Sannazaro: Lamentatio de morte Christi

Si quando magnum mirati surgere Solem
Oceano, et toto flammas diffundere caelo:
Certatimque suo terras ambire meatu
Noctivagam Phoeben praecinctam cornibus aureis;
Aeternosque astrorum ignes, caelique micantes
Scintillare oculos: aliquem dare jura putastis,
Atque polo regnare, hominum rerumque Parentem,
Cui mare, cui tellus, cui pareat arduus aether,
Cuncta supercilio qui temperet: hunc simul aegri
Mortales (si vestra dolor praecordia tangit)
Adspicite immiti trajectum pectora ferro,
Pectora, foedatasque manus, perfusaque tabo
Ora, cruentatumque caput, crinesque revulsos,
Adspicite, et plenos lacrymarum fundite rivos.
Heu scelus, heu crudele nefas: jacet altus Olympi
Rector: et amisso torpent elementa magistro.
Quin etiam vacuum, adsueto sine pondere, caelum
Nutat, et ipsa suum quaerunt solia aurea Regem.

If ever, marveling, you saw the great Sun rise from the Ocean
and diffuse his flames through the whole sky:
and eagerly see Phoebus, night-wandering, girded with golden horns,
and the eternal fires of the stars, and the heavens’ flashing
lights sparkle the eyes: you thought him to give some laws,
and to reign on high, the Parent of men and of things,
to whom the sea, to whom the earth, to whom the lofty ether should yield,
who governs all with a single brow: behold this one, sick,
mortals (if your pain touches your inmost breasts),
look upon him pierced through the chest with cruel iron,
his breasts, his defiled hands, his face drenched in gore,
his bloodied head, and hair torn away,
behold, and pour forth full streams of tears. Heu crime, heu cruel outrage: the high
Ruler of Olympus lies: and with their master lost the elements grow numb.
Nay even the void heaven, accustomed to no weight,
nods, and the very golden thrones seek their King.

Quem diversa procul saevo cum crimine tellus
Ignotum populis caput, et miserabile corpus
Sustinet, exsanguesque sinu complectitur artus,
Et tremefacta graves testatur murmure questus.
Testatur sol ipse suum sub nube dolorem
Jam latitans, atraque notans ferrugine frontem.
Tu quoque deformesque genas, pallentiaque ora
Contegis, inferiasque tuo das, Luna, Tonanti,
Auratum flavo tondens de vertice crinem,
Et lacrymas uda fundens in nocte tepenteis.

Whom the distant earth, with savage crime charged, bears unknown to the peoples — his head and pitiable body it sustains, and enfolds his bloodless limbs in its bosom, and with a trembling murmur proclaims deep complaints.
The sun himself attests his sorrow under a cloud now lurking, and marking his brow black with rust.
Thou also, Moon, cover thy disfigured cheeks and pallid face, and render funerary rites to thy Thunderer, clipping golden hair from his crown with yellow shears, and pouring forth tears, wet in the warm night.

Nec minus abruptis fama est exisse sepulcris,
Perque vias errasse novis simulacra figuris,
Excitasque umbras medias ululasse per urbes
Sub noctem, et notos questu implevisse penates.
Quid? non et pelagi rabies adtollere fluctus
Immanes visa est?

Nor less is the report that forms torn from sepulchres went forth,
and that simulacra in new figures wandered through the streets,
and that roused shades howled through the midst of the cities
at nightfall, and filled familiar penates with complaint. Quid? was it not also seen that the rabies of the pelagus to raise up immense waves?

monteisque evolvere aquarum,
Dejectura urbes, terrasque haustura profundo?
Cum simul et caput undisonis emersus ab antris
Caeruleus Triton rauco super aequora cornu
Constreperet, nautasque horrenda voce moneret,
Naturae cecidisse Patrem, Regemque, Deumque.
Haene manus vasti junxerunt foedera mundi?

and to disgorge from the mountains rivers of waters,
about to cast down cities, and to drink up lands into the deep?
When at the same time the blue Triton, his head emerged from the caverns of the wave-beaten grotto,
with a hoarse horn rattled above the seas,
and warned the sailors with a dread voice,
that the Father, the King, and the God of Nature had fallen.
Have these hands of the vast (deep) joined the leagues of the world?

Harum opus est, quodcumque jacet, quodcumque movetur?
Quidquid ubique parens rerum Natura gubernat,
Frugiferens tellus, foetumque animantibus aequor,
Vitalisque aer, atque ignibus aethra coruscis?
Et nunc (proh facinus, quantum potuere nocentum
Flagitia !) immissis dant pervia vulnera clavis
Liventeisque atro foedant squalore lacertos.

Is this the work of these, whatever lies, whatever moves?
Whatever everywhere the parent of things, Nature, governs,
the fruit-bearing earth, and the sea prolific for living things,
the life-giving air, and the aether flashing with fires?
And now (oh atrocious deed, how great the crimes the guilty could commit!)
with nails driven in they give penetrating wounds,
and they defile the arms with a livid and blackening squalor.

Heu caput indignum spinis, venerandaque caelo,
Et toties clara stellarum implexa corona
Caesaries ! heu pectus hians, convulsaque dira
Barba manu, tunsique artus et frigida membra.
Vosne, pedes, caelum premere, et vaga sidera sueti,
Fulgentesque domos superum, sublimia tecta,
Tam saevae immanes perpessi cuspidis ictus,
Et terram, et duras sparsistis sanguine cauteis?
Nec trepidat mens caeca hominum?

Alas, a head unworthy of thorns, and venerable to heaven,
and so often the bright crown of stars entwined—
O tresses! alas, a gaping breast, and the dread
beard torn by hand, and limbs smitten and cold members.
Are you, feet, accustomed to press the sky and the wandering stars,
and the shining homes of the superiours, the lofty roofs,
having endured such savage, monstrous thrusts of the spear,
and have you sprinkled both the earth and the hard rocks with blood?
Does not the blind mind of men tremble?

quae tanta tenaci
Durities in corde riget? num nigra videtis
Tartara tot claris hominum viduata trophaeis,
Desertasque in nocte domos, et tristia regna?
Felicesque animas laetum Paeana canentes
Pone sequi Regem, et caelo insedisse sereno?

what so great a tenacious
hardness stiffens in the heart? Do you not see the black
Tartars, bereft of so many glorious trophies of men,
and houses deserted in the night, and gloomy realms?
And the blessed souls, singing a joyful Paean,
follow behind the King, and sit enthroned in the serene heaven?

Quid si non tantos subiisset sponte labores,
Humanamque sua pensasset morte salutem
Ille sator rerum, et summi mens certa Parentis,
Qui nutu ingentes mundi moderatur habenas?
Ut tandem intactos picea Phlegethontis ab unda
Post obitum aeternae donaret munere lucis,
In partemque suorum operum, regnique vocaret.
Tantus amor generis servandi, et gloria nostri.

What if that sire of things, and the mind steadfast of the highest Parent,
who by a nod governs the vast reins of the world, had not voluntarily endured so great labors,
and had not weighed out human salvation by his own death?
That he, after death, might at last grant, from the pitch-dark wave of Phlegethon,
the untouched ones as a gift of eternal light,
and call them into a share of his works and of the kingdom. So great a love of preserving the race, and our glory.

Quare agite, ex animis, mortales, pellite vestris
Si quid adhuc manet antiqua de sorde relictum:
Mendacesque deos, et detestanda priorum
Sacra profanatis tandem detrudite ab aris.
Imbuat effuso terram nec sanguine taurus:
Nec miser ille suae divulsus ab ubere matris
Ignotos agnus balet super hostia cultros.
Vivat ovis, vivat quidquid sub Sole creatum est.

Therefore come, from your souls, mortals, drive away from your hearts
If anything still remains left of ancient filth:
And thrust at last from the altars the lying gods and the detestable
Sacred rites of your forebears, which you have profaned.
Let not the bull stain the earth with poured-out blood:
Nor let that pitiable lamb, torn from its mother's udder,
Bleat over the sacrificial knives of strangers. Let the sheep live, let whatever under the Sun was created live.

Mentem, animumque Deo, non tura, aut exta parate
Has illi pecudum fibras, haec reddite dona.
Cernitis, ut pronum flectat caput? ut pia pandat
Brachia?

Prepare mind and spirit to God, not incense or entrails;
Offer him these fibres of the flocks, return these gifts.
Do you see how he bows his head prone? how he piously unfolds
his arms?

et ingratas vocet ad sua vulnera gentes?
Oblitasque viae moneat meminisse relictae,
Scilicet amplexus non rejecturus amicos?
At vos obtusas ignari avertitis aures,
Infelix genus, et saevae ludibria mortis:
Nec quanta a tergo jam instent tormenta, videtis.

and will he call the ungrateful peoples to his wounds?
and admonish those who have forgotten the forsaken way to remember,
Surely he will not reject the embrace of friends?
But you, unknowing, turn away your dull ears,
unhappy race, and sport of savage death:
nor do you see how great torments now press upon your rear.

Tempus erit, cum vestra illum commissa notantem,
Multantemque reos, altaque in nube sedentem
Adspicietis: et horrentes tremor opprimet artus.
Nec jam ferre oculos flammarum ardore coruscos,
Aut tumidos acie vultus contendere contra
Audebit quisquam sibi conscius. Ibit in ignes
Turba nocens, sontesque exsolvet corpore poenas.

There will be a time when he, noting the things committed to you,
and punishing the guilty, and seated on a high cloud,
you will behold: and a shuddering tremor will oppress your limbs.
Nor then will anyone dare to endure eyes glittering with the blaze of flames,
or to set a face, swollen with brightness, in opposition,
will any self‑conscious man dare. A guilty throng will go into the fires,
and the wicked will pay penalties with their bodies.

Pallentesque aeternum amnes, vastasque lacunas
Cocyti colet: et Furias horrescet hiantes:
Atque animum monitis non intendisse pigebit
Tunc vos exactae capient mala taedia vitae,
Expertes caeli, atque aurae sub nocte profunda:
Inque caput trifidos nequicquam optabitis ignes:
Et frustra erectas tolletis ad aethera palmas.
Quos superum coetus, et fortunata piorum
Agmina vix lacrymis poterunt spectare retentis,
Invidiae stimulis, Dirisque ultricibus actos.
Ergo vitales, miseri, dum carpitis auras,
Dum compos mens ipsa sui est, dum certa facultas,
Dum ratio, tempusque sinunt: simul ite frequentes,
Ite pii, veniam factis exposcite vestris:
Ite, animos purgate, Orcique inhibete rapinas
Et tandem patrio mentem convertite caelo.

And pale rivers forever, and the vast chasms of Cocytus shall be inhabited:
and the gaping Furies will shudder:
And you will then regret not having attended to the admonitions;
the evils, the weary sorrows of an expelled life, will seize you,
deprived of the sky, and of breath beneath the profound night:
and in vain you will long for three-cleft fires upon your head:
and in vain you will lift your hands raised to the aether. Those whom the assemblies of the gods, and the fortunate companies of the pious,
scarcely with held-back tears will be able to behold,
driven on by stings of envy, and by dire avengers.
Therefore, you the living, wretched, while you draw the airs,
while your mind itself is in order, while certain power exists,
while reason and time permit: go forth together in multitude,
go, ye pious, seek pardon for your deeds:
go, cleanse your souls, restrain Orcus’s ravages
and at last turn your mind to the paternal heaven.

Sic Rex ille hominum, vacui spoliator Averni,
Oblitus scelerum, cognatae stirpis amore,
Promissique memor, menteis intrabit amicas,
Vestraque posthabitis recolet praecordia templis.
Postque tot exhaustos vitaeque, obitusque labores,
Illo quo pluvias, quo pellit nubila vultu
Ablutos labe excipiet laetusque reponet
Sidereos inter proceres, sanctumque senatum,
Sub pedibusque dabit stellantia cernere claustra.

Thus that King of men, the plunderer of empty Avernus,
forgetful of crimes, by love of his congenial stock,
and mindful of his promise, will enter friendly minds,
and, your temples set aside, will tend your inmost hearts.
And after so many exhausted lives and the labors of death,
by whose look he drives the rains, by whose visage he dispels the clouds,
he will receive those cleansed of stain and, joyful, restore
among the lofty starry chiefs, and the holy senate,
and will grant them to behold the starry enclosures beneath their feet.