapse clings,
Defects glide away, and Tediums languish.

[210-227]

Jam comites errare uidens et cedere pugne
Fletus adest, partemque suam succumbere bello
Luget, et abscisso meret uelamine Luctus
Vtque erat impaciens, gressum maturat et hostem
Impetuosus adit, galeeque resoluere nodos
Temptat, ut ad uulnus ingressum preparet ensi.
Sed Risus succurrit ei, mucrone lacertum
Dissuit a trunco, galee manus hesitat, herens
Emoritur proprioque stupet priuata rigore.
Iam Gemitus sua dampna gemit, iam Luctus inundans
Assumit sibi se, Fletus lacrimatur et omnis
Turba comes, meret Planctus Lacrimeque madescunt.

Now, seeing his companions go astray and yield to the battle
Weeping is present, and he mourns that his own side succumbs to war,
and Grief, with the veil torn off, merits it;
and, as he was impatient, he hastens his step and, impetuous, goes at the foe,
and he attempts to loosen the knots of the helmet,
so that he may prepare an entrance to the wound for the sword.
But Laughter runs to his aid; with his point he unseams the upper arm
from the trunk; the hand at the helmet hesitates, clinging,
it dies, and, deprived, is benumbed with its own rigidity.
Now Groan groans his own losses, now Grief overflowing
takes himself up to himself; Weeping weeps tears, and the whole
attendant crowd, Dirge merits it, and the Tears grow wet.

Iam Dolor ipse dolet, perdens fomenta doloris,
Deprimitur Pressura, cadunt Lamenta, Ruine
Depereunt omnisque perit uiolencia Luctus.
Gaudia Tristiciem, Pressuram Gloria, Planctum
Prosperitas, Lamenta locus, Felicia Casus
Exuperant, uincitque mali fastidia Risus.

Now Pain itself grieves, losing the fomentations of pain,
Pressure is pressed down, Laments fall, Ruins
perish utterly, and all the violence of Mourning perishes.
Joys overtop Sadness, Glory overwhelms Pressure, Prosperity quells Plaint,
Laments yield place, Happy Chances
surmount, and Laughter conquers the disgusts of evil.

[228-270]

At Venus ipsa furit, cui forcior ira nephasque
Maius et insultus peior grauiorque potestas.
Dum comitum languere manus, rarescere pugnam
Luget, et hostiles animoque manuque caternas
Crescere, iamque suos dolet expirasse furores,
Ignitam tamen illa facem, que fulminis ipsam
Mentitur speciem, que saxa resoluere, cautes
Extenuare solet, ferrum mollescere, rupes
Inflammare, rapit instanter, uibrat in hostem.
Has pugnas, hec bella tremens, hec prelia uitans
Expectare timet iuuenis; fuga consulit illi
Consilioque fuge uenientes effugit ictus.

But Venus herself rages, for whom a stronger wrath and a greater nefariousness,
a worse assault and a more grievous power hold sway.
While she laments that the hands of her companions languish, that the fight grows rare,
and that hostile companies both in spirit and in hand increase,
and now she grieves that her own furies have expired,
yet she snatches an ignited torch, which counterfeits the very aspect of lightning,
which is accustomed to dissolve rocks, to attenuate crags,
to make iron grow soft, to inflame cliffs; she seizes it urgently and brandishes it against the foe.
Trembling, the youth, shunning these fights, these wars, these battles,
fears to await them; flight counsels him,
and by the counsel of flight he escapes the blows as they come.

Fax ignita cadit, expirat in aere, uires
Amittit, dum nulla manent fomenta caloris.
Hic tamen a tergo Parthorum more sagitam
Dirigit in Venerem nec fallitur illa, sed ictum
Primo proponit, assumit uulnus et inde
Mortem concludit, nec ad hec instare Libido
Argumenta potest, dum sic concluditur illi.
Sic iuueni sub Marte nouo noua laurea cedit:
Dum fugit, ergo fugat; dum cedit, ceditur illi;
Dum cadit, erigitur; uincit, dum uincitur; audet,
Dum timet; expugnat, dum pugnam deserit; absens
Instat et in bello preuentus, preuenit hostem.

The ignited torch falls, expires in the air, loses its powers,
while no foments of heat remain. Here, however, from behind, in the Parthian manner,
he directs an arrow at Venus, nor is she deceived, but she first sets forth the blow,
assumes the wound and from that concludes death; nor can Libido press
arguments against these things, since thus it is concluded against him. Thus to the youth,
under a new Mars, a new laurel yields: while he flees, therefore he puts to flight; while he yields, it is yielded to him;
while he falls, he is lifted up; he conquers while he is conquered; he dares,
while he fears; he storms while he deserts the fight; absent,
he presses on, and, in war anticipated, he anticipates the enemy.

Dum moritur, sua fata stupet Cytherea, nec ipsam
Credit adesse necem, quamuis mors ipsa loquatur.
Cum per eam soleant alii succumbere leto,
Vix credit se posse mori, sed proxima tandem
Fata uidens, prorumpit in has moritura querelas:
"Heu! tociens uictrix uno delirat in actu
Nostra manus, tociens uincens nunc uicta fatiscit
Que falli nescit, quam nunc Fortuna fefellit!

While she dies, Cytherea is stupefied at her own fates, nor does she
believe that death itself is present for her, although Death herself speaks.
Since through her others are wont to succumb to death,
she scarcely believes that she can die; but at last, seeing the proximate
Fates, about to die she bursts forth into these laments:
"Alas! so often victorious, in a single act our hand delirates;
so often conquering, now conquered it grows fatigued—
which does not know how to be deceived, which now Fortune has deceived!

Nunc alget meus ille calor, meus ille caminus
Qui solis flammas urit, succendit in undis
Neptunum, Bachum bachari cogit et ipsum
Fulminat igne Iouem, superis furatur honorem
Numinis et multos cogit seruire potentes.
Nunc mea tela iacent, quibus olim uictus Achilles
Cessit, degeneri mentitus ueste puellam;
Inque colum clauam uertens, in pensa sagittas,
In fusum pharetras, Alcides degener armis
Totus femineos male degenerauit in actus".
Hec ait et uitam pariter cum uoce reliquit.

Now that heat of mine grows cold, that furnace of mine
which burns the flames of the sun, ignites Neptune in the waves,
compels Bacchus to bacchate, and even
fulminates Jove with fire, steals from the supernals the honor
of the Numen and compels many potent ones to serve.
Now my missiles lie, by which once, conquered, Achilles
yielded, having, with a degenerate garment, feigned a girl;
and, turning his club into a distaff, his arrows into wool-weights,
his quivers into a spindle, Alcides, degenerate in arms,
wholly ill-degenerated into feminine acts".
She said these things and abandoned life together with her voice.

[271-306]

Iam timet Excessus, jam bello cedere querit,
Iam mens alta cadit, iam mentis decidit ardor,
Dum comitis uidet occasum qui maxima belli
Pars erat et prima tocius Martis origo.
Hasta tamen uibrata uolat, sed deuiat, hostem
Dum petit hec; mittensque manus male consulit illi
Que, male dum regitur, errans declinat ab hoste,
Nec saltem clipei partem prelibat eundo.
Tunc iuueni delegat opem Moderancia, ferrum
Nudat et hostilem turbat frangitque cateruam.

Now Excess grows afraid, now he seeks to yield in war,
now the high mind falls, now the ardor of mind descends,
while he sees the setting of his comrade, who was the greatest part of the war
and the first origin of all the warfare.
Yet the brandished spear flies, but it swerves, while it aims
at the foe; and the throwing hand takes ill counsel for it,
which, since it is ill guided, wandering, turns aside from the enemy,
nor in its going does it even so much as graze a part of the shield.
Then Moderation assigns aid to the youth, bares the iron,
and throws into disorder and breaks the hostile band.

Pugnat in Excessum Moderancia, sobria Fastum
Aggreditur Racio, Penam Tolerancia, Luxum
Sobrietas, sed pugna fauet Virtutibus, harum
Deffendit partes Victoria. Vincitur ergo
Fastus, Luxus abit, cessat Gula, Crapula cedit.
Tunc Carnis Stimulus furtiuo Marte reluctans,
Impetit a tergo iuuenem temptatque latenter
Insultare uiro.

Moderation fights against Excess, sober Reason attacks Pride,
Tolerance endures Penalty, Sobriety [assails] Luxury;
but the battle favors the Virtues; Victory defends their sides.
Therefore Pride is conquered, Luxury departs, Gluttony ceases, Crapulence yields.
Then the Goad of the Flesh, resisting with furtive war,
attacks the youth from behind and tries covertly
to assail the man.

Tamen istos prouida sentit
Insultus Racio, nec torpet pigra, sed illi
Obuiat, indomitum retinet sistitque furentem.
Sed tamen ille diu Racionis uiribus obstans,
Ex equo contendit ei multumque repugnat
Luctans, et tandem uictus submittitur hosti.
Acrius in iuuenem uolat Imprudencia, nullam
Bellandi seruat legem, sed turbine belli
Turbida, nil animo retinet nisi Martis amorem.

Yet provident Reason senses these assaults,
nor does she grow sluggish, but goes to meet him,
and she restrains and halts the untamed, raging one.
But nevertheless he, long resisting the forces of Reason,
contends with her from horseback and fights back much,
wrestling, and at length, conquered, is submitted to the foe.
More fiercely at the youth flies Imprudence; she keeps no
law of warring, but, turbid in the whirlwind of war,
retains nothing in her mind save the love of Mars.

Mole sua fixum summa de rupe molarem
Extorquere cupit, sub quo nutaret Achilles,
Alcides gemeret totusque fatisceret Athlas.
Sed uires honeri cedunt, et pondere uicta
Vis hebet, atque grauem patitur sub mole ruinam.
Obstat ei Fronesis, et jam sub pondere uictam
Vincit et inuitam feriari cogit ab armis.

With its own mass he longs to wrench from the summit of the crag a millstone fixed in place,
beneath which Achilles would waver, Alcides would groan, and Atlas in his entirety would crack apart.
But the strengths yield to the burden, and, conquered by the weight,
force grows dull, and suffers a grievous collapse beneath the mass.
Phronesis stands in his way, and now, her already conquered under the weight,
she overcomes her and, unwilling, compels her to be idle from arms.

Segniciem superat Solercia, Seria Ludum,
Vtilitas Dampnum, Studium fugat Occia, Sensus
Stulticiam dampnat, Nugasque Silencia uincunt.

Solertness overcomes Sluggishness, Serious Things Play,
Utility Damage, Study puts Idleness to flight, Sense
condemns Stupidity, and Silences conquer Trifles.

[307-353]

Non ultra retinens iras mentisque tumultus,
Impietas sese bellando predicat et se
Rixando loquitur, uerbis rixatur et ictu
Consummat rixas; probat ense quod ore fatetur.
Errat in errore Martis, bellique furore
Plus ferit, inque uia Martis fit deuia, legem
Bellandi sine lege tenens, sine federe fedus.
Dum minus in uulnus deseuit mucro, securim
Arripit, ut redimat gladii delicta securi.

No longer restraining angers and the mind’s tumults,
Impiety proclaims itself by warring and
speaks by brawling; with words it quarrels, and with a blow
it consummates the brawls; it proves with the sword what it confesses with the mouth.
It errs in the error of Mars, and by the fury of war
it strikes the more, and in the way of Mars it becomes devious, holding
a law of warring without law, a pact without a pact.
While the blade rages less upon the wound, the axe
it snatches up, so as to redeem by the axe the delicts of the sword.

Ergo uirum ferit et uires consumit in illo,
Sed iuuenis stat securus sub mole securis.
Assistens Pietas nec ferro militat, immo
Blandiciis precibusque cupit mollescere bellum.
Sed tamen imbre precum grauius succenditur ardor
Bellandi, donantque preces fomenta furori.

Therefore it strikes the man and spends its strength on him,
but the youth stands secure beneath the mass of the axe.
Attending Piety does not wage war with iron; rather
with blandishments and prayers she desires to soften the war.
But nevertheless, by a rain of prayers the ardor
of warring is more gravely inflamed, and prayers bestow fomentations to the fury.

Sed postquam nil blandicie, nil uerba fauoris,
Nil ualuere preces, Pietas mellita resignat
Verba, rapit ferrum, bellumque refellere bello
Incipit et ferrum ferro, fallitque securim
Obiectu clipei, uariosque reuerberat ictus.
Sed tandem uario deuicta labore, fatiscit
Impietas, cedens Marti, sine Marte subacta.
Que restat?

But after blandishments avail nothing, the words of favor nothing,
prayers avail nothing, Piety renounces honeyed
words, seizes the iron, and begins to refute war with war
and iron with iron, and she foils the axe
by the interposition of the shield, and reverberates various blows.
But at length Impiety, conquered by varied toil, gives way,
yielding to Mars, subdued without Mars. What remains?

Fraus sola; sibi solacia pugne
Querit et ad latebras ueteres fraudesque recurrit.
Degeneri pugna, seruili Marte, doloso
Insultu, belli furias mollitur in hostem;
Blandiciis, non blanda tamen, Fraus allicit illum.
Has ergo mouet illa preces et dulcibus afflat
Verbis et phaleris dictorum palliat artem:
"O iuuenis cui terra fauet, cui militat ether,
Cui Deus arridet, celum famulatur, et omnis
Applaudit mundus, et totus supplicat orbis,
Reliquiis belli, que uix et forte supersunt,
Parce nec in uitulos deseuiat ira leonis.

Fraud alone; for herself the solaces of the fight
she seeks and runs back to old hideouts and to frauds.
By a degenerate fight, by a servile Mars, with a guileful
onslaught, she contrives the furies of war against the enemy;
with blandishments—yet not bland—Fraud allures him.
These prayers, then, she sets in motion and with sweet
words she breathes, and with the trappings of sayings she cloaks her craft:
“O young man, for whom the earth favors, for whom the aether serves as soldier,
to whom God smiles, heaven does service, and all
the world applauds, and the whole orb supplicates,
to the remnants of the war, which scarcely and perchance remain,
spare, and let not the lion’s wrath rage against the calves.

Vincere cur uictos temptas? Cur bella mouere
Queris in imbelles? Satis est potuisse nec ultra
Nobilitas animi querit, nisi uincere posse".
Dum blandis precibus mentitur uerba precantis,
Euocat occulte gladium, maturius ensem
Nudat, et ingeminans ictus, ad uulnera ferrum
Inuitat; sed cassis ad hoc contendit, et ensem
Spernit, nec tali dignatur cedere ferro.

Why do you try to conquer the conquered? Why do you seek to set wars in motion
against the unwarlike? It is enough to have been able, and beyond this the nobility
of spirit seeks nothing, except to be able to conquer".
While with honeyed prayers she counterfeits the words of a suppliant,
she secretly calls forth the sword, all too quickly bares the blade,
and, redoubling blows, invites the iron to wounds; but the helmet
strives against this and spurns the sword, nor deigns to yield to such iron.

Econtra gerit arma Fides, Fraudisque reffellit
Insidias, nudatque dolos et furta reuelat.
Sed postquam nil posse dolos nec pallia fraudis
Fraus uidet, exit bella, fuge committitur, arma
Exuit et uite partem lucratur eundo.

On the contrary Faith bears arms, and refutes Fraud’s insidious plots,
and lays bare deceits and reveals thefts.
But after Fraud sees that tricks and the cloaks of fraud can do nothing,
she quits the wars, is committed to flight, casts off her arms,
and by going wins a portion of life.

[354-379]

Restat Auaricie strepitus, cui tota furoris
Incumbit rabies, tantique pericula Martis
Solus habet, solusque furit, se pluribus offert
Vnus et in solo spem desperado gignit.
Spicula, que multus argenti splendor inignit,
In iuuenem uibrat et ad instar grandinis instant
Tela, pluunt haste nubemque sagita figurat.
Ergo telorum siluam pluresque sagitas
Plantat in hostili clipeo uestitque sagitis
Pestis Auaricie, sed telum parcius intrat
Scutum nec clipeo sua spicula firmiter herent.

The clamor of Avarice remains, upon which the whole rabid fury bears down; he alone bears such great perils of war, and alone he rages, he offers himself to many, one man, and in being alone he begets hope by despairing.
Darts which the abundant splendor of silver kindles he hurls at the youth, and weapons press on in the likeness of hail;
spears rain down, and an arrow fashions a cloud.
Therefore he plants a forest of missiles and many arrows in the hostile shield, and the Plague of Avarice clothes it with arrows;
but the weapon enters the shield more sparingly, nor do his darts stick firmly in the shield.

Sed uirtus que dona pluit, que munera spargit,
Nec sepelit nummos, nec opes incarcerat arena,
Sed bene diuicias fundit sine spe redeundi,
Telorum nemus ense secat siluamque recidit.
Instat Auaricie, pugnat constanter et ensem,
Quam tenet illa, rapit, armis hostilibus illam
Vincit et in dominam cogit seuire sagitas.
Ergo uicta fugit, pugne stat sola superstes
Filia Fortune, sed eam Fortuna repellit
A bello, natamque monet ne bella mouere
Intestina uelit, ne rixam nata parenti
Misceat, aut pugnam moueat germana sorori.

But Virtue, which showers down gifts, which scatters gratuities,
neither buries coins, nor incarcerates wealth in sand,
but well pours out riches with no hope of returning,
she hews the grove of missiles with her sword and cuts back the forest.
She presses hard upon Avarice, fights steadfastly, and the sword
which that one holds she snatches; with hostile arms she
conquers her and compels the arrows to rage against their mistress.
Therefore, conquered, she flees; the daughter of Fortune stands the sole survivor
of the fight; but Fortune drives her back
from war, and warns her daughter not to move intestine wars,
lest the daughter mix quarrel for the parent, or move combat
as a sister against a sister.

Ergo consilio matris concordat et hostem
Deserit, ignorans cui iustius arma mouere
Posset: sic neutri cedens, famulatur utrique.

Therefore, she concurs with her mother’s counsel and abandons the enemy,
ignorant of whom she could more justly move arms against:
thus, yielding to neither, she serves both.

[380-409]

Iam scelerum superata cohors in regna silenter
Arma refert, et se uictam miratur, et illud
Quod patitur uix esse putat. Non creditur illi
Quod uidet, et Stigias fugit indignata sub umbras.
Pugna cadit, cedit iuueni Victoria, surgit
Virtus, succumbit Vicium, Natura triumphat,
Regnat Amor, nusquam Discordia, Fedus ubique.

Now the cohort of crimes, overcome, silently brings its arms back to the realms, and marvels that it is vanquished, and scarcely thinks that what it suffers is real. It does not credit what it sees, and, indignant, flees beneath the Stygian shades.
Battle falls, Victory yields to the youth, Virtue rises, Vice succumbs, Nature triumphs,
Love reigns, Discord nowhere, Pact everywhere.

Nam regnum mundi legum moderatur habenis
Ille beatus homo, quem non lasciuia frangit,
Non superat fastus, facinus non inquinat, urget
Luxurie stimulus, fraudis non inficit error.
In terris iam castra locant et regna merentur
Virtutes mundumque regunt, nec iam magis illis
Astra placent sedesque poli quam terrenus orbis.
Iam celo contendit humus, jam terra nitorem
Induit ethereum, jam terram uestit Olimpus.

For the kingdom of the world is moderated by the reins of laws
That blessed man, whom wantonness does not break,
pride does not overcome, crime does not pollute, nor
does the goad of Luxury urge, fraud’s error does not infect.
Already on earth they pitch camps and earn kingdoms
The Virtues rule the world, and no longer do the stars
and the seats of the sky please them more than the earthly orb.
Now the soil contends with heaven, now the earth puts on
ethereal splendor, now Olympus clothes the earth.

Nec iam corrigitur rastro, nec uomere campus
Leditur, aut curui deplorat uulnus aratri,
Vt tellus auido, quamuis inuita, colono
Pareat, et semen multo cum fenore reddat.
Non arbor cultrum querit, non uinea falcem,
Sed fructus dat sponte nouos et uota coloni
Fertilitate premit. Spes uincitur ubere fructu,
Gratis poma parit arbor, uitisque racemos,
Et sine se natas miratur pampinus uuas.

Nor now is the field set right by the rake, nor is it struck by the ploughshare,
or does it lament the wound of the curved plough,
so that the earth may obey the greedy, though unwilling, farmer,
and return the seed with much interest. No tree seeks the knife, no vineyard the sickle,
but of its own accord it gives new fruits and overwhelms the farmer’s vows
with fertility. Hope is vanquished by abundant fruit,
the tree bears fruits gratis, and the vine bears clusters,
and the vine-leaf marvels at grapes born without its aid.

E tunicis egressa suis rosa purpurat ortos,
Nec spinam matrem redolet, sed sponte creata
Pullulat, atque nouos sine semine prodit in ortus.
Sic flores alii rident uarioque colore
Depingit terram florum primeua iuuentus.

Gone forth from its own tunics, the rose purples the gardens,
nor does it redolently recall the thorn-mother, but, created of its own accord,
it sprouts, and without seed comes forth into new gardens.
Thus other flowers smile, and with variegated color
the primeval youth of flowers paints the earth.

[410-426]

O mihi continuo multo sudata labore
Pagina, cuius ad hoc minuit detractio famam,
Viue, nec antiquos temptes equare poetas,
Sed pocius ueterum uestigia semper adorans
Subsequere et lauris humiles submitte miricas.
Jam ratis, euadens Scillam monstrumque Caribdis,
Ad portum transquilla meat, jam littore gaudet
Nauita, iam metam cursor tenet, anchora portum.
Nauta tamen tremebundus adhuc post equoris estum
Terrenos timet insultus, ne tutus in undis
Naufragus in terra pereat, ne liuor in illum
Seuiat aut morsus detractio figat in illo
Qui iam scribendi studium pondusque laboris
Exhausit, proprio concludens fine laborem.

O page, much sweated with continual labor,
whose fame up to this point detraction has diminished,
live, and do not try to equal the ancient poets,
but rather, always adoring the vestiges of the ancients,
follow after, and set humble tamarisks beneath laurels.
Now the raft, escaping Scylla and the monster Charybdis,
goes toward harbor in tranquility; now the sailor rejoices at the shore,
now the runner holds the turning-post, the anchor the harbor.
Yet the sailor, still trembling after the swell of the sea,
fears earthly assaults, lest, safe on the waves,
as a shipwrecked man he perish on land; lest Envy against him
rage, or detraction fix its bite in him
who now has exhausted the zeal of writing and the weight of the labor,
bringing the toil to a close with its proper end.

Si tamen ad presens fundit sua murmura liuor,
Et famam delere cupit laudesque poete
Supplantare nouas, saltem post fata silebit.

If, however, for the present envy pours out its murmurs,
and longs to blot out the fame and to supplant the poet’s new lauds,
at least after death it will be silent.

Explicit Anticlaudianus Alani de Antirufino.

Here ends the Anticlaudianus of Alan on the Antirufinus.