Paulinus Nolensis: PAULINI NOLENSIS POEMATA

POEM ONE.
While Paulinus was still spending his life in the secular world, he sends birds to Gestidius.

PAULINUS to the lord, rightly to be looked up to, GESTIDIUS.

Injuria quidem est patrifamilias maritimis deliciis abundanti terrenum aliquid et agreste praebere; sed ego, ut et causa mihi esset apud unanimitatem tuam aliquid colloquendi, et aliquod sermoni huic obsequium viderer adjungere, pauculas de paucissimis, quas pueruli vespere inferunt, ficedulas misi: quarum cum erubescerem paucitatem, plura etiam versiculis verba subtexui, quasi vero numerum loquacitate facturus. Sed quia utraque culpabilia sunt, tu utrisque benigne ac familiariter ignoscendo facies, ut nec inhumana videatur paucitas, nec odiosa garrulitas.

It is indeed an injury to a paterfamilias abounding in maritime delicacies to offer something terrene and rustic; but I, both that I might have a cause for a bit of conversing with your unanimity, and that I might seem to add some obsequious service to this discourse, have sent a few of the very few fig-peckers which the little boys bring in at evening: and since I blushed at their paucity, I also interwove more words with little verses, as though in truth I were going to make up the number by loquacity. But since both are culpable, you, by kindly and familiar pardoning of both, will bring it about that neither the scantiness seem inhumane, nor the garrulity odious.

Sume igitur pastas dumoso in rure volucres,
Quas latitans silicis sub tegmine callidus auceps,
Dum simili mentitur aves fallitque susurro,
Agmina viscatis suspendit credula virgis.
Tunc referens tenuem non parvo munere praedam, 5
Digerit aucupium tabulis, et primus opimis
Ordo nitet sensim tenuatus ad ima tabellae,
Ut minus offendat macies; praelata saginae
Gratia praeventos pingui juvat alite visus.

So then take the birds pastured in the thorn-bushy countryside,
which, hiding beneath the cover of the rock, the cunning bird-catcher,
while he counterfeits the birds and beguiles with a susurrus,
hangs, the trusting ranks, upon bird-limed rods.
Then, bringing back the slight prey as no small gift, 5
he arranges the fowling on boards, and with fat ones
the first rank gleams, gradually thinned toward the bottom of the little board,
so that leanness may offend less; charm, preferred to overfeeding,
pleases the eyes, pre-possessed by a plump bird.

POEMA II.
In seculo adhuc agens eidem Gestidio mittit ostrea.

POEM 2.
While still living in the saeculum, he sends oysters to that same Gestidius.

Pauperis ut placeat carum tibi munus amici,
Munera ne reputes, quae mittis ditia nobis.
Nam tibi quid dignum referam pro piscibus illis,
Quos tibi vicinum locupleti gurgite littus
Suppeditat, mira specie formaque diremptos. 5
At mihi vix alto vada per saxosa profundo
Rarus in obscura generatur sphondylus alga.
Hinc te participans, bis quinque et bis tibi ternas
Transmisi aequoreo redolentes nectare testas,
Quas viscus praedulce replet bicolore medulla. 10
Oro libens sumas; nec vilia dedigneris,
Quae sunt parva modo, magno metitus amore.

So that the dear gift of a poor friend may please you,
do not reckon the rich gifts which you send to us.
For what worthy thing can I return to you for those fish,
which the neighboring shore, with its opulent surge,
supplies to you, set apart by marvelous appearance and form? 5
But for me, scarcely in the deep, through rocky shallows,
is a rare spondylus (spiny oyster) generated in dark seaweed.
Hence, sharing with you, twice five and twice three
shells redolent of sea-born nectar I have sent to you,
which a very-sweet flesh fills with bi-colored marrow. 10
I beg you to take them gladly; nor disdain cheap things,
which are only small, measured by great love.

POEMATIS III FRAGMENTUM.
De regibus ex Suetonio collectis.

FRAGMENT OF POEM 3.
On kings collected from Suetonius.

Europamque, Asiamque duo vel maxima terrae
Membra, quibus Libyam dubie Sallustius addit
Europae adjunctam, possit cum tertia dici,
Regnatas multis, quos fama oblitterat, et quos
Barbara Romanae non tradunt nomina linguae, 5
Illibanum, Numidamque Avelim, Parthumque Vononem,
Et Caranum, Pellaea dedit qui nomina Regum,
Quique mages docuit mysteria vana Nechepsus;
Et qui regnavit sine nomine mox Sesoostris.
................................................ 10
Audax Icario qui fecit nomina ponto,
Et qui Chalcidicas moderate enavit ad arces.

Europe and Asia, the two even greatest members of the earth,
to which Sallust doubtfully adds Libya, joined to Europe,
which could be called as a third, ruled by many, whom fame effaces, and those
whose barbarian names the Roman tongue does not hand down—
Illibanus, and Avelis the Numidian, and Vonones the Parthian, 5
and Caranus, who gave the Pellaean names of kings,
and Nechepsus, who taught the mages vain mysteries;
and he who reigned without a name, soon Sesostris.
................................................ 10
the bold one who made a name upon the Icarian sea,
and he who with measured course sailed to the Chalcidic citadels.

POEMA IV.
AD DEUM MATUTINA PRECATIO.
Paulo post suam a seculo conversionem hac in oratione honestos mores
a Deo postulat, ac felicem sibi et suis deprecatur posteritatem.

POEM 4.
A MORNING PRAYER TO GOD.
A little after his conversion from the world, in this prayer he asks from God honorable morals,
and he beseeches a happy posterity for himself and his own.

Omnipotens Genitor rerum, cui summa potestas,
Exaudi si justa precor, ne sit mihi tristis
Ulla dies, placidam nox rumpat nulla quietem.
Nec placeant aliena mihi, quin et mea prosint
Supplicibus, nullusque habeat mihi vota nocendi. 5
Aut habeat nocitura mihi. Male velle facultas
Nulla sit, ac bene posse adsit tranquilla potestas.

Almighty Begetter of things, to whom is the highest power,
Hear, if I pray what is just, let no day be sad for me,
and let no night break my placid quiet.
Nor let another’s things please me; rather let even my own be of use
to suppliants, and let no one have against me vows of harming. 5
Or let there be anything that will harm me. The faculty of wishing ill
let there be none, and let a tranquil power to be able to do good be present.

Mens contenta suo, nec turpi dedita lucro,
Vincat corporeas casto bene conscia lecto
Illecebras; turpesque jocos, obscenaque dicta 10
Oderit illa nocens, et multum grata malignis
Auribus effuso semper rea lingua veneno.
Non obitu affligar cujusquam aut funere crescamus.
Invideam nunquam cuiquam, nec mentiar umquam
Adsit laeta domus, epulis alludat inemptis 15

A mind content with its own, and not devoted to base lucre,
let it conquer corporeal allurements, well-conscient of a chaste bed,
the enticements; and let it hate foul jests and obscene sayings, 10
that noxious thing, much pleasing to malign ears—
the tongue ever guilty, with poison poured out.
Let me not be afflicted by anyone’s decease, nor let us grow by a funeral.
May I never envy anyone, nor ever lie;
let a joyful house be present, let it sport with unbought banquets. 15

Verna satur, fidusque comes, nitidusque minister,
Morigera et conjux, caraque ex conjuge nati.
Moribus haec castis tribuat Deus, hi tibi mores
Perpetuam spondent ventura in secula vitam.

A sated house-born servant, and a faithful companion, and a neat minister,
and a dutiful spouse, and dear children born from the spouse.
May God grant these things with chaste morals, these morals to you
pledge perpetual life in the ages to come.

POEMA V.
AD DEUM ALIA PRECATIO.
Varia Dei attributa enumerat, et gratiam a Deo precatur
qua peccata vitet, ut Dei judicio securus occurrat.

POEM 5.
TO GOD, ANOTHER PRAYER.
He enumerates the various attributes of God, and prays for grace from God
by which he may avoid sins, so that he may meet God’s judgment secure.

Omnipotens quem mente colo, Pater unice rerum,
Ignorate malis, et nulli ignote piorum;
Principio extremoque carens, antiquior aevo,
Quod fuit aut veniet: cujus formamque modumque
Nec mens complecti poterit, nec lingua profari:               5
Cernere quem solus, coramque audire jubentem
Fas habet, et patriam propter considere dextram,
Ipse opifex rerum, rebus causa ipse creandis;
Ipse Dei Verbum, Verbum Deus anticipator
Mundi, quem facturus erat: generatus in illo               10
Tempore quo tempus nondum fuit: editus ante
Quam jubar et rutilus coelum illustravit Eous:
Quo sine nil actum, per quem facta omnia, cujus
In coelo solium, cui subdita terra sedenti,
Et mare, et obscurae chaos insuperabile noctis,               15

Almighty, whom I adore in mind, only Father of things,
unknown to the wicked, and to none of the pious unknown;
lacking beginning and end, more ancient than the age
that was or will come; whose form and measure
neither mind could embrace, nor tongue declare:               5
who alone has leave to behold him, and to hear him, face to face, as he bids,
and to sit beside the paternal right hand,
he himself the Artificer of things, himself the cause for things to be created;
he himself the Word of God, the Word God, anticipator
of the world which he was about to make; begotten in that               10
time when time was not yet; brought forth before
the beam and the ruddy Eous illuminated the sky:
without whom nothing has been done, through whom all things were made, whose
in heaven is the throne, to whom the earth, as he sits, is subject,
and the sea, and the insuperable chaos of obscure night,               15

Irrequies cuncta ipse movens, vegetator inertum;
Non genito ex Genitore Deus, qui fraude superbi
Offensus populi gentes in regna vocavit:
Stirpis adoptivae meliore propage colendus.
Cernere quem licuit proavis: quo Numine viso, 20
Et Patrem vidisse datum, contagia nostra
Qui tulit, et diri passus ludibria lethi,
Esse iter aeternae docuit remeabile vitae.
Nec solam remeare animam, sed corpore toto
Coelestes intrare plagas, et inane sepulcri 25
Arcanum vacuis adopertum linquere terris.

the Unresting One, himself moving all things, the animator of the inert;
God, not begotten from a Begetter, who, offended at the fraud of the proud people,
called the nations into his kingdom:
to be worshiped by the better progeny of an adoptive stock.
whom it was permitted our forefathers to behold; by whose Numen seen, 20
it was granted to have seen the Father, who bore our contagions,
and endured the mockeries of dread death,
taught that there is a remeable path to eternal life.
and that not the soul alone returns, but with the whole body
to enter the celestial regions, and the void of the sepulcher 25
the hidden mystery veiled, to leave to the empty earth.

Nate Patris summi, nostroque salutifer aevo:
Virtutes patrias Genitor cui tradidit omnes,
Nil ex invidia retinens, plenusque datorum,
Pande viam precibus, patriasque haec perfer ad aures. 30

O Son of the highest Father, and salvation-bringing to our age:
to whom the Begetter has handed over all the paternal virtues,
retaining nothing out of envy, and full of gifts,
open the way for prayers, and bear these to the paternal ears. 30

Da Pater invictam contra omnia crimina mentem
Vipereumque nefas nocituri averte veneni:
Sit satis, antiquam serpens quod perdidit Evam,
Deceptumque adjunxit Adam. Nos sera nepotum
Semina, veridicis aetas praedicta prophetis               35
Vitemus laqueos, quos letifer implicat anguis.
Pande viam, qua me post vincula corporis aegri
In sublime feram: puri qua lactea coeli
Semita ventosae superat vaga lumina lunae:
Qua proceres abiere pii, quaque integer olim               40
Raptus quadrijugo penetrat super aethera curru
Elias, et solido cum corpore praevius Enoch.
Da, Pater, aeterni speratam luminis auram,
Si lapides non juro deos, unumque verendi
Suspiciens altare sacri, libamina vitae               45

Grant, Father, a mind unconquered against all crimes,
and avert the viperine nefas of noxious venom about to harm:
let it suffice that the serpent ruined ancient Eve,
and attached deceived Adam. We, the late-born seed of descendants,
an age foretold by truth-telling prophets,               35
let us avoid the snares which the death-bearing serpent entwines.
Unfold the way, by which, after the bonds of the ailing body,
I may bear myself on high: where the milky path of pure heaven
surpasses the wandering lights of the windy moon:
where the pious nobles have gone, and where once, intact,
Elijah, snatched up, penetrates beyond the upper aether in a four-yoked chariot,               40
and Enoch, as forerunner, with solid body.
Grant, Father, the hoped-for breath of eternal light,
if I do not swear that stones are gods, and, looking up
to the one altar of the awe-inspiring sacred rite, the libations of life               45

Intemerata fero: si te Dominique Deique
Unigeni cognosco Patrem, mixtumque duobus
Qui super aequoreas volitabat Spiritus undas.
Da, Genitor, veniam, cruciataque pectora purga,
Si te non pecudum fibris, non sanguine fuso               50
Quaero: nec arcanis numen conjecto sub extis.
Si scelere abstineo, errori ipse obnoxius: et si
Opto magis, quam fido, bonus purusque probari,
Confessam dignare animam: si membra caduca
Exsecror, et tacitum si poenitet, altaque sensus               55
Formido excruciat, tormentaque sera gehennae
Anticipat, patiturque suos mens saucia manes.
Da, Pater, haec nostro fieri rata vota precatu:
Nil metuam, cupiamque nihil: satis hoc rear esse,
Quod satis est: nil turpe velim, nec causa pudoris               60

I bring the undefiled: if I recognize you as the Father of the Lord and God, the Only-begotten,
and the Spirit, mingled with the two, who was flying above the oceanic waves.
Grant, Begetter, pardon, and purge tortured hearts,
if I seek you not by the fibers of cattle, not by poured-out blood,               50
nor do I conjecture the numen under arcane entrails.
If I abstain from crime, I myself obnoxious to error: and if
I wish rather than trust to be approved as good and pure,
deign the confessed soul: if I execrate caducous limbs,
and if there is a silent repentance, and lofty dread excruciates my feelings,               55
and anticipates the late torments of Gehenna, and the wounded mind suffers its own manes.
Grant, Father, that these vows become ratified by our prayer:
that I may fear nothing, and desire nothing: let me reckon this to be enough,
which is enough: may I will nothing base, nor a cause of shame.               60

Sim mihi: nec faciam cuiquam, quae tempore eodem
Nolim facta mihi: nec vero crimine laedar,
Nec maculer dubio: paulum distare videtur
Suspectus, vereque reus. Male posse facultas
Nulla sit, et bene posse adsit tranquilla potestas. 65
Sim tenui victu atque habitu, sim carus amicis:
Et semper genitor sine vulnere nominis hujus.
Non animo doleam, non corpore, cuncta quietis
Fungantur membra officiis: nec saucius ullis
Partibus amissum quidquam desideret usus. 70
Pace fruar, securus agam, miracula terrae
Nulla putem: suprema mihi cum venerit hora,
Nec timeat mortem bene conscia vita, nec optet.

May it be mine: and may I not do to anyone what at the same time I would not wish done to me: nor indeed be hurt by a charge, nor be stained by a doubtful one: the suspected and the truly guilty seem to differ but a little. Let there be no faculty of being able to do ill, and let a tranquil power of being able to do well be present. 65
Let me be with frugal victual and habit, let me be dear to friends: and ever a father without a wound to this name.
Let me not suffer in mind, nor in body; let all my limbs perform the offices of quiet: nor, though wounded in any parts, let use desire anything that is lost. 70
Let me enjoy peace, let me live secure; let me reckon the miracles of the earth as nothing: when the final hour has come for me, let a life of good conscience neither fear death nor desire it.

Purus ab occultis cum te indulgente videbor,
Omnia despiciam, fuerit cum sola voluptas 75

Pure from occult things, when, with you indulgent, I shall be seen,
I will despise all things, when pleasure alone shall have been 75

Judiciuin sperare tuum: quod dum sua differt
Tempora, cunctaturque dies, procul exige saevum
Insidiatorem blandis erroribus anguem.
Haec pia, sed maesto trepidantia vota reatu,
Christe apud aeternum placabilis assere Patrem, 80
Salvator, Deus ac Dominus, mens, gloria, Verbum,
Filius, et vero verum de lumine lumen,
Aeterno cum Patre manens, in secula regnans;
Consona quem celebrat modulato carmine plebes,
Et responsuris ferit aera vocibus: Amen. 85

To hope for your Judgment: which while it defers its times,
and the day hesitates, drive far away the savage
ambusher, the serpent with flattering errors.
These pious, yet trembling vows with a gloomy guilt,
O Christ, being placable, assert them with the eternal Father, 80
Savior, God and Lord, mind, glory, Word,
Son, and true Light from true Light,
abiding with the eternal Father, reigning unto the ages;
whom the people celebrate with consonant, modulated song,
and strike the air with responsive voices: Amen. 85

POEMA VI.
(De S. Johanne Baptista Christi Praecursore.)

POEM 6.
(On St. John the Baptist, the Precursor of Christ.)

Summe Pater rerum, coelique aeterna potestas,
Cum quo nostra salus, sanctorum gloria Christe,
Spiritus et Patri pariter Natoque cohaerens,
Qui mentes linguasque regis, viresque ministras,
Promeruit quas sola fides: cui plena potestas,               5
Brutis ingenium, vocemque infundere mutis,
Praesta Evangelico ductum de fonte Johannem,
In nostra arenti decurrere carmina rivo.
Ille quidem tantus, quantum potuit dare mundo,
               10 Qui nasci talem nova per miracula jussit:
Sed licitum magnis tenues impendere curas,
Nec dedignantur vilem coelestia laudem:
Pars etiam meriti, meritum celebrare piorum:
Nec nova nunc, aut nostra canam: dixere prophetae
Cuncta prius, sanctique viri sermone soluto               15
Promissum exortum, vitam mortemque sacrarunt:
Si mors illa fuit, meruit quae sanguine coelum.
Nos tantum modulis evolvere dicta canoris
Vovimus, et versu mentes laxare legentum:
Sic (nam magna licet parvis, antiqua novellis,
Perfecta indoctis conferre, aeterna caducis)               20

Supreme Father of things, and the eternal power of heaven,
with whom is our salvation, the glory of the saints, O Christ,
and the Spirit cohering equally with the Father and the Begotten,
who rule minds and tongues, and minister powers,
which sole faith has merited: to whom full power belongs,               5
to infuse ingenuity into the brutes, and voice into the mute,
Grant John, drawn from the Evangelic font,
to run down into our songs in a parched brook.
He indeed is so great, as much as He could give to the world,
               10 who ordered such a one to be born by new miracles:
But it is licit to expend slender cares upon the great,
nor do the celestial things disdain lowly praise:
It is even a part of merit, to celebrate the merit of the pious:
Nor shall I sing things new, or ours: the prophets have said
all things before, and the holy men, with discourse unbound,               15
the Promise arisen; they consecrated life and death:
if that was death, which by blood merited heaven.
We only have vowed to unroll the sayings with tuneful measures
and to loosen the minds of readers by verse:
Thus (for it is permitted to compare great things with small things, ancient with novel things,
to bring together perfect things with the unlearned, eternal with the caducous)               20

Inspirante Deo quidquid dixere priores,
Aptavit citharis nomen venerabile David,
Consona coelesti pangens modulamina plectro:
Nos quoque fas meminisse Dei, quamquam obsita multis
Pectora criminibus coelestem admittere sensum.               25
Zacharias Syria quondam de gente sacerdos,
Credita solemni curabat templa paratu.
Vita viri, pietate, fide, gravitate, pudore,
Obsequio condigna Dei conjux huic alma
Elisabeth prisca sanctorum stirpe virorum               30
Progenita, et tanto virtutibus aequa marito.
Sed (quod in opprobrio matrum posuere priores
Prole carens, sterilem ducebat maesta senectam
Spemque omnem sobolis transacta excluserat aetas,
Forte sacrum sollenne Deo plebs cuncta ferebat,               35

With God inspiring, whatever the elders said,
David fitted to the lyres the venerable Name,
composing consonant modulations with a celestial plectrum:
for us too it is right to remember God, although our breasts,
overgrown with many crimes, admit a heavenly sense.               25
Zechariah, once a priest from the Syrian race,
was tending the temple entrusted with solemn array.
The life of the man—in piety, fidelity, gravity, modesty,
and obedience—was worthy of God; to him a kindly spouse,
Elizabeth, begotten from the ancient stock of holy men,               30
and equal to so great a husband in virtues.
But (that which the elders placed in the opprobrium of mothers),
lacking progeny, she led a sad, sterile senescence,
and the time, having passed, had excluded every hope of offspring,
when by chance the whole plebs was offering a solemn sacrifice to God.               35

Et plus antistes sacros adoleverat ignes,
Intima divinis decorans altaria flammis:
Ecce sacram propter coelestis nuntius aram
Adstitit, ac veste insignis, venerabilis ore,
Se coelo missum vultuque habituque probavit, 40
Tum sancta in tales laxavit pectora voces.
Accipe, coelesti Domino dilecte sacerdos,
Aeterni mandata Dei, cui cura piorum
Perpetua est, jugis qui puro in pectore custos
Emeritum sanctis impendere scivit amorem. 45
Ac primum: genus hic exstincto semine non vult
Interiisse tuum, fecundaque viscera fecit
Conjugis, effeto quae jam cessabat in aevo.
Cur tamen addubitas, mortali tu quoque sensu,
Omnia posse Deum?

And moreover the priest had kindled the sacred fires,
adorning the inmost altars with divine flames:
behold, beside the holy altar a heavenly messenger
stood by, and, distinguished in vesture, venerable in countenance,
he proved himself sent from heaven by face and bearing, 40
then he loosed from his holy breast voices of this sort.
Receive, O priest beloved by the celestial Lord,
the mandates of the Eternal God, whose care of the pious
is perpetual, who, as a continual guardian in the pure breast,
has known to expend a deserved love upon the saints. 45
And first: he does not will that your lineage, with seed extinguished, should have perished here,
and he has made the womb of your spouse fruitful,
she who already had ceased in a worn-out age.
Why, however, do you doubt, you too with mortal sense,
that God is able to do all things?

sed credes, ille probabit. 50

but you will believe, he will prove it. 50

Nascetur dignus tanto sponsore beatus,
Perpetuusque puer, qui primo protinus aevo
Te major, sacras invicto in pectore vires
Autoris dono plus quam genitoris habebit.
Nec sane, nato quae prima vocabula ponas, 55
Arbitrii jurisque tui est: Deus ipse profecto,
Qui nasci jubet, hunc idem jubet esse Johannem.
Nominis hic titulus, meritorum immensa propago,
Quae necdum genito potuit praenoscere solus,
Qui dabit, et tanto tribuet tibi gaudia nato: 60
Nec vero tribuet tantum tibi, gloria parva est
Intra unam conclusa domum; sed quantus ab ortu
Tenditur in serae finita crepuscula lucis,
Totus prole tua tecum laetabitur orbis.

A blessed one, worthy of so great a sponsor, will be born,
and an enduring boy, who straightway from his earliest age
greater than you, will have sacred powers in an unconquered breast,
by the gift of the Author he will have more than of the begetter.
Nor indeed, what first names you should set upon the newborn, 55
is of your arbitration and right: God himself indeed,
who bids him be born, bids this same one to be John.
This title of the name, an immense propagation of merits,
which, with him not yet begotten, he alone could foreknow,
he who will give, and will bestow upon you joys for so great a son: 60
Nor indeed will he bestow only upon you; the glory is small
enclosed within a single house; but as far as from the rising
it extends into the bounded twilights of late light,
the whole world will rejoice with you at your progeny.

Quid mirum? cuncta vitiorum faece carebit, 65

What wonder? he will be free from all the dregs of vices, 65

Coelestem ducens sine labe et crimine vitam,
Vesano servans abstemia pectora vino,
Omniaque evitans malesuadi pocula succi.
Cumque hominum generi vel post errata salutem
Spondeat, ab sancta quisquis renovabitur unda,               70
Ipse in se nihilum, quo purificetur, habebit.
Ac ne plura tibi variis ambagibus edam,
Eliae meritum doctus nescire sacerdos
Non potes, exosae qui mortis lege remissa,
Aeternam degit proprio cum corpore vitam,               75
Igneus excelsum quem vexit ad aethera currus,
Flammantum rapido nisu glomeratus equorum:
Hunc tuus aequabit meritorum stemmate natus,
Tantumdem et laudis simul et virtutis habebit.               80

Leading a celestial life without stain and crime,
keeping his breast abstemious from mad wine,
and shunning all cups of ill-persuading juice.
And since to the human race he pledges salvation even after errors,
whoever shall be renewed by the holy wave,               70
he himself will have nothing in himself by which he may be purified.
And lest I tell more to you with various circumlocutions,
learned priest, you cannot be ignorant of Elijah’s merit,
who, the law of hateful death remitted,
spends eternal life with his own body,               75
whom a fiery chariot carried to the lofty aether,
massed by the swift endeavor of flaming horses:
him your son will equal in the pedigree of merits,
and he will have just as much both of praise and of virtue.               80

Ergo ad condignas tanto pro munere grates,
Ne dubiam suspende fidem, ne mota faventis
Ira Dei meritam statuat post praemia poenam.
Haec ait, et tenues elabitur ales in auras,
Fragrantemque sacro procul aera fundit odore.               85
Diriguit trepida confusus mente sacerdos,
Ac dum promissum cunctantia corda volutant,
Dum se diffidit tantum meruisse favorem,
Ut summi sit cura Dei, dimissus ut alto
Nuntius e coelo, famulo tam clara referret               90
A Domino mandata suo, ludique veretur,
Somniaque illa putat, mores dum parcius aequo
Aestimat ipse suos, nec se meruisse fatetur:
Infidum facit ipsa fides, dum credere dignum
Se non vult, poenas incredulitate meretur.               95
Protinus adstricta est dubitanti lingua palato,
Et motus oblita sui, molitaque vocis,
Articulare sonum, pigro torpore cohaesit.
Dumque cupit narrare suae miracula plebi,
Conatus frustra, defixo obmutuit ore.               100

Therefore, to condign thanks for so great a gift,
do not suspend your faith in doubt; let not the moved ire
of a favoring God set a merited punishment after the rewards.
He said these things, and the winged one slips into the thin airs,
and from afar he pours the air fragrant with sacred odor.               85
The priest stiffened, with a tremulous and confounded mind,
and while his hesitating heart turns over the promise,
while he diffides that he has deserved so great a favor—
that it should be a care of the highest God, that a Messenger sent from on high
from heaven should report to the servant so clear commands from his Lord—he fears a mockery,               90
and thinks those things dreams, while he himself, more sparingly than is fair,
estimates his own character, nor does he confess he has deserved it:
faith itself makes him faithless, while he is unwilling to believe
himself worthy; by incredulity he merits penalties.               95
Straightway the tongue of the doubter was bound to his palate,
and, forgetful of its motion, and having essayed a voice
to articulate sound, it clung in sluggish torpor.
And while he longs to recount the miracles to his people,
his efforts in vain, he fell mute with mouth fixed.               100

Maestus abit, versatque inclusa mente dolorem,
Et veniam erratis arcano in corde precatur.
Quanta Dei pietas! quamque exorabile Numen!

He goes away sorrowful, and he turns over the grief in his enclosed mind,
And he prays for pardon for his errors in his secret heart.
How great the piety of God! and how exorable the Numen!

Poenituisse sat est. Rata qui dat, temporis ordo
Volvitur, et gravida (mirum) distenditur alvo               105
Elisabeth, sanctumque gerunt pia viscera pondus,
Et venit effeto munus juvenile sub aevo.
Inde aliud, sanctus Gabriel, qui nuntius idem
Zachariae fuerat, multo majora volutans,
Ad Mariam molitur iter, quae sponsa marito,               110
Sed mage lecta Deo, mundi paritura salutem,
Virgo illibatum servabat casta pudorem:
Cui postquam insignis coelesti forma decore
Constitit ante oculos, vultus demissa pudicos,
Tinxit suffuso rutilantes sanguine malas.               115

It is enough to have repented. The order of time, which gives what is ratified,
rolls on, and Elizabeth is stretched with a pregnant womb (a wonder),               105
and her pious viscera bear the holy burden,
and to an effete age there comes a juvenile gift.
Then another thing: holy Gabriel, who had been the same messenger
to Zechariah, pondering much greater matters,
sets about a journey to Mary, who is a bride to a husband,               110
but more chosen by God, about to bring forth the salvation of the world,
the chaste Virgin was keeping her unsullied modesty:
after he, distinguished in celestial form and grace,
stood before her eyes, she lowered her modest looks,
and tinged her cheeks, glowing, with suffused blood.               115

Ille ait: O toto quem solis circulus ambit,
Quaeque fuere prius, quae sunt quae deinde sequentur
Virginibus cunctis felicior orbe puella,
Magno lecta Deo, mater dicaris ut ejus,
Cujus et ille pater! Felix age concipe pondus,               120
Impolluta viro, coituque immunis ab omni,
Verbo feta Dei: corpus tua viscera praestent
Illi, qui coelum, terras, mare, sidera fecit:
Qui semper fuit, et nunc est et tempore in omni
Semper erit: mundi Dominus, lucisque creator,               125
Et lux ipse poli per te mortalia membra
Induet; atque oculos hominum, coetusque subibit.
Imperturbatos tantarum in praemia laudum
Tolle animos, dabit ille tibi viresque, fidemque,
Qui voluit (nam cuncta regit, nutuque gubernat)               130
Filius esse tuus, Domini cum Filius esset.

He said: O you whom the circle of the sun encompasses in its whole circuit,
and what things were before, what are, and what thereafter will follow—
a maiden more fortunate than all virgins in the world,
chosen by the great God, that you may be called the mother of him
of whom he too is Father! Happy one, come, conceive the burden,               120
unstained by man, and immune from every coitus,
pregnant by the Word of God: let your womb provide a body
for him who made heaven, lands, sea, and the stars:
who always was, and now is, and in every time
will always be: the Lord of the world, and the creator of light,               125
and Light itself of the sky will through you put on mortal limbs,
and will come beneath the eyes of men and enter their assemblies.
Lift, untroubled, your spirit to the prizes of such praises;
he will give to you both strength and faith,
he who willed (for he rules all things, and governs by his nod)               130
to be your Son, though he was the Son of the Lord.

Dixerat, et visus pariter terrasque reliquit,
Assuetumque sibi facili petit aethera nisu.
Implentur praecepta Dei, creditque puella
Protinus, atque auget meritum vitamque priorem 135

He had spoken, and alike departed from sight and from the lands,
and he seeks the aether accustomed to him with effortless striving.
The precepts of God are fulfilled, and the maiden believes
forthwith, and increases her merit and her prior life 135

Prompta fides: tacitis elementa latentia causis
Divinum informant corpus, sacrandaque crescit
Sarcina: coelestem Dominum pia confovet alvus.
Interea gravidam soboles, quamquam edita necdum,
Instigat Mariam sanctam, ut progressa revisat 140
Elisabeth, longo quae jam venerabilis aevo,
Dilectum Domino puerum paritura gerebat.
Auscultat nato genitrix, vis tanta fidei,
Et quo jussa venit: movit materna Johannes
Viscera, et implevit divino pectora sensu. 145
Jam vates, necdum genitus, conclusus in alvo,
Jamque propheta prius gesta et ventura videbat.

Ready faith: by silent causes the hidden elements inform the divine body, and the burden to be consecrated grows; the pious womb cherishes the celestial Lord.
Meanwhile the offspring, although not yet brought forth, instigates holy Mary to go forth to revisit 140
Elizabeth, venerable now with long age, who, being about to give birth, was carrying a boy beloved to the Lord.
The genitrix hearkens to her son—so great is the force of faith—and she comes where she was bidden: John moved the maternal womb, and filled the hearts with divine feeling. 145
Already a seer, not yet begotten, enclosed in the womb, and already as a prophet he was seeing things done and things to come.

Illa ubi concepto fulgentem lumine longe
Conspexit Mariam, celeri procul incita gressu
Obvia progreditur, venerataque brachia tendens, 150

She, when she from afar beheld Mary gleaming with conceived light,
spurred with swift step, while still at a distance, goes forward to meet her,
and, stretching out her arms in veneration, 150

Salve, o mater, ait, Domini, salve pia virgo,
Immunis thalami, coitusque ignara virilis,
Sed paritura Deum: tanti fuit esse pudicam,
Intactae ut ferres titulos, et praemia nuptae.
Cur mihi non meritae, nec tanto munere dignae 155
Officii defertur honos? Cur gloria coeli,
In nostros delata Lares et vilia tecta,
Obscuris tantum lumen penetralibus infert?

Hail, O mother of the Lord, she says, hail pious virgin,
untouched by the bridal chamber, and unknowing of virile coitus,
but about to bear God: of such worth it was to be chaste,
that you might bear the titles of the untouched, and the prizes of a bride.
Why to me, undeserving and not worthy of so great a gift 155
Is the honor of the office delivered? Why does the glory of heaven,
brought down to our household Lares and humble roofs,
bring only light into our obscure inner chambers?

Sed mitis placidusque suis cultoribus adsit,
Praestet et hunc genitus, quem praestitit ante favorem. 160
Dixit, et amplexus ulnis circumdata junxit,
Jamque Deum venerata, pio dedit oscula ventri.
Dic age nunc, Judaea nocens, et sanguine regis
Commaculata tui, verbis si nulla priorum
Est adhibenda fides, sacros si fallere vates 165

But let him be gentle and placid to his worshipers,
and let the Begotten also grant this favor which he granted before. 160
She spoke, and, surrounded with arms, she joined embraces,
and now, having venerated God, she gave pious kisses to the womb.
Come now, say, guilty Judea, and with the blood of your king
all-over stained, if to the words of the former ones no
faith is to be applied, if it is permitted to deceive the sacred prophets 165

Creditis, et Mosen ipsum, si fallere David
Impia perversae putat inclementia gentis,
Credite non genitis: materna clausus in alvo
Quid videat, sancto matris docet ore Johannes.
Quis precor hunc docuit, quem casto viscere virgo 170
Contineat, quantus maneat nova secula partus?
Sed sanctis abstrusa patent, nec visa profanis.

Do you believe—even Moses himself—if the impious inclementness of the perverse nation thinks David to be deceiving?
Believe the unborn: shut within his mother’s womb,
what he sees John teaches by the holy mouth of his mother.
Who, I pray, taught this one, whom a virgin holds in her chaste womb, 170
how great a birth awaits the new ages?
But things hidden lie open to the holy, nor are they seen by the profane.

Verum egressa modum latos petit orbita campos,
Atque oblita mei procurrere longius audet.
Spero, erit ut possim firmato robore quondam 175
Hoc quoque per spatium fores agitare quadrigas.
Nunc coeptum repetamus iter: mortalia dicat
Pagina mortalis: Dominum divina loquantur.

But, having gone beyond the measure, the orbit seeks broad fields,
and, forgetful of me, it dares to run farther.
I hope that there will be a time when, with strength made firm, 175
I too may drive the four-horse chariot through this course, even from the gates.
Now let us resume the journey begun: let a mortal page speak mortal things;
let divine things speak of the Lord.

Jamque adeo exacto, quantum natura jubebat,
Tempore, matura puer inclytus editur alvo, 180

And now indeed, with the time completed as much as nature commanded,
the illustrious boy is brought forth from the mature womb, 180

Et promissa Dei magna non credita poena
Implet certa fides, et natus comprobat infans.
Conveniunt contingentes de more propinqui,
Ut puer veterum de nomine ducta parentum
Aptent collatis quaesita vocabula causis: 185
Sed negat arbitrium cognatis esse relictum,
Coelestis jussi per natum conscia mater.
Ergo placet dudum praeclusa voce silentem
Consuluisse patrem, promendi sola facultas
Indicii, quod lingua nequit, si littera signat. 190
Consulitur, sumit tabulas, scribitque Johannem.

And that the great promises of God, when not believed, are fulfilled by a penalty—
it is a sure proof, and the newborn infant confirms it.
The neighboring kinsmen assemble according to custom,
that for the boy they may fit appellations sought out, drawn from the name of the ancient parents,
with reasons collated: 185
But the mother, conscious through the son of the heavenly command, denies that the decision has been left to the relatives.
Therefore it pleases that the father, long silent with his voice shut, be consulted; the only faculty
for bringing forth an indication—what the tongue cannot—if a letter marks it. 190
He is consulted, he takes the tablets, and writes “John.”

Mirantur cuncti, nullumque habuisse priorum
Praescriptum nomen recolunt de stirpe parentum.
Quantum sera fides valuit! Quia dextra notavit
Quod mens crediderat, peccati poena remissa est. 195

All marvel, and they recollect that none of the former
had had a prescribed name from the stock of the parents.
How greatly belated faith availed! Because the right hand marked
what the mind had believed, the penalty of sin was remitted. 195

Solvuntur vinctae laxata repagula linguae.
Respondet jam voce senex, proditque propinquis,
Tecta diu mandata Dei, spondetque futura,
Dum transacta probat. Talem fore quis dubitaret,
Quem Domini jussis, naturae lege remissa, 200
Insolito exortu nasci potuisse videret?

The fastenings of the bound tongue are unloosed, the bars relaxed.
Now the old man answers with his voice, and brings forth to his kinsmen
the mandates of God long concealed, and he pledges the things to come,
while he proves the things already transacted. Who would doubt that he would be such a one,
whom, at the Lord’s commands, the law of nature remitted, 200
could have been seen to be able to be born by an unusual origin?

Exemplum cunctis celebrandum incredulitatis
Ante oculos cunctis posuit, vel poena parentis,
Vel venia: atque animis instat simul hinc metus, hinc spes.
Labitur interea cunarum tempus: in ipsis 205
Exstat divini species manifesta vigoris.
Blanditiae, risusque silent, incertaque cessant
Murmura: serietas lascivi praevia sensus,
Jam tenera informat venturis moribus ora.

An example of incredulity to be celebrated by all
he set before the eyes of all, whether by the punishment of the parent,
or by pardon; and upon minds at once there presses, here fear, here hope.
Meanwhile the time of the cradles slips by: in them there stands forth 205
a manifest appearance of divine vigor.
Blandishments and laughter fall silent, and the uncertain
murmurs cease: a seriousness, the forerunner of sense, forestalling playfulness,
already shapes the tender countenance to the manners to come.

Inde ubi prima puer stabili vestigia nisu 210

Thence, when the boy set his first footsteps with steady effort 210

Fixerat, et certam signarent verba loquelam:
Mos erat aut sancti dicta auscultare parentis,
Aut antiquorum praeclara ediscere facta,
Vel quas ipse Deus leges interprete Mose
Condiderat, sacri quas servat pagina saxi.               215
Haec, et quae teneram firmarent cetera mentem,
Tractabat recolens: neque enim ignorasse priora
Credendus, dederat Dominus cui nosse futura.
At postquam robur membris accessit ab aevo:
(Nam mens plena Deo tardos praevenerat annos:)               220
Illa sibi jam tum statuit discenda, docere
Quae nequeunt homines: simul effugienda ciborum,
Et potus, sanctae contagia noxia vitae.
Tecta igitur sancti, quamquam immaculata, parentis
Deserit, ac turbas hominum, coetusque nocentes               225

He had fixed it, and words marked a definite utterance:
it was the custom either to auscultate the sayings of the holy parent,
or to learn by heart the preeminent deeds of the ancients,
or the laws which God himself, with Moses as interpreter,
had established, which the page of the sacred stone preserves.               215
These things, and the other things which might strengthen the tender mind,
he handled, recollecting: for indeed he is not to be believed to have been ignorant of former things,
he to whom the Lord had given to know future things.
But after strength was added to his limbs by age:
(for a mind full of God had anticipated the slow years:)               220
he already then set down for himself to learn, in order to teach,
those things which men cannot teach; and at the same time the things to be fled of foods,
and of drink, contagions noxious to a holy life.
Therefore he deserts the roof of the holy, though immaculate, parent,
and the crowds of men, and harmful gatherings.               225

Effugit, ac solas loca tendit ad invia terras,
In queis se tantum mens impolluta videret,
Liberaque a curis sacra ad praecepta vacaret.
Vestis erat curvi setis conserta cameli,
Contra luxuriem molles duraret ut artus, 230
Arceretque graves compuncto corpore somnos.
Hunc vilis rigidos ad lumbos zona ligabat,
Praebebant victum facilem silvestria melia,
Pomaque, et incultis enatae cautibus herbae,
Arentemque sitim decurrens unda levabat. 235
Quis locus hic vitiis?

He fled, and made for solitary places to pathless lands,
in which the mind, undefiled, might see itself alone,
and, free from cares, might have leisure for sacred precepts.
His garment was woven of the bristles of a bent‑back camel,
that, against luxury, his soft limbs might be hardened, 230
and heavy slumbers might be warded off by a pricked body.
A cheap girdle bound this stiff garment to his loins,
wild honeycombs furnished ready sustenance,
and fruits, and herbs sprung from uncultivated crags,
and running water lightened parching thirst. 235
What place is there here for vices?

Aditum quem prava cupido
Invenit haec inter sacra et penetralia mentis?
Quo peccet, qui nil cupiat? Quo tendat iniqui
In latebras sensus, quisquis non indiget ullo?

What access could depraved desire find amid these sacra and the penetralia of the mind?
Where could he sin, who desires nothing? Whither would the sense of the iniquitous
reach into hiding-places, whoever is in need of nothing?

Sic primi vixere homines, mundoque recenti 240

Thus the first men lived, and in the recent world 240

Hos autor dederat ventura in secula mores;
Inseruit donec sese malesuada voluptas,
Ac secum luxus, et amorem invexit habendi.
Hinc odia, hinc lites, hinc fraus, hinc livor, et irae,
Caedes, arma, cruor, conflictus, praelia, mortes:               245
Hinc offensa Dei, quam tartara saeva piabunt.
Verum ego cur nimium communes arguo culpas;
Immemor ipse mei, quem non commissa gravare,
Sed veniam sperare decet? Mirabimur immo
Rectius invictum, nullique imitabile prisci               250
Exemplum secli, transgressum humana labore,
Semideumque virum, qui labe immunis ab omni,
Cum sua tam saevis cruciarit corpora poenis,
Praescripsit quid nos vel post peccata deceret:
At postquam invictam firmans per talia mentem,               255

The author had given to the coming ages these manners;
until ill-persuading desire inserted itself,
and with it brought in luxury, and the love of possessing.
Hence hatreds, hence strifes, hence fraud, hence envy, and wraths,
slaughters, arms, gore, conflicts, battles, deaths:               245
Hence the offense of God, which savage Tartarus will expiate.
But why do I overmuch arraign common faults,
I myself unmindful of myself, for whom it is fitting not to be burdened
by things committed, but to hope for pardon? Nay rather we will admire
more rightly the unconquered, and imitable by no one, ancient               250
example of the age, transcending human toil,
and the semi-god man, who, immune from every stain,
when he has tortured his members with such savage punishments,
prescribed what would be fitting for us even after sins:
But after, strengthening his unconquered mind through such things,               255

Exegit largum tempus, statuitque reperta
Quae fuerant quaerenda, sibi vox edita coelo est:
Jam satis impensum spatii, dilecte propheta,
Quo tibi prodesses: tempus tibi quae data sentis,
Ut prosint aliis, et quae jam perdita, servent. 260
Perge igitur sanctas puri Jordanis ad undas.
Hic quicumque hominum vitae commissa prioris
Poenitet, et tandem sensu meliora volutat,
Ablue confessum: quisquis tibi mente fideli
Crediderit delere pio commissa lavacro, 265
Ille renatus erit, talis modo vita sequatur,
Quae probet ablutos vitam damnasse priorem.
Paruit auditis famulanti mente Johannes,
Protinus et ripas jussi descendit ad amnis.

He spent a long time, and he set in order the things found which had been to be sought, and a voice was uttered to him from heaven:
Now enough time has been expended, beloved prophet,
whereby you would profit yourself: the times which you feel have been given to you,
that they may profit others, and that the things already lost may be preserved. 260
Go on therefore to the holy waves of the pure Jordan.
Here whoever among men repents of the commissions of the former life
and at last in his sense revolves better things,
wash the one who has confessed: whoever with faithful mind
shall have believed you that the commissions are deleted by the pious bath, 265
he will be reborn, only let such a life follow,
as may prove that the washed have condemned their former life.
John obeyed what he had heard with a serving mind,
and immediately at the command he went down to the river’s banks.

Praedicat hic praecepta Dei sermone verendo, 270

Here he preaches the precepts of God with a reverent sermon, 270

Infunditque novam credentum in corda salutem.
Diluit infusis credentum crimina lymphis,
Absolvitque metus hominum, poenasque remittit,
Atque ignem restinguit aquis: oblivia suadet
Errorum, praestatque novae nova corpora vitae. 275
O Pater, o hominum rerumque aeterne creator,
Quot gradibus parcit pietas tua! quis pater unquam
Sustinet erranti toties ignoscere nato?

And he pours new salvation into the hearts of believers.
He washes away the crimes of the believers with waters poured in,
and he absolves the fears of men, and remits the penalties,
and quenches fire with waters: he urges forgetfulness
of errors, and furnishes new bodies for a new life. 275
O Father, O eternal creator of men and of things,
by how many degrees your mercy spares! What father ever
endures so often to forgive an erring son?

Das genti sensum, quo vel bona vel mala noscant.
Non satis: innectis servandae vincula legis, 280
Proponisque malis poenas, et praemia justis.
Haec quoque quis sprevit?

You give to the race a sense, whereby they may know either good or evil.
Not enough: you fasten the bonds of the law to be observed, 280
and you set forth penalties for the wicked, and rewards for the just.
Who has spurned even these?

Redeat quandoque libebit,
In promptu venia est: sanctum patet ecce lavacrum,
Quod renovet vitam, veteresque oblitteret actus,
Quodque novos homines faciat. Quid quaerimus ultra? 285

Let him return whenever he pleases,
Pardon is at hand: behold, the sacred laver stands open,
which may renew life, and obliterate the old acts,
and may make men new. What do we seek beyond? 285

Et tamen ulterior venia est: violaverit ullus
Hoc quoque polluto prolapsus corpore donum.
Quamquam jam nimius longe processerit error,
Desinat, et redeat: cum se damnaverit ipse,
Absolvi meruit: si poenitet, irrita culpa est,               290
O vere, quod ais, pondus leve, quodque cohaeret,
Suave jugum, toties homini cum ignoscitur uni,
Et tamen erramus, finis nec criminis ullus
Humano generi: sed crescit laus tua; nam quo
Major culpa rei, parcentis gloria major.               295
Grates ergo tibi referat mens omnis, et omnis
Lingua canat, quantumque potest humana propago,
Si placuisse nequit, fieri vel grata laboret.
Panditur immensum, si demus vela, profundum
In laudes, Pater alme, tuas: sed conscia tanti               300

And yet there is a further pardon: should anyone have violated
this gift also, having slipped with a polluted body.
Although the error has already advanced too far by excess,
let him cease and return: when he has condemned himself,
he has deserved to be absolved: if he repents, the fault is made void,               290
O truly, as you say, a light weight, and one that coheres,
a sweet yoke, since so often forgiveness is granted to a single man,
and yet we err, nor is there any end of crime
to the human race: but your praise grows; for the greater
the fault of the accused, the greater the glory of the one sparing.               295
Therefore let every mind render thanks to you, and let every
tongue sing, and as much as the human propagation can,
if it cannot have pleased, let it at least strive to become pleasing.
An immense deep is opened, if we give the sails, into your praises,
O kindly Father: but, conscious of so great a thing,               300

Mens oneris trepidat, propriasque haud inscia vires
Consulit, et dignis potius dicenda relinquit.
Reddamur coeptis: opus hoc tibi, sancte Johannes,
Quo renoves puras abluto corpore mentes.
Non haec prima dedit Domini sententia, qua te               305
Admonuit claram mittens per nubila vocem:
Secula multa prius sancti Deus ore locutus
Isaiae vatis, veteris qui maximus aevi:
Mittam, ait, ante tuos oculos, o nate, ministrum,
Qui sentosarum purgans concreta viarum               310
Gressibus ille tuis, celsos subsidere montes,
Idem depressas faciet consurgere valles:
Diriget hic quae prava, et leniet aspera, dura
Molliet, et totum coget planescere mundum.
Tune, precor, donum summi Patris, alme Johannes,               315

The mind trembles at the burden, and, not unaware of its own powers,
it takes counsel, and leaves the things to be said rather to the worthy.
Let us return to our undertakings: this work is yours, holy John,
whereby you renew pure minds, with the body washed.
This was not the first decree of the Lord, by which you               305
he admonished, sending a clear voice through the clouds:
many ages before God spoke by the mouth of the holy seer
Isaiah, who was greatest of the ancient age:
I will send, he says, before your eyes, O son, a minister,
who, cleansing the encrusted of bramble-grown roads,               310
for your steps will cause lofty mountains to sink down,
and likewise will cause sunken valleys to rise:
he will straighten what is crooked, and will smooth asperities, the hard
he will soften, and he will compel the whole world to lie level.
Do you then, I pray, gift of the highest Father, kindly John,               315

Cum Christo promisse venis, teque imputat ille
Qui misit natum? Tune, o praedicte prophetis,
Nominis angelici tu participatus honore?
Per te prima Dei sese clementia profert:
Prima tibi dandae veniae permissa potestas: 320
Te cum multa novae peterent miracula plebis,
De te Christus ait: Concessum est visere talem,
Qualem nulla prius viderunt secla prophetam.

Since you come with Christ as promised, and does He impute you to Himself,
He who sent the Son? Are you, O you foretold by the prophets,
made a participant of the honor of the angelic name?
Through you the primal clemency of God proffers itself:
to you the first power of granting pardon has been permitted: 320
When many miracles were being sought from you by the new people,
of you Christ said: It has been granted to behold such a one,
such a prophet as no ages before have seen.

Dico ego, qui solus quae gesta gerendaque novi,
Inter mortales dederit quos femina partus, 325
Quosque dabit sollemni hominum de more creatos,
Nullus erit possit qui se praeferre Johanni.
Haec de te ille refert, qui quaelibet intima cordis
Humani, et cunctos seclorum ex ordine tractus
Pervidet, ut quae sunt oculis subjecta videmus. 330

I say—I, who alone know the things done and to be done—
among mortals what births a woman has given, 325
and what she will give, created according to the solemn custom of men,
there will be none who can set himself before John.
These things about you he relates, who sees through whatever innermost things of the
human heart, and all the tracts of the ages in order,
as we see the things subjected to the eyes. 330

POEMA VII.
PARAPHRASIS PSALMI I.
Paulinus, tunc Theologicorum arcanorum rudis,
putabat Christianos omnes, quamvis malos,
modo incolumem servassent fidem,
salutem quamdam consecuturos.

POEM 7.
PARAPHRASE OF PSALM 1.
Paulinus, then a novice in the theological arcana,
thought that all Christians, although wicked,
provided that they had kept the faith inviolate,
would attain a certain salvation.

Beatus ille, qui procul vitam suam
Ab impiorum segregarit coetibus,
Et in via peccantium non manserit,
Nec in cathedra pestilenti sederit:
Sed corde toto fixus in legem Dei               5
Praecepta vitae nocte volvit et die,
Mentemque castis institutis excolit.
Erit ille ut arbor quae propinqua flumini,
Humore ripae nutriente pascitur,
Suoque fructum plena reddet tempore,               10
Et, fronde numquam defluente, pervirens
Stabit perenni vividum lignum coma.
Non haec iniquos prosequetur gloria,
Sed ut favillam pulveris ventus rapit,
Sic ira iniquos verret a vultu Dei.               15

Blessed that man, who far away has segregated his life
from the cohorts of the impious,
and has not remained in the way of sinners,
nor sat in the pestilent chair:
but, fixed with his whole heart upon the law of God,               5
he turns over the precepts of life by night and by day,
and cultivates his mind with chaste institutes.
He will be like a tree which, near to the river,
is fed by the moisture of the bank that nourishes,
and will render its fruit in its own full season,               10
and, with foliage never falling, ever-green
it will stand, a living tree with perennial tresses of leaves.
This glory will not attend the unjust,
but as the wind snatches the cinder of dust,
so will wrath sweep the unjust from the countenance of God.               15

Idcirco tali dividentur ordine
Hominum per orbem dissipatorum greges,
Ut judicandi non resurgant impii,
Qui denegarunt debitum cultum Deo,
Sed puniendi: nam suum crimen videns,               20
Non indigebit quaestione detegi,
Quoniam imminentem praeferent mortis notam,
Signum salutis non gerentes frontibus.
Peccator autem, non et impius tamen,
Quae magna turba est, non resurget gloriae,               25
Verum resurget deputanda examini.
Nec enim sedere cum piis judex potest,
Causas suorum redditurus actuum,
Varieque gestis aut probandus, aut reus.
Sine lege passim legis ignari cadent,               30

Therefore in such an order will be divided
the flocks of men scattered through the world,
so that the impious, who denied to God the due cult,
will not rise for judging,
but for punishing; for, seeing his own crime,               20
he will not need to be uncovered by inquest,
since they will display the impending mark of death,
not bearing the sign of salvation on their foreheads.
But the sinner, yet not impious,
which is a great crowd, will not rise to glory,               25
but will rise to be assigned to examination.
For he cannot sit with the pious as a judge,
being about to render the causes of his own acts,
and, in deeds done variously, either to be approved or to be guilty.
Without law, everywhere, those ignorant of the law will fall,               30

In lege lapsus, lege judicabitur.
Opus per omne curret ignis arbiter,
Quod non cremarit flamma, sed probaverit,
Illud perrenni praemio pensabitur.
Qui concremanda gesserit, damnum feret, 35
Sed ipse salvus evolabit ignibus.

Having lapsed in the Law, he will be judged by the Law.
Over every work the fire, as arbiter, will run;
what the flame shall not have burned, but shall have proved,
that will be recompensed with a perennial reward.
He who shall have borne things to be burned will bear loss, 35
but he himself, safe, will fly out from the fires.

Tamen subusti corporis signis miser
Vitam tenebit, non tenebit gloriam:
Quia carne victus, mente non versus tamen,
Etsi negarit debitam legi fidem, 40
Per multa saepe devolutus crimina:
Tamen fidei nomen aeternum gerens,
Numquam salutis exsulabit finibus.
Idcirco cuncti nunc in isto seculo,
Dum currit aetas, et dies aevi patet, 45

Yet with the signs of a scorched body the wretch
will hold life, he will not hold glory:
because, conquered by flesh, yet not turned in mind, however,
even if he has denied the faith owed to the law, 40
often rolled down through many crimes:
yet bearing the eternal name of faith,
he will never be an exile from the boundaries of salvation.
Therefore let all now in this age,
while the span runs, and the day of the age lies open, 45

Rectas agamus semitas firmo pede,
Nec deferamur lubrico latae viae,
Praestat per arctum dimicantes tramitem
Laboriosis introire nisibus.
Vias bonorum laetus agnoscit Deus, 50
At impiorum pronum iter delebitur.

Let us pursue straight pathways with a firm foot,
nor let us be borne away on the slippery broad way,
it is better, fighting, along the narrow track
to enter by laborious exertions.
God gladly recognizes the ways of the good, 50
but the downhill way of the impious will be blotted out.

POEMA VIII.
PARAPHRASIS PSALMI II.

POEM 8.
PARAPHRASE OF PSALM 2.

Cur gentes fremuere, et inania cur meditati
Sunt populi? Adstiterunt proceres cum regibus acti
Adversum Dominum et Christum, vesana ferentes.
Vincula rumpamus, juga discutiamus eorum:
Qui manet aeterno totis moderamine coelis, 5
Irridebit eos, justaque loquetur in ira,
Terribilique minas verbo turbabit iniquos.

Why have the nations raged, and why have the peoples meditated vain things?
The nobles stood arrayed with the kings, driven against the Lord and his Christ, bearing mad counsels.
Let us break their bonds, let us shake off their yokes:
He who abides with eternal governance in all the heavens, 5
will mock them, and will speak in just wrath,
and with a terrible word of menace he will trouble the iniquitous.

Ast ego Rex ab eo parili ditione creatus,
Praeceptum Domini super almum praedico Sion.
Ipse ad me Dominus, Meus, inquit, filius es tu, 10
Teque hodie genui. Pete: sis mihi gentibus heres,
Et tua fundatur totis possessio terris.

But I, a King, created by him with equal dominion,
I proclaim the precept of the Lord upon bounteous Zion.
The Lord himself to me, "Mine," he says, "you are my son," 10
and I have begotten you today. Ask: be my heir among the nations,
and let your possession be established over all the lands.

Ferrea virga tibi est, valido quia jure tumentes
Orbe regis toto populos: ceu vasa recocto
Ficta luto frangens corda, ut meliora reformes. 15

An iron rod is yours, since by valid right you rule the swelling peoples over the whole orb: like vessels made from re-fired clay,
breaking hearts fashioned from clay, so that you may re-form them to be better. 15

Et nunc ecce omnes stratis advertite, reges
Mentibus, et quicumque hominum famulantia corda
Judicio regitis, rerumque tenetis habenas:
Deservite Deo trepidi, mixtoque fideles
Exsultate metu: fiat discordia concors,               20
Dissimiles socians affectus pectore in uno;
Ne timor affligat mentes, vel gaudia solvant,
Si careant laeto, pavidi formidine lethi.
Discite justitiam, rectosque capessite mores,
Et justo trepidate Deo, gaudete benigno,               25
Nequando meritum Deus irascatur in orbem,
Vosque via justa juste pereatis abacti.
Amodo jam resilire via properetis iniqua,
Ecce brevi, cum magna potentis inarserit ira,
Ventilet ut totum divino examine mundum,               30

And now, behold, all of you, O kings, turn, with prostrate minds,
and whoever among men you rule serving hearts by judgment,
and hold the reins of affairs: serve God, trembling, and, faithful,
exult with mixed fear: let discord be concordant,               20
joining unlike affections in one breast;
lest fear afflict minds, or joys dissolve,
if they lack the gladness, timid with fear of death.
Learn justice, and take up right morals,
and tremble before the just God, rejoice in the benign,               25
lest at some time God grow angry at the world according to its deserts,
and you, driven from the just way, justly perish.
From now on already hasten to spring back from the unjust way,
behold, shortly, when the great wrath of the Mighty One has flared up,
so that he may winnow the whole world by divine examination,               30

Segreget et paleas igni, frumenta saluti:
Tunc omnes, quibus est in eo spes fida, beati.

Let him also segregate the chaff for fire, the grains for salvation:
Then all, for whom there is in him a faithful hope, are blessed.

POEMA IX.
PARAPHRASIS PSALMI CXXXVI.

POEM 9.
PARAPHRASE OF PSALM 136.

Sedimus ignotos dirae Babylonis ad amnes
Captivi, Judaea manus, miserabile flentes.
Cum patrium memori traheremus pectore Sion,
Et meritum justa suspiraremus ab ira
Exsilium: lentis qua consita ripa salictis, 5
Hospitibus populis umbras praebebat amicas.
Illic Assyriae mediis in moenibus urbis,
Obliti laetas per maesta silentia voces,
De salicum ramis suspendimus organa nostra.

We sat by the unknown rivers of dire Babylon
Captives, the Judean band, miserably weeping.
When with a remembering breast we drew our native Zion,
And sighed for the exile deserved from just wrath:
the bank, planted with pliant willows, 5
was offering friendly shades to stranger peoples.
There in the midst of the walls of the Assyrian city,
forgetting glad voices amid mournful silences,
from the branches of the willows we suspended our instruments.

Namque dabat nobis durum gravis ira dolorem, 10
Quod solita in sancto depromi cantica templo
Haec ad delicias sibi nos cantare jubebat
Impius ille, domo qui nos abduxerat, hostis.
Ergone divinas laudes et carmina castis
Apta choris, inter sacra barbara, foedaque busta. 15

For heavy wrath was giving us harsh grief, 10
because the songs wont to be brought forth in the holy temple
he, that impious foe who had led us away from home, was bidding us to sing for his own delights.
Shall we then divine praises and songs apt for chaste
choirs, amid barbarous sacred rites and foul pyres? 15

Inter et accensas funestis ignibus aras,
Heu! male de nostro laetis moerore, canemus?
Deque pio ritu luxum faciemus iniquum,
Mystica ad hostilem modulantes cantica ludum?

Amid even the altars enkindled with funereal fires,
Alas! shall we, to the joyful, badly sing of our grief,
and out of a pious rite make an iniquitous luxury,
modulating mystical canticles to a hostile sport?

Quo miseri nunc ore sacros cantabimus hymnos? 20
Quove loco Babylon poscit sibi cantica Sion?
Sed Domini carmen tellus aliena mereri
Non capit, indignas sacra vox avertitur aures.
Si tamen ut captis dominus violentior instas,
Et, si tantus amor, Sion pia noscere vobis 25
Cantica, si pergis me cogere non tua fari,
Et divina tibi quaenam sint cantica Sion,
Accipe quid captae Deus ultor spondeat urbi.

With what mouth shall we wretches now sing sacred hymns? 20
And in what place does Babylon demand the songs of Sion for herself?
But an alien earth does not merit the song of the Lord;
the sacred voice is turned away from unworthy ears.
If, however, as a more violent master you press upon captives,
and, if so great the ardor for you to know the pious songs of Sion, 25
if you persist in forcing me to utter what is not yours,
and what the divine songs of Sion are for you,
receive what the avenging God pledges to the captured city.

Ne longum speres isto gaudere triumpho
Impie; quo sacrum prodi tibi praecipis hymnum: 30

Do not hope to rejoice long in that triumph
impious one; by which you command the sacred hymn to be betrayed to you: 30

Ecce quis est hymnus Domini, quae cantica Sion:
Si fuero oblitus mea moenia, te mea cura,
Urbs Hierusalem, fiat mea non memor unquam
Dextra mei, mea lingua meis et adhaereat arens
Faucibus, aeterno nisi te complectar amore:               35
Et nisi principio promissi in secula regni,
Laetitiaeque meae primo reminiscar in anno,
Te cunctis Hierusalem praeponere terris.
Esto memor tum prolis Edom, ut versa vice nostrum
Aspiciat confusa diem, quo plebs tua claram               40
Moenibus aeternis Hierusalem habitabit,
Cui nunc gens oblita tui, crudele minatur
Excidium, dicens: Invisam funditus urbem
Diruite et vacuate manu, vestigia donec
Nulla relinquantur, muris ad inane redactis.               45
Infelix miserae Babylonis filia, felix
Qui tibi pro nobis in nos tua gesta rependet.
Nec minus ille beatus erit, qui parva tenebit
Et simul elidet solidae tua pignora petrae.

Behold what is the hymn of the Lord, what the songs of Zion:
If I shall have forgotten my ramparts, you, my care,
City Jerusalem, let my right hand become never mindful
of me; and let my tongue, parched, cling to my jaws,
unless I embrace you with eternal love;               35
and unless, at the beginning of the kingdom promised unto the ages,
and in the first year of my joy, I remember to
set you, Jerusalem, before all lands.
Be mindful then of the offspring of Edom, that in turn it may
behold, confounded, our day, on which your people shall dwell bright
Jerusalem with eternal walls,               40
against which now a nation forgetful of you cruelly threatens
destruction, saying: Tear down the utterly hated city
and lay it waste by hand, until no traces
are left, the walls reduced to emptiness.               45
Unhappy daughter of wretched Babylon, blessed
is he who will repay to you the deeds you did against us, on our behalf.
Nor will he be less blessed, who will seize your little ones
and at once dash your pledges against the solid rock.

Si cupis exstincta Babylonis stirpe beari, 50
In te ipso primis gliscentia crimina flammis
Frange fide, jam propter adest petra Christus: in ipso
Vipeream sobolem validis elide lacertis.
Nam Babylon nomen Confusio: filia cujus
Est caro, peccatis mater: quae turba saluti 55

If you wish to be blessed with the stock of Babylon extinct, 50
break in yourself, by the first flames, the crimes that are swelling
by faith; now close at hand is the Rock, Christ: in him
dash the viperine offspring with strong arms.
For Babylon’s name is Confusion: whose daughter
is the flesh, mother of sins: which crowd to salvation 55

Noxia, corporeis ducit mala semina fibris.
Haec vincenda tibi, si vis evincere mortem:
Namque tuis tales inclusos ossibus hostes,
Si permittantur crescendo assumere vires,
Difficili vinces luctamine: praeripe parvos,               60
Dum rudis ex utero cordis per pectora capta
Reptat adhuc teneris vitiorum infantia membris:
Quae nisi praecaveas, aucta virtute necabit
Concordem vitiis animam terrena propago.               65
Ne parcas igitur talem mactare catervam.
Non tibi crimen erit, nocituram perdere gentem,
Ultricemque malo perfundere sanguine petram:
Gaudet enim justus, si concidat impia proles:
Nam magis atque magis pius ista caede piatur,               70
Si perimat peccata suis dominantia membris,
Et fracta in Christo vitiorum plebe triumphet.

Harm draws the evil seeds from the corporeal fibers.
These must be conquered by you, if you wish to evince victory over death:
For such enemies shut up within your bones,
if they are allowed by growing to assume strength,
you will overcome with a difficult struggle: seize them while small,               60
while, raw from the womb of the heart, once it has gotten hold, through the breast
the infancy of vices still crawls with tender limbs:
which, unless you forestall it, augmented in strength will kill
the terrene progeny will slay the soul concordant with vices.               65
Do not spare, therefore, to slaughter such a cohort.
It will not be a crime for you to destroy a people destined to harm,
and to bathe the avenging Rock with blood against the evil:
for the just man rejoices, if the impious progeny should fall:
for more and more the pious man is expiated by that slaughter,               70
if he annihilates the sins domineering in his own members,
and, the rabble of vices broken in Christ, may triumph.

POEMA X
AUSONIO PAULINUS.
Quatuor supra memoratas epistolas quartum jam annum agens in Hispania Paulinus recepit,
quarum primae, tertiae quae intercidit, et quartae respondet hoc carmine.

POEM 10
PAULINUS TO AUSONIUS.
Paulinus, now spending his fourth year in Spain, received the four letters mentioned above, to the first, to the third (which has been lost), and to the fourth he replies with this poem.

Quarta redit duris haec jam messoribus aestas,
Et toties cano bruma gelu riguit,
Ex quo nulla tuo mihi littera venit ab ore,
Nulla tua vidi scripta notata manu,
Ante salutifero felix cum charta libello 5
Dona negata diu, multiplicata daret.
Trina etenim vario florebat epistola textu,
Sed numerosa triplex pagina carmen erat.
Dulcia multimodis quaedam subamara querelis
Anxia censurae miscuerat pietas. 10
Sed mihi mite patris plus quam censoris acerbum
Sedit, et e blandis aspera penso animo.

Now this summer returns as the fourth for the hard-pressed reapers,
and as many times the hoary winter has stiffened with gelid frost,
since when no letter has come to me from your mouth,
I have seen no writings of yours inscribed by your hand,
formerly, when the sheet, happy with a salutiferous little book, 5
would bestow gifts long denied, multiplied.
For the thrice-sent epistle was blooming with varied texture,
but the triple page was a metrical poem.
Piety, anxious about censure, had mixed certain sweets, somewhat sub-bitter,
with complaints of many kinds. 10
But for me the gentle note of a father more than the bitter of a censor
settled, and I weigh in my mind the rough against the smooth from the bland.

Ista suo referenda loco tamen, et graviore
Vindicis heroi sunt agitanda sono.
Interea levior paucis praecurrit iambus, 15

Those things, however, are to be referred to their own place, and are to be handled with the graver sound of an avenging hero.
Meanwhile a lighter iamb runs ahead with a few lines, 15

Discreto referens mutua verba pede.
Nunc elegi salvere jubent, dictaque salute,
Ut fecere aliis orsa gradumque, silent
Quid abdicatas in meam curam, pater, 20
Redire Musas praecipis?
Negant Camoenis, nec patent Apollini
Dicata Christo pectora.

Relating mutual words with a discrete foot.
Now the elegies bid you to be well, and, with a greeting spoken,
as they have done for others, having made a beginning and a step, they fall silent.
Why, father, do you enjoin the abdicated Muses into my care, 20
do you bid the Muses to return?
They deny the Camenae, nor lie open to Apollo,
hearts dedicated to Christ.

Fuit ista quondam non ope, sed studio pari
Tecum mihi concordia, 25
Ciere surdum Delphica Phoebum specu,
Vocare Musas Numina;
Fandique munus munere indultum Dei,
Petere e nemoribus aut jugis.
Nunc alia mentem vis agit, major Deus; 30

There was once this concord of mine with you, not by might, but by equal zeal 25
to rouse the deaf Phoebus from the Delphic cave,
to call the Muses, the Divinities;
and the gift of speaking, a gift bestowed by God,
to seek from groves or from mountain ridges.
Now another force stirs my mind, a greater God; 30

Aliosque mores postulat,
Sibi reposcens ab homine munus suum,
Vivamus ut vitae Patri.
Vacare vanis otio aut negotio,
Et fabulosis litteris
Vetat, suis ut pareamus legibus,               35
Lucemque cernamus suam:
Quam vis sophorum callida, arsque rhetorum, et
Figmenta vatum nubilant,
Qui corda falsis atque vanis imbuunt;
Tantumque linguas instruunt,               40
Nihil adferentes ut salutem conferant,
Quod veritatem detegat.
Quid enim tenere vel bonum aut verum queant,
Qui non tenent summae caput,
Veri bonique fomitem et fontem Deum?               45

And he demands other customs,
reclaiming for himself from man his own gift,
that we may live to the Father of life.
He forbids giving oneself to vain things, in idleness or in business,
and to fabulous literature,
so that we may obey his laws,               35
and discern his light:
which the crafty force of sophists, and the art of rhetors, and
the figments of bards cloud over,
who imbue hearts with false and vain things;
and only equip tongues,               40
bringing nothing that they might confer salvation,
that might uncover truth.
For what good or true can they hold,
who do not hold the head of the Supreme,
God, the kindling and fountain of the True and the Good?               45

Quem nemo nisi in Christo videt.
Hic veritatis lumen est, vitae via,
Vis, mens, manus, virtus Patris,
Sol aequitatis, fons bonorum, flos Dei.
Natus Deo, mundi sator, 50
Mortalitatis vita nostrae, et mors necis.

Whom no one sees except in Christ.
He is the light of truth, the way of life,
Force, mind, hand, virtue of the Father,
The sun of equity, the fount of goods, the flower of God.
Born of God, the world’s sower, 50
The life of our mortality, and the death of violent death.

Magister hic virtutum,
Deusque nobis, atque pro nobis homo
Nos induendo se exuit,
Aeterna jungens homines inter et Deum, 55
In utrumque se commercia.
Hic ergo nostris ut suum praecordiis
Vibraverit coelo jubar,
Absterget aegrum corporis pigri situm,
Habitumque mentis innovat; 60

This master of virtues,
and God for us, and a man on our behalf,
by clothing himself with us he stripped himself,
joining the eternal between humans and God, 55
making himself commerce in both directions.
Therefore, so that in our inmost heart he
might make heaven’s radiance quiver,
he wipes away the sickly crust of the sluggish body,
and renews the habit of the mind; 60

Exhaurit omne quod juvabat antea
Castae voluptatis vice;
Totusque nostra jure Domini vindicat
Et corda, et ora, et tempora;
Se cogitari, intelligi, credi, legi,               65
Se vult timeri et diligi.
Aestus inanes, quos movet vitae labor
Praesentis aevi tramite,
Abolet futurae cum Deo vitae fides.
Quae, quas videmur spernere,               70
Non ut profanas abjicit aut viles opes;
Sed ut magis caras, monet
Coelis reponi creditas Christo Deo,
Qui plura promisit datis;
Contemta praesens vel mage deposita sibi               75

He drains away everything that formerly delighted
in the stead of chaste delight;
and wholly he, by the Lord’s right, vindicates as his own
both hearts, and mouths, and times;
he wills himself to be thought on, understood, believed, read,               65
he wills to be feared and to be loved.
The vain surges which the labor of life moves
along the pathway of the present age,
the faith of the life to come with God abolishes.
Which, the things which we seem to spurn,               70
it does not cast off as profane or cheap riches;
but, as more dear, it admonishes
that they be reposited in heaven, credited to Christ God,
who has promised more for what is given;
the present things either despised, or rather deposited with himself.               75

Multo ut rependat fenore.
Sine fraude custos aucta creditoribus
Bonus aera reddet debitor;
Multaque spretam largior pecuniam
Restituet usura Deus. 80
Huic vacantem, vel studentem, et deditum,
In hoc reponentem omnia,
Ne, quaeso, segnem, neve perversum putes,
Nec crimineris impium.
Pietas abesse Christiano qui potest? 85
Namque argumentum mutuum est
Pietatis, esse Christianum: et impii,
Non esse Christo subditum.

That he may repay with much interest.
Without fraud, as a guardian, the good debtor will return to the creditors
coins increased; and God will restore with much usury
the money lavishly bestowed and held in contempt. 80
For one who is at leisure for Him, or diligent, and devoted,
laying up everything in this,
do not, I pray, think him slothful nor perverse,
nor accuse him as impious.
How can piety be absent from a Christian? 85
For indeed it is a mutual argument
of Piety, to be a Christian; and of the impious,
not to be subject to Christ.

Hanc cum tenere discimus, possum tibi
Non exhibere, id est patri, 60

When we learn to hold this, can I not exhibit it to you,
not to exhibit it, that is, to the father, 60

Cui cuncta sancta jura, cara nomina
Debere me voluit Deus?
Tibi disciplinas, dignitatem, litteras,
Linguae, togae, famae decus,
Provectus, altus, institutus debeo, 95
Patrone, praeceptor, pater.
Sed, cur remotus tamdiu degam, arguis,
Pioque motu irasceris?

To whom God willed that I owe all the sacred rights, the dear names?
To you the disciplines, the dignity, the letters,
the ornament of tongue, of toga, of fame,
my advancement, my elevation, my instruction I owe, 95
Patron, preceptor, father.
But you allege why I should live so long remote,
and with pious impulse you grow angry?

Conducit istud, aut necesse est, aut placet:
Veniale, quidquid horum erit. 100
Ignosce amanti, si geram quod expedit:
Gratare, si vivam ut libet.
Defore me patriis tota trieteride terris,
Atque alium legisse vagis erroribus orbem,
Culta prius vestrae oblitum consortia vitae 105

It is expedient, or it is necessary, or it pleases:
Venial, whatever of these it shall be. 100
Forgive the lover, if I do what is expedient:
Congratulate me, if I live as I please.
That I be away from the fatherland's lands for a whole trieteris (three-year period),
and to have traversed another orb with roaming errancies,
forgetful of the cultivated companionships of your life, once cherished 105

Increpitas sanctis mota pietate querelis.
Amplector patrio venerandos pectore motus,
Et mihi gratandas salvis affectibus iras.
Sed reditum inde meum genitor te poscere mallem
Unde dari possit.

You upbraid with holy complaints, moved by piety.
I embrace with a paternal heart the venerable motions,
and I must give thanks for your angers, your affections being sound.
But I would rather, Father, that you ask for my return from there
whence it can be granted.

Revocandum me tibi credam, 110
Cum steriles fundas non ad divina precatus,
Castalidis supplex averso Numine Musis?
Non his numinibus tibi me patriaeque reduces.
Quod datur, in nihilum (sine Numine nomina Musas
Surda vocas, et nulla rogas) levis auferet aura, 115
Irrita ventosae rapiunt haec vota procellae,
Quae non missa Deo vacuis in nubibus haerent,
Nec penetrant superi stellantem Regis in aulam.

Shall I believe that I am to be called back to you, 110
when you pour forth barren prayers, not having prayed to the divine,
a suppliant to the Castalid Muses, with the Numen turned away?
Not by these numina do you bring me and the fatherland back to you.
What is given, into nothing (without a Numen you call the Muses by name,
you call them deaf, and you ask nothing) a light breeze will carry off, 115
Ineffectual, the windy squalls snatch these vows,
which, not sent to God, stick in empty clouds,
nor do they penetrate into the starry hall of the King above.

Si tibi cura mei reditus, illum aspice, et ora,
Qui tonitru summi quatit ignea culmina coeli,
Qui trifido igne micat, nec inania murmura miscet,
120 Quique satis coelo soles largitur, et imbres,
Qui super omne quod est, vel in omnia totus ubique
Omnibus infusus rebus regit omnia Christus,
Qui mentes tenet atque movet, qui tempora nostra 125

If the care of my return is yours, look to Him, and pray,
Who with thunder shakes the fiery summits of the highest Heaven,
Who flashes with three-forked fire, nor mixes vain murmurs, 120 And who bestows as sufficiency to Heaven the suns and the showers,
Who above everything that is, and wholly in all things everywhere Christ, infused into all things, rules all things, Who holds and moves minds, who our times 125

Et loca disponit; quod si contraria votis
Constituat nostris, prece deflectendus in illa est
Quae volumus: quid me accusas? Si displicet actus
Quem gero agente Deo, prius est si fas reus autor
Cui placet aut formare meos, aut vertere sensus.               130
Nam mea si reputes quae pristina, quae tibi nota,
Sponte fatebor eum modo me non esse sub illo
Tempore qui fuerim, quo non perversus habebar,
Et perversus eram, falsi caligine cernens,
Stulta Dei sapiens, et mortis pabula vivens.               135
Quo magis ignosci mihi fas, quia promtius ex hoc,
Agnosci datur, a summo Genitore novari,
Quod non more meo geritur; non arbitror, istis
Confessus dicar mutatae in prava notandum
Errorem mentis, quoniam sim sponte professus,               140

And he disposes the places; but if he should constitute things contrary to our vows,
he must by prayer be deflected into those which we desire: why do you accuse me? If the act displeases
which I carry on with God acting as the agent, it is rather—if it be right—the author who is the defendant,
to whom it pleases either to form my feelings, or to turn my senses.               130
For if you reckon my former things, which are known to you,
I will freely confess that I am not now under that time the one whom I was,
when I was not deemed perverse, and I was perverse, discerning in the murk of falsehood,
wise, holding the things of God to be foolish, and living on the fodder of death.               135
Wherefore it is the more right that I be pardoned, because from this more promptly
it is granted to be recognized that I am renewed by the highest Begetter,
since it is not conducted after my manner; I do not judge that, by these admissions,
I should be said to be marked down as the error of a mind changed into the wrong,
since I have of my own will professed,               140

Me non mente mea vitam mutasse priorem.
Mens nova me fateor cepit, mens non mea quondam,
Sed mea nunc autore Deo, qui si quid in actu
Ingeniove meo sua dignum ad munia vidit,
Gratia prima tibi, tibi gloria debita cedet, 145
Cujus praeceptis partum est quod Christus amaret.
Quare gratandum magis est tibi quam queritandum,
Quod tuus ille, tuis studiis et moribus ortus,
Paulinus, cui te non inficiare parentem
Nec modo, cum credis perversum, sic mea verti 150
Consilia, ut sim promeritus Christi fore, dum sum
Ausonii; feret ille tuae sua praemia laudi,
Deque tua primum tibi deferet arbore fructum.

That I did not by my own mind change my prior life.
A new mind, I confess, has seized me—a mind once not mine,
but now mine with God as Author; who, if in my act
or in my ingenium he saw anything worthy for his munia,
the first thanks shall go to you, to you the owed glory will yield, 145
by whose precepts it has been produced that I should love Christ.
Wherefore there is more cause for you to be congratulated than to complain,
that that one who is yours, sprung from your studies and morals,
Paulinus—whom you would not deny yourself to be the parent of—
nor now, when you deem me perverse, were my counsels thus turned 150
that I should be one who has merited to be of Christ, while I am of Ausonius;
he will bear his own rewards to your praise,
and from your tree he will present to you the first fruit.

Unde precor meliora putes, nec maxima perdas.
Praemia, detestando tuis bona fontibus orta. 155

Therefore I pray you to think better things, and not to lose the greatest rewards.
Rewards, the goods sprung from your own fountains, by detesting them. 155

Non etenim mihi mens vaga, sed neque participantum
Vita fugax hominum, Lyciae qua scribis in antris
Pegaseum vixisse equitem, licet avia multi
Numine agente colant, clari velut ante sophorum
Pro studiis Musisque suis: ut nunc quoque castis               160
Qui Christum sumsere animis agitare frequentant
Non inopes animi, neque de feritate legentes
Desertis habitare locis, sed in ardua versi
Sidera, spectantesque Deum, verique profunda
Perspicere intenti; de vanis libera curis               165
Otia amant; strepitusque fori, rerumque tumultus,
Cunctaque divinis inimica negotia donis,
Et Christi imperiis et amore salutis, abhorrent.
Speque fideque Deum sponsa mercede sequuntur,
Quam referet certus non desperantibus autor,               170

For neither have I a wandering mind, nor the fugitive life of men who partake—the sort wherein you write that in the Lycian caves the Pegasean horseman lived—although many, with the numen driving them, cultivate pathless places, famed like the sages of old for their studies and their Muses: as now also the chaste, 160
who have taken Christ into their souls, are wont to pursue—not poor in spirit, nor choosing wildness to dwell in deserted places, but turned toward the lofty heights, the stars, and looking upon God, intent to see through the deep things of truth; free from vain cares they love leisures; 165
and the noise of the forum and the tumult of affairs, and all businesses inimical to divine gifts, and to Christ’s commands and the love of salvation, they abhor. And with hope and faith they follow God for a bridal reward, which a sure Author will render back to those not despairing, 170

Si modo non vincant vacuis praesentia rebus;
Quaeque videt spernat, quae non videt ut mereatur,
Secreta ignitus penetrans coelestia sensus.
Namque caduca patent nostris, aeterna negantur
Visibus, et nunc spe sequimur quod mente videmus, 175
Spernentes varias rerum spectacula formas,
Et male corporeos bona sollicitantia visus.
Attamen haec sedisse illis sententia visa est,
Tota quibus jam lux patuit verique bonique,
Venturi aeternum secli, et praesentis inane. 180
At mihi non eadem cui gloria, cur eadem sit
Fama?

If only the present things, as empty things, do not prevail;
and let him spurn what he sees, in order that he may merit what he does not see,
his sense, enflamed, penetrating the secret celestial things.
For the perishable lie open to our sights, the eternal are denied
to our eyes, and now by hope we pursue what we see with the mind, 175
spurning the various spectacle-forms of things,
and the corporeal sights that ill solicit goods.
Yet this judgment seemed to have settled upon those
to whom the whole light of the true and the good has already stood open—
the eternal of the coming age, and the emptiness of the present. 180
But for me, to whom the glory is not the same, why should the fame be the same?

fides voti par est, sed amoena colenti,
Nunc etiam et blanda posito locupletis in acta
Littoris, unde haec jam tam festinata locorum,
Invidia est? Utinam justus me carpere livor 185
Incipiat, Christi sub nomine probra placebunt.
Non patitur tenerum mens Numine firma pudorem,
Et laus hic contemta redit mihi judice Christo.

the faith of the vow is equal, yet pleasant to the cultivator,
Now even the coaxing, with me set on the strand of a wealthy shore,
Whence is this envy of places now so hastened?
Would that rightful livor begin to carp at me; under the name of Christ, reproaches will be pleasing.
A mind firm by the Numen does not permit tender modesty,
And here praise, though contemned, returns to me, with Christ as judge.

Ne me igitur, venerande parens, his ut male versum
Increpites studiis, neque me vel conjuge carpas, 190

Do not, therefore, venerable parent, reproach me as ill-versed in these studies,
nor carp at me even on account of my consort, 190

Vel mentis vitio: non anxia Bellerophontis
Mens est, nec Tanaquil mihi, sed Lucretia conjux.
Nec mihi nunc patrii est (ut vis) oblivio coeli,
Qui summum suspecto Patrem, quem qui colit unum,
Hic vere memor est coeli. Crede ergo, pater, nos 195
Nec coeli immemores, nec vivere mentis egentes,
Humanisque agitare locis; studia ipsa piorum
Testantur mores hominum: nec enim impia summum
Gens poterit novisse Deum; sint multa locorum,
Multa hominum studiis inculta, expertia legum, 200
Quae regio agresti ritu caret?

Or by a defect of mind: it is not an anxious Bellerophontic
mind, nor is Tanaquil my wife, but Lucretia my consort.
Nor is there to me now (as you wish) oblivion of my native heaven,
for I look up to the Most High Father, whom he who worships alone,
this man is truly mindful of heaven. Believe therefore, father, that we 195
are neither unmindful of heaven, nor lacking the life of the mind,
and to be active in human places; the very studies of the pious
bear witness to the morals of men: for an impious people will not be able
to know the Most High God; let there be many tracts of places,
many peoples uncultivated by pursuits, inexperienced of laws, 200
what region is without a rustic rite?

Aut quid honestis
Improbitas aliena nocet? Quid tu mihi vastos
Vasconiae saltus, et ninguida Pyrenaei
Objicis hospitia, in primo quasi limine fixus
Hispanae regionis agam, nec sit locus usquam 205

Or how does another’s depravity harm the honorable?
Why do you cast in my teeth the vast wilds of Vasconia,
and the snow-clad lodgings of the Pyrenees,
as if fixed at the very first threshold,
I should dwell at the doorway of the Spanish region, and there were no place anywhere 205

Rure vel urbe mihi, summum qua dives in orbem
Usque patet mersos spectans Hispania soles?
Sed fuerit fortuna, jugis habitasse latronum:
Non lare barbarico rigui, mutatus in ipsos,
Inter quos habui socia feritate, colonos. 210
Non recipit mens pura malum, neque levibus haerent
Inspersae fibris maculae: sic Vascone saltu
Quisquis agit purus sceleris vitam inter iniquos,
Nulla ab inhumano morum contagia ducit
Hospite. Sed mihi cur sit ab illo nomine crimen, 215
Qui diversa colo, ut colui, loca juncta superbis
Urbibus, et laetis hominum celeberrima cultis?

In country or in city for me, where wealthy Hispania, gazing at the sunken suns, stretches all the way to the utmost orb?
But grant it was fortune to have dwelt on the ridges of brigands:
I did not grow rigid with a barbarian hearth, transformed into them themselves,
among whom I had settlers with a shared ferocity. 210
A pure mind does not receive evil, nor do stains sprinkled cling to the light fibers:
thus in the Vasconian woodland whoever conducts a life pure of crime among the iniquitous,
draws no contagions of character from an inhuman host.
But why should there be for me a crime from that name, 215
I who cultivate, as I have cultivated, diverse places joined to superb cities, and most celebrated, gladdened by the cultivated peoples?

Ac si Vasconicis mihi vita fuisset in oris:
Cur non more meo potius formata, ferinos
Poneret in nostros migrans gens barbara ritus? 220
Nam quod in aversis habitacula ponis Hiberis
Urbibus, et deserta tuo legis oppida versu,
Montanamque mihi Calagurrim et Bilbilim acutis
Pendentem scopulis, collemque jacentis Herdae
Exprobras, velut his habitem laris exsul et urbis 225

And even if my life had been on Vasconian shores:
why should not the barbarian gens, migrating, rather, being shaped to my custom,
lay down ferine rites among us? 220
For whereas you set my dwellings in the averse Iberian
cities, and in your verse you recount deserted townships,
and you upbraid me with mountainous Calagurris and Bilbilis hanging
on sharp crags, and the hill of low-lying Herda,
as though in these I lived an exul from home and from city. 225

Extra hominum tecta atque vias: an credis Hiberae
Has telluris opes, Hispani nescius orbis,
Quo gravis ille poli sub pondere constitit Atlas,
Ultima nunc ejus mons portio metaque terrae
Discludit bimarem celso qui vertice Calpen?               230
Bilbilis huic tantum, Calagurris, Ilerda notatur,
Caesarea est Augusta cui, cui Barcino amoena,
Et capite insigni despectans Tarraco pontum.
Quid numerem egregias terris et moenibus urbes,
Qua geminum felix Hispania tendit in aequor,               235
Qua Betis Oceanum, Thyrrenumque auget Hiberus,
Lataque distantis pelagi divortia complet,
Orbe suo finem ponens in limite mundi?
An tibi, mi domine illustris, si scribere sit mens,
Qua regione habites, placeat reticere nitentem               240

Outside the dwellings of men and the roads: or do you believe these riches of the land to be Iberian, you unknowing of the Hispanic world, where that heavy Atlas stood fast beneath the weight of the pole, does the mountain, its last portion and the boundary-mark of the earth, now with lofty summit shut off two-sea’d Calpe? 230
Only Bilbilis, Calagurris, Ilerda are noted for it, to which belongs Caesaraugusta, to which pleasant Barcino, and Tarraco, with distinguished head, looking down upon the sea. Why should I number the outstanding cities in lands and by ramparts, where happy Hispania stretches into the twin sea, where the Betis augments the Ocean, and the Hiberus the Tyrrhenian, and fills the broad separations of the far sea, setting in its own orb an end at the boundary of the world? Or would it, my illustrious lord, if there be a mind to write, please you to keep silent the shining region in which you dwell? 240

Burdigalam, et piceos malis describere Boios?
Cumque Marojalicis tua prodigis otia thermis,
Inter et umbrosos donas tibi vivere lucos,
Laeta locis, et mira colens habitacula tectis:
Nigrantesne casas et texta mapalia culmo, 245
Dignaque f pellitis habitas deserta Bigerris?
Quique superba tuae contemnis moenia Romae
Consul, arenosos num dedignare Vasatas?

Burdigala, and to portray the Boii with pitch-black cheeks?
And while in the Marojalian baths you lavish your leisures,
and grant yourself to live amid shady groves,
glad with the locales, and dwelling in abodes wondrous in their roofs:
do you inhabit blackening cottages and mapalia woven with straw, 245
and deserts worthy for the skin-clad Bigerri?
And you who, a Consul, scorn the proud walls of your Rome—
do you disdain the sandy Vasates?

Vel quia Pictonicis tibi fertile rus viret arvis,
Rauranum Ausonias huc devexisse curules
Conquerar; et trabeam veteri sordescere panno?
Quae tamen augusta Latiaris in urbe Quirini
Caesareas inter parili titulo palmatas
Fulget in attrito longum venerabilis auro,
Florentem retinens meriti vivacis honorem. 255
Aut cum Lucani retineris culmine fundi,
Aemula Romuleis habitans fastigia tectis,
Materiam praebente loco, qui proxima signat,
In Condatino diceris degere vico?
Multa jocis pateant; liceat quoque ludere fictis. 260

Or because for you a fertile countryside is green in the Pictonic fields,
shall I complain that Rauranum has conveyed the Ausonian curule seats hither,
and that the trabea grows sordid with an old cloth?
Which, however, in the august Latin city of Quirinus,
among the Caesarean, palm-bearing ones with an equal title,
shines, venerable in long-worn, abraded gold,
retaining the flourishing honor of enduring merit. 255
Or when you are held at the summit of the Lucanian estate,
dwelling in gables rivaling the Romulean roofs,
the place furnishing the material, which points out what is nearest,
are you said to reside in the Condatine vicus?
Let many things lie open to jests; let it also be permitted to play with fictions. 260

Sed lingua mulcente gravem interlidere dentem,
Ludere blanditiis urentibus, et male dulces
Fermentare jocos satirae mordacis aceto,
Saepe poetarum, numquam decet esse parentum.
Namque - fides pietasque petunt, ut quod mala nectens, 265
Insinuat castis fama auribus, hoc bona voti
Mens patris affigi, fixumque haerescere cordi
Non sinat, ut vulgus scaevo rumore malignum.
Ante habitos mores, non semper, flectere, vitam
Crimen habet: namque est laudi bene vertere.

But, with a soothing tongue, to thrust in a heavy tooth,
to play with burning blandishments, and the ill-sweet
jests to ferment with the vinegar of mordacious satire,
is often poets’ work, never is it fitting to be parents’.
For - faith and piety demand that what, weaving evils, 265
rumor insinuates into chaste ears, this the father’s good, wishful
mind should not allow to be affixed and to cling fast in the heart,
as the common crowd, malign with skewed rumor, does.
To bend previously-held morals, to change one’s life,
is not always a crime: for to turn well is for praise.

Cum me 270
Immutatum audis, studium officiumque require.
Si pravo rectum, si relligiosa profanis,
Luxurie parcum, turpi mutatur honestum;
Segnis, iners, obscurus ago: miserere sodalis
In mala perversi: blandum licet ira parentem 275

When you hear me 270
changed, look for my zeal and duty.
If the straight into the crooked, if religious things into profane things,
the sparing of luxury, the honorable into the base, is changed;
sluggish, inert, obscure I live: pity a comrade
perverted into evils: though anger be a coaxing parent 275

Excitet, ut lapsum rectis instauret amicum
Moribus, et monitu reparet meliora severo.
At si forte itidem, quod legi, et quod sequor, audis,
Corda pio vovisse Deo, venerabile Christi
Imperium docili pro credulitate sequentem, 280
Persuasumque Dei monitis, aeterna parari
Praemia mortali, damnis praesentibus emta,
Non reor id sano sic displicuisse parenti,
Mentis ut errorem credat, sic vivere Christo,
Ut Christus sanxit. Juvat hoc, nec poenitet hujus 285
Erroris, stultus diversa sequentibus esse
Nil moror, aeterno mea dum sententia Regi
Sit sapiens.

Let him rouse, so that he may reinstate the friend who has fallen from upright morals,
and by a severe monition repair him to better things.
But if by chance likewise you hear that what I have read, and what I follow, is this:
that my heart has vowed to the pious God, following the venerable Imperium of Christ
with docile credulity, and, persuaded by God’s monitions, that eternal rewards are being prepared 280
for the mortal, bought by present losses—
I do not think this has so displeased a sane parent
that he should deem it an error of mind, to live thus for Christ
as Christ has sanctioned. This pleases, nor do I repent of this
error; I do not at all mind being foolish to those following diverse things, 285
so long as my judgment be wise to the eternal King.

Breve quidquid homo est, ut corporis aegri,
Temporis occidui, et sine Christo pulvis et umbra:
Quod probat aut damnat, tanti est, quanti arbiter ipse. 290

Brief is whatever man is: like a sick body,
of time at its setting, and, without Christ, dust and shadow:
What approves or condemns is worth as much as the arbiter himself. 290

Ipse obit, atque illi suus est comitabilis error,
Cumque suo moriens sententia judice transit.
At nisi, dum tempus praesens datur, anxia nobis
Cura sit ad Domini praeceptum vivere Christi,
Sera erit exutis homini querimonia membris,               295
Dum levia humanae metuit convicia linguae,
Non timuisse graves divini judicis iras,
Quem Patris aeterni solio dextraque sedentem
Omnibus impositum Regem, et labentibus annis
Venturum, ut cunctas aequato examine gentes               300
Judicet, et variis referat sua praemia gestis,
Credo equidem et metuens studio properante laboro;
Si qua datur, ne morte prius quam crimine solvar.
Hujus in adventum trepidis mihi credula fibris
Corda tremunt, gestitque anima, id jam cauta futuri,               305
Praemetuens ne vincta aegris pro corpore curis,
Ponderibusque gravis rerum, si forte recluso
Increpitet tuba vasta polo, non possit in auras
Regis ad occursum levibus se tollere pennis,
Inter honora volans sanctorum millia coelo,               310

He himself perishes, and to him his own accompanying error remains,
and, dying, his judgment passes along with its own judge.
But unless, while the present time is granted, there be for us an anxious
care to live according to the precept of the Lord Christ,
late will a man’s complaint be, his limbs stripped off,               295
since, while he feared the slight revilings of the human tongue,
he did not fear the grave wraths of the divine Judge,
who, seated on the throne and at the right hand of the eternal Father,
is set as King over all, and, as the years glide away,
will come, that with an even balance he may the nations all               300
judge, and render his rewards according to various deeds—
I for my part believe, and, fearing, I toil with hurrying zeal;
if in any way it is given, that I may be loosed from the crime before by death.
For his advent, my heart, with trembling yet trusting fibers,
trembles, and the soul yearns, now cautious of what is to come,               305
fore-fearing lest, bound with ailing cares for the body,
and heavy with the weights of things, if perchance, the vast
trumpet should ring out with the vault thrown open, it may not be able into the airs
to lift itself on light pinions to meet the King,
flying among the honored thousands of the saints in heaven.               310

Qui per inane leves, neque mundi compede vinctos
Ardua in astra pedes facili molimine tollent,
Et teneris vecti per sidera nubibus ibunt,
Coelestem ut medio venerentur in aere Regem,
Claraque adorato conjungant agmina Christo. 315
Hic metus est, labor iste, dies ne me ultimus atris
Sopitum tenebris sterili deprendat in actu,
Tempora sub vacuis ducentem perdita curis.
Nam quid agam? Lentis si dum conniveo votis,
Christus ab aetheria mihi proditus arce coruscet, 320
Et subitis Domini coelo venientis aperto
Praestrictus radiis, obscura et tristia noctis
Subfugia illato confusus lumine quaeram?

Who through the void, light, and not bound by the fetter of the world,
will lift their feet with easy effort to the lofty stars,
and, borne through the constellations on tender clouds, will go,
that in mid-air they may venerate the heavenly King,
and join bright ranks to the adored Christ. 315
This is the fear, this the labor: lest my last day
catch me, lulled asleep by black darkness, in a barren act,
leading out my times lost under empty cares.
For what am I to do? If, while I doze with sluggish vows,
Christ, having issued for me from the aetherial citadel, should flash, 320
and, with the sky laid open, the Lord coming suddenly,
dazzled by the rays, shall I seek the dark and dreary
refuges of night, confounded by the light brought in?

Quod mihi ne pareret vel diffidentia veri,
Vel praesentis amor vitae, rerumque voluptas,
Curarumve labor, placuit praevertere casus
325 Proposito, et curas finire superstite vita;
Commissisque Deo ventura in secula rebus,
Exspectare trucem securo pectore mortem.
Si placet hoc, gratare tui spe divite amici: 330
Si contra est, Christo tantum me linque probari.

So that there might not subject me either diffidence of truth,
or the love of present life, and the voluptuousness of things,
or the toil of cares, it has pleased me to pre‑empt the contingencies 325
by a resolve, and to end cares while life survives;
and, having committed to God the affairs to come in the ages,
to await truculent death with a secure breast.
If this pleases, congratulate your friend rich in hope of you: 330
if it is otherwise, leave me to be approved by Christ alone.

POEMA XI.
AUSONIO PAULINUS.
Secundae Ausonii epistolae respondet carmine sequenti.

POEM 11.
PAULINUS TO AUSONIUS.
He answers Ausonius’s second letter with the following poem.

Continuata meae durare silentia linguae,
Te numquam tacito memoras; placitamque latebris
Desidiam exprobras; neglectaeque insuper addis
Crimen amicitiae; formidatamque jugalem
Objicis, et durum jacis in mea viscera versum. 5
Parce, precor, lacerare tuum, nec amara paternis
Admiscere velis, ceu melli absinthia, verbis.
Cura mihi semper fuit, et manet, officiis te
Omnibus excolere, affectu observare fideli.
Non umquam tenui saltem tua gratia naevo 10
Commaculata mihi est; ipso te laedere vultu,
Semper et incauta timui violare figura.

For the continued silences of my tongue to endure,
you declare that you are never remembered by me; and you upbraid an idleness
pleasing to the hiding‑places; and, moreover, you add the charge
of neglected friendship; and you allege a dreaded yoke‑mate (wife),
and you hurl a harsh verse into my viscera. 5
Spare, I pray, from lacerating your own, and do not wish to mix
bitters with fatherly words, as wormwood to honey.
It has always been, and remains, my care to honor you
with all offices, to observe you with faithful affection.
Your favor has not ever been maculated for me even with a slight, at least, birth‑mark; 10
I have always feared to wound you even by my very countenance,
and to violate you by an incautious figure.

Cumque tua accessi venerans, mea cautius ora
Composui, et laeto formavi lumine frontem;
Ne qua vel a tacito contractam pectore nubem 15

And when I approached you, venerating, I more cautiously composed my features
and formed my brow with a joyful light;
lest any cloud contracted even from a silent breast 15

Duceret in sanctum suspicio falsa parentem.
Hoc mea te domus exemplo coluitque colitque,
Inque tuo tantus nobis consensus amore est,
Quantus et in Christo connexa mente colendo.
Quis tua, quaeso, tuis obduxit pectora livor? 20
Quo rumore pias facilis tibi fama per aures
Irrupit pepulitque animum contraque vetustam
Experta pietate fidem nova vulnera movit,
Laederet ut natis placidum malesuada parentem?

Would a false suspicion lead the parent against the Saint?
By this example my house has honored and still honors you,
and in your love there is for us so great a consensus,
as in honoring Christ with a mind knit together.
What envy, I pray, has drawn a bruise over your breast toward your own? 20
By what rumor did a facile report break in through your pious ears
and burst in and drive your mind, and against time-honored
faith, proven by piety, stir new wounds,
so that ill-persuasion might wound the gentle parent for his children?

Sed mihi non fictae mens conscia simplicitatis, 25
Nec patris inculti pietas rea, respuit omne
Immeritum, et falso perstringi crimine non fert;
Immunis vero gravius violatur iniquo
Vulnere, tam tenera offensae, quam libera culpae.
Discussisse jugum quereris me, quo tibi doctis 30
Junctus eram studiis. Hoc nec gestasse quidem me
Assero: namque pares subeunt juga: nemo valentes
Copulat infirmis; neque sunt concordia frena,
Si sit compulsis mensura jugalibus impar.

But for me the mind, conscious of unfeigned simplicity, 25
nor is the piety of an unlearned father guilty, rejects every
undeserved [charge], and does not endure to be scored by a false crime;
indeed, one unstained is more grievously violated by an unjust
wound, being as tender to offense as free from blame.
You complain that I have shaken off the yoke, by which to you in learned 30
studies I was joined. This I do not even assert that I
have borne: for equals go under the yokes; no one couples the strong
with the weak; nor are the reins in concord,
if for yoked pairs driven together the measure be unequal.

Si vitulum tauro, vel equum commitis onagro, 35
Si confers fulicas cygnis, et aedona parrae;
Castaneis corylos, aequas viburna cupressis,
Me compone tibi: vix Tullius et Maro tecum,
Sustineant aequale jugum; si jungar amore,
Hoc tantum tibi me jactare audebo jugalem; 40

If you yoke a calf to a bull, or a horse to an onager, 35
If you compare coots to swans, and the nightingale to the owl;
you make hazels equal to chestnuts, viburnums to cypresses,
match me to you: scarcely would Tullius and Maro with you
sustain an equal yoke; if I be joined by love,
this only will I dare to vaunt to you—as a yokemate; 40

Quo modicum sociis magno contendit habenis
Dulcis amicitia aeterno mihi foedere tecum,
Et paribus semper redamandi legibus aequa.
Hoc nostra cervice jugum non scaeva resolvit
Fabula, non terris absentia longa diremit. 45
Nec perimet, toto licet abstrahar orbe, vel aevo.
Numquam animo divisus agam; prius ipsa recedet
Corpore vita meo, quam vester pectore vultus.

Whereby sweet friendship, with the small along with the great for companions, strives with reins;
sweet friendship with you, for me, in an eternal covenant,
and fair, ever by equal laws of re-loving.
This yoke upon our neck no ill-omened tale has unloosed,
nor has long absence across lands sundered it. 45
Nor will it destroy it, though I be drawn away from the whole world, or an age.
Never shall I act divided in spirit; sooner life itself will withdraw
from my body than your countenance from my breast.

Ego te per omne, quod datum mortalibus
Et destinatum seculum est,               50
Claudente donec continebor corpore,
Discernar orbe quolibet,
Nec orbe longe, nec remotum lumine,
Tenebo fibris insitum,
Videbo corde, mente complectar pia               55
Ubique praesentem mihi.
Et cum solutus corporali carcere,
Terraque provolavero,
Quo me locarit axe communis Pater,
Illic quoque te animo geram.               60

I, through every age which is given and destined to mortals,               50
so long as I am confined by the enclosing body,
though I be parted in whatever orb,
neither far in the world nor removed from sight,
will hold you implanted in my fibers;
I will see you with the heart, with a pious mind will embrace you,               55
everywhere present to me.
And when released from the corporeal prison,
and I shall have flown forth from the earth,
wherever the common Father shall have placed me on the axis,
there also I will bear you in my soul.               60

Neque finis idem qui meo me corpore,
Et amore laxabit tui.
Mens quippe, lapsis quae superstes artubus
De stirpe durat coeliti,
Sensus necesse est simul et affectus suos 65
Teneat aeque ut vitam suam;
Et ut mori, sic oblivisci non capit,
Perenne viva et memor.

Nor will the same end which is for my body
loosen me from love of you.
For the mind, which survives when the limbs have fallen,
endures from celestial stock,
It is necessary that it hold at once its senses and its affections 65
equally as its own life;
and as it cannot die, so it does not admit of forgetting,
everlastingly alive and mindful.

POEMA XII.
DE S. FELICE NATALITIUM CARMEN I.

POEM 12.
ON ST. FELIX NATAL POEM 1.

Inclite Confessor, meritis et nomine Felix,
Mens pietate potens, summi mens accola coeli,
Nec minus in totis experta potentia terris,
Qui Dominum Christum constanti voce professus,
Contemnendo truces meruisti evadere poenas,               5
Devotamque animam tormenta per omnia Christo,
Sponte tua jussus laxatis reddere membris,
Liquisti vacuos rabidis lictoribus artus,
Vectus in aethereum sine sanguine martyr honorem,
O pater, o domine, indignis licet, annue servis,               10
Ut tandem, hanc fragili trahimus dum corpore vitam,
Sedibus optatis, et qua requiescis in aula,
Hunc liceat celebrare diem, pia reddere coram
Vota, et gaudentes inter gaudere tumultus.
Sit jam, quaeso, satis merita impietate tulisse               15

Renowned Confessor, Felix both in merits and by name,
a mind mighty in piety, a mind a dweller of the highest heaven,
and no less a potency experienced throughout all the lands,
you who confessed the Lord Christ with a constant voice,
by contemning the savage penalties you deserved to escape,               5
and through every torment devoted your soul to Christ,
of your own accord, when commanded, to render back with loosened members,
you left your limbs empty to the rabid lictors,
borne to the aethereal martyr honor without blood,
O father, O lord, grant—though to unworthy servants—,               10
that at length, while we drag this life in a fragile body,
in the desired seats, and in the hall in which you take your rest,
it may be allowed to celebrate this day, to render pious vows before you,
and to rejoice amid rejoicing tumults.
Let it now, I pray, be enough—impiety having merited it—to have borne               15

Hanc poenam tot jam quot te sine viximus, annis,
Sede tua procul, heu! quamvis non mente remoti.
Jam desideriis immenso tempore fessis
Consule: jam vel sero memor miserere tuorum:
Perque orbem, magni qui nos procul aequore ponti 20
Disparat, obtritis quae nos inimica retardant,
Pande vias faciles: et, si properantibus ad te
Invidus hostis obest, objecta repagula pelle
Fortior adversis, et amicos provehe cursus.

This penalty, for so many years now as we have lived without you,
far from your seat, alas! although not removed in mind.
Now, with desires wearied by an immense span of time,
have regard: now, even if late, remember, have mercy on your own:
And across the orb, which the level of the great sea separates us far apart, 20
separates us far apart, with the hostile things that delay us crushed,
unfold easy ways: and, if to those hastening toward you
the envious enemy stands in the way, drive off the interposed barriers,
being stronger against adversities, and carry forward friendly courses.

Seu placeat telluris iter, comes aggere tuto 25
Esto tuis; seu magna tui fiducia longo
Suadeat ire mari, da currere mollibus undis,
Et famulis famulos a puppi suggere ventos,
Ut Campana simul Christo duce littora vecti,
Ad tua mox alacri rapiamur culmina cursu,
Inque tuo placidus nobis sit limine portus. 30

Whether the journey by earth please, a companion on a safe causeway 25
Be to your own; or if great confidence in you for the long
should persuade to go by sea, grant to run on soft waves,
and from the stern harness servant winds to your servants,
so that, borne to the Campanian shores with Christ as leader,
we may soon be snatched to your heights with eager course,
and at your threshold may there be for us a placid port. 30

Illic dulce jugum, leve onus, blandumque feremus
Servitium sub te domino; etsi justus iniquis
Non egeas servis, tamen et patiere, et amabis
Qualescumque tibi Christo donante dicatos,
Et foribus servire tuis, tua limina mane 35
Munditie curare sines; et nocte vicissim
Excubiis servare piis; et munere in isto
Claudere promeritam defesso corpore vitam.

There we shall bear a sweet yoke, a light burden, and a pleasant servitude
under you as lord; although, being just, you have no need of servants,
yet you will also allow, and you will love
whatever sort dedicated to you by Christ’s grant,
and to serve at your doors; you will allow us to care for your thresholds in the morning with mundity, 35
and by night in turn to keep with pious watches; and in this office
to close a merited life with the body wearied.

POEMA XIII.
DE S. FELICE NATALITIUM CARMEN II.

POEM 13.
ON ST. FELIX, BIRTHDAY POEM 2.

Felix, hoc merito, quod nomine; nomine et idem,
Qui merito; redit alma dies qua te sibi summus
Adscivit patriam confessum Christus in aulam,
Tempus adest plenis grates tibi fundere votis.
O pater, o domine, indignis licet optime servis,               5
Tandem exoratum est, inter tua limina nobis
Natalem celebrare tuum. Tria tempore longo
Lustra cucurrerunt ex quo sollemnibus istis
Coram vota tibi coram mea corda dicavi,
Ex illo qui me terraque marique labores               10
Distulerint a sede tua procul orbe remoto,
Novisti; nam te mihi semper ubique propinquum,
Inter dura viae, vitaeque incerta, vocavi.
Et maria intravi duce te, quia cura pericli
Cessit amore tui, nec te sine: nam tua sensi               15

Felix, in this by merit, as by name; and in name the same
as by merit; the kindly day returns on which the Most High Christ
adopted you to the fatherland, a confessor, into his palace;
the time is here to pour out thanks to you with full vows.
O father, O lord, though most excellent to unworthy servants,               5
at last it has been won by prayer for us to celebrate your
birthday within your thresholds. Three lustra in a long time
have run since, at these solemnities, I dedicated before you,
before you, my vows, my heart; from then the toils by land and sea
have borne me away from your seat, far off in a remote world,               10
you know; for I have always, everywhere, called you near to me,
amid the hardships of the road and the uncertainties of life.
And I entered the seas with you as leader, because care of peril
yielded to love of you, nor without you: for I felt your               15

Praesidia, in Domino superans maris aspera Christo:
Semper eo et terris te propter tutus et undis.
(Hunc, precor, aeterna pietate et pace serenum
Posce tuis, cujus magno stas nomine Felix.
Nunc juvat effusas in gaudia solvere mentes: 20
Cara dies tandem quoniam hic praesentibus orta est,
Semper et aeternum nobis celebrata per orbem,
Quae te sacravit terris et contulit astris.)
Ecce vias vario plebs discolor agmine pingit:
Urbes innumeras una miramur in urbe. 25
O felix Felice tuo tibi praesule Nola,
Inclita cive sacro, coelesti firma patrono,
Postque ipsam titulos Romam sortita secundos.

Protections—I felt them—overcoming the roughnesses of the sea in the Lord Christ:
I always go safe, both on lands and on waves, on account of you.
(Him, I pray, serene with eternal piety and peace,
ask for your own, by whose great name you stand, O Felix.
Now it delights to unloose minds poured forth into joys: 20
since at last the dear day has arisen here for those present,
ever and eternally celebrated for us through the orb,
which consecrated you for the lands and conferred you upon the stars.)
Behold, the common folk paint the streets with a variegated array:
we marvel at innumerable cities in one city. 25
O happy Nola with your Felix as your prelate,
illustrious by your sacred citizen, firm by your celestial patron,
and, after Rome herself, having obtained titles second.

Quae prius imperio tantum, et victricibus armis,
Nunc et apostolicis terrarum est prima sepulcris. 30

Which before by dominion only, and by victorious arms,
now also by apostolic sepulchres is first of the lands. 30

Sis bonus o felixque tuis, Dominumque potentem
Exores, liceat placati munere Christi,
Post pelagi fluctus, mundi quoque fluctibus actis,
In statione tua placido consistere portu.
Hoc bene subductam religavi littore classem; 35
In te compositae mihi fixa sit anchora vitae.

Be good and happy for your own, and beseech the mighty Lord,
that it may be permitted by the gift of appeased Christ,
after the billows of the sea, the billows of the world also having been endured,
to come to rest in your station, a placid harbor.
Here I have re-tied the fleet well drawn up on the shore; 35
In you let the anchor of my composed life be fixed.

POEMA XIV.
DE S. FELICE NATALITIUM CARMEN III.

POEM 14.
ON ST. FELIX, BIRTHDAY POEM 3.

Venit festa dies coelo, celeberrima terris,
Natalem Felicis agens, qua corpore terris
Occidit, et Christo superis est natus in astris,
Coelestem nanctus sine sanguine martyr honorem.
Nam Confessor obit, poenas non sponte lucratus,               5
Acceptante Deo fidam pro sanguine mentem;
Qui cordis taciti scrutator, ferre paratos
Aequiparat passis, sat habens interna probasse,
Supplicium carnis justa pietate remittit,
Martyrium sine caede placet, si promta ferendi               10
Mensque fidesque Deo caleat, passura voluntas
Sufficit, et summa est meriti, testatio voti.
Ergo dies, tanto quae munere rettulit alto
Felicem coelo, sacris sollemnibus ista est:
Nam post solstitium, quo Christus corpore natus               15

The festive day comes from heaven, most celebrated on the earth,
celebrating the natal day of Felix, on which, in body, to the earth
he died, and to Christ he was born in the supernal stars,
having obtained the celestial martyr-honor without blood.
For the Confessor dies, not having by his own will gained torments,               5
with God accepting a faithful mind in place of blood;
he who is the scrutinizer of the silent heart, equates those prepared
to bear with those who have suffered, having enough to have approved the internal things,
he remits the punishment of the flesh by just piety,
martyrdom without slaughter is pleasing, if prompt for bearing,               10
and the mind and the faith glow toward God, the will about to suffer
suffices, and the testimony of the vow is the summit of merit.
Therefore the day which, by so great and high a gift,
has borne Felix back to heaven—this is, with sacred solemnities:
For after the solstice, at which Christ was born in body               15

Sole novo gelidae mutavit tempora brumae,
Atque salutiferum praestans mortalibus ortum.
Procedente die secum decrescere noctes
Jussit, ab hoc quae lux oritur vicesima nobis
Sidereum meriti signat Felicis honorem.               20
Denique nil impar his, qui fudere cruorem,
Testibus, et titulo simul et virtute recepta,
Martyris ostendit meritum, cum jure potenti
Daemonas exercet, devinctaque corpora solvit.
Nam sibi Felicem caecis incumbere poenis,               25
Pestiferi proceres tristi clamore fatentur,
Occultasque cruces gemitu testantur aperto,
Velatumque oculis mortalibus, at manifestum
Auribus et multo praesentem numine produnt,
Cum captiva intra deprensi corpora, Christum               30

With the sun new he changed the times of the icy bruma,
and, bestowing a health-bringing rising upon mortals.
As the day advances he ordered the nights to decrease with it,
and from this the light which rises for us on the twentieth
marks the sidereal honor of Felix’s merit.               20
Finally, in nothing unequal to those who poured forth blood,
by witnesses, and with both the title and the virtue received,
he shows the merit of a martyr, since with potent right
he harasses the demons and releases bound bodies.
For the pestiferous princes with sad outcry confess that Felix presses upon them with blind punishments,               25
and with open groaning they attest their hidden torments,
and, veiled to mortal eyes yet manifest
to ears, they reveal him present with abundant numen,
when, caught within captive bodies, they proclaim Christ.               30

In sancto fulgere suo clamantque probantque,
Membrorum incussu tremuli, capitumque rotatu,
Tormentisque suis, sed non sua corpora torquent,
Clamantes proprios aliena per ora dolores
Orantum veniam: latet ultor, poena videtur.               35
Tum si quos graviore malo violentior hostis
Vinxerit, ista dies divino munere solvit.
Cernere tunc passim est sacra purgata medela
Pectora liminibus sterni, jam mente refectos,
Gratantes jam voce sua: concurrit hiantum               40
Turba tremens hominum; mixtae inter gaudia cunctis
Prosiliunt lacrymae: praesens Deus omnibus illic
Creditur: immensi Felix est gloria Christi.
Alma dies magnis celebratur coetibus, omnes
Vota dicant sacris rata postibus; omnia gaudent               45

In his holy radiance they cry out and give proof,
trembling with the smiting of limbs and the rotation of heads,
and with their own torments—yet they do not torture their own bodies—
crying out their own pains through others’ mouths,
asking pardon for the suppliants: the Avenger lies hidden, the punishment is seen.               35
Then, if the more violent Enemy has bound any with a graver evil,
this day by divine munus looses them.
Then one may see everywhere that hearts, cleansed by sacred purgative remedy,
are laid low at the thresholds, now restored in mind,
now giving thanks with their own voice: there runs together an open-mouthed,               40
trembling crowd of men; tears leap forth for all, mingled with joys;
God present is believed there by all; Felix is the glory of the immense Christ.
The kindly day is celebrated by great congregations; let all
declare vows ratified at the sacred thresholds; all things rejoice.               45

Terrarum et coeli, ridere videtur apertis
Aethra polis: vernum spirare silentibus aurae
Flatibus, et laetum plaga cingere lactea coelum.
Nec modus est populis coeuntibus agmine denso,
Nec requies, properant in lucem a nocte, diemque               50
Exspectare piget, votis avidis mora noctis
Rumpitur, et noctem flammis funalia vincunt,
Stipatam multis unam juvat urbibus urbem
Cernere, totque uno compulsa examina voto.
Lucani coeunt populi, coit Appula pubes,               55
Et Calabri, et cuncti quos adluit aestus uterque,
Qui laeva et dextra Latium circumsonat unda:
Et qua bis ternas Campania laeta per urbes
Ceu propriis gaudet festis, quos moenibus amplis
Dives habet Capua, et quos pulcra Neapolis, aut quos               60

Of lands and heaven, the aether seems to laugh with its poles laid open;
and the vernal breezes to breathe with silent breaths,
and the milky zone to gird the glad heaven.
Nor is there measure to the peoples coming together in a dense column,
nor rest; they hasten from night into light, and to await the day 50
it irks; with eager vows the delay of night is broken, and torches by their flames conquer the night,
it delights to behold one city thronged by many cities,
and so many swarms driven by one desire.
The peoples of Lucania gather, the Apulian youth gathers,
and the Calabrians, and all whom each tide bathes,
which wave resounds around Latium on the left and on the right:
and where glad Campania through twice three cities
rejoices as at its own feasts, which within her ample walls
rich Capua holds, and which fair Neapolis, or which 60

Gaurus alit, laeta exercent qui Massica, quique
Ufentem Sarnumque bibunt, qui sicca Tanagri,
Quique colunt rigui felicia culta Galesi,
Quos Atina potens, quos mater Aricia mittit.
Ipsaque coelestum sacris procerum monimentis               65
Roma Petro Pauloque potens, rarescere gaudet
Hujus honore diei, portaeque ex ore Capenae
Millia profundens ad amicae moenia Nolae,
Dimittit duodena decem per millia denso
Agmine: confertis longe latet Appia turbis.               70
Nec minus, ex alia populis regione profectis,
Aspera montosae carpuntur strata Latinae,
Quos Praeneste altum, quos fertile pascit Aquinum:
Quosque suburbanis vetus Ardea mittit ab oris,
Quique urbem liquere Cales, geminumque Teanum,               75

Gaurus nourishes, those who cultivate the glad Massic slopes, and who
drink the Ufens and the Sarnus, who the dry Tanagrus,
and who tend the happy tilled fields of well-watered Galesus,
whom powerful Atina, whom mother Aricia sends.
And Rome itself, strong by the sacred monuments of the heavenly princes,Peter and Paul, rejoices to grow thin in the honor of this day,               65
and from the mouth of the Capena Gate, pouring thousands to the walls of friendly Nola,
sends forth 120,000 in a dense column:
the Appian Way lies hidden far with crowded throngs.               70
No less, with peoples setting out from another region,
the rough pavements of the mountainous Via Latina are traversed,
whom lofty Praeneste, whom fertile Aquinum feeds:
and those whom ancient Ardea sends from its suburban shores,
and who have left the city of Cales, and the twin Teanum,               75

Quam gravis Auruncus, vel quam colit Appulus asper:
Huc et olivifero concurrit turba Venafro,
Oppida Samnites duri montana relinquunt.
Vicit iter durum pietas, amor omnia Christi
Vincit, et alma fides: animisque locisque rigentes 80
Suadet acerba pati, simul aspera ponera corda.
Una dies cunctos vocat, una et Nola receptat,
Totaque plena suis, spatiosaque limina cunctis;
Credas innumeris ut moenia dilatari.

however weighty the Auruncan, or however rough the Apulian who cultivates:
Hither too a throng runs together from olive-bearing Venafro,
the hardy Samnites leave their mountain towns.
Piety has overcome the hard journey, the love of Christ conquers all,
and nurturing faith: it persuades those rigid in spirit and in places 80
to suffer bitter things, and at the same time to put away harsh hearts.
One day calls all, and one Nola receives them,
and the whole, filled with her own, and spacious thresholds for all;
you would believe that the walls are being widened for the innumerable.

Hospitibus, sic Nola assurgit imagine Romae. 85
Tu quoque post Urbem titulos sortita secundos?
Nam prius imperio tantum et victricibus armis,
Nunc et apostolicis terrarum est prima sepulcris.
Tu quoque perpetuas duplici sub honore coronas,
Ante sacerdotis, post martyris, omne per aevum 90
Felicis complexa tui, gemino bene coelum
Contingis merito divini mater amici.

For guests, thus Nola rises with the likeness of Rome. 85
You too, after the City, having been allotted second titles?
For formerly by empire only and by victorious arms,
now also by apostolic sepulchers it is foremost of the lands.
You too, under a double honor, perpetual crowns,
before of priest, after of martyr, through all time 90
having embraced your Felix, with twin merit you well touch heaven,
mother of the divine friend.

Te prius alma pio celebrans altaria cultu
Presbyter instituit, placido et moderamine rexit.
Hinc quoque perpetuo decorat te nomine Felix. 95

Earlier, the nourishing Presbyter, celebrating you at the altars with pious cult,
instituted you and ruled with placid moderation.
Hence too Felix adorns you with his name perpetually. 95

Namque tuo meritum in gremio sacratus honorem,
Ducit odorifero pia conditus ossa sepulcro.
Aurea nunc niveis ornantur limina velis,
Clara coronantur densis altaria lychnis.
Lumina ceratis adolentur odora papyris, 100
Nocte dieque micant, sic nox splendore diei
Fulget: et ipsa dies coelesti illustris honore,
Plus micat innumeris lucem geminata lucernis.

For indeed, in your bosom he brings the merited, consecrated honor—he whose holy bones, laid to rest in an odoriferous sepulcher. The golden thresholds are now adorned with snowy veils, the bright altars are crowned with dense lamps. The lights are kindled with waxed, fragrant papyri, 100
by night and by day they sparkle; thus night, with the splendor of day,
gleams; and the day itself, illustrious with celestial honor,
shines more, its light doubled by innumerable lamps.

Nos quoque felices, quibus istum cernere coram
Et celebrare diem datur, et spectare patroni 105
Praemia, praestantique suis tam grandia Christo
Gratari, et laetos inter gaudere tumultus.
Ferte Deo, pueri, laudem, pia solvite vota,
Et pariter castis date carmina festa choreis,
Spargite flore solum, praetexite limina sertis: 110

We too are happy, to whom it is given to behold him face to face
and to celebrate the day, and to behold the patron’s 105
rewards, and to congratulate Christ, so outstanding for his own, on such great things,
and to rejoice amid joyful tumults.
Bring to God, children, praise; fulfill pious vows,
and together give festival songs to chaste choruses,
strew the ground with flowers, fringe the thresholds with garlands: 110

Purpureum ver spiret hiems, sit floreus annus
Ante diem, sancto cedat natura diei.
Martyris ad tumulum debes et terra coronas.
Ast illum superi sacra gloria luminis ambit,
Florentem gemina belli pacisque corona. 115
Hunc, precor, aeterna nobiscum pace serenum
Posce diem, hoc iterum liceat gaudere reverso,
Annuaque hic et vota tuis et carmina festis
Reddere placati tranquillo numine Christi.

Let winter breathe a purple spring, let the year be flowery
before the day; let nature yield to the holy day.
Even earth owes garlands at the martyr’s tomb.
But him the sacred glory of heavenly light encircles,
blooming with the twin crown of war and of peace. 115
Ask, I pray, for a serene day with eternal peace for us,
ask for the day; may it be allowed to rejoice again at its return,
and here annually to render both vows and songs to your feasts,
Christ’s numen appeased and tranquil.

Hic amor, hic labor est nobis; haec vota tuorum 120
Suscipe, commendaque Deo, ut cum sedula cura
Servitium nostrum longo tibi penderit aevo,
Tunc demum placidos pietate laboris alumnos
Absolvas mittente manu; positasque tuorum
Ante tuos vultus animas vectare paterno 125

This is our love, this is our labor for us; these vows of your own 120
Receive, and commend them to God, so that, when with sedulous care
our service has paid its due to you through a long age,
then at last you may release, with a dismissing hand, the placid nurslings of labor’s piety,
and to bear, in a fatherly way, the souls of your people, set before your face 125

Ne renuas gremio Domini fulgentis ad ora:
Quem bonitate pium, sed majestate tremendum,
Exora, ut precibus plenis meritisque redonet
Debita nostra tuis, cum tu quoque magna piorum
Portio, regnantem Felix comitaberis Agnum: 130
Posce ovium grege nos statui, ut sententia summi
Judicis hoc quoque nos iterum tibi munere donet,
Ne male gratatis laevos adjudicet hoedis,
Sed potius dextra positos in parte, salutis
Munifico pecori, laudatisque adgreget agnis. 135

Do not refuse, at the bosom of the shining Lord, before His face:
whom, merciful by goodness, but tremendous by majesty,
beseech, that by prayers and merits in full he may remit our debts,
since you too, a great portion of the devout, Felix, will accompany the reigning Lamb: 130
ask that we be set in the flock of the sheep, that the sentence of the supreme
Judge may also again grant us to you as a gift,
lest he adjudge us leftward among ill-approved kids,
but rather, placed on the right side, to the bountiful flock of salvation,
and join us to the praised lambs. 135

POEMA XV.
DE S. FELICE NATALITIUM CARMEN IV.

POEM 15.
ON ST. FELIX, NATAL POEM 4.

Annua vota mihi remeant, simul annua linguae
Debita, natalis tuus, o clarissime Christo
Felix, natali proprio mihi carior; in quo
Quamlibet innumeris sint gaudia publica turbis.
Est aliquid speciale tuis, quod nos tibi Christus               5
Esse dedit, viles caro largitus amico.
Non quia tu dignus famulis tam vilibus esses,
Aeternis dignate Deo comes ire triumphis;
Sed quia nos inopes justi indignosque salutis
Sic voluit ditare Pater bonus, ut male dites               10
Criminibus versa in melius vice divitiarum,
Pro cunctis opibus cunctisque affectibus, et pro
Nobilibus titulis et honoribus omnia vanis,
Felicem caperemus opes, patriamque, domumque.
Tu pater, et patria, et domus, et substantia nobis,               15

Annual vows return to me, together with the annual debts of the tongue;
your birthday, O most illustrious to Christ,
Felix, dearer to me than my own birthday; on which
although public joys are to innumerable throngs.
There is something special to yours, that Christ gave that we be yours,               5
having lavished the lowly upon a dear friend.
Not because you would be worthy of servants so base,
you, deemed worthy to go as companion to God in eternal triumphs;
but because us, poor in justice and unworthy of salvation,
the good Father so willed to enrich, that, ill-rich with crimes,               10
turned for the better in place of riches,
in exchange for all wealth and all affections, and in exchange for
noble titles and honors, all of them vain,
we might take Felix as our wealth, and our fatherland, and our home.
You are father, and fatherland, and home, and substance for us,               15

In gremium translata tuum cunabula nostra,
Et tuus est nobis nido sinus, hoc bene foti
Crescimus, inque aliam mutantes corpora formam,
Terrena exuimur stirpe, et subeuntibus alis
Vertimur in volucres divini semine verbi.               20
Te relevante jugum Christi leve noscimus, in te
Blandus et indignis, et dulcis Christus amaris.
Ista dies ergo et nobis sollemnis habenda,
Quae tibi natalis: quia te mala nostra abolente
Occidimus mundo, nascamur ut in bona Christo.               25
Surge igitur cithara, et totis intendere fibris,
Excita vis animae tacito mea viscera cantu,
Non tacita cordis testudine, dentibus ictis,
Pulset amor linguae, plectro lyra personet oris.
Non ego Castalidas vatum phantasmata Musas,               30
Nec surdum Aonia Phoebum de rupe ciebo,
Carminis incentor Christus mihi: munere Christi
Audeo peccator sanctum et coelestia fari.

Our cradle transferred into your lap,
and your bosom is to us a nest; thus well fostered
we grow, and, changing our bodies into another form,
we are stripped of earthly stock, and as wings come beneath us
we are turned into birds by the seed of the divine Word.               20
With you relieving, we know the yoke of Christ to be light; in you
Christ is gracious to the unworthy, and sweet to the embittered.
Therefore this day too is to be held solemn for us,
which is your birthday: because, with you abolishing our evils,
we die to the world, that we may be born into good things in Christ.               25
Rise, then, cithara, and be stretched with all your fibres;
stir, O power of the soul, my inwards with unspoken song,
not with the heart’s silent tortoise-shell, with teeth smitten;
let love strike the tongue, let the lyre of the mouth resound with the plectrum.
Not the Castalian phantasms of the poets’ Muses will I summon,               30
nor will I rouse a deaf Phoebus from the Aonian rock;
Christ is for me the incentor of song: by the gift of Christ
I, a sinner, dare to speak the sacred and the celestial.

Nec tibi difficile, Omnipotens, mea solvere doctis
Ora modis, qui muta loqui, fluere arida, solvi 35
Dura jubes. Tu namque asinam reboare loquendo,
Perfectamque tibi lactentes condere laudem
Fecisti, et solidam solvisti in flumina rupem,
Et terram sine aqua subitis manere fluentis
Jussisti, deserta rigans in spem populorum, 40

Nor is it difficult for you, Omnipotent, to unseal my lips to learned modes,
you who command the mute to speak, the dry to flow, the hard to be dissolved 35
For you indeed made a she-ass to bray back in speech,
and caused sucklings to compose perfect praise for you,
and you loosened the solid rock into rivers,
and you bade land without water to be endowed with sudden streams,
watering the deserts into the hope of peoples. 40

In quorum arentes animas pia gratia fluxit,
Quos Christus vivo manans petra fonte refecit.
Unde ego pars hominum minima, isto munere fretus,
Roris, Christe, tui vivos precor aridus haustus.
De verbum de fonte tuo; tua non queo fari 45
Te sine; namque tui laus martyris, et tua laus est,
Qui facis Omnipotens homines divina valere,
Fortiaque infirmis superans, de carne triumphas,
Aerios proceres vincens in corpore nostro.

Into whose parched souls pious grace has flowed,
whom Christ refreshed with the living spring welling from the rock.
Whence I, the smallest part of men, relying on this gift,
parched, I pray, O Christ, for living draughts of your dew.
Give a word from your fountain; I am not able to speak what is yours 45
without you; for the praise of your martyr is your praise,
you who make, O Omnipotent, men to be strong by divine things,
and, overcoming strong things by means of the weak, you triumph over the flesh,
conquering the aerial princes in our body.

Quare ades, ut duce te repetens ab origine pergam               50
Felicem narrare tuum, cui nobile ductum
Ex Oriente genus: nec enim magis altera tellus
Felicis patriam decuit, quam quae patriarchas,
Quaeque pios tulerat, Christi sacra vasa, prophetas.
Unde et apostolicis fundens sua flumina linguis,               55
Totum Evangelii sonus emanavit in orbem.
Debitus inde Deo Felix, genitore profecto
Italiam necdum genitus, tamen in patre venit:
Civis ut affectu nostris oriretur in oris;
Nec cuiquam natum nisi nobis se meminisset.               60

Wherefore be present, that, with you as guide, returning from the origin I may proceed               50
to narrate your Felix, whose lineage drawn from the East is noble:
for no other land more befitted Felix’s fatherland than that which had borne the patriarchs,
and the pious, the prophets, sacred vessels of Christ.
Whence also, pouring forth its streams by apostolic tongues,               55
the sound of the Evangel emanated into the whole orb.
Thence Felix, owed to God, with his genitor having set out
to Italy, not yet begotten, nevertheless came in his father:
that as to affection he might arise a citizen on our shores;
and might remember himself born to none save to us.               60

Sic pater Abraham Domini praecepta secutus,
Mutavit patrias externo cespite terras,
Deposuitque sacrum Chananaeis semen in arvis;
Unde peregrinas subeunte propagine terras,
Mystica Felicem nobis transmisit origo,               65
Quem perfecta fides illa radice profectum
Prodidit, ut nobis esset pia vena fidei.
Felix nunc etiam posita cum carne quiescit,
Spiritus in Christo vivens, operantibus altae
Virtutis meritis Abrahae semine mutat               70
Duritiam lapidum, quos suscitat in bona vitae.
Hac igitur genitore Syro generatus in urbe,
Dilectam coluit patriae sub imagine Nolam,
Sede beans placita: multoque relictus in auro,
Dives opum viguit, quamvis non unicus heres.               75

Thus father Abraham, having followed the Lord’s precepts,
changed his ancestral lands for foreign turf,
and deposited the sacred seed in the Canaanite fields;
whence, as lineage advanced into peregrine lands,
a mystical origin transmitted Felix to us,               65
whom that perfect faith, sprung from that root,
revealed, so that he might be for us a pious vein of faith.
Felix now also, with flesh laid aside, rests,
his spirit living in Christ, by the operative merits of high
Virtue, with Abraham’s seed, changes               70
the hardness of stones, those whom he raises into the good of life.
Thus, with such a sire a Syrian, born in a city,
he cherished Nola, beloved as an image of his fatherland,
blessed with a pleasing seat: and left with much gold,
rich in resources he thrived, although not the sole heir.               75

Hermia cum fratre sui cognomine patris
Terrenas divisit opes; coelestia solus
Obtinuit Felix; geminos sententia discors
Divisit fratres: Hermiam mundus abegit,
Felicem Christus sibi sustulit: ille caduca               80
Maluit, hic solida: praesentibus ille cohaesit,
Iste solum coelo vertit, patrimonia regnis:
Ille heres tantum proprii patris, iste coheres
Christi. Sed quis tam variam miretur ab uno
Sanguine progeniem, veterum inter sancta parentum               85
Pignora qui relegat populorum stirpe duorum
Fecundam pugnas uteri doluisse Rebeccam
Conquestamque Deo gravidi luctamina ventris?
Cum jam tunc fremeret sanctae intra viscera matris,
Quae nunc intra uterum mundi discordia saevit.               90

Hermia, with his brother, the namesake of his father,
divided earthly wealth; Felix alone obtained the celestial;
a discordant judgment divided the twin brothers: the world drove Hermia away,
Christ took Felix up to himself: that one preferred the perishable,               80
this one the solid; that one clung to present things,
this one turned the soil to heaven, patrimonies into realms:
that one an heir only of his own father, this one a co-heir
of Christ. But who would marvel at so varied a progeny from one
blood, who reviews among the sacred pledges of the ancient parents,               85
that Rebecca, fecund with the stock of two peoples,
felt the womb’s combats to her pain and complained to God of the struggles
of her gravid belly? Since even then there roared within the holy mother’s entrails
that discord which now rages within the womb of the world.               90

Hispida Judaeis hirti sectantibus Esau
Perfidia, addictis populo servire minori.
At nobis laevem per lenia pacis Iacob,
Qua via lucis agit, meliore sequentibus ortu.
Ergo pari dispar fratrum de sanguine sanguis:               95
Hermias, velut asper Edom terrena secutus,
Squaluit in vacua captivus imagine mundi,
Duraque Idumaei praelegit rura parentis,
-In gladio vivens proprio, vanaeque laborem
Militiae sterilem tolerans, qui Caesaris armis               100
Succubuit, privatus agens ad munia Christi.
At meus aeterni satus arma capessere Regis,
In patris Israel migravit nomina Felix:
Seseque a puero pia mens coelestibus edens,
Instituit servire Deo; nec gratia pauper               105

The Jews, bristling with perfidy, following shaggy Esau,
enslaved to serve the lesser people.
But for us, smooth Jacob, through the gentle ways of peace,
where the way of light advances, for those following a better origin.
Therefore from equal blood the blood of the brothers is unlike:               95
Hermias, like rough Edom, having pursued earthly things,
grew squalid, a captive in the empty image of the world,
and preferred the hard fields of his Idumaean father,
-living by his own sword, enduring the sterile toil
of vain militia, he who succumbed to Caesar’s arms,               100
conducting himself as a private with respect to the duties of Christ.
But mine, sprung of the eternal King, to take up the arms of the King,
Felix migrated into the names of his father Israel:
and his pious mind, from boyhood giving itself to heavenly things,
he instituted himself to serve God; nor poor in grace               105

Adfuit, et quantum sitiebat corde capaci
Lucis hians animus, tam largiter influa traxit
Dona Dei. Primis lector servivit in annis.
Inde gradum cepit, cui munus voce fideli
Adjurare malos, et sacris pellere verbis. 110
Quod quia perspicua meriti virtute gerebat,
Jure sacerdotis veneranda insignia nanctus;
Mente loco digna meritum decoravit honorem.

He was present, and as much as his soul, gaping for light, thirsted with a capacious heart,
so lavishly he drew in the inflowing gifts of God. In his earliest years he served as a lector.
Thence he took the step whose office is, with faithful voice,
to adjure the wicked and to drive them off with sacred words. 110
Because he performed this with the manifest virtue of merit,
having by right obtained the venerable insignia of a priest;
with a mind worthy of the post he adorned the honor with merit.

Sed ne sola sacrum caput infula comeret illi,
Exstitit et potior geminandae causa coronae. 115
Dira profanorum rabies exorta furorum;
Cum pia sacrilego quateretur Eclesia bello,
Praecipueque illos populo deposceret omni
Impietas, quorum pietas insignior esset:
Tunc senior sanctis Nolanam legibus urbem 120

But lest the sacred fillet alone should adorn his head,
there arose also a more weighty cause for a crown to be doubled. 115
A dread rabies of profane furies broke out;
when the pious Church was being battered by a sacrilegious war,
and impiety was demanding especially from the whole people
those whose piety was more distinguished:
then the elder governed the city of Nola by holy laws. 120

Maximus e placido formabat episcopus ore,
Presbytero Felice potens; quem mente paterna
Complexus veluti natum, sedisque fovebat
Heredem; subita sed tempestate fugatus,
Non cedente fide, petiit deserta locorum. 125
Tunc magis atque magis, quaesito antistite, felix
Claruit oppositus gladiis, solusque fidei
Invidia affectus: nec spectabatur honore;
Major honore fides tantum quia causa fidei.
Tunc petitur, sua cum draco lividus excitat arma, 130
Proruere id cupiens, quo surgimus, et cadit ipse.
Ergo truces poenas, fugiente antistite, solus,
Vel primus de plebe, quasi de corpore vertex,
Competitur Felix.

Maximus the bishop, by placid speech, was shaping,
mighty on behalf of Presbyter Felix; whom with a paternal mind
he embraced as though a son, and he fostered as the heir of the see;
but, driven into flight by a sudden tempest, with faith not yielding, he sought deserted places. 125
Then more and more, with the prelate being sought, Felix
shone set against swords, and alone was afflicted by envy for faith:
nor was he regarded for honor; greater than honor was faith, solely because it was for the cause of faith.
Then he is attacked, when the livid dragon rouses his own arms,
desiring to overthrow that by which we rise—and he himself falls.
Therefore, with the prelate fleeing, savage penalties are claimed of him alone,
or as the foremost from the people, like the head from the body,
Felix is singled out.

Hunc omnes vincere certant;
Et quasi praecelsam obsessis in moenibus arcem 135

All contend to vanquish him;
And as if a very lofty citadel within besieged walls 135

Facta mole petunt; cujus munimine victo
Cetera jam facili cadat urbs prostrata ruina.
O digna infidis dementia! creditur uno
Exstinguenda fides, totus quam credidit orbis.

They assault with a constructed mound; with its muniment overcome,
then let the rest of the city, prostrated, fall in an easy ruin.
O madness worthy of infidels! they believe that by one man
Faith is to be extinguished, which the whole world has believed.

Heu misera impietas! infernis caeca tenebris, 140
Quo ruis? in quem tela moves?

Alas, wretched impiety! blind in infernal darkness, 140
Whither do you rush? against whom do you move your weapons?

an credis in uno
Mortali constare Deum? Et, si corpora solvas,
Vim simul et mentem divinam posse aboleri?
Quae mundi per membra meat, qua nasceris ipse,
Indignusque aleris, cujus de numine pendet 145
Vincere vel vinci; cujus virtute vel unus
Fortior innumeris: pietate armatus inermi,
Armatos ferro, sed inermes pectora Christo,
Prosternit superante fide, quae conscia veri
Coelestis, vitam praesenti monte futuram 150

or do you believe that in one
mortal God consists? And, if you dissolve bodies,
that the divine force and mind can likewise be abolished?
which passes through the members of the world, by which you yourself are born,
and, unworthy, are nourished—upon whose numen depends 145
to conquer or to be conquered; by whose virtue even one
is stronger than innumerable: armed with piety, unarmed,
he lays low those armed with iron, but breasts unarmed with Christ,
by faith that prevails, which, conscious of the truth
heavenly, makes life future by present death 150

Comparat, et victo victricem corpore mentem
Laeta Deo referens gaudentibus invehit astris.
Quid juvat ergo pium tanta quod mole furoris
Felicem vesane petis? manet intus operto
Mens invicta Deo; nec jam tibi sola resistit 155
Terreni natura hominis; Deus ipse repugnat
Quem petis, atque tuis serpens antique venenis
Ipse offert se per famulorum corpora Christus,
Teque tuis nectens laqueis, in caede suorum
Sternit, per mortis speciem de morte triumphans. 160
Sed fera corda suus stimulis furialibus error
Sanguinea flagrare siti, sanctumque cruorem
Urgebat, veluti sceleris deposcere palmam.

She matches, and, with the body conquered, joyfully carrying the conquering mind back to God, conveys it into the rejoicing stars.
What then does it avail, madman, that with so great a mass of frenzy you assail the pious, the happy? Within, under cover, there remains for God an unconquered mind; nor now does the mere nature of earthly man alone resist you, 155
God himself fights back—him whom you attack; and you, serpent, with your ancient poisons, Christ himself offers himself through the bodies of his servants, and, binding you with your own snares, in the slaughter of his own he lays you low, triumphing over Death through the appearance of death. 160
But their savage hearts their own error with furial goads was urging to blaze with sanguinary thirst, and to press for holy gore, as though to claim the palm of crime.

Ergo ubi sacrilegos excepit Nola furores,
Intentosque piis expavit civibus enses, 165

Therefore, when Nola met the sacrilegious furies,
and shuddered at swords intent against the pious citizens, 165

Quaeritur excussa Felix venerandus in urbe.
Nec refugit, celso jam spirans sidera flatu,
Et tacitis acuens stimulis in praelia mentem,
Impavidus trepidum sorvabat pastor ovile,
Exemplo Domini, promptus dare pro grege vitam. 170
Ergo alacer saevos perstat quasi murus in hostes;
Et canis, florente fide, revirescit in annis,
Totus in astra animo, Christi memor, immemor aevi,
Corde Deum gestans, et plenus pectora Christo.
Nec jam se capit ipse; sacer majorque videri, 175
Sidereumque oculis et honorem fulgere vultu.

The venerable Felix is sought in the shaken city.
Nor does he shrink, now breathing toward the stars with lofty breath,
and with silent goads sharpening his mind for battles,
fearless the shepherd was safeguarding the trembling sheepfold,
by the example of the Lord, ready to give his life for the flock. 170
Therefore brisk he stands fast against the savage foes as if a wall;
and, though hoary, with faith in blossom, he reinvigorates in his years,
wholly to the stars in spirit, mindful of Christ, unmindful of age,
bearing God in his heart, and his breast filled with Christ.
Nor now can he contain himself; he seems sacred and greater, 175
and a sidereal honor to gleam in his eyes and shine in his face.

Illicet arripitur gaudens; saevisque furentum
Protrahitur manibus, sed (qui mos hostis iniqui,
Cui potior labor est animas quam corpora nostra
Perdere), dilatum gladio terroribus ante 180

Straightway he is seized, rejoicing; and by the savage hands of the frenzied he is dragged forth, but (such is the custom of the iniquitous enemy, for whom the weightier labor is to destroy souls rather than our bodies), the sword being deferred, with terrors first 180

Tentat, et in mortem surgit gradibus poenarum.
Primus supplicii de carcere texitur ordo.
Ferrea junguntur tenebrosis vincula claustris;
Stat manibus colloque chalybs, nervoque rigescunt
Diducente pedes: sternuntur fragmina testae, 185
Arceat ut somnum poenalis acumine lectus.

Tried, and he rises toward death by steps of penalties.
The first course of punishment is woven from the prison.
Iron fetters are joined to the tenebrous enclosures;
Steel stands upon his hands and neck, and his feet grow rigid
as a cord draws them apart: fragments of potsherd are strewn, 185
so that the penal bed, by its sharpness, may ward off sleep.

Nec requie tamen est vacuus, nec luminis expers
Confessor, cui jam sociatus in omnia Christus
Compatitur, virides gravior cui poena coronas
Multiplicat; spatiante polum qui mente peragrat. 190
Seque ipsum, vincto quamvis in corpore, liber
Spiritus antevolat summi in penetralia Christi,
Praemeditante anima certis sua praemia votis.
Ergo beata sacris Felicem passio poenis
Urgebat gravibus vinclis et carcere caeco: 195

Nor is he empty of rest, nor deprived of light,
the Confessor, with whom Christ, now associated in all things,
suffers-with; for whom a weightier punishment multiplies green
crowns; who, his mind ranging, traverses the pole. 190
And he himself—though in a bound body—the free
Spirit flies on ahead into the innermost chambers of the Most High Christ,
the soul pre-meditating its own rewards with certain vows.
Therefore the blessed passion with sacred penalties was pressing Felix,
with heavy chains and a blind (dark) prison. 195

Quantasque ex homine induerat caro subdita poenas,
Tantas a Christo recipit patientia palmas.
Maximus interea solis in montibus aeger,
Contentus fugisse manus feraliaque ora
Carnificum, diversa, at non leviore, ferebat               200
Martyrium cruce, quam si ferro colla dedisset,
Membraque tormentis, aut ignibus: acrior illum
Cura sui gregis urit et afficit; uritur igne
Frigoris, et gelido coeli de rore rigescit,
Panis inops tectique simul, noctemque diemque               205
Pervigil intenta jungit prece tempus utrumque.
Dumosa dum stratus humo compungitur artus
Sentibus, et mentem curis, intusque forisque
Dimicat, et ruris spinas in corpore perfert,
Tristitiae patitur spinas in pectore maesto.               210

And as many punishments as the subjected flesh had put on from man,
so many palms does patience receive from Christ.
Meanwhile Maximus, afflicted, on solitary mountains,
content with having fled the hands and deathly faces
of executioners, was bearing a different, yet not lighter, martyrdom               200
by a cross, than if he had given his neck to iron,
and his limbs to torments, or to fires: a keener
care for his flock burns and afflicts him; he is burned by the fire
of cold, and from the gelid dew of heaven he grows stiff,
bereft alike of bread and of roof; both night and day, ever-vigilant,               205
he yokes each time with intent prayer.
While, laid on brambly ground, his limbs are pricked
by briars, and his mind by cares, and he battles within and without,
and he endures the thorns of the countryside in his body,
he suffers the thorns of sadness in his sorrowing breast.               210

Duris dura tegens, cruciatu mentis acerbo
Membrorum tormenta levat, sensumque doloris
Corporei excludit cordis dolor. Attamen aegra
Materies terrae (licet inconcussa maneret
Vis animae, spernente fide labentia carnis), 215
Victa hieme atque fame, duroque attrita cubili,
Deficiente suam linquebat corpore mentem,
Altius e vacuis fessi senis hausta medullis
Frigora pellebant glaciato sanguine vitam.
Mota Patris summi pietas antistite tanto, 220
Non tulit obscuro consumi funere corpus.

Shielding hard with hard, by the bitter cruciation of mind he lightens the torments of the members, and the pain of the heart shuts out the sense of bodily pain. Yet the ailing material of earth (although the force of the soul remained unshaken, with faith spurning the slipping things of the flesh), 215
conquered by winter and hunger, and worn down by a hard couch, as strength failed was leaving his mind from the body; chills, drawn deeper from the empty marrows of the weary old man, were driving life away with ice-frozen blood. The compassion of the highest Father, moved by so great a prelate, would not allow the body to be consumed by an obscure death. 220

Quanquam et ut Eliam, sic istum pascere posset,
Esciferas volucres jejuna per avia mittens;
Posset et ut Mosen secreto operire sepulcro.
Sed soli hoc dederat Deus uni munus amico, 225

Although he could, as Elijah, so also this man, feed,
sending food-bearing birds through the trackless barren wilds;
he could also, as Moses, cover with a secret sepulcher.
But to one friend alone had God given this boon, 225

Arcana tellure tegit, quia jure decebat.
Tantus honos illud corpus, quod comminus ore
Fulserat, et sermone Dei ut mortalia functus
Jura, Deo tantum frueretur teste sepulcri.
Ergo sacerdotem confessoremque sereno               230
Lumine respiciens, tacitis tabescere silvis
Non tulit ulterius mitis Pater; et quia digno
Condignum comitem meritis sociare parabat,
Felicem numero de carceris eligit omni,
Cujus id apponat meritis opus, ut senis almi               235
Membra levet, revocetque animam, revehatque refotum,
Attonitisque ovibus cari solatia reddat
Pastoris. Venit ergo micans jam nocte silenti
Angelus, et tota vinctorum in plebe reorum
Felicem solum, pietas cui sancta reatum               240

He conceals with arcane earth, because by right it was befitting.
So great an honor for that body, which at close quarters, mouth to mouth,
had shone, and, by the discourse of God, having discharged mortal laws,
should enjoy God alone as witness of the sepulchre.
Therefore the gentle Father, looking with serene light upon the priest and confessor,               230
did not endure that he waste away further in the silent woods; and because he was preparing
to join a condign companion to the worthy by merits,
he chooses Felix from the whole number of the prison,
that he might assign this work to his merits: that he lift the limbs of the kindly old man,               235
and recall the soul, and carry him back, re-warmed,
and restore to the astonished sheep the consolations of the dear shepherd.
Therefore a shining Angel comes, now in the silent night,
and, in the whole plebs of fettered culprits,
Felix alone, for whom holy piety [the] guilt               240

Fecerat, alloquitur: fugit atri carceris horror.
Voce simul sacri Felix et luce ministri
Excussus tremit, et verbum trahit aure fideli.
Ac primum, velut eludentis imagine somni
Accipiat mandata Dei, stupet anxius: et se 245
Causatur non posse sequi prohibente catena,
Insuper et claustro simul et custode teneri
Carceris obsessi.

had made the charge; he addresses: the horror of the black prison flees.
At once, at the voice of the sacred minister and at his light,
Felix, shaken out, trembles, and draws the word with a faithful ear.
And at first, as if, with the image of a mocking dream, he were receiving
the mandates of God, he is amazed, anxious: and he pleads that he is not able to follow, the chain forbidding, 245
he is moreover held both by the bolt and by the guard
of the besieged prison.

Sed vox divina morantem
Increpitans, jubet excussis assurgere vinclis.
Et subito, ut molles manibus fluxere catenae, 250
Sponte jugo cervix ferrato exuta levatur,
Prosiliuntque pedes laxato caudice nervi.
Mira fides!

But the divine voice, chiding the one delaying,
commands him to rise, the bonds shaken off.
And suddenly, as the chains, pliant, flowed from his hands, 250
of their own accord the neck, stripped of the iron yoke, is lifted,
and the feet spring forth, the thongs with the block loosened.
Wondrous faith!

salvis reserato carcere claustris,
Sopito custode, fores interritus exit,
Perque ipsos via fit, per quos via clauditur; ibat 255

with the prison unbarred, its bolts unharmed,
with the guard lulled to sleep, he goes out through the doors unafraid,
and a way is made through those very ones by whom the way is closed; he was going 255

Angelus, et tacitae per amica silentia noctis
Lux et iter Felicis erat. Nonne unus in omni
Christus adest sancto? sicut viget omnibus idem
Spiritus in Christo genitis, sic ipsa piorum
Gratia concordat.

An angel, and through the friendly silences of the silent night,
was the light and the way of Felix. Is not one Christ present to every saint?
Just as the same Spirit thrives in all who are begotten in Christ, so the very Grace of the pious accords.

Veterem remeare recenti               260
Historia video speciem, qua jussus abire
Bisseno sublimis in agmine discipulorum
Petrus, sponte sua vinclis labentibus, eque
Carcere processit clauso, qua praevius illum
Angelus, Herodi praedam furatus, agebat.               265
Sic meus, educente Deo, geminata per atra
Carceris et noctis, reliquis obscura, sed uni
Illustrata sibi, Felix impune per ipsos
Custodes, constante premens vestigia passu,
Callibus ignotis directus, jussa petebat.               270
Et postquam emensus secretos avia saltus
Rura, locum fessi senis invenit; aegra trahentem
Jam tenui cernit maestus suspiria flatu.
Et primo ut cari cognovit membra parentis,
Fusus in amplexum, dat vultibus oscula notis,               275

I see History return an ancient semblance with a recent one,               260
by which, ordered to depart,
Peter, exalted in the twice-six cohort of disciples,
with the chains slipping of their own accord, and from
the prison, though shut, went forth, where a guiding before-him
Angel, having stolen the prey from Herod, was leading him.               265
Thus mine, with God leading out, through the doubled shades
of prison and night, obscure to the rest, but to one
illuminated for himself, Felix, unharmed, through the very
guards, pressing the footprints with a steady step,
directed along unknown bypaths, was seeking the things commanded.               270
And after he had traversed the secluded, pathless glades
and fields, he found the place of the weary old man; sad, he sees him
now drawing sickly sighs with a thin breath.
And at first, when he recognized the limbs of his dear parent,
poured into an embrace, he gives kisses to the well-known features,               275

Et tentat gelidis revocare fovendo calorem
Artubus, et crebris adflatibus oris anheli
Reddere viventes tepefacto corpore sensus.
Sed neque clamatu est neque pulsu mobile corpus.
Jam simile exanimo: modicus tamen ultima vitae 280
Flatus, et internae prodit trepidatio fibrae.

And he tries, by cherishing, to call back the heat
to the chilly limbs, and with frequent afflations of his panting mouth
to restore living senses to the tepid body.
But the body is movable neither by shouting nor by beating.
Now like to one lifeless: a slight, yet the last, breath of life 280
comes forth, and a trepidation of the inner fibre is disclosed.

Anxius intuitu tali pia pectora Felix,
Distrahit exsangues artus, et lurida cernens
Ora fame, nec habens quidquam quo rebus egenis
Ferret opem, non igne procul, neque comminus esca. 285
Ut dape tabentem recrearet et igne rigentem.
Quaerenti, et multa Christum prece convenienti,
Quanam ope, quave via jussum complere valeret
Servitium, subitam omnipotens de sentibus uvam
Edidit, et capiti jussit pendere propinquam, 290

Felix, anxious at such a sight, with pious heart,
parts the bloodless limbs, and, seeing the lurid
faces from hunger, and having nothing with which to
bear succor to the needy plight, neither fire anywhere near, nor food at hand. 285
so as to refresh him, wasting away, with a meal, and, stiff with cold, with fire.
As he sought, and with many a prayer addressed Christ,
by what help, or by what way, he might be able to fulfill
the enjoined service, the Omnipotent brought forth a sudden cluster of grapes
from the brambles, and ordered it to hang near his head, 290

Ut facile attiguo posset decerpere ramo
Natum sponte cibum. Divinitus ergo refectus,
Mente pia oblato laetatur munere Felix;
Decerptumque manu morientis ad ora racemum
Admovet: et quoniam strictis jam dentibus ille               295
Et sentire negat dulces et sumere victus,
Exprimit humentes acinos, succumque liquentem
Instillat, digito diducens arida labra;
Donec et adspirante Deo conatibus aegris,
Et luctante manu, rigidos paulisper hiatus               300
Laxavit, tenuemque aditum dedit oris aperti,
Quo rorem exiguum resoluta infunderet uva.
Hinc animae sensus, calor ossibus, atque oculis lux,
Vitaque tota redit: quaeque haeserat obsita siccis
Faucibus, exercet solitas jam lingua loquelas,               305
Postquam vocis iter patefecit lubricus humor.
Ergo reviviscens, notissima comminus ora,
Felicis videt ora sui, amplexusque vicissim,
Conqueritur tardum: Nam te promiserat, inquit,
Adfore jamdudum Dominus mihi, pars mea Felix;               310

So that he might easily pluck from the neighboring branch food born of itself. Divinely therefore refreshed,
Felix, with pious mind, rejoices at the proffered gift;
and he brings the plucked cluster with his hand to the mouth of the dying man,
and, since with teeth now clenched he refuses both to sense the sweets and to take sustenance,               295
he presses the moist berries and instills the liquid juice,
drawing apart the parched lips with his finger;
until, God breathing upon the ailing endeavors,
and with his hand struggling, he for a little relaxed the rigid gapes,               300
and gave a slender access of the opened mouth,
by which the loosened grape might pour in a scant dew.
Thence the senses to the soul, warmth to the bones, and light to the eyes,
and the whole life returns: and that which had stuck, choked in the dry
throats, the tongue now exercises its wonted speeches,               305
after slippery moisture opened the path of voice.
Therefore, reviving, at close quarters the most well-known face,
he sees the face of his own Felix, and, embracing in turn,
he complains of the delay: “For the Lord had promised me,” he says,
“that you would be here long since, my portion, Felix.”               310

Praecipuum, Felix, pignus mihi, quae rogo tantae
Aut ubi te tenuere morae? Si corpore cessi
Ad tempus fragili, solido tamen esse fidelis
Pectore duravi. Docet et locus et status ipse,
In quo me cernis vitae istius ima trahentem, 315
Non mortis fugisse metu, Christoque meam me
Praeposuisse animam: fugi, non lucis amore,
Sed fragile hoc metuens infirmi corporis; atqui
Tecta petens, alia vixissem tutus in urbe,
Si mihi vile fides, et cara haec vita fuisset. 320
Ignotos montes, desertaque nuda petivi,
In gremio Domini dulcis mea colla reponens,
Ipso ut deficerem teste, aut ut pascerer ipso.

Chief pledge to me, Felix, I ask, what so great
delays, or where, have held you? If in body I yielded
for a time, yet with a solid breast I endured to be faithful.
Both the place and the very status teach,
in which you see me dragging out the lowest of this life, 315
that I did not flee from fear of death, nor set my own soul
before Christ: I fled, not from love of light,
but fearing this fragile thing of the infirm body; and yet,
by seeking roofs, I could have lived safe in another city,
if faith had been cheap to me, and this life dear. 320
I sought unknown mountains and naked deserts,
laying my sweet neck in the bosom of the Lord,
so that I might fail with himself as witness, or be fed by himself.

Nec frustra, ecce vides, fuit haec fiducia nobis:
Adfuit Omnipotens, et te mihi mittere legit, 325

Nor in vain, behold you see, was this confidence for us:
The Omnipotent was present, and chose to send you to me, 325

Per quem dona mihi sua redderet: utere, fili,
Praeceptis pietatis opus mandantibus, et me
Suscipiens humeris, commune ad ovile reporta.
Impiger optato gavisus munere Felix,
Carum onus, ut Christi pondus leve, sumit, et adfert               330
Tam volucri cursu, tamquam magis ipse feratur,
Nec ferat; et vere Christus fert ipse ferentem,
Et pedibus pietate citis Deus addidit alas.
Nocte eadem pariter tot munera percipit unus,
Et simul exsequitur Felix; sua rumpere jussus               335
Vincla, sacerdotem reficit, revehitque refectum,
Deponitque sui tutum sub culmine tecti,
Unica quod servabat anus; tam celsus et isto
Maximus exstabat merito Confessor, ut illi
Turba domus, summa et census, anus una maneret.               340

by whom he would render back his gifts to me: make use, my son,
of the precepts of piety enjoining the work, and, taking me up upon your shoulders,
carry me back to the common sheepfold.
Felix, untiring, rejoicing in the longed-for gift,
takes up the dear burden, as Christ’s weight is light, and brings it               330
with so winged a course, as though he himself were rather being carried,
and not carrying; and truly Christ himself carries the one carrying,
and to feet quick with piety God added wings.
On that same night the one man alike receives so many gifts,
and at once Felix carries them out; ordered to break his own               335
chains, he restores the priest, and carries back the restored man,
and sets him down safe beneath the roof-ridge of his house,
which a single old woman kept; so lofty, and by this very
merit the greatest Confessor, that for him the throng of a household,
and the whole of his property, remained one old woman.               340

Pulsatis foribus Felix hanc excitat; illa
Ad primos pavefacta sonos, vix nota renoscit
Alloquia, et dominum tectis assumit apertis,
Voce graduque tremens, quatiente timore senectam.
Cui Felix: Cape depositum hoc, quod conscia mecum               345
Sidera noctis, et angelicae sub principe Christo,
Me tradente, manus tradunt tibi; sume fideli
Hanc Domini gemmam gremio, quam tempore summo
Incolumem nobis Domino sub judice reddas,
Quo nunc teste capis. Subit istis Maximus orsis,               350
Felicemque suum revocans: Cape tu quoque, dixit,
Muneris, o mi nate, vicem, quam me tibi jussit
Reddere compositum, qui te mihi jussit adesse
Deposito. Tum deinde sacram Felicis amati
Imponit capiti dextram, simul omnia Christi               355
Dona petens: velut ille patrum venerabilis Isac
Rore poli natum, et terrae benedixit opimo;
Felicem Christo sic Maximus ore paterno
Ore et apostolico benedicens et locupletans,
Immarcescibilis redimivit honore coronae               360

Pounding at the doors, Felix rouses her; she,
frightened at the first sounds, scarcely recognizes the familiar
addresses, and admits her master with the house thrown open,
trembling in voice and step, fear shaking old age.
To whom Felix: Take this deposit, which, the stars of night being conscious together with me,               345
and under Christ, the prince of the angelic host,
with me delivering it, hands deliver to you; take into a faithful
bosom this gem of the Lord, which at the supreme time
you may return unharmed to us, with the Lord as judge,
by whom as witness you now receive it. At these openings Maximus enters,               350
and recalling his own Felix: Take you also, he said,
in return for the gift, O my son, that recompense which He ordered me
to render to you, who ordered you to be present to me
for the deposit. Then thereafter he places the sacred right hand
upon the head of beloved Felix, at the same time seeking all the gifts of Christ,               355
just as that venerable among the fathers, Isaac,
blessed his son with the dew of heaven and the opulent earth;
thus Maximus, for Christ, with a fatherly mouth
and an apostolic mouth, blessing and enriching,
wreathed him with the honor of an immarcescible crown.               360

Perpetuisque opibus, quas et modo cernimus, auxit.

and he augmented with perpetual resources, which even now we behold.

POEMA XVI.
DE S. FELICE NATALITIUM CARMEN V.

POEM 16.
ON S. FELIX, BIRTHDAY POEM 5.

Tempora temporibus subeunt; abit, et venit aestas;
Cuncta dies trudendo diem fugit, et rotat orbem:
Omnia praetereunt, sanctorum gloria durat
In Christo, qui cuncta novat, dum permanet in se.
Tandem igitur revoluta dies mihi nascere, toto               5
Exoptata dies anno, quae dulcia festa,
Et mea vota novas; quae me sollemnia poscis
Munera, natalem referens, quo millia gaudent
Innumeri populi; quo me specialia tangunt
Gaudia, quo famulae rata debeo munera linguae               10
Felici libare meo, cui mente dicata
In Domino Christo sum deditus: hunc et amoris
Obsequio celebrare per annua carmina sanctum
Fas mihi. Dicam igitur merita, et causas meritorum,
E quibus obtinuit coelestum praemia laudum,               15

Times succeed times; it departs, and summer comes;
the day, by pushing on day, puts all things to flight, and wheels the orb:
all things pass by; the glory of the saints endures
in Christ, who renews all things, while he remains in himself.
At length, therefore, let the day, rolled back, be born for me, the day long-desired in the whole               5
year, which brings sweet feasts,
and renews my vows; you, solemn observances, demand from me gifts,
gifts, bringing back the natal day, on which thousands rejoice,
innumerable peoples; on which special joys touch me,
joys, on which I owe the due gifts of a servant tongue               10
to libate to my Felix, to whom, with a mind dedicated
in the Lord Christ, I am devoted: and to celebrate this holy one also with the obsequy
of love through yearly songs is right for me. Therefore I will declare the merits, and the causes of the merits,
from which he obtained the prizes of celestial praises,               15

Aeternosque dies, et magni nomen honoris.
Jam prior hoc primos vobis liber edidit actus
Martyris, unde domo, vel qui genus, et quibus altus
In studiis, quo deinde gradu per sancta vocatus
Munia maluerit Christo servire perenni,               20
Quam patrias errare vias per devia mundi:
Nam pater emeritis sub Caesare vixerat armis,
Diximus et tetro toleratas carcere poenas,
Quas confessor obit, mortem quoque ferre paratus,
Ni Deus anticipans gladios, solvisset iniquis               25
Emissum vinclis, aliosque vocasset ad actus;
Ut prius ad sacram remearet episcopus aulam
Maximus, in solis qui saltibus ultima vitae
Aeger anhelabat, grassante fugatus ab hoste:
Quem jussus proprio subvexit corpore Felix               30,
Pauperis et tecti delatum in sede locavit;
Pensatisque sibi, sancto senis ore beati,
Officiis benedictus abit; paucisque diebus
Delituit proprii tacitus sub culmine tecti,
Non tacita Dominum coelestem mente fatigans,               35

And the eternal days, and the name of great honor.
Already before, the prior book has published to you the first acts
of the Martyr: whence his home, and what his lineage, and in which he was exalted
in studies; by what rank thereafter, called through holy duties,
he preferred to serve the everlasting Christ,               20
rather than to wander the fatherland’s ways through the byways of the world:
for his father had lived under Caesar with veteran arms;
and we have said the punishments endured in the foul prison,
which the confessor undergoes, ready also to bear death,
had not God, forestalling the swords, loosed from the unrighteous               25
the man sent forth from fetters, and called him to other acts;
so that first the bishop Maximus might return to the sacred hall,
who in solitary glades, sick, was gasping out the last of life,
driven into flight by the assailing enemy:
whom, being ordered, Felix supported with his own body,               30,
and, borne in, he placed in the seat of his poor roof;
and, the services having been weighed for him, blessed by the holy mouth of the blessed old man,
he departs; and for a few days
he hid quietly beneath the ridge of his own roof,
not with a silent mind tiring the heavenly Lord,               35

Quem prece directa, penetrans super astra, propinquo
Pulsabat merito, pacem procedere poscens.
Interea fluxere dies, pax visa reverti.
Deseruit latebram Felix, tandemque sereno
Confisus coelo, laetis se reddere laetum 40
Fratribus, et placidae committere coeperat urbi.

Whom with a direct prayer, penetrating beyond the stars, as one near by deserved merit he kept knocking upon, asking that peace proceed.
Meanwhile the days flowed by; peace seemed to return.
Felix abandoned his hiding-place, and at length, trusting in the serene heaven, he began to render himself glad to his glad brothers, 40
and began to commit himself to the placid city.

Gratabantur oves Christi, pastore recepto.
Ille gregem pavidum de tempestate recenti
Mulcebat monitis coelestibus, et duce verbo
Anxia corda regens, firmabat amore fidei; 45
Contemnenda docens et amara et dulcia mundi;
Nec concedendum terroribus; obviaque ipsis
Ignibus aut gladiis promptos inferre monebat
Pectora; et ipse suis addebat pondera verbis,
Confessor passus, quae perpetienda docebat; 50

The sheep of Christ were rejoicing, their shepherd received back.
He was soothing the timid flock after the recent tempest
with celestial admonitions, and with the word as guide
governing anxious hearts, he was making them firm by the love of faith; 45
teaching that both the bitter and the sweet things of the world are to be contemned;
nor is it to be conceded to terrors; and he was warning them to bring forth
breasts ready to meet the fires themselves or the swords;
and he himself was adding weight to his words,
a Confessor, having suffered the things which he taught were to be endured; 50

Omnibus eloquio simul exemploque magister.
Non tulit haec Malus ille diu: sed inhorruit atris
Crinibus, et rabidis inflavit colla venenis;
Immisitque suum scelerata in pectora virus,
Ureret ut nigras Felicis gratia mentes. 55
Inseruit stimulos, et mentibus arsit iniquis
Vipereae furor invidiae; petit improba primam
Ira domum; cunctis amor impius in scelus ardet.
Felicem sitit impietas: sed ab aedibus absens
Forte suis media steterat securus in urbe, 60
Fraternis de more suo vallatus amicis,
Et pia verba serens populi credentis in aures.

A master for all, at once by eloquence and by example.
The Evil One did not endure these things for long: but he bristled with black hair,
and swelled his neck with rabid venoms;
and he injected his own wicked virus into hearts,
so that the favor of Felix might scorch black minds. 55
He inserted spurs, and in unjust minds burned the viperine fury
of envy; wicked wrath seeks the foremost house;
in all an impious passion burns for crime.
Impiety thirsts for Felix: but, absent from his house,
by chance he stood secure in the midst of the city, 60
surrounded, after his custom, with brotherly friends,
and sowing pious words into the ears of the believing people.

Ecce ad eum, strictis quaerentes ensibus, adsunt.
Cum subito, aut illis corda hostibus, aut huic ora
Vertuntur, notum non agnovere furentes, 65

Behold, those seeking him, with swords drawn, are present.
When suddenly, either hearts to those enemies, or faces to this man,
Are turned; the frenzied did not recognize the well-known, 65

Felicemque rogant, Felix ubi cernitur, et non
Cernitur; ipse, nec ipse vir est; cum sit prope, longe est.
Ignotus notusque suis fit civibus idem,
Discernente fide vultum credentibus, ipse
Hostibus alter erat: persensit et ipse faventis 70
Consilium Christi; ridensque rogantibus infit:
Nescio Felicem quem quaeritis. Illicet illi
Praetereunt ipsum; discedit at ille platea,
Illudente canes Domino frustratus hiantes.

And they ask for Felix, where Felix is perceived, and not
perceived; he himself is the man, and not himself; when he is near, he is far.
Unknown and known alike he becomes to his fellow citizens,
faith discerning the face for the believing, he himself
was other to his enemies: he too perceived the favoring Counsel of Christ; 70
and smiling he begins to those asking:
I do not know the Felix whom you seek. Straightway they
pass by him; but he departs from the street,
the Lord mocking, the gaping dogs frustrated.

Nec longum emensis spatium, et scitantibus illis,               75
Qua Felix regione foret, quidam increpat, et dat
Indicium, ignarus causae, credensque furore
Dementes, qui non vidissent comminus ipsum,
Ad quem contiguis fecissent verba loquelis.
Perculsi novitate doli, graviusque furentes               80
Mox redeunt, perque ipsa viri vestigia currunt.
Jamque propinquabant, sed praecurrente tumultu
Urbis, et attoniti clamoribus undique vulgi
Admonitus Felix, instantia vulnera flexu
Declinat, medioque procul se devius aufert.               85

Nor, a long space not having been traversed, and as they kept asking,               75
in what region Felix might be, a certain man rebukes and gives
indication, ignorant of the cause, and believing by frenzy
them demented, who had not seen him at close quarters,
the very man to whom they had just addressed words at touching distance.
Struck by the novelty of the stratagem, and raging more grievously,               80
soon they return, and they run along the very footsteps of the man.
And now they were drawing near, but with the tumult
of the city running ahead, and the shouts of the crowd on every side,
Felix, admonished, declines the pressing wounds with a turn,
and, turning aside, carries himself far away from the midst.               85

Namque locum nanctus, spatio qui forte patenti
Panditur effugium, celebri seductus ab urbe,
Sic quoque non longinquus erat sectoribus atris,
Qui prope conspicuo subductus ab ore sequentum,
Infestos utcumque timens vitaverat enses;               90
Et capiendus erat, quia nullius obice claustri,
Ille repellendis locus obsistebat iniquis.
Nam foribus nullis, in publica rostra patebat
Semiruti paries malefidus fragmine muri.
Sed divina manus sese sanctum inter et hostes               95
Opposuit, miroque locum munimine sepsit.
Non strue saxorum, neque ferratis data valvis
Claustra, per humanas quibus atria claudimus artes:
Rudere sed subito concrevit sordidus agger,
Jussaque nutantes intendit aranea telas,               100

For indeed, having chanced upon a place which by a broad open space by chance is unfolded as an escape, drawn off from the populous city, thus even so he was not far from the dark pursuers, who, withdrawn from the conspicuous gaze of those following close, fearing hostile swords however he could, had evaded them;               90
and he was about to be taken, because by no impediment of a bar that place stood against repelling the iniquitous. For with no doors, into the public rostra there lay open a treacherous wall of a half-ruined structure, by a fragment of the wall. But a divine hand set itself between the holy man and the enemies, and with a wondrous muniment fenced the place.               95
Not by a heap of stones, nor by bars given to iron-bound doors—locks by which, through human arts, we close our halls—but rather a filthy rampart suddenly grew together with rubble, and, being ordered, a spider stretched its wavering webs.               100

Et sinibus tremulis in totum struxit apertum,
Desertaeque dedit faciem sordere ruinae.
Quae simul occurrit minitantibus, obstupuerunt,
Defixoque gradu, sibimet dixere vicissim:
Nonne furor tentare aditus, aut credere quemquam 105
Hac intrasse hominem, minimi qua signa dedissent
Vermiculi? modicae rumpunt haec retia muscae,
Nos penetrasse virum per clausa putamus inepti,
Et tenerum tanto non ruptum corpore textum?

And with trembling folds she constructed over the whole aperture,
and gave it the aspect of being foul with deserted ruin.
Which, as soon as it met the menacing pursuers, they were astounded,
and, with their step fixed, they said to themselves in turn:
Is it not madness to attempt the entrances, or to believe anyone 105
to have entered here, where the tiniest vermicules would have given the slightest signs?
small flies break these nets,
and we, fools, suppose that a man has penetrated through closed places,
and that the tender weave has not been broken by so great a body?

Ille magis nostris manibus modo debitus index, 110
Qui nos in deserta doloso callidus astu
Induxit, versumque alio, mentitus in isto
Felicem latitare situ, quo nostra maligno
Verteret arma dolo, capiti fugientis amicus.
Ergo recedamus: nam stare diutius istic, 115

That informer is rather, just now, owed to our hands, 110
who, shrewd with deceitful and astute craft, induced us into the deserts,
and, having turned us elsewhere, lied that in this
site the fortunate one lies hidden, in order that by malign
deceit he might turn our arms, a friend to the fugitive’s head.
Therefore let us recede: for to stand longer here, 115

Risus erit vulgi, demensque notabitur error,
Scrutatum hac hominis latebras contendere gressum,
Qua vel mole putri, vel araneolis obductis,
Monstrat inaccessos humus incalcata recessus.
Nec mora, discedunt propere in diversa frementes: 120
Sed Deus, ut Scriptura canit, vesana minantes
Irridebat eos coelesti Christus ab arce;
Felicemque suum sacris velaverat alis.
Qui Domini tutus gremio candentia tela
Discutiebat ovans galea, scutoque fidei, 125
Et gladium verbi confessor in ore gerebat.

There will be the laughter of the crowd, and the demented error will be noted,
to press the step to scrutinize a man’s hiding-places in this way,
where either by a putrid mass, or with little spider-webs over-drawn,
the trampled ground shows recesses inaccessible.
No delay: they depart quickly, in different directions, roaring; 120
But God, as Scripture sings, at their raving threats
Christ from the celestial citadel was laughing them to scorn;
and had veiled his favored one with sacred wings.
Who, safe in the bosom of the Lord, the glowing missiles
was striking aside, exultant, with the helmet and shield of faith, 125
and, as confessor, he bore the sword of the word in his mouth.

Armatus pietate manus, et pectora plenus
Casta Deo, insignis meriti thorace tegebat.
O multis divina modis Sapientia dives,
Semper ab infirmis confundens fortia mundi! 130

Armed with piety in his hands, and his breast full,
chaste for God, he covered himself with the breastplate of distinguished merit.
O divine Wisdom, rich in many modes,
always confounding the strong things of the world by the weak! 130

Vix populos altis defendunt moenia muris,
Et fretos valido munimine saepius hostis
Opprimit, adversisque expugnat montibus urbes.
Nunc et ab armatis protexit aranea sanctum
Defensante Deo; teneris stetit hostis abactus 135
Cassibus; aerio cessit vis ferrea filo.
Vana salus hominum, virtus mea non mihi virtus,
Si caream virtute Dei.

Hardly do ramparts defend peoples with high walls,
And the enemy more often crushes those relying on a strong muniment, and with opposing mountains he storms cities.
Now even a spider protected the holy man from armed men
With God defending; the foe stood driven back by tender snares, 135
iron force yielded to an airy thread.
Vain is the safety of men, my virtue is no virtue to me,
if I lack the virtue of God.

Quo vasta gigantum
Robora? Quo Pharii reges? Ubi magna Hiericus?

Whither the vast might of the giants?
Whither the Egyptian kings? Where is great Jericho?

Omnibus exitio sua gloria, qua tumuerunt, 140
Cassa fuit. Neque vero suis virtutibus ista,
Sed magis infirmis divina potentia fregit.
Ille gigas pueri funda pastoris obivit,
Ut canis; illam urbem sonitus solvere tubarum;
Littorea jacuit rex ille superbus arena, 145
Divitias regni pendens in funere nudo.

To all, their glory, with which they swelled, was void—for their ruin, 140
Nor indeed by their own virtues were those things,
But rather divine potency broke the strong by means of the weak.
That giant died by the boy shepherd’s sling,
like a dog; that city the sounding of trumpets unloosed;
that proud king lay upon the littoral sand, 145
the riches of the kingdom hanging on a naked funeral.

Sic ubi Christus adest nobis, et aranea muro est:
At cui Christus abest, et murus aranea fiet.
Digressis igitur cum facta silentia turbis,
Secretoque fugae fidas nox alta tenebras 150

Thus, when Christ is present to us, even a spider-web is a wall:
But for whom Christ is absent, even a wall will become a spider-web.
Therefore, with the crowds having departed and silence made,
and deep night kept faithful shadows for the secrecy of flight 150

Praebuit, egreditur Felix, mutatque latebram:
Illa canens Domino: Media si mortis in umbra
Ingrediar, mala non metuam, quoniam tua mecum
Dextra, per infernum non expers luminis ibo.
Ergo Dei ductu capit in regione remota 155
Compluvium, angusto brevia inter tecta cubili,
Quo vetus arebat tecto cisterna profundo.
Propter in attiguis habitabat femina tignis
Sancta Deo mulier, quae confessoris operti
Nescia, Felicem Christo quasi conscia pavit. 160
Mira canam, ingenium Domini pascentis alumnum,
Ignara pascente suum.

It afforded; Felix goes forth, and changes his hiding-place:
He, singing to the Lord: If I should enter in the midst of the shadow of death,
I will not fear evils, since your Right hand is with me;
through hell I shall go not devoid of light.
Therefore, by God’s leading, he takes, in a remote region, 155
a compluvium, amid low roofs, in a narrow cubicle,
where beneath the old roof a cistern in the deep was drying up.
Nearby, in adjoining beams, there lived a woman,
a woman holy to God, who, unaware of the hidden confessor,
fed Felix for Christ as though conscious. 160
I will sing marvels, the ingenuity of the Lord feeding his alumnus,
while the unknowing one feeds her own.

Nunc sedula panes,
Nunc alias de more, sibi quas coxerat escas,
Mentis in excessu divino facta paratu
Importabat eo, Felix ubi teste latebat 165

Now, assiduous, she would bring breads,
now other viands according to custom, which she had cooked for herself,
with her mind in a divine ecstasy, made ready by provision,
she would carry them in to that place where, with God as witness, Felix lay hidden 165

Velatus Domino; sed nec cum tenderet illo
Noverat ingressum; nec cum discederet inde,
Introitus erat illa sui memor: utque paratos
Intulerat victus, propriis licet illa cibando
Serviret manibus sancto, tamen inscia tanti               170
Muneris, hoc de corde suo novisse nequibat,
Quod non mente sua, sed Christi numine agebat,
Proque loco latebrae, et strictae super ora lacunae,
Appositos ingressa cibos linquebat, eosque
Se posuisse domi credens, ita semper abibat,               175
Ponendae memor, et positae mox immemor escae.
O mulier benedicta Deo, velut una volucrum,
Quae quondam mundo abductum pavere prophetam.
Tu quoque secreto pavisti martyra tecto,
Sicut avis Domino parens, et nescia sancti,               180

Veiled by the Lord; but neither when she bent her course thither
did she know the ingress; nor, when she departed from there,
was that woman mindful of her own introit: and as the prepared
victuals she had brought in, although by feeding she was serving
with her own hands the holy man, yet ignorant of so great a               170
service, she could not know this from her heart,
that she acted not by her own mind, but by the numen of Christ,
and as for the place of the hiding, and the cistern constricted at the mouth above,
having entered she would leave the set-down foods, and these
she, believing she had set them at home, thus always would depart,               175
mindful of the food to be set down, and soon unmindful of the food once set down.
O woman blessed by God, like one of the birds,
who once fed the prophet withdrawn from the world.
You too fed the martyr beneath a secret roof,
like a bird obeying the Lord, and unknowing of the holy man,               180

Conscia servitii: quid gesseris, et cui tandem
Servieris, gaudens illo sub tempore nosces,
Cum Deus ipse suo pro confessore coronam
Justitiae Christus reddet tibi, tunc tua Felix
Ipse tibi referet sub judice prandia Christo,               185
Quae Deus ad dulces sacrati martyris usus
Transtulit, ut quondam coctas messoribus escas,
Angelica per inane manu pendente propheta
Misit jejuno rabida inter monstra prophetae;
Non fera monstra, fides quia vicerat alma leones,               190
Sanctaque frenabant avidos jejunia rictus.
Sex illum totos perhibent ex ordine menses
Expertem coetus hominum vixisse sub illa
Culminis obscuri simul angustique latebra,
Nil opis humanae indiguum, solamine Christi               195

Conscious of the service: what you have done, and whom at last
you have served, rejoicing you will learn at that time,
when God Himself, Christ, will render to you the crown
of justice for His confessor; then your Felix
himself will recount to you, under Christ the Judge, the luncheons               185
which God transferred to the sweet uses of the consecrated martyr,
as once the cooked foods for the reapers,
through the void by an angelic hand, with the prophet borne aloft,
He sent to the fasting prophet among the rabid monsters;
not savage monsters, because kindly faith had conquered the lions,               190
and holy fasts were bridling the greedy jaws.
They relate that for six whole months, in due course, he lived
apart from the fellowship of men beneath that
hiding-place of the roof, both dark and narrow,
in need of nothing of human aid, by the solace of Christ.               195

Semper abundantem: qui tempore fertur in illo
Saepe illum sermone suo dignatus adisse:
Saepe sua pavisse manu, coeloque dedisse
Pocula, non pluvialis aquae; quam nubila passim
Omnibus effundunt; sed quem specialiter uni               200
Gratia Felici mittebat ab aethere rorem,
Nam nimiis, ut fit, tunc torrida solibus aestas,
Et puteum quoque siccarat, qui parta latenti
Pocula praebuerat. Sed ne sitis ureret illum
Carnea, qui Christum sitiendo, ferebat et istam               205
Corporis afflicti poenam, delata sereno
Inque globum tenuis nubes collecta, per arctum
Impluvii, dulcem sitientis in ora liquorem
Infudit, quasi pressa manu; coeloque vocandum,
Velleris aetherei succo lactante refecit.               210
Quid mirum, si nunc terrena labe solutum
Christus alat, positum quem in corpore sanctus alebat
Spiritus; et cui panis erat, Verbum Deus ipse
Coelestum panis, quo vescitur angelus omnis?
Tempus ut hoc abiit, pax reddita condidit enses,               215

Always abounding: who at that time is said
often to have approached him with his own discourse;
often to have fed him with his own hand, and to have given
cups from heaven—not of pluvial water, which the clouds everywhere
pour out for all; but the dew which, specially for one alone,               200
grace was sending from the upper air to Felix.
For then the summer, excessively, as it happens, was parched by suns,
and had dried even the well, which had furnished the procured
cups to the one in hiding. But lest fleshly thirst might scorch him
who, by thirsting for Christ, was also bearing that punishment               205
of an afflicted body, a thin cloud, brought over a clear sky
and gathered into a globe, through the narrow
opening of the impluvium, poured a sweet liquid into the mouth of the thirsting man
as if by a hand pressed; and, worthy to be called “from heaven,”
it refreshed him with the lactating juice of an ethereal fleece.               210
What wonder, if now Christ nourishes him, released from earthly stain,
whom, while placed in the body, the Holy Spirit nourished;
and for whom the bread was the Word, God himself—
the bread of the heavens, with which every angel feeds?
As this time passed, restored peace sheathed the swords,               215

Felicemque Deus monuit prodire latebra,
Qui dudum placidas mundi clamoribus aures
Struxerat, humanis ducens oblivia rebus.
Ut novus in lucem jam desperantibus exit,
Et patria tamquam redivivus in urbe videtur. 220
Et multi dubitant agnoscere, et ante rogantes,
Verane te facies? (Aiunt) tunc ille beatus
Redderis heu tanto nobis post tempore Felix?

And God admonished Felix to go forth from the hiding-place,
who long ago had blocked his placid ears to the clamors of the world,
drawing oblivion over human affairs. As, new, he comes out into the light now for those despairing,
and in his fatherland he seems in the city as though redivivus. 220
And many hesitate to recognize him, and beforehand, asking,
“Is your face true?” (they say) then that blessed one—
“Are you, alas, given back to us after so long a time, Felix?”

Qua regione venis? Coelo datus, an paradiso?
Redditus in terras habitacula nostra revisis? 225
Ille fidem firmat, coram se corpore adesse,
Servatum vixisse Deo; dat gaudia cunctis;
Laudibus et meritis populo celebratur ab omni.

From what region do you come? Given to heaven, or to paradise?
Returned to earth, do you revisit our habitations? 225
He confirms the faith, that he is present in body before them,
that, preserved by God, he has lived; he gives joys to all;
with praises and merits he is celebrated by all the people.

Functus erat, longum perfunctus episcopus aevum
Maximus, et numerus ductu pastoris egebat. 230

Maximus, the bishop, had finished, had thoroughly finished, a long age
and the number was lacking the guidance of a pastor. 230

Felicis nomen totum balabat ovile,
Quem confessoris redimibat adorea Christo;
Quemque salutiferum spondebat lingua magstrum,
Vitaque doctrinae concors; sed ut hoc quoque palmam
Justitiae ferret, meritum sublime quieto               235
Corde premens, velut indignus, non audet honore
Crescere, testaturque seni mage debita Quinto;
Quod prior ille gradum socii meruisset honoris
Presbyter: haec septem di tabat summa diebus.
Ergo sub hoc etiam Felix antistite vixit               240
Presbyter, et crevit meritis, qui crescere sede
Noluit: ipse illum tamquam minor omnia Quintus
Observabat, et os linguam Felicis habebat.
Ille gregem officio, Felix sermone regebat,
Multa aliis sanctum Christi virtutibus auxit               245

The whole fold was bleating the name of Felix,
whom the confessor’s palm was crowning for Christ;
and the tongue was pledging him as a health-bringing master,
and his life was concordant with his doctrine; but that in this too the palm
of Justice he might bear, pressing down his lofty merit with a quiet               235
heart, as if unworthy, he does not dare to grow in honor,
and he attests that it is more due to the elder Quintus;
because he, being earlier, had deserved the step of a companion’s honor
as presbyter: he prolonged these things for seven full days.
Therefore under this prelate too Felix lived               240
as presbyter, and grew in merits, he who did not wish to grow in the see;
Quintus himself, as though the lesser, in all things
paid regard to him, and had Felix’s mouth as his tongue.
He governed the flock by duty, Felix by speech,
he increased many others with Christ’s holy virtues.               245

Gratia Felicem, nec pace minora subegit
Praelia, quam validis confessor gesserat armis.
Corpoream tristi sub tempestate salutem
Spreverat, idem et opum simul et contemtor honorum
Secura sub pace fuit. Non ille tenendi 250
Securus meriti, sed cautior ut bona vitae
Parta tueretur, postquam discrimina mortis
Vicerat, et scopulos inter tranquilla timebat.

Grace gained Felix, and in peace it subdued contests no less
than the battles which the confessor had waged with stout arms.
He had spurned bodily safety under a grim tempest;
the same man, a despiser alike of wealth and of honors,
was secure under peace. He was not, as to holding, confident by merit, 250
but more cautious, that he might guard the goods of life
he had gained, after he had conquered the perils of death,
and amid rocks he feared calms.

Diximus ut mortem calcarit, et ambitionem;
Nunc aliam confessoris cognoscite palmam. 255
Vicit avaritiam: nam praedia multa domosque
Divitiis locuples patriis possederat heres;
Confessor proscriptus erat, sed pace reducta,
Et sua, si vellet, deposcere jura licebat:
Maluit ille tamen verbum curare Magistri, 260

We have said that he trampled on death and ambition;
now recognize another palm of the confessor. 255
He conquered avarice: for many estates and houses
the heir had possessed, wealthy with ancestral riches;
the confessor had been proscribed, but with peace restored,
and it was permitted, if he wished, to demand his own rights:
yet he preferred to care for the word of the Master, 260

Cuncta licent, non cuncta juvant: licito utile praefert;
Et quasi terrenae contagia ducere labis,
Horruit amissos in jura reposcere fundos.
Multi obtundebant, prae cunctis nomine prisco
Archelais, tam sancta fide, quam stemmate clara,               265
Dives opum vidua, et sanctum pietate fideli
Felicem venerans, atque illi cara vicissim.
Haec illum juxta meritum venerata colebat,
Utque ferunt, junctum sibimet pro jure sodali
Usurpans animum, crebris pia corda querelis               270
Saepe fatigabat, cur debita promptaque reddi
Jura recusaret, quae dispensare recepta,
Mercedis magnae cum foenore posset egenis.
Plurima de propriis quoque rebus munera saepe
Obtulit; ille pio contentus ad omnia sensu               275

All things are permitted, not all things profit: he prefers the useful to the licit;
and, as if to draw the contagions of earthly taint,
he shuddered to demand back into his rights the lost estates.
Many importuned him, above all, Archelais by her ancient name,
as holy in faith as renowned in lineage, 265
a widow rich in resources, venerating holy Felix with faithful piety, and in turn dear to him.
She, having venerated him according to his merit, cherished him,
and, as they say, claiming his mind as joined to herself by the right of sodality,
often wearied the holy heart with frequent pious complaints,
why he refused that the due and ready rights be restored,
which, once received, he could dispense to the needy with the interest of great reward.
Very many gifts too, from her own resources, she often offered;
he, content with a pious feeling toward all things, 275

Femineam placido ridebat pectore curam,
Coelestum sibimet sat conscius ipse bonorum,
Quae pro terrenis sibi compensata tenebat.
Unde potens, caris instantibus haec referebat:
Cogitis ut repetam terrena, perennia perdam? 280
Praestat, opes salvo desint, quam vita opulento:
Dives egebo Deo, nam Christum pauper habebo.
Divitiis inopem ditabit gratia Christi.

He smiled with a placid breast at the feminine care,
himself quite conscious for himself of the celestial goods,
which he held as compensated in exchange for earthly things.
Whence, being powerful, with dear ones pressing, he would say these things:
Do you compel me to reclaim earthly things, that I lose the perennial ones? 280
It is preferable that wealth be lacking to the saved man, than life to the opulent:
As rich, I shall lack God, for as poor I shall have Christ.
The grace of Christ will enrich one poor in riches.

Hunc retinens animum, tria macri jugera ruris,
Nec proprio sub jure tenens, conducta colonus 285
Ipse manu coluit, famulo sine, pauperis horti
Possessor: sed et has de cespite dives egeno
In Dominum confudit opes; cum paupere semper
Collectum divisit olus, cum paupere mensa
Una dies illi curam consumsit habendi. 290

Retaining this spirit, he had three meager iugera of land,
and, not holding it under his own right, as a colonus under lease, 285
he himself tilled it by hand, without a servant, the possessor of a poor garden:
but even these, from the sod—rich though indigent—he poured forth as wealth to the Lord; with the pauper he always
divided the gathered greens; with the pauper his table was one;
a single day consumed for him the care of possessing. 290

Unica vestis eum, saepe et vix unica texit.
Si geminas habuit, nudum meliore refovit.
Saepe novo miseros vertit velamine pannos.

A single garment clothed him—often, and scarcely even a single one.
If he had two, he warmed the naked with the better.
Often he turned rags into a new covering for the miserable.

Felicisque habitu pauper mutatus ab atro
Enituit; contra mendici tegmine Felix 295
Sorduit, exornans inculto corpore mentem.
Hac vivens pietate Deo maturus, et aevi
Et meriti plenis clausit sua secla diebus,
Mutavitque piae, non clausit, secula vitae.

And the poor man, changed from the dark by Felix’s habit, shone forth;
conversely, in the beggar’s covering Felix 295
grew dingy, adorning his mind with an unkempt body.
Living by this piety, mature for God, and with days full both of age
and of merit, he closed his own ages,
and he changed, not closed, the ages of life.

POEMA XVII.
AD NICETAM REDEUNTEM IN DACIAM.

POEM 17.
TO NICETAS RETURNING INTO DACIA.

Jamne abis, et nos properans relinquis?
Quos tamen sola regione linquis,
Semper adnexa sine fine tecum
Mente futuros?               4
Jamne discedis revocante longe
Quam colis, terra? sed et hic resistis
Sancte Niceta: quoniam et profectum
Corde tenemus.               8
I, memor nostri, remaneque vadens
Spiritu praesens, animis vicissim
Insitus nostris, trahe, ferque tecum
Quos geris in te.               12

Are you now going away, and, hastening, do you leave us?
Whom, however, you leave only by region,
Always, in mind, to be joined with you without end?
In mind to be?               4
Are you now departing, the land which you cultivate calling you back from afar?
But you also remain here, Saint Nicetas: since we also hold your profection
In the heart.               8
Go, mindful of us, and, going, remain
present in spirit, in turn
implanted in our minds; draw, and bear with you
those whom you carry in yourself.               12

O nimis terra et populi beati!
Quos modo a nobis remeans adibis;
Quos tuo accedens pede visitabit
Christus et ore.               16
Ibis Arctoos procul usque Dacos,
Ibis Epiro gemina videndus,
Et per Aegeos penetrabis aestus
Thessalonicen.               20
Appulis sed nunc via prima terris
Te vehet, longo spatiosa plano,
Qua Canusino medicata flagrant
Vellera fuco.               24

O lands and peoples too blessed!
whom, now returning from us, you will go to meet;
whom, as you draw near with your foot, Christ will visit
also by your mouth.               16
You will go far to the northern Dacians,
you will go to be seen in the twin Epirus,
and through the Aegean surges you will penetrate
to Thessalonica.               20
But now the first road through the Apulian lands
will carry you, spacious along a long plain,
where fleeces, medicated with Canusian dye,
blaze in color.               24

Ast ubi paulum via proferetur,
Det, precor, mites tibi Christus aestus,
Et levis spiret sine nube siccis
Aura Calabris.               28
Sicut antiqui manibus prophetae
Per sacramentum crucis, unda misso
Dulcuit ligno, posuitque tristes
Merra liquores;               32
Sic tibi coelum modo temperetur,
Et levi sudo tenuatus aer,
Flatibus puris placide salubres
Spiret in auras.               36

But when the way is carried forward a little,
may Christ, I pray, grant you mild heats,
and may a light breeze blow, cloudless, upon the dry
Calabrian lands.               28
Just as by the hands of the ancient prophet,
through the sacrament of the cross, the water, when the wood was sent in,
was sweetened, and laid aside the grim
liquors of Marah;               32
so for you may the sky now be moderated,
and the air, attenuated by gentle fair weather,
with pure breaths, placidly into healthful
auras, may it blow forth.               36

Qui solet flatu gravis e palustri,
Anguium tetros referens odores,
Solvere in morbos tumefacta crasso
Corpora vento.               40
Quem potens rerum Dominus fugari,
Sive mutari jubeat: suoque
Nunc sacerdoti bona sanitatis
Flabra ministret.               44
Sicut Aegypto pereunte quondam
Noctis et densae tenebris operta,
Qua Dei vivi sacra gens agebat,
Lux erat orbi.               48

Who is wont, heavy with a blast from the marsh,
recalling the grim odors of serpents,
to loosen into diseases bodies tumefied with thick
wind.               40
Which the Lord, potent over things, may command to be put to flight,
or to be changed; and may He now
to His priest minister the good breezes
of health.               44
Just as once, with Egypt perishing,
covered with night and dense darkness,
where the sacred nation of the living God was marching,
there was light for the world.               48

Quae modo in toto species probatur
Orbe, cum sanctae pia pars fidei
Fulgeat Christo; reliquos tenebris
Obruat error.               52
Sic meo, qua se feret actus ora,
Cuncta Nicetae Dominus secundet:
Donec optato patriam vehatur
Laetus ad urbem.               56
Perge, Niceta, bene qua recurris,
Prosperos Christo comitante cursus,
Quem tui dudum populi fatigant
Nocte dieque.               60

What form is now approved in the whole orb,
since the pious part of holy faith shines with Christ; let error
overwhelm the rest with darkness.               52
Thus, on my shore, wherever the driven course shall bear itself,
may the Lord favor all things for Nicetas,
until he is borne to the desired fatherland,
glad, to the city.               56
Go on, Nicetas, well where you hasten back,
with prosperous courses, Christ accompanying,
whom your peoples have long been importuning
by night and by day.               60

Te reposcentes, ut ager levandis
Cum satis imbrem sitit, utque molles
Cum suas matres vituli represso
Lacte requirunt.               64
Unde nos justis precibus tuorum,
Qui suum recte repetunt parentem,
Cogimur victo, licet inrepleti,
Cedere voto.               68
Et quia spes jam rapitur tenendi,
Urget affectus placitis favere:
Jam vias illas licet oderimus
Quae rapiunt te:               72

They demanding you back, as a field to be alleviated
when it thirsts for sufficient rain, and as the tender
calves, with milk repressed, their own mothers
seek.               64
Whence by the just prayers of your own,
who rightly demand back their parent,
we are compelled, vanquished, although unreplenished,
to yield to the wish.               68
And since the hope of holding you is now snatched away,
affection urges to favor the pleas:
now, although we may hate those roads
which seize you away:               72

Odimus quamvis, sed easdem amamus.
Odimus quod te retrahunt: amamus
Quod tuum nobis procul attulerunt
Cernere vultum.               76
Quas prius stringi superante amore,
Nunc tibi sterni faciles precamur
Praevio terris pelagoque summi
Nomine Christi.               80
Qui tibi factis iter omne campis,
Arduos montes reprimat, cavasque
Impleat valles, salebras adaequet,
Jungat hiatus.               84

We hate although, yet we love the same.
We hate because they draw you back; we love
that from afar they have brought to us
to behold your countenance.               76
Which earlier, with love prevailing, we prayed to be tightened,
now we pray to be easy to be strewn before you,
with the Name of the Most High Christ going before
over lands and the sea.               80
Who for you may make every way level plains,
may restrain arduous mountains, and hollow
valleys fill, may level the roughnesses,
may join the gaps (hiatus).               84

Te per Hydruntum Lupiasque vectum,
Innubae fratrum simul et sororum
Ambient, uno Dominum canentes
Ore catervae.               88
Quis mihi pennas daret ut columbae,
Ut choris illis citus interessem:
Qui Deum Christum duce te canentes
Sidera pulsant?               92
Sed licet pigro teneamur aegri
Corporis nexu, tamen evolamus
Mentibus post te, Dominoque tecum
Dicimus hymnos.               96

You, borne through Hydruntum and Lupiae,
the unwedded of the brothers and likewise of the sisters
will surround, throngs singing the Lord
with one mouth.               88
Who would give me wings like a dove,
that I might swiftly take part in those choirs
who, with Christ God as leader, singing with you,
strike the stars?               92
But although we are held by the sluggish bond
of a sick body, yet we fly forth
with our minds after you, and with you to the Lord
we sing hymns.               96

Nam tuis intus simul implicati
Sensibus, vel cum canis, ac precaris:
Cum tua de te prece cumque voce
Promimur et nos.               100
Inde jam terris subeunte ponto
Adriae stratus sinus obsequetur,
Unde procumbet, zephyroque leni
Vela tumescent.               104
Ibis illabens pelago jacenti,
Et rate amata titulo salutis, armata
Victor antemna crucis ibis, undis
Tutus, et austris.               108

For, entwined within at once in your senses,
whether when you sing, and when you pray:
when by your prayer about yourself and by your voice
we too are brought forth.               100
Then already, with the sea gliding beneath the lands,
the smoothed bay of the Adriatic will comply,
where it will sink down, and with a gentle zephyr
the sails will swell.               104
You will go, sliding in upon the lying sea,
and on a raft beloved by the title of Salvation, armed
with the victor antenna of the Cross you will go, from the waves
and the south winds safe.               108

Navitae laeti solitum celeusma
Concinent versis modulis in hymnos,
Et piis ducent comites in aequor
Vocibus auras.               112
Praecinet cunctis, tuba ceu resultans,
Lingua Nicetae modulata Christum,
Psallet aeternus citharista toto
Aequore David               116
Audient Amen tremefacta cete,
Et sacerdotem Domino canentem
Laeta lascivo procul admeabunt.
Monstra natatu.               120

Joyful sailors will sing the accustomed celeusma,
with their measures turned into hymns,
and with pious voices they will lead their comrades upon the sea
into the breezes.               112
He will lead the chant for all, like a resounding trumpet,
the tongue of Nicetas, modulated to Christ;
David, the eternal citharist, will psalm-sing over the whole
expanse of the sea.               116
The quake-struck whales will hear Amen,
and at the priest singing to the Lord
the monsters will from afar draw near, happy, with wanton
swimming.               120

Undique alludent patulo verentes
Ore delphines, sine voce quamquam,
Aemula humanis tamen eloquentur
Gaudia linguis.               124
Nam Deo quid non sapit atque vivit,
Cujus et verbo sata cuncta rerum?
Hinc Dei laudem maris ima noscunt
Mutaque clamant.               128
Testis est nobis veteris prophetae
Bellua, ad nutum Domini profundo
Excita, ut mersum caperet, deinque
Redderet haustum.               132
Sed modo ad nostrum ferus ipse vatem
Auribus tantum pia devorabit
Cantica: impastam saturabit alvum
Carmine pastus.               136

On all sides the dolphins, shy with gaping mouth, will play, although without voice,
yet emulous of human tongues they will utter joys.               124
For, to God, what does not have sense and live, by whose word all things were sown?
Hence the depths of the sea know the praise of God,
and the mute things cry out.               128
A witness for us is the beast of the ancient prophet,
roused at the nod of the Lord from the deep,
that it might seize the one submerged, and then
render him back, once swallowed.               132
But now the wild creature itself, to our prophet,
will devour only with its ears the pious songs: it will fill the unfed belly,
fed by song.               136

Qua libet pergas iter, et per undas,
Perque tellurem, licet, et per hostes,
Ibis armatus galea salutis,
Vertice Christo.               140
Advolet missus Raphael, ut olim
Tobiae Medis; ita prosequendo
Ipse Nicetae comes usque Dacos
Angelus adsit.               144
Ducat hunc aeque famulum suum dux
Ille, qui quondam profugum minacis
Fratris a vultu Deus in salutem
Duxit Iacob.               148

Whichever way you proceed the journey, both through the waves,
and through the earth, if you will, and through enemies,
you will go armed with the helmet of salvation,
with Christ on your crown. 140
Let Raphael, sent, fly to you, as once
to Tobias among the Medes; so, by escorting,
may the Angel himself be present as companion to Nicetas
all the way to the Dacians. 144
May that Leader equally lead this his servant,
He, God, who once the fugitive from the threatening
face of his brother led Jacob into safety.

Namque Niceta fugitivus aeque est;
Quod semel fecit patriarcha, semper
Hic facit, mundo fugiens ad alti
Moenia coeli:               152
Et gradus illos, quibus ille vidit
Angelos versa vice commeantes,
Iste contendit superante nubes
Scandere vita:               156
Per crucis scalas properans in astra
Qua Deus nitens ad humum coruscis
E thronis spectat varios labores,
Bellaque mentis.               160

For indeed Nicetas is equally a fugitive;
what the Patriarch once did, he always
does here, fleeing the world to the lofty
walls of heaven:               152
And those steps, by which he saw
the angels, in reversed turn, commuting,
this man strives, with a life overcoming the clouds,
to climb:               156
through the cross’s ladders hastening into the stars
where God, shining, to the ground from flashing
thrones, beholds the various labors
and the wars of the mind.               160

Tuque, Niceta, bene nominatus
Corporis victor, velut ille dictus
Israel, summum quia vidit alto
Corde satorem,               164
Unde Nicetes meus approbatur
Israelites sine fraude verus,
Qui Deum cernit solidae fidei
Lumine Christum.               168
Hic Deus noster, via nostra semper,
Sit comes nobis, sit et antecessor:
Semitis lumen, pedibusque nostris
Sermo lucerna.               172

And you too, Nicetas, well-named,
conqueror of the body, like that one called
Israel, because with lofty heart he saw the supreme
Sower;               164
Whence my Nicetes is approved
an Israelite true, without guile,
who beholds God, Christ, by the light
of solid faith.               168
This God of ours, our way always,
may he be our companion, and also our leader going before:
a light for the paths, and for our feet
the Word a lamp.               172

Qua per obscuri vada caeca secli,
Luminis veri face dirigamur,
Donec optatos liceat salutis
Tangere portus,               176
Quos modo undosum petimus per aequor,
Dum vagae mentis fluitamus aestu:
Terreo, tamquam fragili carina,
Corpore vecti.               180
Sed gubernaclo crucis hanc regente
Nunc ratem, in nobis pia vela cordis
Pandimus, Christo referente littus
Flamine dextro.               184

Whereby through the blind shallows of the obscure age,
let us be steered by the torch of true light,
until it is permitted to touch the longed-for harbors
of salvation,               176
which we now seek across the wave-tossed expanse,
while we float on the swell of a wandering mind:
I am afraid, as though with a fragile keel,
borne in the body.               180
But with the helm of the cross governing
this skiff now, within us we spread the pious sails of the heart,
as Christ, with a right-hand breeze, bears the shore
back to us by his breath.               184

Ergo dux idem modo prosequatur
Te via, qua nunc properas revertens
Ire Niceta, patrioque reddat
Limine tutum.               188
Sed freto emenso superest viarum
Rursus in terra labor, ut veharis
Usque felices, quibus es sacerdos
Praestitus oras.               192
Tu Philippaeos Macedum per agros
Per Tomitanam gradieris urbem,
Ibis et Scupos patriae propinquos
Dardanus hospes.               196

Therefore may the same leader now accompany
you along the way by which you now hasten to return,
to go, Nicetas, and may he render you safe
to the paternal threshold.               188
But, the strait having been crossed, there remains of the ways
again on land a labor, that you may be conveyed
all the way to the happy shores to which you are priest
appointed.               192
You will go through the Philippian fields of the Macedonians,
through the Tomitan city you will stride,
and you will go to Scupi, near to your fatherland,
a Dardanian guest.               196

O quibus jam tunc resonabit illa
Gaudiis tellus ubi tu rigentes
Edoces Christo fera colla miti
Subdere gentes!               200
Quaque Riphaeis Boreas in oris
Alligat densis fluvios pruinis,
Hic gelu mentes rigidas superno
Igne resolves.               204
Nam simul terris animisque duri,
Et sua Bessi nive duriores,
Nunc oves facti duce te gregantur
Pacis in aulam.               208

O with what joys will that land already then resound,
where you instruct the peoples to submit their savage, rigid necks
to Christ the gentle!               200
And wherever Boreas on the Riphaean coasts
binds the rivers with dense hoarfrosts,
here you will dissolve the rigid minds’ frost by supernal
fire.               204
For being hard alike in lands and in souls,
and the Bessi harder than their own snow,
now, made sheep, they are herded with you as leader
into the hall of Peace.               208

Quasque cervices dare servituti,
Semper a bello indomiti negarunt,
Nunc jugo veri domini subactas
Sternere gaudent.               212
Nunc magis dives pretio laboris
Bessus exsultat: quod humi manuque
Ante quaerebat, modo mente coelo
Colligit aurum.               216
O vices rerum! Bene versa forma!
Invii montes prius, et cruenti,
Nunc tegunt versos monachis latrones
Pacis alumnos.               220

And the necks to give to servitude,
ever untamed by war they refused,
now, subdued under the yoke of the true Lord,
they rejoice to lay prostrate.               212
Now richer by the price of labor
the Bessian exults: what on the ground and by hand
before he used to seek, now with mind in heaven
he gathers gold.               216
O vicissitudes of things! Well-turned form!
Mountains erstwhile pathless, and blood-stained,
now shelter robbers turned into monks,
nurslings of peace.               220

Sanguinis quondam, modo terra vitae est,
Vertitur coelo pia vis latronum,
Et favet Christus supera occupanti
Regna rapinae.               224
Mos ubi quondam fuerat ferarum,
Nunc ibi ritus viget angelorum:
Et latet justus, quibus ipse latro
Vixit in antris.               228
Praeda fit Sanctis vetus ille praedo,
Et gamit versis homicida damnis:
Jure nudatus, spoliante Christo,
Criminis armis.               232

Once of blood, now it is a land of life,
the pious force of robbers is turned to heaven,
and Christ favors the rapine that seizes the heavenly kingdoms.               224
Where once there had been the custom of wild beasts,
now there the rite of angels flourishes:
and the just man hides in the caverns in which he himself, a robber,
lived in the dens.               228
That old robber becomes spoil for the Saints,
and the homicide rejoices at his losses reversed:
rightly stripped, with Christ despoiling,
of the weapons of crime.               232

Interit casu satanae vicissim
Invidus Cain, redivivus Abel
Pascit effusi pretio redemtos
Sanguinis agnos               236
Euge, Niceta, bone serve Christi,
Qui tibi donat lapides in astra
Vertere, et vivis sacra templa saxis.
Aedificare.               240
Avios saltus, juga vasta lustras,
Dum viam quaeris, sterilemque silvam
Mentis incultae superans in agros
Vertis opimos.               244

In turn, the invidious Cain perishes by Satan’s downfall; the revived Abel feeds the lambs redeemed at the price of outpoured blood.               236
Well done, Niceta, good servant of Christ, who grants you to turn stones into the stars, and to build sacred temples with living stones. To build.               240
You traverse remote wilds and vast ridges, while you seek a way, and, overcoming the barren forest of the uncultivated mind, you turn it into opulent fields.               244

Te patrem dicit plaga tota Borrae
Ad tuos fatus Scytha mitigatur,
Et sui discors fera te magistro
Pectora ponit.               248
Et Getae currunt, et uterque Dacus:
Qui colit terrae medio, vel ille
Divitis multo bove pilleatus
Accola ripae.               252
De lupis hoc est vitulos creare,
Et bovi junctum palea leonem
Pascere, et tutis cava viperarum
Pandere parvis.               256

The whole tract of Boreas calls you father,
to your utterances the Scythian is softened,
and the savage, at variance with itself, with you as master,
lays down its breast.               248
And the Getae run, and each Dacian:
he who tills the middle of the land, or that
cap-wearing neighbor of the rich bank with many oxen
of the river.               252
This is to beget calves out of wolves,
and to feed with chaff a lion yoked to an ox,
and to open the caves of vipers to little ones in safety.               256

Namque mansueto pecori coire
Bestias pulsa feritate suades,
Qui feras mentes hominum polito
Imbuis ore.               260
Orbis in muta regione per te
Barbari discunt resonare Christum
Corde Romano, placidamque casti
Vivere pacem.               264
Sic tuo mitis lupus est ovili,
Pascitur concors vitulas leoni,
Parvus extracto trucibus cavernis
Aspide ludit.               268
Callidos auri legulos in aurum
Vertis, et Bessos imitaris ipse,
E quibus vivum fodiente verbo
Eruis aurum:               272

For indeed you persuade the beasts, with savagery driven away,
to come together with the tame flock, you who with a polished
mouth imbue the wild minds of men.               260
Through you, in the mute region of the world
the barbarians learn to resonate Christ
with a Roman heart, and to live the placid peace
of the chaste.               264
Thus, by your sheepfold the wolf is mild;
in concord the lion grazes with the heifer-calves,
the little child, the asp drawn from savage caverns,
plays with it.               268
The clever gleaners of gold you turn into gold,
and you yourself imitate the Bessi,
from whom, with a word that digs,
you excavate living gold.               272

Has opes condens Domino parenni,
His sacrum lucris cumulans talentum,
Audies: Intra Domini perennis
Gaudia laetus.               276
His, precor, cum te domus alma sancto
Ceperit fratrum numerosa coetu
In choris, et nos pietate cari
Pectoris abde.               280
Nam Deo grates, quod amore tanto
Nos tibi adstrinxit per operta vincla,
Vis ut internam valeat catenam
Rumpere nulla.               284

By storing up these riches for the perennial Lord,
with these gains heaping up the sacred talent,
you will hear: Enter the joys of the perennial Lord,
joyous.               276
With these, I pray, when the kindly house,
numerous with the holy assembly of brothers, shall have received you
in choirs, also shelter us, dear to your pious
heart.               280
For thanks to God, because with so great a love
he has bound us to you through hidden bonds,
so that no force may be able to break the inward
chain.               284

Unde complexi sine fine carum
Pectus, haeremus laqueo fideli;
Quaque contendas, comites erimus
Mente sequaci.               288
Caritas Christi bene fusa coelo,
Cordibus nostris ita nectit intus,
Ut nec abjuncto procul auferamur
Orbe remoti:               292
Nulla nos aetas tibi labis unquam,
Orbis aut alter, neque mors revellet;
Corporis vita moriente, vita
Vivet amoris.               296

Whence, having embraced the dear breast without end, we cling with a faithful noose;
wherever you strive, we shall be companions with a following mind.               288
The Charity of Christ, well poured from heaven, so knits within our hearts,
that neither, with the orb disjoined and far, are we borne away, removed:               292
no age of decay, nor another orb, nor death will ever wrench us from you;
as the life of the body is dying, the life of love will live.               296

Dum graves istos habitamus artus,
Mente te semper memori colemus:
Tu petes simus simul in perenni
Tempore tecum.               300
Namque te celsum meritis, in altum
Culmen imponet pretiosa virtus:
Inque viventum super urbe magnis
Turribus addet.               304
Nos locis, quantum meritis diremti,
Eminus celsis humiles patronis,
Te procul sacris socium catervis
Suspiciemus.               308

While we inhabit these heavy limbs,
with a remembering mind we will always honor you:
you will petition that we may be together
with you in everlasting time.               300
For indeed precious virtue, by your merits, will set you
upon a lofty summit on high:
and in the upper city of the living it will add you
to the great towers.               304
We, in places as far as merits have separated us,
humble and at a distance from the lofty patrons,
will look up to you from afar, a companion
to the sacred cohorts.               308

Quis die nobis dabit hoc in illa,
Ut tui stemus lateris sub umbra,
Et tuae nobis requietis aura
Temperet ignem?               312
Tunc, precor, nostri nimium memento
Et patris sancti gremio recumbens,
Roscido nobis digito furentem
Discute flammam.               316
Nunc abi felix tamen et recedens
Semper huc ad nos animo recurre;
Esto nobiscum, licet ad paternam
Veneris urbem.               320

Who will grant to us this on that day,
that we may stand beneath the shadow of your side,
and the aura of your rest may temper the fire for us?               312
Then, I pray, remember us exceedingly,
and, reclining in the bosom of the holy Father,
with a dewy finger dispel for us the raging flame.               316
Now go, happy, yet in withdrawing
always return here to us in mind;
be with us, though you come to the paternal city.               320

Non enim unius populi magistrum,
Sed nec unius dedit esse civem
Te Deus terrae, patria ecce nostra
Te sibi sumit.               324
Nunc tuos aequa pietate utrisque
Divide affectus, et amore nobis,
Civibus vultu, gemina morare
Civis in ora.               328
Forsan et major patria haec habenda,
Non manufactis ubi contineris
Pectorum tectis; hominesque vivam
Incolis urbem.               332
Sicut antistes, ita dignus almi
Hospes es Christi, quia Christianis
Mentibus consors, habitas herile
Accola templum.               336

For God of the earth has made you not the teacher of a single people,
nor has He given you to be a citizen of a single city;
behold, our fatherland takes you to itself.               324
Now with equal piety divide your affections to both,
and, with love for us, your fellow-citizens, with your countenance,
abide as a citizen upon a twin shore.               328
Perhaps even this fatherland is to be held the greater,
where you are contained not by hand‑wrought roofs,
but by the roofs of hearts; and you inhabit a living
city of humankind.               332
As a pontiff, so you are a worthy guest of kindly
Christ, because, a consort with Christian minds,
as a neighbor you dwell in the Master’s
temple.               336

Jam vale nobis, et in omne nostri
Diligens aevum, bonus usque finem
Duc bonum cursum, positamque justis
Sume coronam. 340

Now farewell to us, and through all our
age be diligent; good unto the end,
lead a good course, and take the crown laid up
for the just. 340

POEMA XVIII.
DE S. FELICE NATALITIUM CARMEN VI.

POEM 18.
ON ST. FELIX, BIRTHDAY POEM 6.

Lex mihi jure pio posita hunc celebrare quotannis
Eloquio famulante diem, sollenne reposcit
Munus ab ore meo, Felicem dicere versu,
Laetitiamque meam modulari carmine voto,
Et magnum cari meritum cantare Patroni, 5
Quo per iter durum, qua fert via pervia paucis
Alta per arcta petens superas penetravit ad arces.
Concordate meis, precor, et complaudite fratres
Carminibus, castoque animos effundite luxu.
Gaudia sancta decent et carmina casta fideles: 10
Nam cui fas hominum, cui Christus amorque timorque,
Non gaudere hodie?

A law set for me by pious right to celebrate this day yearly,
with eloquence serving, the solemn duty demands
from my mouth to speak of Felix in verse,
and to modulate my joy with a votive song,
and to sing the great merit of the dear Patron, 5
by whom, along the hard journey, where the way passable to few leads,
seeking heights through straits, he penetrated to the supernal citadels.
Be in concord with my songs, I pray, and applaud, brothers,
and pour forth your spirits with chaste luxury.
Holy joys and chaste songs befit the faithful: 10
for who among humankind—for whom Christ is love and fear—
would not rejoice today?

et vacuum procedere voti?
Qua quis possit ope, ingenii, linguaeque, reique;
Coelicolas Christo quando adgandere ministros,
Ipsa etiam festo produnt elementa colore? 15

and to go forth empty of a vow?
By what aid one can, of ingenuity, of tongue, and of means;
when the heaven-dwellers, ministers to Christ, draw near,
even the elements themselves proclaim with festive color? 15

Cernite laetitiam mundi in splendore diei
Elucere sacris insignibus; omnia laetus
Candor habet, siccus teneris a nubibus imber
Ponitur, et niveo tellus velatur amictu.
Quae nive tecta, solum nive, silvae, et culmina, colles: 20
Cuncta senis sancti canos testantur honores;
Angelicaque docent et luce et pace potiri
Felicem placida clarum in regione piorum,
Lactea quae tacito labuntur vellera coelo.
Christe, Deus Felicis, ades; da nunc mihi verbum 25
Sermo Deus, da perspicuam Sapientia mentem.

Behold the joy of the world shine forth in the splendor of the day
with sacred insignia; a glad
radiance holds all things; the dry shower from the tender clouds
is set down, and the earth is veiled with a snowy amice.
Which are covered with snow—the ground with snow, the forests, and rooftops, the hills: 20
all things testify to the hoary honors of the holy elder;
and the angelic teach that Felix possesses both light and peace,
illustrious in the placid region of the pious,
whose milky fleeces glide through the silent heaven.
Christ, God of Felix, be present; grant me now the word— 25
O Word, God, grant a perspicuous mind, O Wisdom.

Non opis humanae facundia dicere laudes
Posse tuas: tua namque tui sunt gaudia sancti.
Cedo, alii pretiosa ferant donaria meque
Oflicii sumtu superent, qui pulcra tegendis 30

No eloquence of human power can speak your praises;
for the joys of your saint are yours indeed.
I yield; let others bear precious donaries and surpass me
in the expense of duty, they who for the covering of fair things 30

Vela ferant foribus, seu puro splendida lino,
Sive coloratis textum fucata figuris.
Hi laeves titulos lento poliant argento,
Sanctaque praefixis obducant limina lamnis.
Ast alii pictis accendant lumina ceris, 35
Multiforesque cavis lychnos laquearibus aptent,
Ut vibrent tremulas funalia pendula flammas.

Let them carry veils for the doors, whether splendid with pure linen,
or dyed, woven with colored figures.
Let these polish the smooth titles with pliant silver,
and sheathe the holy thresholds with plates fastened on.
But let others kindle lights with painted waxes, 35
and fit multi-holed lamps to the hollow coffered ceilings,
so that the hanging torches may vibrate quivering flames.

Martyris hi tumulum studeant perfundere nardo,
Et medicata pio referant unguenta sepulcro.
Cedo equidem et vacuo multis potioribus auro, 40
Queis gravis aere sinus relevatur, egente repleto,
Qui locuplete manu promptaria ditia laxant,
Et variis animam sponsantes dotibus adstant,
Mente pares, ope diversi; nec segnius illi
Fercula opima cibis, cervis aulaea ferisque 45

Let these strive to drench the tomb of the martyr with nard,
and bring back medicated unguents to the holy sepulcher.
I indeed concede, and, empty of gold, to many better-provided, 40
by whom a bosom heavy with bronze is relieved, with the needy filled,
who with a well-furnished hand loosen rich store-rooms,
and, pledging their soul with various dowries, stand by,
equal in mind, different in means; nor less sluggishly do they
rich courses with foods, hangings with stags and wild beasts 45

Larga quidem, sed mutua dicant: ego munere linguae,
Nudus opum famulor, de me mea debita solvens,
Meque ipsum pro me, vilis licet hostia, pendo.
Nec metuam sperni, quoniam non vilia Christo
Pauperis obsequii libamina, qui duo laetus 50
Aera piae censum viduae laudata recepit.
Tunc quoque multa Deo locupletes dona ferebant,
Implentes magnis aeraria sancta talentis.

Lavish indeed, yet let them call them loans: I, by the gift of the tongue,
serve stripped of resources, paying from myself my own debts,
and I pay myself on my own behalf, though a cheap victim. Nor will I fear to be spurned, since not cheap to Christ
are the libations of a poor man’s obedience, he who joyfully received the two
coppers as the contribution of the pious widow, with praise. 50
Then too the wealthy were bearing many gifts to God,
filling the holy treasuries with great talents.

Sed Christus spectator erat, qui corda ferentum
Inspiciens viduae palmam dedit; illa diurni 55
Rem victus, geminos (quod ei substantia ) nummos
Miserat in sacram, nil anxia corporis, arcam.
Propterea ex ipso venturi Judicis ore
Ante diem meruit facti praecerpere laudem,
Praeferrique illis, quorum stipe vicerat aurum, 60

But Christ was the spectator, who, inspecting the hearts of the bearers,
gave the palm to the widow; she, the means of daily victual, the twin coins (which were her substance),
had sent into the sacred chest, anxious for nothing of the body.
Therefore from the very mouth of the coming Judge
she merited, before the Day, to anticipate the praise of the deed,
and to be preferred to those whose gold she had outdone by her alms. 60

Munere pauper anus, sed prodiga corde fideli.
Ergo, boni fratres, quibus haec dignatio, et iste
Consensus, placidis advertite mentibus aures,
Nec qui, sed de quo loquar, exaudite libenter.
Despicienda quidem, tamen et miranda profabor, 63
Despicienda meo ingenio, miranda beati
Felicis merito; quod dicere non sine Christi
Laude licet: quia quidquid in hoc miramur, ab illo est,
Unde piis virtus, et per quem vita sepultis.

Poor in her gift, an old woman, but prodigal with a faithful heart.
Therefore, good brothers, to whom this favor, and this
consensus, turn your ears with placid minds,
and not who I am, but about whom I shall speak, listen gladly.
Things indeed to be despised, yet also to be wondered at, I will profess, 63
things to be despised by my talent, to be wondered at by blessed
Felix’s merit; which it is permitted to say not without Christ’s
praise: because whatever we marvel at in this is from him,
whence virtue for the pious, and through whom life for the buried.

Praeteritis cecini patriam, genus, acta, libellis, 70
Et tota sanctum repetens ab origine dixi
Felicem, donec perfectae tempora vitae
Clauderet, et posito desertis corpore terris,
Tenderet aeterni merita ad consortia regni.
Sed quia non iidem tumuli, qui membra piorum 75

In prior little books I sang the fatherland, the lineage, the acts, 70
and, repeating from the whole origin, I told of the holy
Felix, until he should close the terms of a perfected life,
and, his body laid aside, the lands left behind,
he should stretch by his merits to the fellowship of the eternal kingdom.
But because not the same are the tombs which the limbs of the devout 75

Et merita occultant; animarum vita superstes
Corporibus functis, quaesitos corpore fructus,
Et post corporeos obitus non mortua, sentit
Laeta bonos, cruciata malos, quos rursus in ipsum
Tempore venturo corpus revocata, remixto               80
Corpore, communi metet indiscreta receptu.
Longa igitur mihi materies; quantumque erit aevi,
Tantum erit et verbi super. O si dicere gesta
Felicis liceat, totumque efferre per orbem
- Nomina sic meriti, o si copia tanta sit oris,               85
Quanta operum meritique manet. Nam tempore ab illo,
Quo primum ista dies Felicem fine beato
Condidit, et carnem teris, animam dedit astris;
Ex illo prope cuncta dies operante videtur
Confessore Dei, probat et sine corpore vivum               90

And they hide the merits; the life of souls surviving
bodies that have finished their function, the fruits sought by means of the body,
and after corporeal obits, not dead, it experiences—joyful things for the good, cruciated the bad—those which, again at the very
time to come, recalled into the body, with the body remixed,               80
will reap, indiscrete in a common reception.
A long material, therefore, for me; and as much as there will be of age,
so much too will there be left of word. O if it were permitted to tell the deeds
of Felix, and to carry forth through the whole orb
- the names thus of his merit, O if there were so great a supply of tongue,               85
as there remains of works and of merit. For from that time,
when first this day laid Felix to rest with a blessed end,
and gave his flesh to the earth, his soul to the stars;
from then almost every day seems to be with the Confessor of God working,
and it also proves him living without a body.               90

Christus, ut ostendat majorem in morte piorum
Virtutem, quam vim in vita superesse malorum.
Ecce vides tumulum sacra Martyris ossa tegentem,
Et tacitum obtento servari marmore corpus:
Nemo oculis hominum qua corpore cernimus exstat 95
Membra latent positi, placida caro morte quiescit,
In spem non vacuam redivivae condita vitae.
Unde igitur tantus circumstat limina terror?

Christ, to show a greater virtue in the death of the pious
than the force of evils surviving in life.
Behold, you see the tomb covering the sacred bones of the Martyr,
and the silent body kept with marble drawn over it:
No one stands forth to the eyes of men in that body by which we perceive, 95
the limbs of the one laid to rest lie hidden, the flesh rests in placid death,
interred in no empty hope of revived life.
Whence, then, does so great a terror surround the thresholds?

Quis tantos agit huc populos? Quaenam manus urget
Daemonas? Invitosque rapit?

Who drives such great peoples hither? What hand urges
the daemons? And snatches them unwilling?

Frustraque rebelli               100
Voce reclamantes compellit adusque sepulcrum
Martyris, et sancto quasi fixos limine sistit?
Respicio hanc aliquando diem, quam moesta relicto
Orbe fuit, quam laeta polo, cum Christus amicam
Assumens animam casto Deus hausit ab ore!               105
Addidit ornatum coelis, nec pignore terras
Orbavit: superi Felicis mente fruuntur,
Corpore nos; animaeque potentis spiritus illic
Vivit, et hic meritum; sed totum funeris almi
Praesentare juvat, quem Nola impendit, honorem.               110
Namque sacerdotem sacris, annisque parentem
Perdiderat, sed eum coelis habitura patronum
Urbs devota pium: spe solabatur amorem.
Totis ergo quibus stipatur conflua turbis,
Currit in obsequium, populos effusa fideles.               115

And in vain with a rebellious               100
voice, while protesting, he compels them right up to the sepulcher
of the Martyr, and halts them as if fixed to the holy threshold?
I look back upon this day once, how mournful it was to the world left
behind, how joyful to heaven, when Christ, taking up the friendly
soul, as God drew it from the chaste mouth!               105
He added ornament to the heavens, nor did he bereave the lands
of the pledge: the supernal ones enjoy Felix in mind,
we by the body; and the spirit of the puissant soul lives there,
and here its merit; but it pleases to present the whole honor of the kindly
funeral which Nola expended.               110
For she had lost a priest for the sacred rites, and by his years a father,
but the devoted City was to have him as a pious patron in the heavens:
with hope she consoled her love. Therefore, with all the crowds by which she is
thronged in confluence, she runs to the obsequies, the faithful peoples poured forth.               115

Tunc dolor et pietas coeunt in pectora cunctis;
Admixta pietate fides gaudetque doletque.
Et licet accitum Christo super aethera tolli
Felicem credat, tanto tamen ipsa relinqui
Praeceptore dolet; quodque unum in funere sancto               120
Inter et exsequias restat solamen amoris,
Postquam depositum tumulandi in sede feretrum,
Certatim populus pietatis circumfusus
Undique densato coetu sita membra coronat,
Relligiosa pie pugna exercetur amantum:               125
Quisque alium premere, et proprior consistere certat
Relliquiis, corpusque manu contingere gaudet.
Nec satis est vidisse semel, juvat usque morari,
Luminaque expositis, et qua datur, oscula membris
Figere; dat meritam Christo plebs consona laudem,               130

Then grief and piety come together into the breasts of all;
Faith, with piety admixed, both rejoices and grieves.
And although it believes that Felix, summoned to Christ, is lifted above the aether,
yet it grieves that it itself is left by so great a Preceptor; and that one thing which, in the holy funeral               120
and amid the exequies, remains a solace of love—
after the bier of the one laid down has been borne to the place for entombment—
the people, eagerly, suffused with piety, all around, with a thickened throng,
encircles the laid-down limbs; a devout religious contest of lovers is exercised:               125
each strives to press another and to stand nearer to the relics,
and rejoices to touch the body with his hand.
Nor is it enough to have seen once; it pleases to linger without cease,
and to fasten eyes and, where it is granted, kisses upon the exposed limbs;
the harmonious people gives to Christ the praise that is merited.               130

Moliturque sacrum solii Felicis honorem.
Qua muris regio et tectis longinqua vacabat,
Fusus ibi laeto ridebat cespite campus,
Uberius florente loco, quasi praescia jam tunc
Semper honorandi mundo venerante sepulcri               135
Gaudebat sacro benedici corpore, seque
Veris amoena habitu, quo dignior esset humando
Martyre, graminibus tellus sternebat odoris.
Ast illum placido scandentem celsa volatu,
Et casto assumtum de corpore, laeta piorum               140
Turba per aethereas susceperat obvia nubes;
Angelicique chori septemplicis agmina coeli,
Totis, qua coelum patet, occurrentia portis,
Regis in adspectum, summique parentis ad ora,
Sidereo volucrem laeti vexere triumpho.               145

And they set in motion the sacred honor of Felix’s seat.
Where a region was free and far from walls and roofs,
there a field, spread wide, laughed with gladsome turf,
the place flowering more abundantly, as if already then foreknowing
the tomb to be forever honored, with the world venerating,               135
it rejoiced to be blessed by the sacred body, and,
charming with the attire of spring, that it might be more worthy for burying
the Martyr, the earth was strewing grasses of fragrance.
But him, climbing to the heights with placid flight,
and taken up from the chaste body, the glad throng of the pious               140
had received, meeting him, through the ethereal clouds;
and the companies of the sevenfold angelic choir of heaven,
running to meet at all the gates, wherever heaven lies open,
into the King’s sight, and to the countenance of the highest Parent,
joyfully bore the winged one in sidereal triumph.               145

Tu nivea sacrum caput ornavere corona:
Sed tamen et roseam Pater addidit indice Christo,
Purpureoque habitu niveos duplicavit amictus;
Quod meritis utrumque decus. Nam lucida sumsit
Serta, quasi placido translatus in aethera leto 150
Sed meruit pariter quasi caesi martyris ostrum
Qui confessor obit. Tenet ergo et praemia passi,
Quod promta virtute fuit; nec pacis honore
Ornatuque caret, quia non congressus obivit.

Your snow-white sacred head they adorned with a crown:
But yet the Father added as well a roseate token to Christ,
and with purple habit he doubled the snowy vestments;
which, by his merits, is a double honor. For he assumed
lucent garlands, as if translated into the aether by a placid death, 150
But he equally merited the purple of a slain martyr,
he who dies a confessor. Therefore he holds also the prizes of one who suffered,
since he had prompt virtue; nor does he lack the honor of peace
and its ornament, because he did not undergo a combat.

Facta igitur rata justa pium texere sepulcro               155
Funus; at in sanctis divinitus insita membris
Gratia non potuit cum carne morique tegique:
Illico sed positis ex ossibus ecce micat lux,
Quae medicis opibus meriti dare signa potentis
Hactenus ex illo non umquam tempore parcit.               160
Et toto, quo mundus erit, fulgebit in aevo
Lux eadem, sancti cineris per secula custos.
Martyris haec functi vitam probat; et bona Christi
Ad tumulum Felicis agens, diffundit in omnes
Felicis late terras mirabile nomen.               165

Therefore, the due rites having been ratified, they covered with a sepulcher               155
the pious corpse; but in the holy limbs divinely in-set,
Grace could not with the flesh both die and be covered:
but immediately, from the bones laid down, behold, Light flashes,
which, with medicinal powers, to give signs of powerful merit
has never since that time ceased to do so.               160
And through the whole age for which the world shall exist, the same Light will shine,
the guardian of the holy ash through the ages.
This proves the life of the departed martyr; and, bringing the benefits of Christ
to the tomb of Felix, it pours abroad into all
the lands far and wide the wondrous name of Felix.               165

Dignatam tanto prae cunctis urbibus unam
Hospite nobilitat Nolam; quam gratia Christi
Felicis meritis ita dilatavit, ut aucta
Civibus ecce novis; et moenibus hic etiam urbs sit
Pauper ubi primum tumulus, quem tempore saevo               170
(Relligio quo crimen erat) minitante profano
Struxerat anguste, gladios trepida inter et ignes
Plebs Domini, ut seris antiqua minoribus aetas
Tradidit, ingentem parvo sub culmine lucem
Clauserat; et tanti tantum sacer angulus olim               175
Depositi possessor erat, qui lucis opertae
Conscius, ut quidam fons aedibus exstitit amplis,
Et manet in mediis quasi gemma intersita tectis,
Basilicas per quinque sacri spatiosa sepulcri
Atria diffundens, quarum fastigia longe               180

The guest ennobles Nola, deemed the sole one worthy before all cities;
which the grace of Christ, by the merits of Felix, has so dilated, that behold, it is augmented
with new citizens; and here even there is a city with walls,
where at first the poor tumulus, in a savage time               170
(at which time Religion was a crime), with profane threat looming,
the People of the Lord, amid swords and fires in fear, had narrowly built,
as the ancient age has handed down to the late-born, the huge light
under a small roof had enclosed; and once a sacred corner alone
was the possessor of so great a deposit; who, conscious of the hidden light,               175
has stood forth, like a certain spring, for ample buildings,
and remains in the midst like a gem set among the roofs,
spreading through five basilicas the spacious courts of the holy sepulcher,
whose gable-heights far               180

Adspectata instar magnae dant visibus urbis.
Quae tamen, ampla licet, vincuntur culmina turbis;
Quod crescente fide, superundat gratia Christi,
Quae populis medico Felicem munere praestat
Vivere. Qui perstans etiam post corporis aevum 185
Praesidet ipse suis sacer ossibus; ossaque sancti
Corporis in tumulo non obsita pulvere mortis,
Arcano aeternae sed praedita semine vitae,
Vivificum spirant animae victricis odorem;
Quo medicina potens datur exorantibus aegris. 190
Quanta resurgentes virtus et gloria cinget,
Conjectare licet, cum gratia tanta sepultos
Ambiat; et quanto rediviva decore micabunt
Corpora, in obscuris cum sit lux tanta favillis?

Beheld, they give to the eyes the likeness of a great city.
Which, however, though ample, have their rooftops conquered by throngs;
For as faith grows, the grace of Christ superabounds,
which, with a medicinal gift, causes Felix to live for the peoples
to live. He, persisting even after the age of the body, 185
himself sacred, presides over his own bones; and the bones of the holy
body in the tomb are not covered by the dust of death,
but endowed with the arcane seed of eternal life,
breathe the life‑giving odor of a victorious soul;
by which potent medicine is given to the beseeching sick. 190
With how great virtue and glory those rising again will be girded,
one may conjecture, since such grace encircles the buried;
and with how great revived beauty the bodies will glitter,
since there is such light in the dark ashes?

Quid nobis minimis horum praestare coronae 195
Sufficient, quorum, et cineres dant commoda vivis?
Cernere saepe juvat variis spectacula formis
Mira salutantum, et sibi quaeque accommoda votis
Poscentum; videas etiam de rure colonos
Non solum gremio sua pignora ferre paterno, 200

What will the crowns of these suffice to bestow for us, the least of all, 195
of whom even the ashes give benefits to the living?
It often delights to behold spectacles in diverse forms—
marvels of those paying homage, and of those asking for things, each accommodated to their own vows;
you might also see farmers from the countryside
not only carrying their pledges in a paternal bosom, 200

Sed pecora aegra manu saepe introducere secum,
Et Sancto quasi conspicuo mandare licenter.
Moxque datam sua confisos ad vota medelam
Experto gaudere Deo, et jam credere sana,
Et vere plerumque brevi sanata sub ipso 205
Limine laeta suis jumenta reducere tectis.
Sed quia prolixum et vacuum percurrere cuncta,
Quanta gerit Felix miracula nomine Christi,
Unum de multis opus admirabile promam
Innumeris paribus, sed ab uno pende relicta, 210
Quae virtus eadem gessit, distantia causis.

But often to bring in with them by hand their ailing cattle,
and to entrust them freely to the Saint as if to one conspicuously present.
And soon, confident that a remedy has been given in answer to their vows,
to rejoice with God proved, and now to believe them sound,
and truly, very often healed in a short time beneath that very 205
threshold, to lead back their beasts of burden, joyful, to their own roofs.
But since it would be prolix and empty to run through everything,
how many great miracles Felix performs in the name of Christ,
I will bring forth one wondrous work from many—
with numberless equals, but let the rest hang from one, 210
which the same power has wrought, though differing in their causes.

Pandite corda, precor, brevis est injuria vobis,
Dum paucis magnum exiguisque opus eloquor orsis.
Et memores viduae primo sermone relatae,
Quam Deus e pretio mentis, non munere cernens, 215

Open your hearts, I pray, the injury to you is brief,
while in few words I declare a great work and with scant beginnings.
And remember the widow, recalled in the first discourse,
whom God, discerning by the price of the mind, not by the gift, 215

Antetulit multum mittentibus, omnia dantem:
Me quoque ferte levi dicentem magna relatu.
Et mea namque illis sunt aemula verba minutis,
Queis pretium pietas pervilibus aurea fecit.
Quidam homo re tenuis, plebeius origine, cultu               220
Rusticus, e geminis angustam bubus alebat
Pauperiem mercede jugi; nunc subdere plaustris
Suetus eos, oneri pacta regione vehendo,
Nunc operae pretium sub aratra aliena locatis
Paupertatis habens reditum; spes anxia resque               225
Tota inopi par illud erat. Non carior illi
Progenies, aut ipse sibi: sed pignora et ipsos
Ducebat; neque cura minor saturare juvencos,
Quam dulces natos educere; parcior immo
Natis, quam pecori caro; non gramine vili               230

He greatly preferred to the contributors the one who was giving all:
Bear with me too, light in my speaking, yet great in the relating.
For my words also are emulous of those small ones,
for which piety made a golden price for things very cheap.
A certain man, slender in means, plebeian in origin, in dress               220
A rustic, from a pair of oxen he nourished his narrow poverty
by the wage of the yoke; now he was wont to set them under wagons,
carrying burdens in an agreed region;
now, with them hired under others’ ploughs, having as the reward of his labor
the return of poverty; that pair was the poor man’s whole anxious hope and means.               225
Not dearer to him was his progeny, nor he himself to himself: but he reckoned both his pledges and them,
nor was his care less to fill the steers
than to rear his sweet sons; nay, more sparing
to his sons than to the dear cattle; not with cheap grass               230

Illos, aut sterili palea, sed tegmine aprico
Algidus, et de farre sibi natisque negato
Esuriens pascebat, egens sibi, dives in illis,
Quorum fecundus labor exsaturabat egentem.
Hos igitur tam cara suae solamina vitae,               235
Nocte miser quadam somno graviore sepultus,
Amisit taciti furto praedonis abactos;
Exsurgensque die reduci, de more jugandos
Infelix primo in vacuis praesepibus intus,
Moxque foris frustra notis quaesivit in agris:               240
Illico sed fessus cassis erroribus ultro
Atque citro, postquam nullis vestigia signis
Certa videt, spebus frustrata indage peremtis,
Humanam desperat opem, et pietate repletus,
Adspirante Deo depressam in pectore fracto               245

Those, either with sterile chaff, or Algidus, with its sunlit covering, would feed; and from spelt-meal denied to himself and to his children, starving, he fed them—needy for himself, rich in them—whose fruitful labor fully satisfied the needy man.
These therefore, so dear consolations of his life,               235
on a certain night the wretch, buried in a heavier sleep,
lost, carried off by the silent theft of a robber;
and rising by day to yoke them back, to be yoked as usual,
unlucky, first inside in the empty stalls,
and soon outside he sought them in the familiar fields in vain:               240
straightway, however, wearied by void wanderings hither
and thither, after he sees no sure tracks by any signs,
his hopes thwarted, the pursuit undone,
he despairs of human help, and filled with piety,
with God breathing upon him, what was pressed down in his broken breast               245

Erigit in coelum mentem; et mox corde refecto,
Praesumente fide spem voti compotis haurit,
Sanctaque Felicis rapido petit atria cursu,
Ingressusque sacram magnis cum fletibus aulam,
Sternitur ante fores, et postibus oscula figit,               250
Et lacrymis rigat omne solum, pro limine sancto
Fusus humi, et raptos nocturna fraude juvencos
A Felice pio, velut a custode reposcit,
Increpitans, miscetque precantia verba querelis:
Sancte Deo Felix, inopum substantia, semper               255
Pro miseris felix, et semper dives egenis,
Te requiem fessis Deus, afflictisque levamen,
Te posuit moestis ad saucia corda medelam,
Propterea tamquam gremio confisa paterno,
In te pauperies caput inclinata recumbit.               260

He raises his mind into heaven; and soon, with his heart restored,
with faith presuming he draws the hope of wishes accomplished,
and he seeks the holy atria of Felix at a rapid run;
and having entered the sacred hall with great weeping,
he is prostrate before the doors, and sets kisses upon the doorposts, 250
and with tears he waters all the ground, poured out on the earth before the holy threshold,
and he demands back from pious Felix, as from a guardian, the bullocks snatched by nocturnal fraud,
chiding, and he mixes words of prayer with complaints:
O Felix, holy to God, the substance of the needy, always
fortunate for the wretched, and always rich for the destitute; God has appointed you as rest for the weary, and alleviation for the afflicted,
he has set you as a remedy for sad hearts that are wounded;
therefore, as in the bosom of a father, confidence being placed,
poverty, with head inclined, reclines upon you. 260

Felix sancte meos semper miserate labores,
Nunc oblite mei, cur me rogo, vel cui nudum
Deseris? Amisi caros tua dona juvencos,
Saepe tibi supplex quos commendare solebam;
Quos tua perpetuo servabat cura favore, 265
Pascebatque mihi. Tua nam custodia salvos,
Dextraque sufficiens illos praestabat opimos,
Quos misero mihi nox haec abstulit.

Holy Felix, ever having pitied my labors,
now, forgetful of me, why, I ask, or to whom do you leave me stripped
Do you desert me? I have lost the dear young bulls, your gifts,
whom, a suppliant to you, I was wont often to commend;
whom your care with perpetual favor was safeguarding, 265
and was pasturing for me. For your custody kept them safe,
and your right hand, sufficient, rendered them fat and rich,
whom this night has taken from wretched me.

Heu quid agam nunc?
Quo deceptus eam? Quem criminer?

Alas, what am I to do now?
Whither, deceived, shall I go? Whom shall I incriminate?

An tibi de te
Conquerar? Immemoremque mei accusabo patronum? 270
Qui mihi sopito tam densum irrepere somnum,
Ne mea sentirem perfringere claustra latrones,
Passus es? Et nullo fregisti dura pavore
Pectora? Nec lucem tenebris furtoque dedisti?

Shall I complain to you about yourself?
Shall I complain? And shall I accuse my patron as unmindful of me? 270
You—did you allow, as I was lulled, so dense a sleep to creep upon me,
so that I would not sense robbers breaking my locks?
And did you not shatter my stubborn breast with any dread?
Nor did you give light against darkness and theft?

Aut ullis profugos curasti prodere signis? 275

Or did you take care to betray the fugitives by any signs? 275

Quo modo discurram? Quo deferar? Omnia caecis
Structa mihi latebris; nunc et mea tecta videntur
Clausa mihi, abductis ubi desolatus alumnis
Nil habeo, quod habere velim; quod dulce videnti,
Dulce laboranti non irrita gratia praestet, 280
Oblectans inopem censu fructuque peculi.

How shall I run about? Whither shall I be borne? All things with dark
hiding-places are structured for me; and now even my own roof seems
shut to me, where, my alumni abducted, left desolate,
I have nothing that I would wish to have; a thing which, sweet to one seeing,
sweet to one laboring, would bestow a grace not ineffectual, 280
cheering the needy with the means and the fruit of a private purse.

Hos ubi nunc quaeram miserandus? Quando vel usquam
Inveniam tales? Aut unde parabo repertos?

Where am I now to seek these, pitiable as I am? When or anywhere
shall I find such? Or whence shall I provide them, once found?

Qui solos habui contentae rusticus illos
Paupertatis opes? Ipsos igitur mihi redde, 285
Nolo alios. Nec eos ulla regione requiram,
Hic mihi debentur: haec illos limina reddent,
In quibus ipsum te supplex adstringo, tibique
Haereo; cur quaeram, aut ubi, quos ignoro latrones?

Those alone whom I, a rustic, had—the wealth of contented poverty?
Therefore render them back to me, I want no others. 285
Nor will I seek them in any quarter,
Here they are owed to me: these thresholds will render them back,
on which I, a suppliant, bind you yourself, and cling to you;
why should I search, or where, for robbers I do not know?

Debitor hic meus est; ipsum pro fure tenebo 290
Custodem: tu, sancte, reus mihi, conscius illis:
Te teneo; tu scis ubi sint, qui lumine Christi
Cuncta et operta vides, longeque absentia cernis,
Et capis, includente Deo, quo cuncta tenentur.
Atque ideo occulti fures, quacumque latebra 295

This man is my debtor; I will hold him himself as custodian in place of the thief 290
You, holy one, are defendant to me, privy to them:
I hold you; you know where they are, you who by the light of Christ
see all things and the hidden things, and from afar discern what is absent,
and you apprehend, with God enclosing, by whom all things are held.
And therefore the hidden thieves, in whatever hiding-place 295

Non tibi celantur, nec de te evadere possunt,
Quos et jam manus una tenet. Deus unus ubique,
Christi blanda piis, sed iniquis dextera vindex.
Redde igitur mihi, redde boves et corripe fures.

They are not concealed from you, nor can they evade you,
those whom even now one hand holds. One God is everywhere,
the right hand of Christ gentle to the pious, but to the iniquitous an avenger.
Therefore render back to me, render the oxen, and seize the thieves.

Sed non quaero reos, abeant, non nescio mores 300
Sancte tuos, nescis male facta rependere, mavis
Emendare malos venia, quam perdere poena.
Conveniat nobis igitur: sic divide mecum
Quae tua, quae mea sunt; indemnis stet mea per te
Utilitas, justeque tuas clementia partes 305
Vindicet; aequatoque tuum libramine constet
Judicium: tibi solve reos, mihi redde juvencos.
Ecce tenes pactum, famuli jam nulla morandi
Causa tibi; accelera tantis me solvere curis.

But I do not seek the accused—let them go; I am not unaware of your ways, 300
O holy one; you do not know how to repay ill deeds; you prefer
to amend the wicked by pardon rather than to destroy by penalty.
Let there be an agreement between us, then: thus divide with me
what things are yours, what things are mine; let my benefit stand unimpaired through you,
and let clemency justly vindicate your part, 305
and let your judgment stand with a balanced scale;
for yourself absolve the accused, to me restore the young oxen.
Behold, you hold the pact; now your servant has no cause for delaying
for you; hasten to free me from such great cares.

Nam mihi certa manet sententia cedere nusquam 310

For a certain resolve remains to me to cede nowhere 310

Donec subvenias, nec ab isto poste refigi;
Ni properas, isto deponam in limine vitam,
Nec jam repperies, cui reddas sero reductos.
Talia voce quidem querula, sed mente fideli
Plorantem, totoque die sine fine precantem,               315
Audivit laetus non blando supplice martyr,
Et sua cum Domino ludens convitia risit;
Poscentisque fide, non libertate dolentis
Motus, opem properat; paucis mora ducitur horis.
Interea labente die, jam vespere ducto,               320
Nec precibus dabat ille modum, nec fletibus; una
Vox erat affixi foribus, Non eruar istinc:
Hic moriar, vitae nisi causam protinus istic
Accipiam: tandem tamen, ut jam plurima tutum
Nox secretum adytis fieri cogebat; et ille               325

Until you come to help, I am not to be unfastened from that doorpost;
if you do not hasten, I will lay down my life on this threshold,
and you will no longer find one to whom you may return those led back late.
Such things, indeed, with a querulous voice, but with a faithful mind,
weeping, and praying without end the whole day long,               315
the martyr gladly heard the suppliant not blandishing,
and, jesting with the Lord, he laughed at his own invectives;
moved by the faith of the one asking, not by the liberty of the one grieving,
he hastens aid; the delay is drawn out for a few hours.
Meanwhile, as the day was slipping, with evening now drawn on,               320
he set no limit to prayers, nor to tears; there was one
voice of the man fastened to the doors: I shall not be torn from here:
here I shall die, unless at once there I receive the cause of life;
at length, however, as now the night was forcing a very safe secrecy
to be made in the adyta; and he               325

Temporis oblitus, damni memor, ostia prono
Ore premens, toto prohibebat corpore claustra.
Sed multis frustra pulsatum vocibus aures
Aggreditur violenta manus; tandemque revellit
Turba reluctantem, et sancta procul exigit aula.               330
Pulsus ab aedituis flet amarius, et sua lugens
Tecta petit, resonant plangore silentia noctis,
Questibus et magnis late loca sola resultant:
Donec et invitus pervenit, et atra silentis
Ingrediens tuguri penetralia, rursus ab ipso               335
Culminis introitu taciti, ut praesepia vidit
Nuda boum, et nullos dare tintinnabula pulsus,
Excussa ut cervice boum crepitare solebant,
Mollius aut lentis cava linguis aera ferire,
Armentum reduces dum gutture ruminat escas:               340
His gravius tamquam rescisso vulnere, planctum
Integrat: et quamquam neget aegro cura quietem,
Pervigili tamen haec dat solamenta dolori,
Ut bubus stabulata suis loca corpore fuso
Pressa superjaceat; nec duro fracta cubili               345
Membra dolent, juvat ipsa injuria; nec situs horret
Sordentis stabuli, quia notum reddit odorem
Dilecti pecoris, nec foetor foetet amanti.
Si qua illi extremo tulerant vestigia gressu
Aspicit, et palpante manu calcata retractans               350

Forgetful of time, mindful of the loss, pressing the doors with bowed face,
he was keeping back the bars with his whole body.
But, though beaten at the ears by many voices in vain, a violent hand attacks;
and at length the crowd tears him away as he resists, and drives him far from the holy hall.               330
Driven out by the aeditui (sacristans) he weeps more bitterly, and, mourning,
he seeks his own roof; the silences of the night ring with plangor,
and the lonely places far and wide resound with great complaints:
until even unwilling he arrives, and, entering the black penetralia of the silent hut,
again, from the very entrance of the mute roof, when he saw the stalls of the oxen               335
naked, and the tintinnabula giving no strokes,
as they were wont to rattle when shaken from the oxen’s neck,
or more softly to strike the hollow bronzes with pliant tongues,
while the herd, returned, ruminates fodder in its throat:
at these things, more grievously, as if with the wound torn open, he renews his beating of the breast;              340
and although care denies rest to the sick man,
yet in his all-night vigil this gives solaces to the sorrow,
that he may lie stretched above the places where his oxen were stabled,
pressed with his outpoured body; nor do limbs broken by a hard couch ache,
the very injury helps; nor does he shudder at the condition of the filthy stable,               345
because it gives back the familiar odor of the beloved cattle, nor does the fetor stink to the lover.
If any footprints that they had borne to him with their last step
he sees, and, with feeling hand retracing the trodden marks               350

Ingemit, et refricat totis jam frigida membris
Signa pedum; mentemque suam, licet eminus absit
Corpore, sacratam Felicis mittit ad aulam,
Felicem fletu, Felicem nomine clamans:
Nec desperat opem, nec parcit fundere vota. 355
Nox medium transvecta polum perfuderat orbem
Pace soporifera, reticebant omnia somno,
Solum illum sua pervigilem spes curaque habebat.
Ecce repente suis strepitum pro postibus audit,
Et pulsas resonare fores; quo territus amens 360
Exclamat, rursum sibi fures adfore credens:
Quid vacua incassum crudeles ostia vultis
Frangere? Jam nullus mihi bos; quid quaeritis ultra?

He groans, and with all his now cold limbs he rubs again
the prints of the feet; and his mind, although afar he be absent
in body, consecrated, he sends to Felix’s hall,
calling upon Felix with tears, Felix by name:
nor does he despair of aid, nor does he spare to pour out vows. 355
The night, having crossed the mid-pole, had suffused the orb
with soporiferous peace; all things were hushed by sleep,
his own hope and care kept him alone pervigil.
Behold, suddenly he hears a clatter before his own doorposts,
and the doors, being struck, resound; at which, terrified out of his mind, 360
he cries out, believing thieves would be there again:
Why do you cruel ones wish to break the empty doors in vain?
Now I have no ox at all; what do you seek further?

Praevenere alii, mea tantum vita superstes
Quae sociis vestris ut praeda cassa remansit. 365

Others forestalled me; only my life survives,
which to your comrades has remained as empty prey. 365

Dixerat haec metuens: sed nullo fine manebat
Liminibus sonitus; quo crebescente, nec ulla
Respondente sibi pulsantum voce, propinquat
Suspensus cunctante gradu, et dat postibus aurem
Sollicitam, et rimis acies per hiantia claustra,               370
Qua tenebris albus coeli color interlucet,
Inserit, exploratque diu; nec adhuc sibi credit,
Quid videat: nec enim sublustri lumine noctis
Pura fides oculis, dubio tamen ipsa per umbras
Corpora pulsantum trepidos auferre pavores,               375
Spemque boni coepere novis promittere formis.
Non homines pulsare videt; sed quod videt esse
Verum, non audet sibi credere. Magna profabor,
Quamquam parva Deo miracula, cui sapit omne
Rerum animal sensu, quo jusserit ipse Creator               380

He had said these things in fear: but the sound at the thresholds remained without any end; as it grew more frequent, and with no voice of the knockers replying to him, he approaches, suspended with a hesitating step, and gives an ear to the doorposts, anxious, and through the cracks his keen sight through the gaping bars,               370
where the white color of heaven glimmers through the darkness, he inserts it, and explores for a long time; nor yet does he trust himself, as to what he sees: for in the dim light of night there is not pure trust for the eyes, yet through the doubtful shadows the bodies of the knockers began to take away the trembling fears,               375
and began to promise hope of good by new forms. He sees not men to be knocking; but that what he sees is true, he does not dare to believe himself. I will proclaim great things, although small miracles to God, to whom every creature of the world has sense, with the sense which the Creator himself has ordered.               380

Omnigenum pecus. Ecce gerens duce Numine mentem
Par insigne boum, non nota per avia nocte
Venerat ad notas nullis rectoribus aedes,
Sponte quasi, non sponte tamen, quia Numinis actu
Ereptos potiore manu praedonibus illos 385
Egerat occultis Felix moderatus habenis.
Et postquam attigerant assueti culmea tecti
Culmina; gaudentes reditu, expertasque timentes
Sat memori terrore manus, quasi sponte timerent
Instantem sibi raptorem, quatere ostia junctis 390
Frontibus, et tamquam manibus sic cornibus uti,
Ut dominum excirent sonitu.

A herd of every kind. Behold, bearing a mind led by the Numen as guide,
a notable pair of oxen, through pathless places in an unknown night,
had come to familiar houses with no drivers,
as if of their own will, yet not of their own will, since by the act of the Numen
Felix, governed by hidden reins, had driven them—those who had been snatched from the robbers by a stronger hand— 385
And after they had reached the gables of the thatch-roof to which they were accustomed,
rejoicing at their return, and fearing the hands they had experienced,
with terror sufficiently mindful, as if of their own accord they feared
the robber pressing upon them, to shake the doors with joined
foreheads, and to use their horns as if hands, in such a way 390
as to summon their master by the sound.

Sed territus ille,
Rursus ut hostili circum sua claustra tumultu,
Tuta etiam timuit; cursus sapientia bruto
Adspirat pecori causam sentire morantis, 395
Atque intellectum domini reserare timentis.
Edere mugitum, de quo formidine pulsa
Panderet exclusis aditum securus alumnis.
Ille inopina videns divini insignia doni,
Haeret adhuc, trepidumque etiam sua gaudiaturbant, 400

But he, terrified,
again, as though by hostile tumult around his own enclosures,
he feared even the safe; wisdom breathes upon the brute
herd to sense the cause of the one delaying, and to unlock the understanding of the master who is afraid. 395
to utter a bellowing, by which, fear having been driven out,
he might, secure, throw open an entry to his shut-out nurslings.
He, seeing the unlooked-for insignia of a divine gift,
still hesitates, and even his own joys disturb the trembling one, 400

Credere non audet; metuit non credere; cernit
Coram, et caligare putat; dum respicit ad se,
Diffidit tantum sese potuisse mereri:
Sed contra reputans, a quo speraverit, audet
Credere, cognoscens Felicis gesta patroni.               405
Jamque rubescebant rumpente crepuscula mane,
Noctis et extremae fuga rarescentibus astris,
Luce subobscura vel sublucentibus umbris,
Coeperat ambiguos rerum reserare colores.
Tunc demum nota specie sibi bubus apertis,               410
Ut primum coepere oculis clarescere setae,
Certior exsultat, removens et pessula claustris,
Ostia laxato stridentia cardine solvit.
Dum facit hoc, juncti simul irrupere juvenci,
Et reserantis adhuc molimina praevenerunt.               415

He does not dare to believe; he fears not to believe; he discerns
before him, and thinks he is in the dark; while he looks back to himself,
he mistrusts that he could have merited so much:
but, reckoning contrariwise from him in whom he had hoped, he dares
to believe, recognizing the deeds of the patron Felix.               405
And now the twilights were reddening as the morning broke through,
and with the flight of the utmost night, the stars growing sparse,
in a somewhat dim light or in shadows somewhat shining,
the ambiguous colors of things had begun to be unbarred.
Then at last, with a familiar appearance opened to the cattle themselves,               410
as soon as the hairs began to grow clear to his eyes,
more assured he exults, and removing the little bolts from the bars,
he unfastens the doors, creaking with the hinge loosened.
While he does this, the yoked young bulls burst in at once,
and forestalled the endeavors of him still unbarring.               415

Dimoto faciles cesserunt obice postes,
Oblatumque sibi mox ipso in limine regem
Cognoscunt hilares laetum, lambuntque vicissim
Mulcentem, labrisque manus palpantis inundant,
Atque habitum totum spumosa per oscula foedant,               420
Dum complectentis domini juga cara benignum
Molliter obnixi blanda vice pectus adulant
Illum dilecti pecoris nec cornua laedunt,
Et collata quasi molles ad pectora frontes
Admovet, et manibus non aspera lingua videtur,               425
Quae lambens etiam silvestria pabula radit.
Sed tamen haec inter, non vano corde, fidelis
Rusticus officii meminit, neque curat anhelos
- Ante boves stabulis inducere, postque laborem
Atque famem, recreare cibo, quam ducere secum               430

With the obstacle removed, the compliant doorposts yielded,
and soon, right on the very threshold, they recognize the king
presented to them, cheerful they, and him glad; and in turn they lick
the soothing one, and with their lips they flood the stroking hands,
and they defile his whole habit through foamy kisses;               420
while, kindly, the dear yokes of their embracing master,
gently pressing, in a coaxing turn they flatter his breast;
nor do the horns of the beloved herd wound him,
and their brows, as if brought together, soft to his breast,
they press up, and to his hands the tongue does not seem rough,               425
which, licking, even shaves woodland fodder.
But yet meanwhile, not with an empty heart, the faithful
rustic remembers his duty, nor does he care to—panting—
- lead the oxen first into the stalls, and after toil
and hunger, to restore them with food, rather than to lead them with him.               430

Illuc, unde suos meruit. Venit ergo reductos
Ducens, nec tacitis celat sua gaudia votis:
Et referens densas trahit ad sua verba catervas;
Ingrediturque sacras cunctis mirantibus aedes.
Quos miser hesterno amissos deflerat, eosdem               435
Praesentes hodie ducit; sanctique triumphum
Martyris ostentat populis; ducuntur et ipsi
Per medios coetus, modo furum praeda, juvenci,
Et modo Felicis spolium; dat euntibus ingens
Turba locum, et muto celebratur gloria Christi               440
In pecore. Ille autem, qui tanti muneris alto
Causa fuit Domino, mediis in liminibus stans
Flensque iterum, sed laetitia, modo debita Sancto
Vota refert, non aere gravi, nec munere surdo,
Munere sed vivo linguae mentisque profusus,               445

Thither, whence he had merited his own. He comes therefore leading them back,
and he does not hide his joys in silent vows;
and, recounting it, he draws thick throngs to his words;
and he enters the sacred halls with all marveling.
Those whom, wretched, yesterday he had bewailed as lost, the very same               435
he leads in present today; and he displays to the peoples the triumph
of the holy Martyr; and they themselves are led
through the midst of the assemblies, the bullocks, lately the prey of thieves,
and now the spoil of Felix; the huge
crowd gives place to those going, and the mute glory of Christ is celebrated               440
in the herd. But he, who was the cause of so great a gift from the Most High
Lord, standing in the very thresholds
and weeping again, but for joy, now renders the vows due to the Saint,
not with heavy bronze, nor with a deaf gift,
but poured out with the living gift of tongue and mind,               445

Voce pia largum testatur pauper honorem:
Debitor et Christo satis isto pignore solvit,
Immaculata suae cui sufficit hostia laudis.
Captivos en, Sancte, tuos tibi plebe sub omni
Victor ago, et supplex iterum tibi mando ludendos: 450
Conserva reduces, dignatus reddere raptos.
Sed tamen in me nunc ipsum bone respice Martyr:
Namque vides quod agas tibi adhuc superesse sed in me,
Qui prope caecatis oculis tua comminus adsto
Limina; nam multo mersi mea lumina fletu; 455
Non solum damno, sed et inter gaudia plorans.

With pious voice the poor man attests abundant honor:
And as a debtor to Christ he pays enough by that pledge,
for whom the immaculate victim of his praise suffices.
Behold, O Saint, your captives I, as victor, lead to you before all the populace,
and as a suppliant again I entrust them to you to sport; 450
Preserve the returned, you who deigned to render back the snatched.
But yet upon me now myself, good Martyr, look:
for you see that what you have yet to do for yourself still remains—but in me,
I, with eyes near-blinded, stand close by your thresholds,
for my lights are drowned by much weeping; 455
weeping not only to my loss, but even amid joys.

Demsisti causam lacrymarum, tolle modo orta
Vulnera de lacrymis; miseratus, Sancte, meorum
Damna boum, miserare itidem modo damna oculorum.
Donasti reduces pecudes mihi, rursus et illis 460
Redde meos oculos. Nam quid juvat esse reductos,
Si languente acie praesens praesentibus absim?

You have removed the cause of tears; now take away the wounds arisen from tears.
Having pitied, O Saint, the damages of my cattle, pity likewise now the damages of my eyes.
You have granted the flocks returned to me; and for them, in turn, 460
restore my eyes. For what does it avail that they have been brought back,
if, with my acuity languishing, I, though present, am absent to those present?

Talia praesentes populi riseri querentem.
Sed procul admotae secreti Martyris aures
Suscepere pias ab inepto supplice voces, 465
Moxque refecta sacram senserunt lumina dextram.
Inde domum gaudens oculis bubusque receptis,
Collaudante Deum populo, remeabat, et illum
Laeta sequebatur gemini victoria voti

Such things did those present among the people laugh at, as he complained.
But from afar the ears of the hidden Martyr, drawn near,
received the pious voices from the inept suppliant; 465
and soon the eyes, restored, sensed the sacred right hand.
Thence home he was going back rejoicing, with eyes and oxen recovered,
while the people, praising God together, acclaimed; he returned, and him
the glad victory of the twin vow followed.

POEMA XIX.
CARMEN XI IN S. FELICEM.

POEM 19.
POEM 11 ON ST. FELIX.

Sidera si caelo, si possunt gramina terris
Defore, mella favis, aqua fontibus, uberibus lac:
Sic poterunt linguis laudes cessare piorum,
In quibus et vitae virtus, et gloria mortis
Ipse Deus pro quo vitam voluere pacisci, 5
Et moriendo piam sancire fidem populorum,
Mercarique sacrum pretioso sanguine regnum,
Sanguine, quo totum spargentes martyres orbem
Gentibus innumeris semen caeleste fuerunt.
Horum de numero procerum confessor in ista 10
Urbe datus Felix longe lateque per orbem
Nominis emicuit titulo. Sed Nola sepulti
Facta domus tamquam proprio sibi sidere plaudit.

If the stars can be absent from the sky, if grasses from the lands,
honey from the honeycombs, water from the fountains, milk from the udders:
so may the praises of the pious cease from tongues,
in whom both the virtue of life and the glory of death—
God himself, for whom they have wished to bargain their life, 5
and by dying to sanction the pious faith of peoples,
and to purchase the sacred kingdom with precious blood—
with the blood with which, sprinkling the whole orb, the martyrs
were a heavenly seed for countless nations.
Of these, from the number of nobles, a confessor in this 10
city given, Felix, shone far and wide through the orb
by the title of his name. But Nola, the home of the buried,
made his house, applauds as if with a star proper to itself.

Omnis enim, quacumque manet mandatus in ora
Martyr, stella loci simul, et medicina colentum est. 15

For every martyr, wherever he abides appointed in a region,
he is at once the star of the place and the medicine of the worshipers. 15

Namque tenebrosum veteri caligine mundum,
Languentesque animas miseratus in orbe creator
Sic sacra disposuit terris monumenta piorum,
Sparsit ut astrorum nocturno lumina caelo.
Et licet una fides, par gratia, et aemula virtus 20
Martyribus cunctis maneat, tamen omnibus iisdem
Dissimiles operum formas exstare videmus.
Atque alibi tacitis meritum sublime sepulcris
Excolimus memores, alibi clamantia signa
Conspicuas miramur opes.

For indeed the world, dark with ancient gloom,
and the languishing souls in the orb the Creator, having pitied,
thus disposed upon the lands the sacred monuments of the pious,
just as he scattered the lights of the stars on the nocturnal sky.
And although one faith, equal grace, and emulous virtue 20
abides for all the martyrs, nevertheless in all these same
we see dissimilar forms of works stand forth.
And in some places, mindful, we cultivate the lofty merit with silent sepulchres,
elsewhere we marvel at clamorous signs
and conspicuous riches.

Ubi credo mali plus               25
Durior impietas retinet, majorem ibi morbus
Poscit opem gravior, vel adhuc ubi caecior altam
Perfidiae noctem trahit error, et aegra laborat
In populo titubante fides, ibi lumina prorsus
Accendi majora decet, mundique tenebras               30
Illustrante Deo perimi, mentesque retusis
Attonitas oculis, trepidasque intendere ad ipsos
Divini veri radios, caligine tetra
Solvere, collyrioque medentis inungere Christi.
Quod per apostolicas curandis sensibus artes               35
Cote pia teritur, quia lene jugum, et leve Christi
Est onus ad Christum puro jam lumine versis,
Atque evangelico suffusis pectora succo.
Quo bene purgantur nebulae, quibus interiorem
Obducunt aciem mundi fallentis amores,               40

Where I believe more of evil               25
a harder impiety holds fast, there the more grievous
sickness demands greater aid; or where a still more blind error
drags the deep night of perfidy, and ailing faith labors
in a staggering people—there it is altogether fitting that greater lights
be kindled, and that the world’s darknesses               30
be destroyed with God illuminating, and that minds,
astonished with blunted eyes, and the trembling, be directed to the very
rays of divine truth, to dissolve the grim murk
and to anoint with the collyrium of Christ the Healer.
Which, through apostolic arts for curing the senses,               35
a pious whetstone is rubbed; for the yoke is gentle, and light is the burden of Christ
for those now turned to Christ with pure light,
and with their breasts suffused by evangelical sap.
By which the mists are well cleansed, by which the loves
of the deceiving world draw a film over the inner sight.               40

Qui magnum per inane vagos sine remige sensus
Circumagunt, hebetantque gravi caligine captos
Mollibus illecebris, ut frangant robora vitae,
Sectenturque vagas per gaudia lubrica pompas.
Hos igitur nobis cupiens avertere morbos               45
Omnimedens Dominus, sanctos mortalibus aegris
Per varias gentes medicos pietate salubri
Edidit; utque suam divina potentia curam
Clarius exereret, potioribus intulit illos
Urbibus, et quosdam licet oppida parva retentent               50
Martyras: at proceres Deus ipsos moenibus amplis
Intulit, et paucas functos divisit in oras,
Quos tamen ante obitum toto dedit orbe magistros.
Inde Petrum, et Paulum Romana fixit in urbe,
Principibus quoniam medicis caput orbis egebat               55
Multis insanum vitiis, caecumque tenebris.

Who, through the great void, drive the wandering senses without a helmsman,
and they wheel them about, and dull those captured by heavy gloom
with soft allurements, so that they break the strengths of life,
and follow roaming pomps through slippery joys.
Therefore, wishing to avert these diseases from us,               45
the All-healing Lord brought forth saints as physicians with healthful piety
for ailing mortals through various nations; and in order that his divine potency
might exercise its care more clearly, he brought them into the more important
cities; and although small towns may retain certain martyrs,
yet God brought the princes themselves within ample walls, and, once they had fulfilled their task,               50
he assigned them to a few shores—whom, however, before death he gave
as teachers to the whole world. Then he fixed Peter and Paul in the Roman city,
since the head of the world, maddened by many vices and blind with darkness,               55
was in need of principal physicians.

Sed potiore Deo nostram reparare salutem,
Quam Satanae captos etiam nunc fraude tenere:
Rarescunt tenebrae mundi, et jam pene per omnes
Praevaluit pietas, et mortem vita subegit. 60
Crebrescente fide victus delabitur error,
Et prope jam nullis sceleri, mortique relictis
Tota pio Christi censetur nomine Roma,
Irridens figmenta Numae, vel fata Sibyllae.
Cumque sacris pia turba refert pastoribus Amen 65

But that the mightier God repair our salvation,
rather than that those captured be held even now by Satan’s fraud:
the darknesses of the world grow thin, and now almost through all
piety has prevailed, and life has subjugated death. 60
With faith increasing, conquered error slips away,
and now, with almost none left abandoned to wickedness and to death,
all Rome is assessed under the pious name of Christ,
mocking the figments of Numa, or the fates of the Sibyl.
And when, at the sacred rites, the pious throng replies Amen to the pastors, 65

Per numerosa Dei regnantis ovilia laetum.
Laudibus aeterni Domini ferit aethera clamor
Sanctus, et incusso Capitolia culmine nutant.
In vacuis simulacra tremunt squalentia templis
Vocibus icta piis, impulsaque nomine Christi. 70
Diffugiunt trepidi desertas daemones aedes.

Joyful through the numerous sheepfolds of the reigning God.
With praises of the eternal Lord the holy clamor strikes the aether,
and the Capitolia sway, their summit smitten.
In empty temples the squalid simulacra tremble
struck by pious voices, and driven by the name of Christ. 70
Frightened, the demons scatter from the deserted shrines.

Lividus incassum serpens fremit ore cruento
Lugens humanam jejuna fauce salutem.
Seque simul pecudum jam sanguine defraudatum
Praedo gemens frustra siccas circumvolat aras. 75
Sic Deus et reliquis tribuens pia munera terris
Sparsit ubique loci magnas sua membra per urbes.
Sic dedit Andream Patris, Ephesoque Johannem,
Ut simul Europam, atque Asiam curaret in illis,
Discuteretque graves per lumina tanta tenebras. 80
Parthia Matthaeum complectitur, India Thomam
Lebbaeum Libyes, Phryges accepere Philippum,
Creta Titum sumpsit, medicum Boetia Lucam.

The livid serpent roars in vain with a bloody mouth,
lamenting human salvation with a fasting throat.
And himself too, already defrauded of the blood of cattle,
the predator, groaning in vain, flies around the dry altars. 75
Thus God also, granting pious gifts to the remaining lands,
scattered his great members through cities everywhere.
Thus he gave Andrew to Patras, and John to Ephesus,
so that he might tend Europe and Asia in them at once,
and scatter the heavy darkness by such great lights. 80
Parthia embraces Matthew, India Thomas,
the Libyans Lebbaeus; the Phrygians received Philip,
Crete took Titus, Boeotia Luke the physician.

Marcus, Alexandrea, tibi datus, ut bove pulso
Cum Jove, nec pecudes Aegyptus in Apide demens, 85

Mark, Alexandria, given to you, so that, the bull driven out
along with Jove, Egypt, demented over Apis, may not worship cattle. 85

In Jove nec civem coleret male Creta sepultum,
Nec Phryges exsectis agerent Cybeleia Gallis
Impuram foedo solantes vulnere matrem,
Et tandem castis fronderet montibus Ida
Intactas referens securo vertice pinus:               90
Vana nec ulterius mutos jam Graecia Delphos
Consuleret, spernensque suum calcaret Olympum
Altius in Sion gradiens, ubi collis alumni
Lene jugum celso fastigat vertice Christus.
Fugit et ex Epheso trudente Diana Johanne               95
Germanum comitata suum, quem nomine Christi
Imperitans Paulus pulso Pythone fugavit.
Fugit ab Aegypto Satanas, ubi mille figuras,
Nomina mille sibi variis accommoda monstris
- Sumpserat; ut Serapi sanctum formaret Ioseph,               100

Nor in Jove would Crete worship the citizen ill-buried, nor would the Phrygians with the excised Galli perform Cybeleian rites, consoling the impure mother with a foul wound, and at last Ida would leaf on chaste mountains, bringing back untouched pines on its secure summit: 90
Nor any further would Greece consult mute Delphi, and, spurning her own Olympus, she would tread higher, advancing onto Zion, where Christ with lofty summit crowns the gentle yoke for the alumni of the hill.
And Diana too fled from Ephesus, John thrusting her out, accompanied by her twin-brother, whom Paul, commanding in the name of Christ, routed with Python driven out.
Satan fled from Egypt, where a thousand forms, a thousand names fitted to various monsters he had assumed, - so as to fashion holy Joseph into Serapis, 100

Nomine ferali abscondens venerabile nomen,
Cum tamen ipsa fidem simulacri forma doceret,
Qua modius capiti superest, quia frugibus olim
Ante famem Domino sic inspirante coactis
Innumeras gentes Aegypti ex ubere pavit,               105
Et steriles annos annis saturavit opimis.
Sed ne ultra sanctus coleretur honore profano,
Mens arcana Dei devotae pectora plebis
Immissis acuit stimulis, cultumque nefandi
Daemonis everso, fractoque Serapide clausit.               110
Non Pelusiacis vaga saltibus Isis Osirim
Quaerit aruspicibus calvis, qui pectore tunso
Deplorant aliena suo lamenta dolore,
Moxque itidem insani sopito gaudia luctu
Vana gerunt eadem mentiti fraude repertum,               115

Hiding the venerable name under a funereal name,
although the very form of the simulacrum gave proof,
whereby a modius stands upon the head, because with grains once
gathered before the famine, the Lord thus inspiring,
he fed the innumerable gentes of Egypt from the udder (fullness),               105
and satisfied the sterile years with opulent years.
But lest the holy one be worshiped further with profane honor,
the arcane Mind of God, with goads sent in, sharpened the hearts of the devout plebs,
and, the worship of the nefarious daemon overthrown,
shut it down, Serapis being broken and overturned.               110
No longer in Pelusiac dances does wandering Isis seek Osiris
with bald haruspices, who, with chest beaten,
bewail with their own pain another’s laments,
and soon likewise, grief lulled asleep, they enact the same vain joys of madness,
pretending by fraud that he was found.               115

Qua non amissum sibi quaesivere vagantes.
Heu quo stultitiae merguntur gurgite mentes
Luce Dei vacuae! nam quid, rogo, caecius illis,
Qui non amissum quaerunt, nusquamque manentem
Inveniunt, planguntque alii quod non dolet ipsis? 120
Elige quid facias miser error.

By which the wanderers sought for themselves what had not been lost.
Alas, into what whirlpool of foolishness minds vacant of the Light of God are plunged!
for what, I ask, is blinder than they,
who seek what was not lost, and find what abides nowhere,
and bewail for others what does not pain themselves? 120
Choose what you are to do, miserable error.

Quid colis? Aut quid
Plangis non coeunt quae jungis: luctus honorem
Non sequitur: lamenta colis, lugendaque credis,
Quae divina putas. Si dii sunt, nec miseri sunt;
Aut si sunt miseri, dii non sunt, atque homines sunt, 125
Et miseri: miserare igitur mortalia passos,
Aut laetus venerare deos: nam caecus aperte est
Hic furor, aut miseros colere, aut lugere beatos.

What do you worship? Or why do you
bewail things you yoke that do not cohere? Mourning does not follow honor:
you cultivate laments, and you deem to be mournable
the things you consider divine. If they are gods, then they are not miserable;
or if they are miserable, they are not gods, but are humans, 125
and miserable: therefore pity those who have suffered mortal things,
or gladly venerate gods: for it is openly blind,
this frenzy, either to worship the wretched, or to mourn the blessed.

Ergo dea est Isis? Mulier dea? Si dea, corpus
Non habet, et sexus sine corpore, vel sine sexu 130
Partus abest.

Therefore, is Isis a goddess? A woman, a goddess? If a goddess, a body
she does not have, and sex without a body, or without sex 130
Childbirth is absent.

Unde ergo illi quem quaerit Osirim?
Atque ubi quaerat eum, nescit dea. Sed dea numquam
Esse potest mater, nec femina.

Whence, then, to her, is the Osiris whom she seeks?
And where she should look for him, the goddess does not know. But a goddess can never
be a mother, nor female.

Nam Deus unus,
Virtus trina Deus, Pater unus, et unus in ipso
Filius: ex ipso simul unus cum Patre Verbi 135

For God is one,
a triune Power is God, the Father one, and the Son one in him;
from him likewise one with the Father of the Word 135

Spiritus: haec tria sunt Deus unus nomina semper.
Sola Dei natura Deus: quod Filius, et quod
Spiritus, et Pater est: sed Filius ex Patre natus,
Spiritus ex Patre procedens. Nihil hic habet ulla
Commune, aut simile in rebus natura creatis. 140
Ast Carthago potens Cypriano martyre floret,
Cujus et ore simul profusi, et sanguine fontes
Fecundaverunt Libyae sitientis arenas.

Spirit: these three are the one God, names forever.
The only nature of God is God: what the Son is, and what
the Spirit is, and the Father is: but the Son born from the Father,
the Spirit proceeding from the Father. Here no created nature has anything
in common or similar. 140
But powerful Carthage flourishes by the martyr Cyprian,
whose fountains, poured forth both from his mouth and from his blood,
have made fruitful the sands of thirsting Libya.

Nec procul inde Uticam collatis Candida Massa
Martyribus magno venerandae caedis acervo 145
Extulit; unus enim benedicti cespitis agger
Corpora multa tegens alte caput extulit arvis,
Et meritis altos testatur monte sepulcri.
Inde Deo dudum jam fertilis Africa Christo
Multiplicat largas tanto de semine fruges, 150

Nor far from there, at Utica, the White Mass,
with the martyrs assembled, raised up a great heap of venerable slaughter 145
brought forth; for a single mound of blessed turf,
covering many bodies, lifted its head high in the fields,
and by their merits bears witness, with a mountain of sepulcher, to lofty heights.
Thence Africa, long now fertile to God Christ,
multiplies abundant fruits from so great a seed, 150

Et parit egregios verboque, fideque magistros.
Nec minor Occiduis effulsit gratia terris.
Ambrosius Latio, Vincentius exstat Iberis.

And it brings forth illustrious masters in word and in faith.
Nor did grace shine forth less in the Occidental lands.
Ambrose for Latium, Vincent stands forth for the Iberians.

Gallia Martinum, Delphinum Aquitania sumpsit.
Multaque praeterea per easdem largiter oras               155
Semina sanctorum positis diffusa sepulcris
Illustrant totum superis virtutibus orbem,
Et toto antiquum detrudunt orbe draconem,
Qui genus humanum per nomina mille deorum,
Quae tamen ex obitis mortalibus et sibi sumpsit               160
Ipse, suisque dedit coluber, quibus arte nocendi
Princeps in vacuo tetrum gerit aere regnum,
Daemonibusque caput nobis inimicus oberrat.
Sic itaque et nostra haec Christi miserantis amore
Felicis meruit muniri Nola sepulcro,               165

Gaul took Martin; Aquitania took Delphinus.
And many besides, along those same coasts lavishly               155
the seeds of saints, diffused with sepulchers laid down,
illuminate the whole orb with supernal virtues,
and throughout the whole orb thrust down the ancient dragon,
who the human race through the names of a thousand gods,
which, however, from dead mortals he himself assumed,               160
and the serpent gave to his own; by whom, in the craft of harming,
the Prince in the empty air bears a grim kingdom,
and, as head over the demons, hostile to us, he ranges about.
Thus therefore even our own Nola, by the love of Christ who has mercy,
has merited to be fortified by Felix’s sepulcher,               165

Purgarique simul, quia caecis mixta ruinis
Orbis, et ipsa simul moriens in nocte jacebat
Saxicolis polluta diu cultoribus, in qua
Prostibulum Veneris simul, et dementia Bacchi
Numina erant miseris, foedoque nefaria ritu 170
Sacra celebrabat sociata libido furori.
Et quis erat vitae locus hic, ubi nec pudor usquam,
Nec metus ullus erat? Quis enim peccare timeret,
Hic ubi sanguineus furor, atque incesta libido
Relligionis erant, et erat pro numine crimen 175
His qui crediderant esse ullum in crimine numen?

And to be cleansed at the same time, because the world-orb, mingled with blind ruins,
and it itself at once lay dying in night,
polluted long by saxicolous worshippers, in which
a brothel of Venus and the dementia of Bacchus alike
were numina for the wretched, and with a foul and nefarious rite 170
libido, allied with fury, was celebrating sacred rites.
And what place for life was there here, where there was nowhere modesty,
nor any fear? For who would fear to sin,
here where sanguinary fury and incestuous libido
were Religion, and crime stood in place of a numen 175
for those who had believed there to be any numen in crime?

Atque erat in toto quasi sanctior agmine cultor,
Qui Veneris sacris pollutius incaluisset.
Plenus et ille Deo, reliquisque beatior esset,
Qui magis infuso sibi daemone saevius in se 180
Desipiens, propriisque litans furialia sacra
Vulneribus sanam meruisset perdere mentem.
O caecis mens digna animis, et numina digna
Aversis servire Deo.

And there was in the whole troop, as it were, a more holy worshiper,
who had more foully heated himself in the rites of Venus.
Full of God too was that man, and more blessed than the rest would he be,
who, with a demon poured more into himself, more savagely against himself 180
raving, and sacrificing to his own Furial sacred rites,
would have merited by wounds to lose a sane mind.
O mind worthy of blind spirits, and divinities worthy
to be served by those averse to God.

Venus, et nemus illis
Sit Deus: ebrietas demens, amor impius illos 185

Venus, and the grove, to them
be God: demented ebriety, impious love for them 185

Sanctificent: abscissa colant, miserique pudorem
Erroris foedi Matris mysteria dicant.
Digna fides illis, quibus almo in lumine veri,
Legibus et castis, et magno nomine Christi
Nulla fides, et nullus amor, ideoque nec ullum 190
Indignae pretium vitae est in sanguine Christi.
Sit Deus his venter, vel cetera gaudia carnis,
Queis Deus ipse Deus non est, quibus in cruce Christi
Gloria nulla subest, quia non dignatur adire
Degeneres animos virtus crucis.

Let them sanctify: let them worship the severed; and, wretched, let them proclaim
the shame of error, the mysteries of the foul Mother.
A faith worthy for them, for whom in the nurturing light of truth,
and in the chaste laws and the great name of Christ,
there is no faith and no love, and therefore not any 190
price of an unworthy life is in the blood of Christ.
Let the belly be their god, or the other joys of the flesh,
for whom God himself is not God, for whom under the cross of Christ
no glory lies, because the virtue of the cross does not deign to approach
degenerate minds.

Inde beatis 195
Felix, ut reliqui diverso martyres orbe,
Nolanis medicus fuit, estque perennis ope ista:
Nec modo Nolanis, sed et omnibus, a quibus idem
Imploratus erit, dabit isto jure salutem,
Si crucis alma fides in pectore supplicis adsit. 200

Thence to the blessed 195
Felix, as the other martyrs in the diverse world,
was a physician for the Nolans, and he is perennial in that aid:
And not only for the Nolans, but also for all by whom the same
will be implored, he will give health by that right,
if the nurturing faith of the cross be present in the supplicant’s breast. 200

Ista fides genus humanum curatque, piatque:
Haec ubi defuerit medicina, morabitur illic
Omne mali regnum, nec in illo desinet umquam
Cypris adulteriis, furiis regnare Lyaeus,
In quo defuerit Christi pudor, et crucis ardor.               205
Ignis enim divinus inest, ubi vis crucis intus
Ardescente fide cruciat male conscia corda,
Vivificatque animam vitiis in carne peremptis.
Hostibus his obtrita diu, corruptaque tantis
Pestibus ingentem poscebat Nola medelam.               210
Atque ideo pensante Deo discrimen, opemque
Felicem accepit medicum, qui vinceret omnem
Quamlibet antiquam miserorum in cordibus atris
Perniciem, et meriti virtute potentior alti
Vulneribus ductum super ulcera putria callum               215

This faith both heals and expiates the human race:
where this medicine has failed, there the whole kingdom of evil will linger,
nor in that place will Cypris ever cease to reign by adulteries, nor Lyaeus by furies,
where the modesty of Christ and the ardor of the cross is lacking.               205
For a divine fire is within, where the force of the cross inside,
as faith blazes, torments hearts conscious of guilt,
and makes the soul alive, the vices in the flesh destroyed.
Long crushed by these enemies, and corrupted by such great
plagues, Nola was asking for an immense remedy.               210
And therefore, with God weighing the crisis and the aid,
she received Felix as physician, who would conquer every
ruin, however ancient, in the dark hearts of the wretched,
and, more powerful by the virtue of lofty merit,
would draw scar-tissue over the putrid ulcers upon the wounds.               215

Scinderet, ut saniem suffusa labe coactam
Exprimeret sinibus ruptis, ac deinde lacunam
Vulneris expleret plana cute ducta cicatrix.
Ergo ubi Nolanis Felix, ut stella tenebris,
Fulsit ab ore Dei veniens, verbumque medendi               220
Ore gerens tamquam venturo sole serenus
In matutino laetum jubar exserit ortu
Phosphorus, occiduisque novus praefulget in astris
Nuncius instantis cessura nocte diei.
Sic jam Evangelio totum radiante per orbem,               225
Et propiante Deo cunctis mox judice terris
Adventus vexilla sui praetendit ubique,
Perque suos Christus sua signa coruscat amicos.
Ex quibus hac voluit sibi praelucere sub ora
Felicem, ut nostras isto depelleret umbras               230

He would cut, so that the sanious matter, thickened with a suffused stain,
he might press out with the pockets burst, and then the cavity
of the wound he might fill, a scar drawn with smooth skin.
Therefore, when to the Nolans Felix, like a star in the darkness,
shone forth, coming from the mouth of God, and the word of healing bearing in his mouth,               220
serene as Phosphorus, before the sun to come,
at his morning rise puts forth a joyful beam,
and among the western stars shines forth new, the Herald
of the day at hand, with the night about to yield;
so now, with the Gospel shining over the whole orb,               225
and with God propitious, soon the Judge for all lands,
He everywhere holds forth the banners of His Advent,
and through His friends Christ flashes His own signs.
From whom He willed that here under these borders
Felix should shine before Him, that by that means he might drive away our shades.               230

Sidere, et antiquos ista quoque pelleret urbe
Daemonas, ut pulsis hominum de corde colonis
Talibus intraret puras Deus incola mentes,
Et vice mutata nobis pietate solutis
Nostra prius nostros premerent modo vincla leones               235
Frustra in oves Christi victa feritate frementes.
Et manet haec nobis etiam nunc gratia, quae nos
Peccatis prece sanctorum exorante resolvit,
Atque iisdem sanctis ultoribus alligat illos,
Discruciatque hostes, qui nos vincire solebant.               240
Hi modo ut illato deprensi lumine fures,
Atque in vincla dati, nunc ignea flagra piorum,
Ut meruere, ferunt, aut jam infernis male trusi
Carceribus trepidant, vicinum instare fatentes
Judicium Domini solis sibi triste, suisque               245

By the star, and that by this he might also drive from the city the ancient demons,
so that, the colonists of such a sort having been expelled from the heart of men,
God as an inhabitant might enter pure minds,
and with the turn changed, with us released by piety,
our chains, which before pressed us, might now press our lions,               235
roaring in vain against the sheep of Christ, their ferocity conquered.
And this grace remains for us even now, which looses us from sins, the prayer of the saints entreating,
and it binds those to the same saints as avengers,
and cruciates the enemies who were wont to bind us.               240
These now, like thieves caught when light has been brought in,
and given into chains, now bear, as they have deserved, the fiery scourges of the pious,
or else, already badly thrust into infernal prisons, they tremble,
confessing that the near judgment of the Lord is pressing—sad for themselves,
and for their own.               245

Omnibus, in Satanae partem quos saeva voluntas
Verterit, et Satanae sociaverit aemula vita.
Istic nequitiae socios homines, ibi poenae.
Ecce dies accepta Deo: modo vera salutis
Lux micat: omnia jam nobis bene versa videmus: 250
Diffugere doli, cecidit Bel, interit error,
Quique colebantur totis quasi numina templis
Daemones, hi per templa Dei torquentur inermes;
Et qui divinos audebant sumere honores,
Hi modo ab humana plectuntur gente subacti. 255
Namque isti, quos nunc celebri Felicis in aula
Torqueri, clamare, rapi per capta videmus
Corpora, corporibus vincti retinentur in ipsis,
In quae se trusere ipsi, poenamque volentes
Humanam, invenere suam.

To all whom a savage will has turned into Satan’s party, and an emulous life has associated with Satan.
There the accomplices of wickedness are men; there, the penalties.
Behold, a day acceptable to God: now the true light of salvation gleams: we now see all things turned well for us: 250
The wiles have fled, Bel has fallen, error perishes,
and the demons who were being worshiped as divinities with whole temples—these, through the temples of God, are tortured weaponless;
and those who dared to assume divine honors,
these now, subdued, are punished by the human race. 255
For those whom now in Felix’s celebrated hall we see to be tortured, to cry out, to be dragged through seized bodies, bound to the bodies they are held in those very bodies into which they themselves thrust themselves, and, willing a human punishment, have found their own.

Nunc ergo reorum 260
Personae exululant poenis, qui numine falso
Dii fuerant, et qui mentito numine vivos
Ante Dei cultum sibi nil caeleste videntes
Dediderant homines, hi nunc ubi lumine Christi
Vera fides patuit, non possunt ferre sepultos. 265

Now therefore the persons of the guilty howl out under penalties, who by a false numen
had been gods, and who with a feigned numen, before the cult of God, the living—seeing
nothing heavenly—had delivered over to themselves; these now, when by the light of Christ
true faith has lain open, cannot bear the buried. 260

Sed magis ut pateat, quia nunc hi qui cruciantur
Daemones ante fores, aut ante sepulcra piorum,
Iidem sunt illi, quibus olim serva litabat
Gens hominum, et sacros demens libabat honores,
Ipsa docet vocum species: nam saepius illa               270
Voce gemunt, solitum ut noscas clamore furorem.
Sic plerumque velut resoluto laxius ore,
Dente fremunt, spumant labris, horrentque capillis.
Utque manu prensante comam excutiuntur in altum,
Et pede pendentes stant crinibus: interea illic               275
Sacrorum memores veterum, quibus exta solebant
Lambere caesarum pecudum, aut libamine pasci,
Lascivosque choros hederatis ducere pompis,
Nunc etiam sua testantes sacra illa fuisse,
In quibus insanos dabat ebria turba tumultus,               280

But more, that it may lie open, that now these who are tormented—demons before the doors, or before the tombs of the pious—are the selfsame as those to whom once the enslaved race of men used to sacrifice, and, demented, used to pour out sacred honors, the very character of their voices teaches: for very often they groan with a voice, that you may recognize the wonted furor by their clamor.               270
Thus for the most part, as though with the mouth loosened more laxly, they growl with the tooth, they foam at the lips, and their hairs bristle.
And as, with a hand grasping the hair, they are shaken aloft, and, hanging by a foot, they stand by their hair: meanwhile there, mindful of the ancient rites, with which they were accustomed to lick the entrails of slaughtered herd-beasts, or to be fed with a libation, and to lead lascivious choruses in ivy-wreathed processions,               275
now also bearing witness that those rites were theirs, in which a drunken crowd used to give insane tumults.               280

Euhoe Bacche sonum fractis imitantur anheli
Vocibus, et lento jactant sua colla rotatu.
Sed quia non poterat mortalis unius aetas
Sufficere, ut longo contagia tempore tracta
Dilueret paucis, quos corpore viveret, annis               285
Confessor Felix, et presbyter, ore magister,
Elogio martyr, merito officioque sacerdos;
Omnipotens Dominus finitum corporis aevum
Felici potiore via persistere fecit,
Continuans medicos operosi martyris actus,               290
Virtutes ut eas idem celebraret humatus,
Quas in carne manens Christi virtute gerebat,
Atque ita susceptae nec mortuus abforet urbi
Corpore, cum tantum positi sanator adesset
Spiritus, et desideriis latitaret amantum               295

“Euhoe, Bacchus!”—with panting, broken voices they imitate the sound,
and they toss their necks with a slow rotatory sway.
But because the mortal span of a single man
could not suffice to dilute contagions drawn out through a long time
within the few years in which he would live in the body—Confessor Felix, and presbyter, a teacher by mouth,285
by elogium a martyr, by merit and by office a priest—
the Omnipotent Lord caused the finite age of the body
to persist by a happier, more preferable way,
continuing the healing acts of the operose martyr,
so that the same man, inhumed, might celebrate those powers290
which, remaining in the flesh, he was performing by the virtue of Christ;
and thus for the city he had undertaken, not even dead would he be away
in body, since the spirit of the healer, once laid to rest, would be so present,
and to the desires of his lovers would lie hidden.295

Ad tempus cari facies subtracta patroni;
Prompta sed aegrorum semper medicina saluti
Afforet. Inde perennis honos, et gloria sanctum
Felicem meritis sine fine virentibus ambit:
Et licet a veteri tumulis absconditus aevo,               300
Qua mortalis erat, lateat telluris operto;
Viva tamen vegetante Deo, membrisque superstes
Gratia divinum spirantia martyris ossa
Clarificat populis merito vivente sepulti:
Et magni solium breve confessoris adorat               305
Jugiter e variis congesta frequentia terris.
Sed Deus ut cunctorum hominum sator, omnibus istam
De sanctis indulsit opem procedere terris:
Ut jam de tumulis agerent pia dona beati
Martyres, et vivos possent curare sepulti.               310

For a time the visage of the dear patron was withdrawn;
yet the ready medicine of health for the sick would always be present.
Thence perennial honor and glory encircle holy Felix,
his merits flourishing without end: and although from an age of old he is hidden in the tombs,               300
in that part in which he was mortal, he lies concealed under the covering of earth;
yet, with God living and enlivening, and the grace surviving his limbs,
the martyr’s bones, breathing the divine, make illustrious for peoples
by desert the one buried yet living: and an ever-gathered throng from various lands
adores the little throne of the great confessor.               305
But God, as the begetter of all men, has granted this aid
from the saints to go forth to all lands:
so that now the blessed martyrs might dispense pious gifts from their tombs,
and, though buried, could heal the living.               310

Nec satis hoc donum Domino fuit, ut sua tantum
Nomine, sive opibus loca martyres illustrarent:
Ex iisdem tumulis etiam monumenta piorum
Multiplicans multis tribuit miserator eosdem
Gentibus. Et referam varias ab origine causas,               315
Ex quibus haec orta est variis benedictio terris
Nam quia non totum pariter diffusa per orbem
Prima fides ierat, multis regionibus orbis
Martyres abfuerant, et ob hoc, puto, munere magno
Id placitum Christo nunc inspirante potentes,               320
Ut Constantino primum sub Caesare factum est,
Nunc famulis retegente suis, ut sede priori
Martyras accitos transferrent in nova terrae
Hospitia: ut sancto non olim antistite factum
Novimus Ambrosio, qui fultus munere tali,               325

Nor was this gift enough for the Lord, that martyrs should only
by their name, or by their resources, make places illustrious:
from these same tombs also, multiplying the monuments of the pious,
the Compassionate One has bestowed the same to many gentes.
And I shall relate the various causes from the origin,               315
from which this benediction has arisen for various lands.
For because the first faith had not gone forth diffused equally
through the whole orb, in many regions of the world
martyrs had been absent, and on this account, I think, by a great gift
this pleased Christ, now inspiring the powerful,               320
as first was done under Caesar Constantine,
now with his servants unveiling it, that from their prior seat
the summoned martyrs might be transferred into new hospitia
of the land: as we know it was once done by the holy prelate
Ambrose, who, bolstered by such a munus,               325

Postquam ignoratos prius, et tunc indice Christo
Detectos sibimet mutata transtulit aula,
Reginam prompta confudit voce furentem.
Nam Constantinus proprii cum conderet urbem
Nominis, et primus Romano in nomine regum               330
Christicolam gereret, divinum mente recepit
Consilium, ut quoniam Romanae moenibus urbis
Aemula magnificis strueret tunc moenia coeptis,
His quoque Romuleam sequeretur dotibus urbem,
Ut sua apostolicis muniret moenia laetus               335
Corporibus: tunc Andream devexit Achivis,
Timotheumque Asia: geminis ita turribus exstat
Constantinopolis magnae caput aemula Romae,
Verius hoc similis Romanis culmine muris,
Quod Petrum, Paulumque pari Deus ambitione               340

After the palace, changed, transferred to itself those previously unknown and then, at Christ’s indication, revealed,
it confounded the queen raging with a ready voice.
For when Constantine was founding the city of his own name,
and, first under the Roman name of kings, was bearing the character of a Christ-worshiper, 330
he received into his mind a divine counsel,
that since he was then building walls rivaling the walls of the Roman city with magnificent undertakings,
he should in these endowments likewise follow the Romulean city,
that he might fortify his own walls, glad, with apostolic bodies: then he brought Andrew from the Achaeans,
and Timothy from Asia: thus with twin towers the head of great Constantinople stands, a rival to Rome,
more truly in this like the Roman walls in their summit,
that Peter and Paul with equal ambition God— 340

Compensavit ei, meruit quia sumere Pauli
Discipulum cum fratre Petri. Jam quanta per istam
Sanctorum per longa viam divortia terrae
Creverit utilitas ad nostrae munia vitae,
Ipsa docent hodieque loca, in quibus illa beati               345
Rheda capax oneris posita statione resedit,
Omnibus in spatiis quacumque aut mansio sanctis
Corporibus, requiesque fuit vectantibus illos
Sacratos cineres, miris clamantia signis.
Nam divina manus medica virtute per omnes               350
Est illic operosa vias, qua corpora sancta
Impressere sacro vestigia viva meatu.
Inde igitur suadente fide data copia fidis
Tunc comitum studiis, quaedam ut sibi pignora vellent
Ossibus e sanctis merito decerpere fructu,               355

He compensated her, since he deserved to take Paul’s disciple together with Peter’s brother. Now how great an advantage has grown for the duties of our life through that long way’s divergences across the land of the saints,
the places themselves teach even today, in which the capacious chariot of the blessed burden, having taken up a station, settled down,               345
in every stretch, wherever either there was a lodging for the holy bodies, or a rest for those conveying those consecrated ashes, crying out by wondrous signs.
For the divine hand, with healing virtue, is active there along all the roads, where the holy bodies have imprinted living footprints with their sacred passage.               350
Thence therefore, faith persuading, leave was given to the faithful zeal of the companions then, that they should wish to pluck for themselves certain pledges from the holy bones, with deserved fruit,               355

Ut quasi mercedem officii, pretiumque laboris
Praesidia ad privata domum sibi quisque referrent.
Ex illo sacri cineres quasi semina vitae
Diversis sunt sparsa locis, quaque osse minuto
De modica sacri stipe corporis exiguus ros               360
Decidit in gentes: illic pia gratia fontes,
Et fluvios vitae generavit gutta favillae.
Inde in nos etiam stillavit copia Christi
Dives et in minimis: nam hoc quoque sumpsimus istic
Carnis apostolicae sacra pignora pulvere parvo,               365
Quae Sanctus nostri Dominusque, paterque cubilis,
Et custos animae nostrae, et tutela salutis
Felix vicina sibi cominus aede recepit,
Quae reliquis ejus aetate recentior aulis
Exiguos cineres, et magnos servat honores,               370

So that, as if a wage of office and the price of labor,
each might carry back to his private home safeguards for himself.
From that time the sacred ashes, as seeds of life as it were,
were scattered into diverse places; and wherever, from a tiny bone,
from a modest dole of the sacred body, a scant dew               360
fell down upon the nations, there pious grace generated fountains
and rivers of life from a drop of cinder.
Thence into us also has dripped the abundance of Christ,
rich even in the least things; for we too here have taken
sacred pledges of apostolic flesh in a small dust,               365
which the Saint—our Lord and the father of our resting-place,
and the guardian of our soul, and the tutelage of salvation—
happily received in a shrine near to himself, at close hand,
which, newer in age than his other halls,
preserves slight cinders and great honors.               370

Servaturque magis custodibus ipsa patronis:
Absit enim, ut servari unquam videantur egere:
Qui servare solent tamen, et curare suorum
Commoda alumnorum patrio dignantur amore,
Atque dicatorum sibi tutamenta locorum               375
Dirigere: hoc sanctis studium pietatis inesse
Spiritibus miranda fide documenta dederunt.
Unde recens etiam paucis opus eloquar orsis:
Dignum etenim sancti Felicis munera in ipso
Natali ejusdem gratantibus edere verbis.               380
Non peregrina locis, neque tempore prisca profabor:
Finibus in nostris, et in ista sede patratum
Nuper opus referam, quod forte renoscere vobis
Promptum erit; in medio quoniam res lumine gesta est.
Credo ex hoc numero vestrum prope nullus in isto               385

And it is preserved rather by the patrons themselves as custodians:
Far be it, indeed, that they should ever seem to need to be guarded;
who are accustomed nevertheless to preserve, and to care for the
advantages of their nurslings, deigning with paternal love,
and to direct the safeguards of places dedicated to themselves;               375
this zeal of piety to be in holy spirits
marvels have given proofs to faith.
Whence also I will tell, with a brief preface, a recent work:
for it is fitting to publish the gifts of Saint Felix in his very
birthday, with words of congratulation for the same.               380
I will not speak things foreign to the places, nor ancient in time:
I will recount a work lately accomplished within our borders and in this very seat,
which perhaps it will be ready for you to recognize,
since the matter was done in the midst of the light, in broad daylight.
I believe that from this number of you, scarcely any in this               385

Sit novus auditu, quia per longinqua remotis
Fama volans ierit. Certe affueratis in ista
Urbe aliqui per idem tempus, quo contigit, ut fur
Illicitis animo stimulis agitatus avaras
Mitteret in sacra dona manus, et ab omnibus unam               390
Improbus, et demens venerandae insignibus aulae
Eligeret praedae speciem crucis, inscius illam
Indicio sibi, non spolio fore, quam velut hamum
Piscis edax hausit capta capiendus ab esca.
Quis, rogo, latronem tam grandi spiritus auso               395
Impulit, armavit, caecavit, praecipitavit,
Ut nec ad excubias vigilum, nec ad ipsa (quod est plus)
Quae cineres reverenda tegunt altaria sacros,
Pulveris et sancti virtutem halantia fragrant,
Corde repercusso fugeret, neque numine tantum,               400

Let it be new to the hearing, because flying Fame has gone through far‑distant regions to the remote. Surely some of you were present in this City at that same time, when it befell that a thief, agitated in mind by illicit stimuli, should send avaricious hands upon the sacred gifts, and from all of them, wicked and senseless at the insignia of the venerable hall, he should choose for plunder the form of the cross, unaware that that would be an indicium against himself, not a spoil; which he, like a voracious fish, gulped as a hook, caught, to be caught by the bait. Who, I ask, impelled, armed, blinded, precipitated the robber to a venture of spirit so grand,               390
that neither at the watches of the watchmen, nor at the very (which is more) altars which cover the sacred ashes, exhaling the virtue of the holy dust and fragrant, with his heart struck back did he flee, nor by the divine power only,               395
but—? No, he fled not: neither from the sentries’ vigils, nor from the very shrines that cover the revered ashes, breathing out the virtue of the holy dust, fragrant, with his heart smitten back did he flee, nor by the divine will only,               400

Sed specie simul, et pretio praestantia ferret?
Multa etenim suberant alia, ut novistis, in ipso
Ornamenta loco, quae sumeret, ut crucis auro
Parceret; intus enim latitabant mystica vasa
Sumendis mandata sacris. Sed praeter et aulae               405
Ipsius in spatio variis insignia formis
Munera erant de more sita haec, quae cernitis illic
Omni prompta die, vel circumfixa per omnes
Ordine diverso quasi candelabra columnas,
Depictas exstante gerunt quae cuspide ceras,               410
Lumina ut inclusis reddantur odora papyris.
At medio in spatio fixi laquearibus altis
Pendebant per ahena cavi retinacula lychni,
Qui specie arborea lentis quasi vitea virgis
Brachia jactantes, summoque cacumine rami               415

But would he carry off something preeminent at once in appearance and in price?
For many other ornaments, as you know, were at hand in that very
place for him to take, so that he might spare the gold of the cross;
for within there were hiding mystical vessels entrusted for administering the sacred rites.
But besides, in the space of the hall itself, distinguished by various forms, 405
there were gifts set according to custom—these which you see there—
ready every day, or fastened around all the
columns in diverse order, like candelabra,
which bear painted waxes with a projecting tip,
so that fragrant lights may be rendered to the enclosed papyri.
But in the middle space, fixed to the lofty ceilings,
were hanging by bronze the fastenings of hollow lamps,
which, with arboreal aspect, with pliant, as-it-were vine-like twigs,
flinging their arms, and with the branch at the topmost summit 415

Vitreolos gestant tamquam sua poma caliclos,
Et quasi vernantes accenso lumine florent,
Densaque multicomis imitantur sidera flammis,
Distinguuntque graves numerosa luce tenebras,
Et tenerum igniculis florentibus aethera pingunt:               420
Dumque tremunt, liquidos crines, crebrumque coruscant,
Assiduis facibus sparsa caligine noctis
Ambiguam faciem miscent lucem inter, et umbras,
Et dubium trepidis conspectibus aera turbant.
Ergo isthaec licet in patulo sibi prompta videret,               425
Tutius et furanda sibi, quoniam minus esset
Criminis, et pretii suspensam altaris ab ora
Longius, argentoque levem emandare lucernam:
Sed miser, ambitiosus, et ipsa in fraude superbus
Tamquam vile nefas argentea sumere furto               430

They bear glassy calicles as though their own fruits,
and, as if vernal, when the light is kindled they blossom,
and with dense, many-haired flames they imitate the stars,
and they distinguish the heavy darkness with numerous light,
and they paint the tender aether with flowering little fires:               420
and while they tremble, their liquid tresses, they flash thick and fast,
and with assiduous torches, sprinkled by the caliginous night,
they mingle an ambiguous aspect between light and shadows,
and they disturb the doubtful air to trembling sights.
Therefore, although he saw these things exposed in the open, ready to hand for himself,               425
and safer to be stolen by him, since it would be of less
crime and of price, to make off with a lamp hung farther from the lip of the altar,
a light, silver lamp to carry away:
but the wretch, ambitious, and proud even in the fraud itself,
as though it were a cheap wickedness to take silver things by theft,               430

Sprevit, et audacem porrexit in aurea dextram,
Quae simul e variis scite distincta lapillis
Viderat, et magnis inflarat pectora votis,
Ut pariter gemmis gauderet dives, et auro.
Sed tantum sceleris magni cumulatur iniquo 435
Pondere: peccato mansit gravis, et levis aere.
Sacrilegum sua poena manet, sua praeda latronem
Deseruit.

S/he spurned it, and stretched forth an audacious right hand toward the gold,
which, as soon as s/he had seen it skillfully distinguished with various little stones,
and had inflated the breast with great desires,
that s/he might rejoice equally, rich, in gems and in gold.
But so much of great wickedness is heaped up with unjust weight, 435
in that s/he remained heavy with sin, and light in bronze.
The sacrilegious man’s own penalty abides; his own booty deserted the robber.

Spolio furti, non crimine nudus
Vivit inops fructu, sed vulnere fraudis abundans.
Quamquam illum non hoc magno sine numine Christi, 440
Consilioque putem permissum crimen adisse:
Ut quia vel quicquam de sacris tollere rebus
Mente recepisset, sineretur ad ilfa venire,
In quibus admissi impietas insignior esset.
Ante dies paucos idem confugerat illuc 445

Stripped of the spoil of theft, not of the crime,
he lives needy of profit, but abounding in the wound of fraud.
Although I would think that he did not approach this crime, permitted, without the great numen of Christ and counsel: 440
so that, since he had even received in mind to take anything from sacred things,
he might be allowed to come to those in which the impiety of the thing committed would be more conspicuous.
A few days before, the same man had fled thither for refuge 445

Militiam simulans fugere, et susceptus amice
Hospes ab aedituis sacram curantibus aulam.
Toto pene latens ibi mense cubilia, somnos,
Tempora custodum simul exploraverat. Et cum
Cepisset placidas meditati criminis horas,               450
Nocte nefas tacita arripuit, nulloque labore,
Nec strepitu foribus clausis inclusus, ut unus
Servantum, quibus hospes erat, primos ubi somnos
Non vigiles Vigiles coepere silentibus umbris
Carpere, et oppressis oblivia ducere curis:               455
Ille locum sumens sceleri, qua noverat usu
Expositam lychnis per noctem ex more parandis
Machinulam gradibus scalas praebere paratis,
Et male securo sibi tunc custode relictam:
Quae crucis instar erat, quod et est modo perpete virga               460

Feigning flight from military service, and received in friendly fashion
as a guest by the aeditui, caretakers of the sacred hall.
There, almost a whole month lying hidden, he had reconnoitered the beds, the sleeps,
the times of the guards as well. And when
he had seized the placid hours for the meditated crime, 450
in the silent night he snatched at the nefarious deed, and with no labor,
nor with any clatter, shut in with the doors closed, as one
of the attendants among whom he was a guest, when their first slumbers
the Watch, not watchful, began in the silent shades
to pluck, and, their cares pressed down, to draw forgetfulness:455
he, taking a place for the crime, where he knew by usage
that a little machine, set out for lamps to be prepared through the night according to custom,
was furnishing steps for ladders made ready,
and, its custodian ill on guard, was then left within his reach—
which was in the likeness of a cross, which even now is as a perpetual rod— 460

Directum, geminos transverso limite gestans
Cantharulos: unum de calce catenula pendens
Sustinet: in tribus his scyphulis inserta relucent
Lumina, cum fert festa dies: tunc vero sine usu
Luminis ad speciem tantum suspensa manebant.               465
Sed paulo crucis ante decus de lumine eodem
Continuum scyphus est argenteus aptus ad usum.
Hunc importuno sibi lumine praedo micantem
Protinus exstinguit: namque id quoque noverat idem
Saepe solere mori, cum stuppa perarida longam               470
Conderet in noctem consumpto lumen olivo,
Nec miraturum vigilem, si forte tenebras
Cerneret obducto subducere culmina lychno,
More putaturus noctem, non crimine factam.
Non igitur quasi fur, quod erat latro, sed quasi custos               475

Upright, bearing twin little canthari on a transverse cross-piece,
it supports one, hanging by a little chain from the base:
in these three little scyphi the lights inserted shine back
when a festive day brings it; then indeed, without use
of light they remained suspended only for appearance.               465
But a little before the ornament of the cross, from the same light
there is a continuous silver scyphus, apt for use.
This one, glittering with a light inopportune to him, the robber
immediately extinguishes; for he also knew that this too
is often wont to die, when, the wick very dry, with the oil consumed,               470
it would sink the light into a long night,
and that the vigil would not marvel, if by chance he saw the darkness
draw over the ceilings with the lamp hooded,
thinking it made by the custom of night, not by crime.
Therefore not as a thief—though he was a brigand—but as a guard               475

Aufert illicitam securus praedo rapinam,
Nec fugit impavidusque manet. Tegit una latentem
Cellula de multis, quae per latera undique magnis
Appositae tectis praebent secreta sepultis
Hospitia. Harum una fur abditus; atque ubi maxe 480
Claustra patere videt, reserata prosilit aula,
Et latebram linquens portat scelus: ire parabat
Romuleam, ut post jam captus narrabat, ad urbem,
Illic infandae acturus commercia fraudis.

The bandit, carefree, carries off illicit rapine,
nor does he flee, and he remains unafraid. One little cell
from among many conceals the one lurking—cells which, set along the sides on every side
to the great roofs, provide secret lodgings for the buried.
In one of these the thief was hidden; and when he most 480
sees the bars stand open, with the hall unbarred he leaps forth,
and, leaving his hiding-place, bears off his crime: he was preparing
to go to the Romulean city—as he later, once captured, recounted—
there to conduct the commerce of unspeakable fraud.

Interea ignaris nostris nox illa, diesque 485
Totus abit: sero solitum jam vespere munus
Curantes posuere gradus: ut scandere coepit
Facturus lychnum, nihil invenit: orba manebat
Virga crucis solitae pulcro spoliata monili.
Pavescunt miseri, neque damnum criminis audent 490

Meanwhile, with our people unaware, that night and the day 485
wholly pass away: late, at the usual evening duty,
the attendants set their steps: as he began to climb,
about to make ready the lamp, he found nothing: bereft remained
the rod of the accustomed cross, despoiled of its fair necklace.
The wretches grow afraid, nor do they dare to call the loss a crime. 490

Prodere, noscentes etiam sibi jure reatum
Competere: abscedunt trepidi, fugiuntque, latronem
Sectantes profugum: nusquam vestigia lapsi
Ulla legunt: omnes adeunt diversa viarum,
Scrutanturque sitos diverso littore portus.               495
Effluxere dies frustra quaerentibus octo,
Sive decem, et cunctis vacua jam indage reversis;
Unus quaerentum puer irritus ipse laboris
In cassum fusi longa regione redibat,
Et prope jam Nolam veniens subsistit in ipso               500
Aggere, et ingenti gemitu, fletuque profuso
Felicem clamans praesumit corde fideli
Non remeare domum, nisi cum cruce: moxque peractum
Promptus iter relegit: lit et illicet obvius illi
Quidam homo, qui farem, non furem, sed quasi civem               505

To disclose it, though knowing that guilt by right also pertains to themselves;
they withdraw in trepidation, and flee, pursuing the runaway brigand:
nowhere do they read any vestiges of the one who had slipped away;
they all take to diverse ways,
and they scrutinize the ports set along a diverse littoral.               495
Days effluxed, eight for the seekers in vain, or even ten,
and with the whole hunting-ring now returned empty;
one of the searchers, a boy, himself frustrated in his labor,
was returning in vain after effort poured out over a long region,
and now, coming near Nola, he halts on the very               500
rampart, and with a huge groan and tears poured forth,
calling upon Felix, he presumes with a faithful heart
not to return home unless with the Cross; and soon, promptly,
he re-chooses the course he had completed: there, and forthwith, there meets him
a certain man, whom I would call not a thief, but as it were a citizen.               505

Norat: eum noster primus rogat, unde viator
Afforet; ille refert: rursus de fure rogatur,
Si vidisset eum: respondit at ille, propinquis
Inde locis agere, et regio tunc illa prope illos,
Dum loquerentur, erat monti conjuncta Vesevo,               510
Quintus ab urbe lapis Nola. Sed vesperis ortus
Consilium differt. Placet ut lux crastina rursus
Jungat utrumque sibi; fit mane, revertitur index;
Perducit nostros, capitur fur, praeda refertur.
Forte sacrata dies illuxerat illa beati               515
Natalem Prisci referens, quem et Nola celebrat,
Quamvis ille alia Nucerinus episcopus urbe
Sederit: ecce ipsam sancti Felicis in aulam,
Quam tunc solemni populus stipabat honore,
Post sacra jam solvente pios antistite coetus,               520

He knew him: our man first asks him, from where the traveler
would be present; he replies: again he is asked about the thief,
whether he had seen him: but he answers that he was acting in the nearby
places, and that region then near them, while they were speaking, was adjacent
to Mount Vesuvius,               510
Nola [being] the fifth milestone from the city. But the rise of evening
defers the counsel. It pleases that tomorrow’s light should again
join the two to each other; morning comes, the informer returns;
he leads our people through, the thief is captured, the booty is brought back.
By chance that hallowed day had dawned, recalling the blessed               515
birthday of Priscus, which Nola too celebrates,
although he, bishop of Nuceria, had sat in another city:
behold, into the very hall of Saint Felix,
which the people were then crowding with solemn honor,
after the sacred rites, the prelate now dismissing the pious assemblies,               520

Tempore proviso divinitus egredientis
Plebis in occursum subito introducitur ille
Furaces post terga manus nodata revinctus.
Laetitia populus, formidine praedo repletur,
Utque novum ad monstrum tota concurritur urbe. 525
Turba furens odiis popularibus ibat in illum,
Laetitia moestos miscebat et ira tumultus.
Pertimui, fateor, ne forte diabolus illa
Qua solet invidia violaret sanguine pompam,
Et pejore prius curaret vulnere vulnus. 530
Eripitur populo, cellaque includitur ipsa
(Quod sic forte reo capto tunc accidit), in qua
Delituit rapta cruce; qua post ipse reperta
Clauditur, ut vivat.

At a time provided by divinity, as the People were going out, he is suddenly brought in to meet them,
his thievish hands knotted and bound behind his back. The people are filled with joy, the brigand with fear,
and the whole city runs together as to a new prodigy. 525
The crowd, raging with popular hatreds, was going against him,
joy and anger were mixing mournful tumults. I feared, I confess, lest perchance the devil,
with the envy by which he is wont, should violate the procession with blood,
and first tend the wound with a worse wound. 530
He is snatched from the people, and is shut up in the very cell
(which then by chance thus befell the captured defendant), in which
he had hidden with the stolen cross; after which cross itself having been found,
he is confined, so that he may live.

Tunc ergo mente recepta
Ipse suum facinus reus, atque obstacula coepit 535

Then therefore, with his mind recovered
he himself, the culprit of his own crime, began the obstacles 535

Mirandis narrare modis, fassusque per illos
Octo decemve dies, quibus ire paraverat urbem
Romulcam, implicitis ita se pedibus retroactum,
Semper ut ire parans, semper retrahente rediret
Nescio quo, rursusque illam remearet ad oram               540
Vesevi, qua jussus erat quasi carcere claudi
Angelica nectente manu: tamen ille putabat
Arbitrii miser esse sui, quod corpore liber
Esse videbatur, quem non exstante catena
Fortior arcanis retinebat dextera vinclis.               545
Ultor eum digno Felix errore ligabat,
Et tali amentem vertigine circumagebat,
Semper ut abscedens nusquam discederet, et cum
Prosiliente gradu coepisset abire, rediret.
Mira fides! Ibat stando, remanebat cundo,               550

To narrate in wondrous modes, and confessing through them
that for eight or ten days, during which he had prepared to go to the Romulcan city,
with his feet thus entangled he was driven back,
so that always as if preparing to go, always with I-know-not-what drawing him back he returned,
and again he would go back to that shore of Vesevus,               540
where he had been ordered to be shut as in a prison, as an angelic hand was binding;
yet he thought, the wretch, that it was of his own arbitrium, because in body he seemed
to be free, whom, though no chain was evident,
a stronger Right Hand was holding back with arcane bonds.
The Avenger, Felix, was binding him with a worthy delusion,               545
and with such a vertigo was whirling the madman around,
so that always as departing he departed nowhere, and when,
with a leaping step, he had begun to go away, he returned.
Marvelous proof! He was going by standing, he was remaining by going,               550

Nescius, hoc ipso, pro quo fugitare parabat,
Ne fugeret, fieri, et secum sua vincla manere,
Inruptamque sibi proprium scelus esse catenam.
Namque sinu clausae mandaverat insita praedae
Pondera, et hinc avidus quasi captus mente latebram 555
Quaerens, luce tamen campis errabat apertis,
Seque latere putans exstabat in aequore claro.
Conscia sic mentem impietas caecaverat, ut nec
Effugeret fugiens, nec celaretur aberrans.

Unknowing, that by this very thing, on account of which he was preparing to flee,
it was being brought about that he not flee, and that his own chains remain with him,
and that his own crime was for him an unbroken chain.
For he had consigned to his bosom the implanted weights of booty shut within,
and from this, greedy, as if captured in mind, seeking a hiding-place, 555
yet in the light he was wandering on open fields,
and, thinking himself to be hidden, he stood out on the bright level expanse.
Thus conscious impiety had blinded his mind, so that neither
did he escape while fleeing, nor was he concealed while wandering astray.

Sensibus adversis metus hinc, stupor inde nocentem 560
Miscuerant animam, vitabat strata viarum;
Secretos metuebat iners accedere saltus:
Ipsa etiam in silvis sibi forte silentia tantum
Clamatura nefas metuens, aut tristia formis
Occursura putans ultricum monstra ferarum. 565

With senses adverse, fear here, stupor there, the guilty 560
had mingled his soul; he avoided the pavements of the roads;
inert he feared to approach secluded glades:
even in the woods he feared that the very silences by chance
would cry out his crime, or, grim in their forms,
thinking that the avenging monsters of wild beasts would meet him. 565

Inde miser celebri sejunctus ab aggere juxta
Devius in quodam spatiabatur sibi rure
Securum ignaris simulans sub corde timorem,
Ut facinus sub veste premens: nam vestis in altum
Succinctae sinibus clausum mandaverat aurum.               570
Nam neque vel tacitae furtum committere terrae
Ausus erat, specubusve cavis de more latronum,
Indicium metuens credendae fraudis avarus.
Inde suae tantum tunicae sua furta nefandus
Crediderat, qua restrictum nodarat amictum               575
Suspendens fluidam nudato poplite vestem.
Hanc sibi praedo penum sceleris tunc semet in ipso
Struxerat, et digne tali est formidine vinctus,
Crederet ut nullis miseri consortia furti,
Ut sceleris tanti contagia solus haberet,               580

Thence the wretch, separated near from the busy embankment,
straying off the way he was walking about for himself in a certain countryside,
feigning to the unknowing a secure look, while under his heart he harbored fear,
as one pressing the crime under his garment; for the garment, drawn up high,
had consigned the enclosed gold to the folds of his girded clothing.               570
For he did not dare to entrust the theft even to silent earth,
nor to hollow caverns after the custom of brigands,
the avaricious man fearing an indication that would make the fraud credible.
Thus to his own tunic alone the nefarious one had entrusted his thefts,
with which he had knotted his mantle tight,               575
hanging the flowing garment with the knee laid bare.
This store of his crime the robber had then built for himself in his very self,
and fittingly he is bound with such dread,
so that he might trust to none the fellowship of the wretch’s theft,
that he alone might bear the contagion of so great a crime.               580

Et sinus illius fieret custodia furti,
Cujus sacrilegam fuerat manus ausa rapinam.
Ipse suum sibi ferret onus, solumque gravaret,
Pollueretque suae letalis sarcina praedae,
Ut nihil ex illo vacuum impietate maneret,               585
Qui spolium sceleris sacris ex aedibus actum
Includens habitu cincto substringeret ipsum,
Atque suis signum praetenderet ipse catenis.
Namque brevi captus mutavit cingula vinclis,
Utque aurum sinibus discincta veste solutis               590
Decidit, ex ipsa fuerat qua cinctus habena
Vinctus eas, quas in sacra dona tetenderat audax
Praedo manus, proprii captus nodamine lori
Rettulit et praedae vacuas, et reste repletas.
Verum si penitus totam spectare velimus               595

And that his fold should become the custody of the theft,
whose hand had dared the sacrilegious rapine.
He himself would carry his own burden for himself, and would weigh down only himself,
and would pollute himself with the lethal load of his prey,
so that nothing of him would remain vacant of impiety,               585
who, enclosing the spoil of the crime driven out from the sacred buildings,
would, by a girded attire, tighten it fast to himself,
and would himself hold forth a sign by his own chains.
For shortly, captured, he exchanged his cinctures for fetters,
and when the gold, the dress ungirded and the folds loosened,               590
fell down, by the very thong with which he had been girded
he was bound—the hands which the bold robber had stretched toward the sacred gifts—
taken by the knotting of his own strap,
he brought them back both empty of prey and packed with rope.
But if we should wish to behold the whole thing thoroughly               595

Ordinis exacti seriem magis ac magis omni
In specie, vel qua latuit scelus, atque reclusum
Claruit, admiranda Dei cernemus operta
Felicem gessisse manu. Jam plurima retro
Diximus, ut fugiens non fugerit, utque redactis               600
Passibus emensos sua per vestigia cursus
In cassum totiens volvente relegerit orso
Longinquis exclusus, et ad vicina recussus.
Nunc aliud Felicis opus, quod dextera Christi
Edidit, ut meritum cari monstraret alumni,               605
Commemorabo pari specimen mirabile signo,
Quod reus ipse tremens confesso prodidit ausu.
Ante tamen, quia res ita postulat, ipsius instar
Enarrabo crucis, qualem et pictura biformem
Fingere consuevit, baculo vel stante bicornem,               610

The sequence of the completed order more and more, in every aspect—both wherein the crime lay hidden, and, laid open, shone forth— we shall discern that Felix has carried out by hand the admirable hidden-works of God.
Already very many things before we have said, how, while fleeing, he did not flee, and how, with steps drawn back,               600
he retraced the courses traversed along his own footprints, as the venture, rolling back so often to no purpose, he re-read; shut out from far-off places and rebounded to the nearby.
Now another work of Felix, which the right hand of Christ brought forth, that it might show the merit of the dear alumnus,               605
I will commemorate, a marvelous specimen with a like sign, which the guilty man himself, trembling, disclosed with confessed daring.
Before, however, since the matter so requires, I will narrate the likeness of the cross itself, such as painting too is accustomed to fashion two-formed, either with a staff or standing bicorn (two-horned),               610

Vel per quinque tribus dispansam cornua virgis.
Forma crucis gemina specie componitur, et nunc
Antennae speciem navalis imagine mali,
Sive notam Graecis solitam signare trecentos
Explicat existens, cum stipite figitur uno, 615
Quaque cacumen habet, transverso vecte jugatur.
Nunc eadem crux dissimili compacta paratu
Eloquitur Dominum tamquam monogrammate Christum.

Or, through five beams, its horns outspanned by rods.
The form of the cross is composed with a twin aspect, and now
it takes the appearance of a yard by the image of a ship’s mast,
or displays the mark accustomed among the Greeks to signify three hundred,
being present when it is fixed with a single post, 615
and where it has a summit, it is yoked by a transverse bar.
Now the same cross, compacted with a dissimilar array,
speaks the Lord, Christ as it were in a monogram.

Nam nota, qua bis quinque notat numerante Latino
Calculus, haec Graecis chi scribitur, et mediata rho, 620
Cujus apex et signa tenet, quod rursus ad ipsam
Curvatum virgam, facit velut orbe peracto.
Nam rigor obstipus facit quod in Hellade iota est.
Tau idem stylus ipse brevi retro acumine ductus
Efficit, atque ita sex, quibus omni nomine nomen 625
Celsius exprimitur, coeunt elementa sub uno
Indice, et una tribus firmatur littera virgis.

For the mark by which the counting-stone, in Latin reckoning, denotes twice five, this is written among the Greeks as chi, with a rho set in the middle, 620
whose apex and tokens it retains, since a rod curved back toward it makes, as though with a completed circle.
For a slanting stiffness makes what in Hellas is an iota.
The same stroke, drawn back with a short point, makes a tau,
and thus the six elements, by which in every designation the name of Christ is expressed, come together under one
index, and a single letter is made firm by three rods.

Sex itaque una notas simul exprimit, ut tribus una
Significet virgis Dominum simul esse ter unum.
Et Deus in Christo est, quem sumpto corpore nasci 630

Six therefore one figure at once expresses the marks, so that with three rods one signifies the Lord to be at once three-in-one.
And God is in Christ, who, with a body assumed, was born. 630

Pro nobis voluit trinae concordia mentis.
Idque sacramenti est, geminae quod in utraque virgae
Ut diducta pari fastigia fine supinant,
Infra autem distante situ parili pede constant,
Affixaeque sibi media compage cohaerent, 635
Et paribus spectant discreta cacumina summis.
His intermedio coeuntibus insita puncto
Virga velut sceptrum regale superbius exstat,
Significans regnare Deum super omnia Christum,
Qui cruce dispansa per quatuor extima ligni 640
Quatuor attingit dimensum partibus orbem,
Ut trahat ad vitam populos ex omnibus oris.

For us the concord of the triune mind willed.
And this pertains to the sacrament: that the twin peaks in each rod,
as, drawn apart, they bend back with an equal end,
but below, with their position at a distance, they stand with an even foot,
and, affixed to one another, they cohere by a middle coupling, 635
and the separated summits look toward equal heights.
As these come together at an inlaid point in the middle,
the rod stands forth more proudly like a regal scepter,
signifying that God Christ reigns over all,
who, with the cross outspread through the four extremities of the wood, 640
reaches the world measured in four parts,
so that he may draw peoples from all shores to life.

Et quia morte crucis cunctis Deus omnia Christus
Exstat in exortum vitae, finemque malorum,
Alpha crucem circumstat, et tribus utraque virgis 645
Littera diversam terna ratione figuram
Perficiens, quia perfectum est mens una, triplex vis.
Alpha itidem mihi Christus, et qui summa supremis
Finibus excelsi pariter complexus, et imi
Victor et inferna, et pariter caelestia cepit, 650

And because by the death of the cross Christ, God over all, for all,
stands forth as the rising of life, and the end of evils,
Alpha stands around the cross, and with three rods on each side 645
the Letter, completing a diverse figure by a threefold rationale,
because the one mind is perfect, the power threefold. Likewise Alpha is to me Christ, and he who has equally
encompassed the highest things at the utmost bounds of the exalted, and, victor of the lowest, has taken
the infernal, and equally the celestial, 650

Effractisque abysis caelos penetravit apertos,
Victricem referens superata morte salutem.
Utque illum patriae junxit victoria dextrae,
Corporeum statuit coelesti in sede tropaeum,
Vexillumque crucis super omnia sidera fixit.               655
Illa igitur species, quam fur agitatus avaris
In cassum furiis pendente refixerat unco,
Pollutaque manu sancta amandaverat aula,
Hoc opere est perfecta, modis ut consita miris
Aeternae crucis effigiem designet utramque:               660
Ut modo si libeat spectari cominus ipsam
Prompta fides oculis: nam reddita fulget in ipso,
Quo fuerat prius apta loco, et velamine clausi
Altaris faciem signo pietatis adornat.
Ergo eadem species formam crucis exerit illam,               665

And the abysses having been broken open, he penetrated the opened heavens,
bringing back victorious salvation with death overcome.
And when victory joined him to the right hand of the Father,
he set up the corporeal trophy in the celestial seat,
and fixed the banner of the cross above all the stars.               655
Therefore that form, which the thief, driven by greedy furies,
had refastened in vain with a hanging hook,
and with a polluted hand had sent away the holy hall,
is perfected by this work, so that, inlaid with wondrous modes,
it may designate the effigy of the eternal cross in both its aspects:               660
so that now, if it please, one may behold it itself at close quarters
with ready faith to the eyes: for, restored, it gleams in the very place
where it had formerly been fitted, and with the veil of the veiled
altar it adorns the face with the sign of piety.
Therefore the same form brings forth that shape of the cross.               665

Quae trutinam aequato libratam stamine signat,
Subreptoque jugum concors temone figurat,
Sive superciliis a fronte jugantia vultum
Lumina transversis imitatur cornibus arbor
Ardua, qua Dominus mundo trepidante pependit 670
Innocuum fundens pro peccatore cruorem.
Huic autem solido quam pondere regula duplex
Jungit, in extrema producti calce metalli
Parva corona subest variis circumdata gemmis.
Haec quoque crux Domini tamquam diademate cincta 675
Emicat aeterna vitalis imagine ligni.

Which marks the balance-scale leveled with an equal strand,
and, the pole slipped beneath, shapes a harmonious yoke,
or, with brows from the forehead yoking the face,
the lofty tree imitates the eyes with crosswise horns,
upon which the Lord hung, the world trembling, 670
pouring out innocent blood for the sinner.
To this solid the double rule is joined with due weight,
and at the extreme heel of the lengthened metal
a small crown lies beneath, surrounded with various gems.
This Cross of the Lord also, as though girt with a diadem, 675
flashes forth with the eternal image of the life-giving wood.

Hanc fur ille sui toto de corpore furti
Intactam ferro, quo cetera fregerat, unam
Liquit, et ut capto tunc, discinctoque refusis
Vestibus elapsae ceciderunt fragmina praedae. 680

This one, that thief from the whole corpus of his theft,
left alone, untouched by the iron with which he had shattered the rest;
and, when he was then captured and ungirded, with garments thrown back,
the fragments of the booty slipped out and fell. 680

Visa rei species tunc inventoribus ipsis
Ancipiti motu confudit pectora. Gaudent
Inventis, sed fracta dolent: tum quaerere causam
Incipiunt, cautum simul, audacemque latronem
Mirantes, caecum fractis, cautumque relictis. 685
Tunc ille attonitis crimen, numenque fatetur:
Mente etenim totum considerat: hoc tamen unum
Numine servarat, quo crux inclusa vetabat
Quamlibet audacem segni virtute latronem.
Ipse fatebatur mentis scelus, atque crucis vim, 690
Contestans, quotiensque manus armasset in illam
In cruce consertam socia compage coronam
Ceu fractas totiens ictu cecidisse recusso,
Brachiaque aegra sibi nervis stupuisse solutis.

Then the aspect of the matter, as seen, confounded the hearts of the inventors themselves with ambivalent agitation. They exult in the things found, but grieve over the things broken: then they begin to seek the cause, admiring at once the cautious and the audacious thief—blind in the things broken, and cautious in the things left. 685
Then he to the astonished confesses the crime and the numen: for he considers the whole in his mind; yet this one thing he had preserved by the numen, whereby the cross, enclosed, forbade any thief, however audacious, with virtue made sluggish.
He himself confessed the crime of his mind, and the force of the cross, 690
attesting that as often as he had armed his hands against that crown interlaced upon the cross with a companion fastening, just so often the blows, rebounding, had fallen as if broken, and that his weary arms had grown numb for him, with the sinews loosened.

Hic libet in miserum paucis insurgere furem. 695

Here it pleases to rise up in a few words against the miserable thief. 695

Infelix, quae tanta tuam dementia mentem
Verterat, ut tanto reprehensus lumine veri
Non festinares omnem praevertere cursu
Indagem revolans, ut furtum sponte referres?
Tantane vis animum tenebris oppressit avarum, 700
Auderes illam ut gremio tibi condere partem,
Quam totiens arcente Deo violare timebas?
Dic mihi, qua pavor ille tuus fugiebat?

Unhappy wretch, what so great a madness turned your mind,
that, reprehended by so great a light of truth,
you did not hasten, reversing your whole course,
wheeling back upon the track, to return the theft of your own accord?
Did such force in darkness oppress your avaricious spirit, 700
that you would dare to hide that part in your bosom,
which so often, with God warding you off, you feared to violate?
Tell me, whither was that fear of yours fleeing?

Et unde?
Rursus ut intrepidum praeceps audacia sensum
Tam male durabat, pavidus, contemptor et idem               705
Ejusdem sceleris specie diversus abibas,
Perfidiaeque fidem diviso pectore miscens
Virtutem crucis, et signum inviolabile Christi
Credebas metuendo crucem contingere ferro,
Et quod noscebas metuens, portando negabas.               710
Sed tamen impietas tua nec tibi profuit, et nos
Stultitiam confesse tuam, divinaque signa
Fecisti magno crucis exsultare triumpho.
Ergo relinquamus captum jam incessere furem,
Cui satis ad poenam est spoliatae fraudis egestas.               715

And whence?
Again, how did headlong audacity so badly harden your undaunted sense,
you timorous one and yet at the same time a despiser,               705
so that, under the guise of the same crime, you were going away inconsistent,
mixing the faith of perfidy with a divided breast,
and you believed, by fearing, to touch with iron the virtue of the cross and the inviolable sign of Christ;
and what you knew, being afraid, by carrying you were denying.               710
But yet your impiety did not profit you, and, your stupidity confessed,
you made the divine signs exult in the great triumph of the cross.
Therefore let us leave off assailing the thief already seized,
for to him the poverty of the despoiled fraud is punishment enough.               715

Nunc ad te, veneranda Dei crux, verto loquelas,
Gratantesque tua concludam laude profatus.
O crux magna Dei pietas, crux gloria coeli,
Crux aeterna salus hominum, crux terror iniquis,
Et virtus justis, lumenque fidelibus. O crux, 720
Quae terris in carne Deum servire saluti,
Inque Deo coelis hominem regnare dedisti;
Per te lux patuit veri, nox impia fugit.

Now to you, venerable Cross of God, I turn my utterances,
and, having spoken, I will conclude with your praise, giving thanks.
O cross, great mercy of God, cross, glory of heaven,
cross, eternal salvation of men, cross, terror to the iniquitous,
and virtue to the just, and light to the faithful. O cross, 720
who granted that God in flesh should serve salvation on earth,
and that man in God should reign in the heavens;
through you the light of truth lay open, the impious night fled.

Tu destruxisti credentibus eruta fana
Gentibus, humanae concors tu fibula pacis 725
Concilians hominem medium per foedera Christi.
Facta hominis gradus es, quo possit in aethera ferri.
Esto columna piis tu semper, et anchora nobis,
Ut bene nostra domus maneat, bene classis agatur
In cruce fixa fidem, vel de cruce nacta coronam. 730

You have destroyed for the believing nations the shrines torn up by the roots
for the nations, you, the concordant clasp of human peace 725
reconciling man, the middle being, through the covenants of Christ.
You have been made the steps of man, by which he may be borne into the aether.
Be you always a column for the pious, and an anchor for us,
so that our house may remain well, so that the fleet may be well steered
with faith fixed upon the cross, or a crown gotten from the cross. 730

POEMA XX.
CARMEN XII IN S. FELICEM.

POEM 20.
POEM 12 ON ST. FELIX.

Saepe boni domini caris famulantur alumnis
Mente pia, et patrio subjecta tuentur amore
Mancipia, hisque favent cura propiore fovendis,
Quos magis indiguos opis, et virtute carentes
Affectu rimante vident. Et si quis eorum,               5
Moris ut humani solemnis postulat usus,
Votum aliquod celebrare velit, neque possit egenis
Id patrare opibus, studio curatur herili
Servus inops, cui dives opum, queis pauper egebat,
Contulerit dominus cumulandae impendia mensae.               10
Haec mihi conditio est data sub Felice patrono:
Nulla mihi ex me sint, ut sint mihi cuncta per illum;
Namque ad Natalem nunc ipsius, ut quidem et ante
Praeteritis, quibus ista dies mihi floruit, annis,
Non erat unde epulum votis solemne pararem,               15
Instabatque dies, nec adhuc mihi prompta facultas
Ex aliquo suberat: subito ecce patronus abundans
Unde dapem largam struerem geminos dedit una
Cum nutrice sues, quorum de carne cibatis
Pauperibus, nos materiam ex animalibus iisdem               20
Sumpsimus, egregiis quoniam miracula signis
Per pecudes ipsas nuper Deus edidit, alta
Destimulans ratione homines attendere Christo,
Nec desiderium carnis praeferre fidei
Namque ad avaritiae nostrae lacrymabile probrum               25

Often good lords minister to dear fosterlings
with a pious mind, and under paternal love they safeguard their subjects/slaves,
and they favor with a nearer care those to be cherished,
whom, with probing affection, they see more in need of aid and lacking in virtue.
And if any of them, as the solemn usage of human custom requires,               5
should wish to celebrate some vow, and cannot accomplish it with needy
resources, by the master’s zeal the indigent servant is cared for,
to whom the rich in resources—the very resources of which the poor man was lacking—
the master has bestowed the expenses for piling up the table.
This condition has been given to me under Felix as patron:               10
let nothing be mine from myself, that all things may be mine through him;
for at his Natal Day now, as indeed also before
in past years in which this day blossomed for me,
there was not whence I might prepare the solemn banquet for my vows,
and the day was pressing on, nor yet had ready means               15
arisen for me from any source: suddenly, behold, the bounteous patron
gave twin swine together with their nurse, whence I might array a lavish feast,
of whose flesh, once the poor were fed, we took material from these same animals,
since with outstanding signs God lately brought forth miracles through the very beasts,
spurring men by lofty reason to attend to Christ,               20
and not to prefer the desire of flesh to faith.
For, to the lachrymable opprobrium of our avarice               25

Per pecora humanae rationis egentia summum
Signa dedisse Deum, series recitanda docebit.
Non afficta canam, licet arte poematis utar:
Historica narrabo fide sine fraude poetae:
Absit enim famulo Christi mentita profari:               30
Gentibus hae placeant, ut falsa colentibus, artes.
At nobis ars una fides, et musica Christus,
Qui docuit miram sibimet concurrere pacem
Disparis harmoniae quondam, quam corpus in unum
Contulit assumens hominem, qui miscuit almum               35
Infusa virtute Deum, ut duo conderet in se,
Distantesque procul naturas redderet unum.
Ut Deus esset homo, Deus est homo factus ab ipso,
Qui Deus est, genitore Deo, cui gratia non est,
Sed natura, quod est summi Patris unicus haeres,               40

Through beasts lacking human reason the Most High God has given signs, the series to be recited will teach.
I will not sing feigned things, although I use the art of poetry:
I will narrate with historical faith, without the poet’s fraud:
For far be it that a servant of Christ should utter falsehoods:               30
Let such arts please the peoples, as they worship false things.
But for us the one art is faith, and our music is Christ,
Who taught the wondrous peace of once unlike harmony to converge to himself,
which he brought together into one body by assuming man, who mingled the fostering
God by infused power, so that he might found the two in himself,               35
and render far-distant natures one.
So that man might be God, God has been made man by himself,
who is God, with God as his begetter—for whom it is not by grace,
but by nature, since he is the only heir of the Most High Father.               40

Solus habens proprium, quod munere praestat habere
His quibus alma fides dederit divina mereri.
Ille igitur vere nobis est musicus auctor,
Ille David verus, citharam qui corporis hujus
Restituit putri dudum compage jacentem,               45
Et tacitam ruptis antiquo crimine chordis
Assumendo suum Dominus reparavit in usum,
Consertisque Deo mortalibus, omnia rerum
In speciem primae fecit revirescere formae,
Ut nova cuncta forent, cunctis abeunte veterno.               50
Hanc renovaturus citharam Deus ipse magister,
Ipse sui positam suspendit in arbore ligni,
Et cruce peccatum carnis perimente, novavit.
Atque ita mortalem numeris caelestibus aptam
Composuit citharam variis ex gentibus unam,               55

He alone having as his own that which he vouchsafes to have by gift
to those to whom nurturing Faith has given to merit the divine.
He therefore truly is for us the musical author,
He the true David, who the lyre of this body,
long since lying with its framework rotten, restored,               45
and, mute with its strings broken by the ancient crime,
the Lord, by assuming it, repaired for his own use,
and, mortals being knit to God, he made all things
to revive into the semblance of the primal form,
so that all things might be new, as the old torpor departed.               50
This lyre, being about to renew it, God himself the magister,
he himself hung, set upon the tree of wood,
and, the cross destroying the sin of the flesh, he renewed it.
And thus the mortal lyre, apt to celestial measures,
he composed one out of various nations.               55

Omnigenas populos compingens corpus in unum.
Inde lacessitis fidibus de pectine Verbi
Vox Evangelicae testudinis omnia complet
Laude Dei: toto Christi chelys aurea mundo
Personat innumeris uno modulamine linguis, 60
Respondentque Deo paribus nova carmina nervis.
Sed referam ad mea coepta pedem; nam tempus, et hora est
Promissas offerre dapes, apponere vobis
Prandia sollicitas caste sumenda per aures.

Compacting peoples of every kind into one body.
Then, the strings being stirred by the plectrum of the Word,
the Voice of the Evangelical lyre fills all things
with the praise of God: throughout the whole world Christ’s golden lyre
resounds, in countless tongues with a single modulation, 60
and new songs answer to God with matching strings.
But let me bring my foot back to my undertaking; for it is time, and it is the hour
to offer the promised, solicitous feasts, to set before you
luncheons to be taken chastely through the ears.

Non veteri repetam, quae sum dicturus, ab aevo. 65
Ante dies paucos istic spectata profabor.
Venerat huc quidam placitum sibi solvere votum
Urbis Abellinae de finibus advena nostris
Sedibus. Hic porcum studio curante paratum,
Dilatumque diu, ut simul annis, atque sagina 70

I will not repeat, from an ancient age, what I am about to say. 65
A few days ago here, things witnessed I will declare.
A certain man had come hither to discharge a vow it had pleased him to fulfill,
a newcomer from the borders of the city of Abellinum to our seats.
Here a pig, prepared with zealous care,
and long deferred, so that at once in years and in fattening, 70

Cresceret, huc illinc perduxerat; atque ubi venit
Pingue pecus voti jugulat de more voven tum.
Fama suis magni per egentum accenderat acrem
Ora famem et cuncti magnae spe partis hiantem
Tendebant ad opima senes convivia faucem.               75
Interea largitor inops non partibus aequis
Dividit incisas carnes, medium suis aufert
Sinciput, et tantum secti coquit intima ventris,
Solaque pauperibus caesi vitalia porci
Dividit, ac totum sibi corpus habere relinquit,               80
Et votum complesse putat, laetusque redire
Incipit, ausus eas jumento imponere secum
Relliquias, et in his placiti se pignora voti
Sancta referre domum male credulus, in quibus idem
Damnum animae, nodumque viae portabat avarus,               85
Denique mox nec mille viam permissus abire
Passibus, elucente die, simul aggere plano,
Non tenebris pavitante, nec offendente salebris
Lapsus equo, et quasi fixus humi se tollere rursus
Ad consistendum reparato robore surgens               90

Cresceret, huc illinc perduxerat; atque ubi venit
he had brought it here and there that it might grow; and when he came
Pingue pecus vow’s he slaughters, according to the custom of the vower.
the fat beast of his vow he slaughters, according to the wont of one vowing.
Fame among his own had kindled in the needy a sharp
Report among his own had kindled the keen mouths of the needy with great
Ora famem et cuncti magnae spe partis hiantem
hunger, and all, gaping with the hope of a great portion,
Tendebant ad opima senes convivia faucem.               75
Interea largitor inops non partibus aequis
were stretching an eager throat toward the rich banquet. Meanwhile the indigent largitor, not by equal shares,
Dividit incisas carnes, medium suis aufert
divides the carved meats; he carries off for himself the middle crown of the head,
Sinciput, et tantum secti coquit intima ventris,
the sinciput, and only cooks the innards of the cut belly,
Solaque pauperibus caesi vitalia porci
and to the poor he portions out only the vitals of the slaughtered pig,
Dividit, ac totum sibi corpus habere relinquit,               80
and leaves the whole body to be had by himself,
Et votum complesse putat, laetusque redire
and thinks he has fulfilled the vow, and glad to return
Incipit, ausus eas jumento imponere secum
begins, daring to place upon the pack‑beast with him these relics,
Relliquias, et in his placiti se pignora voti
and in these, wrong‑believing, to carry home the sacred pledges of the agreed vow,
Sancta referre domum male credulus, in quibus idem
in which the same avaricious man was bearing loss of soul and a knot of the road,
Damnum animae, nodumque viae portabat avarus,               85
Denique mox nec mille viam permissus abire
and finally soon, not permitted to go the road even a thousand paces,
Passibus, elucente die, simul aggere plano,
with day shining out, and likewise on a level causeway,
Non tenebris pavitante, nec offendente salebris
with neither darkness frightening nor ruts tripping,
Lapsus equo, et quasi fixus humi se tollere rursus
he fell from the horse, and, as if fixed to the ground, to raise himself again
Ad consistendum reparato robore surgens               90

Non potuit, coepitque pedes clamare ligatos,
Idque probare jacens, plantis quasi compede junctis.
Hic aliud mirum casu sociatur in ipso:
Nam dum illum tanta cum debilitate jacentem
Moesta propinquorum circumstat turba suorum,               95
Jumentum, cui sola oneri porcina manebat,
Ascensore sui vacuum, et ductore relictum
Sponte sua se se nullo flectente refrenans
Tamquam offendiculi causam cognosceret ultro
Aut aliquem prohibere viam, qua coeperat ire,               100
Vidisset, sic fugit iter, cursumque retorsit,
Et properante gradu recucurrit ad hospita tecta
Omnibus antevolans, quos lapsi attenta tenebat
Cura viri, quem paulatim quasi corpore fracto
Nitentem, et genibus rigidis prodire negantem,               105

He could not, and he began to cry out that his feet were bound,
and to prove it while lying there, with the soles as if joined by a fetter.
Here another wonder is joined to the event itself:
for while he lay with such debility,
a mournful crowd of his own kinsfolk stands around him,               95
the pack-animal, to which only the porcine load remained,
empty of its rider and left without a leader,
of its own accord reining itself, with no one bending the rein,
as though it recognized unbidden the cause of the stumbling,
or that someone was prohibiting the road by which it had begun to go,               100
having seen it, thus it fled the path and turned its course back,
and with a hastening gait ran back to the hospitable roofs,
outstripping all those whom the attentive care of the fallen man held,
the care for the man, who gradually, as if with body broken,
was striving to rise, and with rigid knees refusing to go forward,               105

Caecaque vincla pedum pariter, meritumque ruinae,
Et causam poenae lacrimosa voce fatentem
Luce palam manibus grave subvectantibus aegri
Corpus, fida cohors sanctas referebat in aulas
Orantem medici Felicis ad ipsa reduci               110
Limina, mox illic certam reperire medelam.
Illum homines interque manus, interque catervas
In sacra vectatum mirantidus atria turbis,
Dispositi trino per longa sedilia coetu
Obstupuere senes, inopum miserabile vulgus,               115
Et socio canae residentes agmine matres.
Praeterea multi, sua quos devotio sanctis
Aedibus attulerat diversis eminus oris,
Viderunt insigne pium, cum tempore eodem,
Imo die, tam mira foret mutatio rerum.               120

And the blind fetters of his feet alike, and the desert of his downfall,
and confessing with a tearful voice the cause of his punishment,
in the light, openly, with hands bearing up the sick man’s heavy
body, his faithful cohort was carrying him back into the sacred halls,
praying to be led back to the very thresholds of the physician Felix,               110
soon there to find a sure remedy.
Men, and among hands, and among throngs,
marveled at him carried into the sacred atria by the crowds;
arranged in a triple assembly along the long benches
the elders were astounded, the pitiable crowd of the needy,               115
and mothers, gray of hair, sitting in an allied company.
Moreover many, whom their devotion had brought to the holy
edifices from diverse shores afar,
saw a pious portent, since at the same time,
nay, on the same day, so wondrous a mutation of things would be.               120

Idem homo, qui paulo ante suo digressus ab iisdem
Liminibus gressu, nunc ipse redux alienis
Infertur pedibus, subvecto corpore pendens.
Parte alia stratus, nullo servante sequentum,
Hospitis ante fores etiam nunc carne suilla               125
Stabat onustus equus, neque quisquam notior illi
Astiterat, cui cura foret relevare gravatum
Fasce suo, et notis reducem subducere tectis.
Ille tamen velut humana ratione repletus
Quaerentique suos, et protinus opperienti               130
Astiterat similis, certo vestigia servans
Fixa loco, simul aure micans, et naribus efflans
Assuetorum hominum notos quaerebat odores.
Mirum erat hospitibus, quaenam fuga, qui status ille
Esset equi, notumque animal faciebat amicis               135

That same man, who a little before had departed by his own step from those same
thresholds, now himself, returned, is borne in on others’
feet, hanging with his body supported aloft.
Cast down in another part, with none of the followers attending,
before the host’s doors even now with swine-flesh               125
stood the horse, laden; nor had anyone better known to him
stood by, to whom it might be a care to lighten the burdened one
of his own bundle, and to lead the returnee back beneath familiar roofs.
Yet he, as though filled with human reason,
and like one seeking his own, and straightway waiting,               130
had taken his stand, keeping his footprints in a fixed place,
his ear at the same time flickering, and breathing out from his nostrils
he was seeking the known odors of the men he was accustomed to.
It was a wonder to the guests, what flight, what that condition
of the horse might be, and the animal was making itself known to friends.               135

Ambiguum nova forma rei, neque quisquam erat index
Accidui, cunctis illum stipantibus intus,
Qui fuerat manibus sanctam portatus in aulam
Martyris, aeger ubi sancto pro limine fusus
Corpore projecto, et complexis postibus haerens,               140
Oscula figebat supplex, fletuque lavabat,
Seque recognoscens proprii caput esse doloris,
Tales se se ipsum dabat accusando querelas.
O mihi, qui talem merui desumere poenam
Hac in sede miser, qua, si miser adveniat quis,               145
Efficitur felix! Sed justum, parque maligno
Me fateor merito exitium cepisse, patique,
Ut reus ipsa inter modo limina puniar ardens
Exurente pedes simul, et stringente dolore,
In quibus, heu demens! oblati munera voti               150

Ambiguous was the new form of the matter, nor was there any index
of the mishap, with all thronging him within,
he who had been carried by hands into the holy hall
of the Martyr, where, sick, outpoured before the holy threshold,
with body cast forward, and clinging with the doorposts embraced,               140
he, a suppliant, was planting kisses and was washing with weeping,
and, recognizing himself to be the head of his own pain,
he uttered such laments by accusing himself:
“O me, who have deserved to take up such a penalty
in this seat, where, if any wretch should arrive,               145
he is made happy! But it is just, and equal to my malignant
desert, I confess, that I have taken up ruin and suffer it,
that, guilty, I am punished right now between the very thresholds, burning,
as the burning consumes the feet at once, and the constricting pain,
in which, alas, madman! the gifts of an offered vow               150

Fraude fidem violans converti in damna salutis.
Est tamen, est aliquid, fateor, quod dicere possim
Jam mihi mutari grata vice tristia laetis,
Atque ipsas animo jam prosperiora tuenti
Infractis coepisse malis dulcescere poenas,               155
Ex quibus haec nunc ipsa mihi bene gratia venit,
Qua factum est mihi nunc, ut tam cito tangere rursus
Limina Felicis misero veneranda liceret.
Nam mihi si nullus, vel si levis iste fuisset
Casus, ut arreptum possem pertendere cursum,               160
Tunc magis infelix de prosperitate fuissem:
Mansisset mihi culpa nocens, neque vulnus adactum
Intus in ossa animae sensissem carne rebelli,
Occultasset enim meriti discrimen iniqui
Corporis illaesi vigor, et vinxisset inertem               165

Violating faith by fraud, I turned into the losses of salvation.
Yet there is, there is something, I confess, which I can say
now for me the sad things are being changed, by a welcome turn, into joyful things,
and to the mind already looking at more prosperous things
with the evils broken, the penalties have begun to grow sweet,               155
from which this very grace now comes well to me,
by which it has now been brought to pass for me, that so quickly to touch again
the venerable thresholds of Felix it was permitted to me, wretched.
For if to me this mischance had been none, or slight,
so that I could press onward the course I had seized,               160
then I would have been more unfortunate from that prosperity:
the guilty fault would have remained to me, nor would I have felt the wound driven
within into the bones of the soul, the flesh being rebellious,
for the vigor of an unhurt body would have concealed the distinction of unjust merit,
and would have bound me inert.               165

Mens durata reum, nisi lapsum poena ligasset.
Ergo potens medice in Domini tu nomine Christi,
Felix, jam satis hoc tibi sit, Dominoque potenti,
Quod non ira mihi, pietas sed amica saluti
Supplicium peperit, devincto ut corpore culpa 170
Solveret: ecce malum servum, refugamque voracem
Jure retraxisti, injectis pro crimine vinclis.
Debitor infelix teneor, constringor, aduror,
Propositus cunctis divini forma timoris.

Mind, hardened, would have remained guilty, unless punishment had bound the lapse.
Therefore, mighty physician, you in the name of the Lord Christ,
Felix, now let this be enough for you, and for the mighty Lord,
that not wrath for me, but piety friendly to salvation
brought forth the punishment, so that, with the body bound, it might loosen the guilt 170
Solveret: behold the evil servant, and the runaway and voracious,
by right you have drawn back, with chains thrown on for the crime.
As an unhappy debtor I am held, I am constrained, I am seared,
set forth to all as a form of divine fear.

Mentibus haec omnes trepidis attendite, quae nunc 175
Me miserum reliquis documento ferre videtis.
Numquid enim hoc errore carent aliqui? Sed in uno
Exemplum fieri placuit, quo sit mea poena
In praejudicium quibus emendatio non est.

Attend to these things, all of you with trembling minds, which now 175
you see me, wretched, bear as a document for the rest.
For do any lack this error? But in one
it has pleased that an example be made, so that my penalty
may be as a precedent for those for whom there is no emendation.

Sed jam parce tuo misero, precor, optime Felix, 180

But now spare your wretched one, I pray, most excellent Felix, 180

Parce libens, succurre favens: dolor ultimus urget
Clamosas iterare preces: festinus adesto,
Ne mors praeveniat medicum festina morantem.
Sed scio, quod Domini manus haec, quae verberat, et quae
Parcet more suo: mihi tantum tu modo fesso,               185
Jamque fatiscenti propera laxare catenam,
Quam tu, sancte, vides, ego sentio: sicut operto
Clam tacitus vinclo fugitivi membra ligasti,
Sic invisibili medicina solve reversum.
Talia clamantem, dum postibus haeret in ipsis               190
Felicis sancti, lambensque per oscula tergit,
Attonitis illum pia turba et cernit, et audit
Coetibus: ipse jacens etiam nunc erigitur spe,
Increpitatque moras omnes, et tarda suorum
Obsequia, afferri porcum, totasque jubet mox               195
Pauperibus reddi partes, sibi vivere tantum
Concedi petit atque inopum saturamine pasci.

Spare willingly, succor favoring: the last dolor urges
to iterate loud prayers: be present in haste,
lest hasty Death anticipate the physician lingering.
But I know that this is the Lord’s hand, which scourges, and which
will spare according to its wont: only do you, for me weary,                185
and now flagging, hasten to loosen the chain
which you, O holy one, see, I feel: just as with a hidden
secret, silent bond you bound the limbs of the fugitive,
so with invisible medicine loose the one returned.
As he cries such things, while he clings to the very doorposts                190
of Saint Felix, and, licking, wipes them with kisses,
the pious crowd, astonished, both sees and hears him
in their gatherings: he himself, lying even now, is raised by hope,
and he rebukes all delays and the slow services
of his own; he orders that a pig be brought, and that all the portions soon                195
be rendered to the poor, he asks that it be conceded to him only
to live, and to be fed with the nourishment of the needy.

Certatim socii cito jussa fidelia curant.
Itur ad hospitium notum, deponitur illic
Sarcina jumento, carnes in frusta secantur, 200

Eagerly the companions quickly attend to the faithful orders.
It is gone to a familiar lodging; there
the pack is taken off the pack-animal, the meats are cut into pieces, 200

Et divisa coquit spumantibus ignis alienis.
Cocta importantur patulis numerosa catinis.
Exsaturata fames inopum gratantia reddit
Verba Deo, et veniam petit, ut placata datori.

And, divided up, it is cooked on others’ foaming fires.
The cooked portions are brought in, numerous, in broad bowls.
The sated hunger of the poor renders grateful words to God,
and asks for pardon, that He be appeased toward the giver.

Nec mora: confestim voti ratione soluta 205
Debitor ille intus meritae compage catenae
Solvitur, et pedibus Domino miserante refectis,
Tamquam liber equus, vel ruptis cassibus ales
Evolat, et cervi salientis imagine currit.
Mira fides oculis obtenditur. Omnia gaudent 210
Tam facili pietate Dei, tantumque valenti
Felicis merito, ut coram adsit Christus in illo,
Pro meritis hominum moderans in utroque potenter,
Ut resipiscenti medicus sit, et ultor iniquo.

Nor delay: forthwith, the reckoning of the vow discharged 205
That debtor inside, from the fastening of the merited chain,
is loosed, and, his feet restored by the Lord’s compassion,
like a free horse, or a bird with its snares broken,
he flies out, and runs in the likeness of a leaping stag.
A marvelous token of faith is presented to the eyes. All rejoice 210
at so ready a piety of God, and at such prevailing power
by Felix’s merit, so that Christ is present openly in him,
powerfully moderating on both sides according to the merits of men,
so as to be a physician to the one repenting, and an avenger to the unjust.

Cernite enim, quantae fuit illa injuria fraudis, 215

For see, how great an injury of fraud that was, 215

Qua miser ille prius diviserat inter egentes,
Seque, suem, atque istic ubi totum reddere votum
Debuerat, solum caput, intestinaque porci
Carpserat, et reliquam toto sibi corpore partem
Fecerat imprudens, atque improbus, et tamen ipsa,               220
Qua miser extiterat, factus mox fraude beatus
Commutante Deo pietatis verbere culpam.
Talis enim censura Dei est: sic temperat alti
Pondera judicii Deus arbiter, et pater, et rex,
Omnibus ut placidam moderato examine libret               225
Justitiam, et levior mixta bonitate potestas
Ante reos moneat stimulo, quam fulmine perdat,
Ut si profuerit praemissi verberis ictus,
Salva salus homini redeat commissa pigenti.
At siquis sacro monitus terrore flagelli               230

Where that wretch earlier had divided among the needy—himself, and the sow—and there, where he ought to have rendered the whole vow, he had only carved the head and the intestines of the pig, and had made the remaining portion for himself of the whole body, imprudent and wicked; and yet by that very thing, 220
by which he had been wretched, soon made blessed by fraud, with God commuting the fault by the scourge of piety. For such is the censure of God: thus does God—arbiter, and father, and king—temper the weights of lofty judgment, so that for all he may balance placid justice with a moderated assay, and that a power lighter, mixed with goodness, may warn the accused with a goad before it destroy with a thunderbolt, so that, if the stroke of the pre-sent lash has profited, salvation, kept safe, may return to the one to whom it was committed, though sluggish. But if anyone, warned by the sacred terror of the scourge, 230

Noluerit sentire plagam, incuratus abibit,
Servatusque neci perfectam sentiet iram.
Ille igitur miser ante, dehinc mox ipse beatus
Tali sanatus carnemque, animamque medela.
Sed quia cognovit causam, agnoscensque jacentem               235
Poenituit, merito curam sibi memet in ipso
Repperit, inque brevi est expertus utrumque, quod omnes
Justa lege manet divinae pacis, et irae
Jus, et opus, maneat vindex ut jure superbos
Poena reos, pietas servet miserata fatentes.               240
Ergo relaxatis alacer vestigia vinclis
Idem ex incolumi cito debilis, et cito liber,
Ex modo captivo laeta cum voce redibat,
Exultans velut ille olim, quem matris ab alvo
Claudentem in verbo Domini Petrus, atque Johannes               245

Nay, if he should be unwilling to feel the blow, he will go away un-cured,
and, reserved for death, he will feel perfected wrath.
He therefore, wretched before, then soon himself blessed,
healed by such a remedy both in flesh and in soul.
But because he recognized the cause, and, acknowledging the prostrate,               235
he repented, deservedly he found care for himself in me myself,
and in a short time he experienced both, that for all by a just law
the right and the work of divine peace and of wrath abide,
that punishment, as avenger, by right may keep the proud guilty,
and pity, having taken pity, may preserve those confessing.               240
Therefore, with the bonds loosened from his steps, eager,
the same man, soon whole from weakness, and soon free,
from just-now captive he returned with a glad voice,
exulting like that one of old, who from his mother’s womb,
lame, at the word of the Lord, Peter and John...               245

Jusserunt validis in saltum assurgere plantis.
Dignus et hic pauper Speciosae limine portae,
Quem Deus ipse Petri Deus, et Felicis, eadem
Nunc verbi virtute sui sanavit apud nos
De casu claudum modo, qua sanaverat olim 250
Ex utero claudum: qua nunc ope laetus abibat,
Quique preces moestas in vulnere fuderat intus,
Ecce foris sano reddebat corpore grates.
Quidnam ego Felici possim redhibere patrono?

They ordered him to rise into a leap upon sturdy feet.
And this poor man too, worthy of the threshold of the Beautiful Gate,
whom God himself, the God of Peter and of Felix, by the same
now by the virtue of his Word healed among us,
lame from a fall just now, by which he had once healed 250
one lame from the womb: by which help now he was departing joyful,
and he who had poured mournful prayers within in his wound,
behold outside was rendering thanks with a sound body.
What indeed can I render back to Felix as patron?

Quas illi referam tanto pro munere digne               255
Tam cito de tanto sanatus vulnere grates?
Non pretium statui medico, aut fastidia lecti
Tristia substinui, neque per scalpella, vel ignes,
Aut male mordaces vario de gramine succos,
Saevior et morbis, et vulneribus medicina               260
in corpus grassata meum est, velut accidit illis,
Quos humana manus suspecta visitat arte,
Semper et incerto trepidos solamine palpat.
En ego per breve nunc spatium perlatus ad ipsum
Felicis sancti solium, et projectus in ipso               265
Limine tam gelido, quam duro in marmore fractus,
Atque dolens jacui, et solus mihi sermo precandi,
Sola fides medicina fuit: nullum affore vidi,
Et sensi medicum.

What thanks shall I render to him worthily for so great a gift,               255
healed so quickly from so great a wound? I did not set a fee for a physician, nor did I sustain the sad distastes of the sickbed, nor through scalpels or fires,
or the ill-biting juices from varied herbage,
did a medicine, harsher than the diseases and the wounds, make an assault               260
upon my body, as it happens to those
whom a human hand visits with suspect art,
and always with uncertain solace palpates the trembling. Behold I, now borne through a brief space to the very
throne of Saint Felix, and cast down on the very               265
threshold, broken on marble as cold as it is hard,
both in pain I lay, and my only speech was praying;
faith alone was the medicine: I saw no one present,
and I felt the physician.

Quisnam hic medicus, nisi Christus
Ipse, vel a Christo Felix de nomine Christi, 270

Who then is this physician, if not Christ
himself, or Felix from Christ, by the name of Christ, 270

Et virtute potens? Neutrum illo in tempore sensi,
Et tamen ipse fuit praesens in utroque, velut me
Peccantem argueret cito, sanaretque dolentem.
Par modus in specie varia mihi castigantis,
Parcentisque fuit Domini.

And powerful in virtue? Neither of the two at that time did I sense,
And yet he himself was present in both, as though he
would quickly rebuke me sinning, and would heal me suffering.
Equal was the measure, in varied appearance, of the Lord castigating me,
and of the Lord sparing me.

Sanator, et ultor               275
Luminibus latuit, poena atque medela refulsit.
Nunc ego jam pleno perfectis ordine votis
Ibo domum gaudens medico, tutusque patrono
Aeternum Felice mihi; non jam ulla verebor
Occursura mihi, velut ante, pericla viarum:               280
Namque periclum aberit, quia causa soluta pericli est.
Non resoluta fides me vinxerat, et modo solvit
Rite soluta fides: tamen alliget, oro, tuus me
Semper amor, Felix: istam mihi necte catenam,
Qua tibi me numquam nec mors, nec vita resolvat.               285

Healer, and avenger               275
lay hidden from the eyes; by punishment and remedy he shone forth.
Now I, with vows now full, completed in due order,
will go home rejoicing in the physician, and safe with Felix as my eternal patron;
I shall no longer fear any perils of the roads that may meet me, as before:               280
for peril will be absent, because the cause of the peril has been loosed.
A faith not loosed had bound me, and just now a duly loosed faith releases me;
yet let your love, Felix, bind me always, I pray—
weave for me this chain,
by which neither death nor life may unloose me from you.               285

Verum omnes quicumque meos videre dolores,
Inque tuo merito magnis insignibus altam
Conspexere manum Christi, cognoscere debent,
Quantum illis mea poena boni providerit, ut jam
Praecaveant de terrenis sibi parcere rebus, 290
Et, lucra dum captant, acquirere damna salutis.
Nam si de vili pecudis mihi carne alimentum
Pauperibus fraudasse malum fuit, et quid in illis,
Qui male divitias multo amplectuntur amore?
Defossisque suo pariter cum corde metallis 295
Incubitant, atque haec latitare superflua produnt,
Quae proprio longe secreta tuentur ab usu?

But indeed all, whoever have seen my pains,
and in your merit, with great insignia, have beheld the exalted
hand of Christ, ought to recognize
how much good my penalty has provided for them, so that now
they may take precautions not to spare themselves in earthly things, 290
and, while they seize profits, not to acquire losses of salvation.
For if it was evil that I defrauded the poor of aliment
from the cheap flesh of a beast, what then of those
who wrongly embrace riches with much love?
And they brood over metals buried together with their own heart, 295
and betray that these superfluities lie hidden,
which they guard far away, secluded from their own use?

Quid facient? quidnam pro se tibi Christe loquentur?
Tantorum qui partem inopum invasere, nec ullam
Apposuere sibi de re superante salutem? 300

What will they do? What will they say to you, Christ, on their own behalf?
They who have invaded the portion of so many poor, and have not
applied to themselves any salvation from their superabounding substance? 300

Unus abit missus. Nunc mensae grata secundae
Fercula ponemus: sed quamvis rursus eamdem
Diverso carnem conditam jure feremus.
Namque aliud vobis iterum, quod de sue mirum
Lusit opus Felix, mira novitate retexam. 305
Tempore res prior est: sed nostris ante libellis
Praeterita, in praesens tempus servata canetur.

One course goes away. Now we will set the welcome dishes of the second course; but although again we will bring the same flesh, seasoned with a different sauce. For indeed another thing for you again, a wondrous work about a sow which Felix sported, I will reweave with marvelous novelty. 305
The matter is earlier in time; but, passed over in our earlier little books, kept for the present time, it will be sung.

Nec refert, quod opus quo sit sub tempore gestum;
Unus erit quoniam variis operator in annis,
Qui diversa facit sanctorum in laude suorum 310
Omnibus in terris rerum miracula Christus.
Agricolae quidam de nostris longius oris
Appula trans urbem Beneventum rura colentes
De grege setigero multis a foetibus unum
Lactea adhuc tenero pulsantem sumina rostro 315

Nor does it matter, what work under what time has been accomplished;
since one will be the operator in various years,
who does diverse things in the praise of his saints 310
Christ works miracles of things in all the lands.
Certain husbandmen from our more distant shores,
cultivating Apulian fields beyond the city Beneventum,
from the bristly herd, from many litters, one
still butting the milky udders with its tender snout 315

Excerpsere sibi, et curatum tempore multo
Paverunt in vota suem, et coepere paratum
Ducere sacratam sancti Felicis ad aulam,
Corpore de magno ut multos mactatus egenos
Pasceret, et saturo gauderet paupere martyr.               320
Sed gravis arvina porcus superante pedum vim
Non potuit se ferre diu, primoque viarum
Limine succubuit sibimet, neque deinde moveri
Voce, manu, stimulis potuit: liquere jacentem,
Hospitibusque suis commendavere relictum               325
Moerentes Domini: mens anxia nutat in anceps:
Nam voti revocare viam pia pectora nolunt:
Rursum Felicis veneratum limina longe
Ire pudet vacuos devoti muneris. Ergo
Ambiguis talis sententia mentibus haesit,               330

They picked one out for themselves, and, cared for over much time,
they fattened a pig for their vows, and began to lead the prepared one,
consecrated, to the hall of Saint Felix,
so that, from its great body, once slaughtered, it might feed many indigent ones,
and that the martyr might rejoice with the poor filled.               320
But the hog, heavy with suet, the strength of his feet overborne,
could not carry himself for long, and at the very threshold
of the roadways he sank down, nor thereafter could he be moved
by voice, by hand, by goads: they left him lying,
and commended him, left behind, to their hosts,               325
the Lord’s men grieving: the anxious mind wavers in a quandary;
for their pious hearts do not wish to turn back from the path of the vow:
again, to go far to Felix’s venerated thresholds
empty of the devoted gift, shames them. Therefore
such a decision stuck fast in their wavering minds,               330

Ut totidém lectos eadem de gente minores
Ad sua vota legant, quot erat provectus in annos
Ille, sua pressus qui mole manebat iners sus.
Quod devota fides obstricti debita voti
Maturare parans tali ratione putavit, 335
Pluribus ut modicis unum pensaret opimum.
Ergo sacrum hunc venere locum, votisque patratis
Hospitium rediere suum non cominus istinc.

That they might choose just as many younger ones, chosen from the same stock, for their vows, as the boar had been advanced in years—he, the boar who, pressed by his own mass, remained inert. Because devoted faith, seeking to mature the debts of the bound vow, thought by such a method, 335
that by several moderate ones it might counterbalance the one opulent. Therefore they came to this sacred place, and with the vows accomplished they returned to their lodging, not from close at hand thence.

Nam tum forte domos, quae circa martyris aulam,
Implerat solitis densata frequentia turbis. 340
Propterea procul hinc secreto in rure remotam
Contenti subiere casam, qua mane parabant
Ad reditum proferre pedem, cum prima ruberet
Parturiens aurora diem: tuguri fore aperta
Hospes homo egreditur tecto, notumque suem vir 345

For then by chance the houses, which around the hall of the martyr,
a thickened concourse with the accustomed throngs had filled. 340
Therefore far from here, in a secluded countryside,
content they entered a cottage, where in the morning they were preparing
to set forth on the return, when the first dawn, bringing forth the day, reddened:
with the doors of the hut open the host, the man, goes out from the roof, and the man [beholds] the familiar pig 345

Conspicit ante fores mirando astare paratur,
Tamquam se missum a Domino loqueretur adesse,
Atque salutanti similis vestigia lambit
Gaudentis Domini, et gestu subgrunnit alumno
Blandus, et olfaciens motando dat oscula rostro,               350
Seque, quasi votum debere agnoscat herile,
Ingerit, et tardos invitat gutture cultros.
Quo duce, quaeso, vias ignotis finibus egit,
Quosve pedes, tam longe ut posset currere, sumpsit,
Qui brevibus spatiis in primo fine viarum               355
Defecit fluidae depressus mole saginae ?
Certe nulla manus tantum pecus aggere longo,
Nec sinus advexit, nec mens sua tam spatiosam
Ignota regione viam penetrare subegit,
Quando homines etiam et mentis ratione vigentes,               360

He beholds it standing before the doors, wondrous to behold, made ready,
as though it were saying that it had been sent by the Lord to be present,
and, like one offering greeting, it licks the footsteps
of its rejoicing master; and with its mien it under-grunts to the nursling,
coaxing, and sniffing, by moving its snout it gives kisses,               350
and it thrusts itself in, as if it recognized that it owed the master’s vow,
and with its throat it invites the tardy knives.
By what guide, I ask, did it drive its ways through unknown borders,
or what feet did it assume, that it might be able to run so far,
it which, in short spaces at the very beginning of the roads,               355
failed, pressed down by the mass of fluid fatness?
Surely no band drove so great a beast along a long causeway,
nor did a fold carry it, nor did its mind compel it to penetrate so spacious a way
through an unknown region,
since even men too, endowed with the reason of mind,               360

Perque ignota regi faciles interprete lingua,
Si tamen hi careant duce, quo via luceat illis,
Caecus in externis regionibus implicat error.
Quisnam igitur direxit iter suis? unde voluntas,
Qua dominos sequeretur, ei vel sensus ut esset. 365
Conscius ad votum se longa aetate coactum
Unde haec cura fuit pecori, quae rara fideles
Excitat, ut tamquam proprio culpabilis actu
Pigra remansisset sancto sus cincta timore,
Contractam remanendo sibi, veniendo piare 370
Curaret culpam, et vitium pensaret inertis
Desidiae, quamvis sero comitata profectos
Obsequio dominos?

And, through unknown lands, easy to be guided, with an interpreter tongue,
If, however, these lack a leader by whom the way might shine for them,
Blind error entangles in foreign regions. Who then directed its journey for it? whence the will,
by which it would follow its masters, or that it might even have sense. 365
Conscious that to the vow it had been constrained through a long age—
Whence was this care to the herd-beast, which rarely even the faithful
Arouses, that, as if culpable by its own act,
The sluggish sow had remained, girded with holy fear,
That the fault contracted by remaining, by coming it should care to expiate for itself,
And balance the vice of inert sloth, although late, attending with obedience
The masters who had set out?

Patet admirabile monstrum
Caelesti ditione datum tanto suis auso,
Solus ut iret iter longum, tantoque fuisse 375

An admirable portent stands manifest,
granted by celestial dominion to so great an audacity of his own,
that he might go alone a long journey, and to have been so 375

Ingenio porcum, ignotis ut tramite recto
Digereret spatiis: quid et hoc tam grande quod illum
Transbeneventanis huc finibus advenientem
Publica seu medii constrata per aggeris audax
Miserit, occursus nusquam cepere frequentes, 380
Sive per occultos egit vestigia saltus,
Nulla manus ferro, fera vel fuit obvia morsu.
Quae solum duxit manus, aut protexit euntem?
Nempe oculos aliqua celatus nube fefellit,
Aere vel raptus vento mage, quam pede venit, 385
Et subito hospitium Domini delapsus ad ipsum
Constitit ignoto pro limine quadrupes hospes.

By ingenuity the pig, so that through unknown expanses by a straight thoroughfare
he might direct his course: and what is this so great, that him
arriving here within these Trans-Beneventan boundaries
whether the public road, paved along the middle of the agger, audacious,
sent, nor did frequent encounters anywhere seize him, 380
or whether through occult glades he drove his vestiges,
no hand with iron, nor feral beast was opposite with bite.
What hand led him alone, or protected him as he went?
Surely, hidden by some cloud, he baffled ocular eyes,
or snatched through the air by the wind, rather than he came by foot, 385
and suddenly, having slipped down to the very hospice of the Lord,
the quadruped guest stood before the unknown threshold.

Dicam aliud, prope vicini mirabile signi.
Nam genere abjunctam pecus armentale juvencam
Quidam homines aeque longinqua huc sede profecti 390

I will tell another, a marvelous sign of a near neighbor.
For a heifer of the herd-cattle, sundered from her kind,
certain men, having set out hither from an equally distant seat 390

Secretam primo lactantis ab ubere matris
Nutrierant nostris votivo munere pactam
Pauperibus, magna quos istic plebe coactos
Larga ope multorum Felicis gratia pascit.
Ergo ubi jam membris vitula exultabit adultis               395
Facta per excretum jam corpus idonea voto,
Promovere domo: sed, qui mos esse videtur
Persolvenda piis longe sua vota ferentum
Martyribus, plaustro subjunctam quo veherentur,
Aggressi hanc voluere jugo subjungere, quamvis               400
Insuetam, tamen ut mitem, jamque ante subactam
Usibus humanis, quibus illam e congrege coetu
Sustulerant domini parvam, tectisque, cibisque
Miscuerant: hinc ut domita feritate putantes
Sub juga se facilem docili cervice daturam,               405

Separated at first from the udder of her nursing mother
they had reared a heifer, pledged by a votive gift to our poor,
whom, gathered there in a great plebs, the favor of Felix feeds
with the bountiful aid of many. Therefore, when now the heifer would exult with grown limbs,               395
her body now, by growth, made suitable to the vow,
they brought her forth from the house: but, as the custom seems to be
for the pious who from afar bring their vows to be paid
to the Martyrs, they wished, setting about it, to yoke her under a wagon
by which it might be conveyed, to subjoin her to the yoke, although,               400
unaccustomed, yet as gentle and already previously subdued
to human uses, for which the masters had taken her, small, from the herd-gathering,
and had mingled her with roofs and victuals: hence, thinking that, her savagery tamed,
she would give herself easy under the yokes with a docile neck,               405

Sollicitant palpante manu, et conantur in arctum
Ducere: at illa sibi solitos alludere tactus
Credula consentit primum, sequiturque vocantes.
Verum ubi jam propiata jugo conspexit habenas,
Cervicique suae persensit lora parari,               410
Indignata dolis, et permutata repente
Fit fera, nec cervice jugum, nec vincula collo
Suscipit, et victis manibus, lorisque recussis
Prosilit a coetu retinentum, et devia longe
Rura petit, fugiens dominos, assuetaque tecta.               415
Nec procul ex oculis hominum de more ferino
Se rapit, et caecis fugitivam saltibus abdit;
Nam fugiens dominos abeuntes eminus astans
Sic fugit, ut non se patiatur rure relinqui.
Denique ubi junctum gemino bove currere plaustrum               420
Conspicit, humanum sapit, et quasi conscia voto
Deberi se se, comes incipit esse profectis.

They coax with a stroking hand, and try to lead her into close constraint;
but she, believing the familiar touches to be their usual toying,
assents at first, and follows those calling. Yet when, brought near to the yoke, she caught sight of the reins,
and felt that the straps were being prepared for her own neck,               410
indignant at the tricks, and suddenly altered,
she becomes feral, and accepts neither the yoke on her neck nor bonds upon her collar,
and, with their hands overcome and the reins flung back,
she springs from the company of those restraining, and seeks far-off byways,
making for the fields, fleeing her masters and the accustomed roofs.               415
Nor does she whisk herself far from the eyes of men, in wild-beast fashion,
but hides, a fugitive, in blind thickets;
for, fleeing her masters, standing at a distance as they go away,
she so flees that she does not allow herself to be left behind in the countryside.
Finally, when she beholds the wagon running, yoked with a twin-ox team,               420
she shows human sense, and, as though conscious of the vow
that she herself is owed, she begins to be a companion to those setting out.

Nec longe comes est, tardis comes orbibus ire
Spernit, et excursu velut exultante gementes
Praetervecta rotas lenti moliminis agmen 425

Nor is she a companion at a distance; as a companion she spurns to go with the tardy wheels,
and, with a dash as if exultant, having swept past the groaning wheels,
the train of slow endeavor 425

Respicit ante volans, nec jam timet ad juga cogi,
Invisoque prius fit amica, et praevia plaustro,
Donec sacratam ventum Felicis ad aulam est.
Illic sponte gradum sistit, seseque vocanti
Applicat, et tamquam voti rea gaudet in ipso 430
Stare loco, propriam cui debet victima caedem.
Illa rebellis, et humanis non subdita vinclis
Ducitur ad placidam nullo luctamine mortem
Intemerata jugis summittens colla securi,
Pauperibus factura cibos de corpore caeso, 435
Laeta suum fundit dominorum in vota cruorem.

She looks back while flying ahead, and no longer fears to be forced to the yokes,
and to what was previously hateful she becomes friendly, and goes before the wagon,
until the sacred hall of Felix was reached.
There of her own accord she halts her step, and to the one calling
she applies herself, and as though liable for a vow she rejoices on the very 430
spot to stand, in the place to which, as a victim, she owes her own slaughter.
That one, rebellious and not subject to human bonds,
is led to a placid death with no struggle,
unsullied by yokes, submitting her neck to the axe,
about to make food for the poor from her slaughtered body, 435
gladly she pours out her blood for the vows of her masters.

Quorsum isthaec? Numquid pecudum est, ut Apostolus inquit,
Cura Deo? Sed qui propter nos omnia fecit,
Omnia pro nobis operatur in omnibus auctor,
Atque per ignaras pecudes operantia nobis 440

To what end are these things? Has God, as the Apostle says,
care of cattle? But he who for our sake made all things,
the Author works all things for us in all things,
and through unknowing beasts works things operative for us 440

Signa facit, brutas per clara insignia mentes
Sollicitans firmare fidem, et confidere vero,
Ut Dominum dociles linguis in verba solutis
Non taceant homines, quem signis muta loquuntur.

He makes signs, soliciting brutish minds through clear insignia
to firm up faith, and to confide in the True,
so that men, docile, with tongues loosed into words,
may not keep silent about the Lord, whom mute things speak by signs.