Sedulius: CARMEN PASCHALE

Expulerat primogenitum saevissimus anguis
Florigera de sede virum blandique saporis
Inlecebris letum misero portarat amarum.
Nec solus meritam praesumptor senserat iram
Mortali sub lege iacens, sed prorsus ab ipso 5
Humanum simul omne genus. heu, noxia coniux!

The most savage serpent had expelled the first-born
man from the flower-bearing seat, and by the bland flavor’s
enticements had borne to the wretch a bitter death.
Nor had the presumptuous one alone felt the deserved wrath,
lying under the mortal law, but outright from him 5
the whole human race at once. alas, noxious consort!

Noxia tu coniux magis an draco perfidus ille?
Perfidus ille draco, sed tu quoque noxia coniux.
Pro dolor!

Are you, wife, more noxious, or that perfidious dragon?
That perfidious dragon; but you too are a noxious wife.
O sorrow!

aeterni fuerant duo. crescere posquam
Coepit origo, perit clademque a semine sumpsit. 10
Quid numerosa dies, quid tempore proderat illo
Cernere nongentos ultra feliciter annos
Progeniemque senum decimam spectare nepotum
Iamque suum nescire genus: cum victa supremis
Cursibus extremae sors inreparabilis horae, 15

two had been eternal. after it began to grow
the origin perished and took catastrophe from its seed. 10
What did the numerous day, what did it profit at that time
To discern happily more than 900 years
And to behold the tenth progeny of the elders’ grandchildren,
And now to not know his own lineage: when, with the utmost
Courses conquered, the irreparable lot of the last hour, 15

Sera licet, ventura foret longumque per aevum
Vita brevis nihil esse diu cum fine doloret?
Nec reducem spes ferret opem primique sepulchrum
Terrigenae caeca sorberet fauce nepotes,
Ni pius ille sator culpas ignoscere promptus,                    20
Reddere difficilis, sua ne factura periret
Quaeque Deo similis vivens adstaret imago
Dissimilis de morte foret, veniale misertus
Instauret opus pomisque vetaret acerbis,
Quae mandere patres, natorum horrescere dentes                    25
Donaretque suis semper placatus, ut unde
Culpa dedit mortem, pietas daret inde salutem,
Et velut e spinis mollis rosa surgit acutis
Nil quod laedat habens matremque obscurat honore:
Sic Evae de stirpe sacra veniente Maria                    30

Sooner or later, though it would be late, and to come after a long age,
would brief life lament to be nothing for a long time, since it has an end?
Nor would hope bear back returning help, and the sepulcher of the first
earthborn with a blind throat would gulp down the descendants,
if that pious Sower, prompt to forgive faults,                    20
and not hard to restore, lest his handiwork might perish,
and the image which, living, might stand by God like to God,
should be unlike through death—taking pity on what is pardonable,
he would renew the work and would forbid the bitter fruits,
which the fathers chew, and the teeth of the sons shudder;                    25
and, ever appeased, he would bestow gifts upon his own, so that whence
guilt gave death, piety might from there give salvation;
and as from sharp thorns a soft rose rises,
having nothing that harms and it overshadows the mother with honor:
so, from the stock of Eve, with sacred Mary coming,                    30

Virginis antiquae facinus nova virgo piaret:
Ut quoniam natura prior vitiata iacebat
Sub dicione necis, Christo nascente renasci
Possit homo et veteris maculam deponere carnis.
     Haec ventura senes posquam dixere prophetae,                    35
Angelus intactae cecinit properata Mariae:
Et dictum comitata fides, uterumque puellae
Sidereum mox implet onus, rerumque creator
Nascendi sub lege fuit. stupet innuba tensos
Virgo sinus gaudetque suum paritura parentem.                    40
     Iamque novem lapsis decimi de limine mensis
Fulgebat sacrata dies, cum virgine feta
Promissum conplevit opus 'verbum caro factum',
In nobis habitare volens.

The ancient virgin’s deed a new virgin might atone:
So that, since the earlier nature lay vitiated,
under the dominion of death, with Christ being born, man might be reborn
and lay aside the stain of the old flesh.
     After the aged prophets had said these things would come,                    35
the angel proclaimed with haste to untouched Mary:
and faith accompanied the word, and the maiden’s womb
soon is filled with a sidereal burden, and the creator of things
was under the law of being born. The unwed girl is astonished at her stretched
bosom and rejoices that she is about to bear her own parent.                    40
     And now, nine having slipped by, from the threshold of the tenth month
the hallowed day was gleaming, when, with the virgin pregnant,
he fulfilled the promised work, ‘the Word made flesh’,
wishing to dwell among us.

tunc maximus infans
Intemerata sui conservans viscera templi 45

then the greatest infant
preserving the unviolated inmost parts of his own temple 45

Inlaesum vacuavit iter: pro virgine testis
Partus adest, clausa ingrediens et clausa relinquens.
Quae nova lux mundo, quae toto gratia caelo!
Quis fuit ille nitor, Mariae cum Christus ab alvo
Processit splendore novo, velut ipse decoro 50
Sponsus ovans thalamo, 'forma speciosus' amoena
'Prae filiis hominum', cuius radiante figura
Blandior in labiis diffusa est gratia pulchris.

He made the way unharmed: as witness for the virgin, the Birth is at hand, entering while closed and leaving closed.
What new light for the world, what grace for the whole heaven!
What brilliance was that, when Christ from Mary’s womb proceeded with new splendor, even as the Bridegroom himself rejoicing from the bridal chamber, 50
“fair in form” lovely “beyond the sons of men,” upon whose radiant visage a more winning grace has been diffused on his fair lips.

O facilis pietas! ne nos servile teneret
Peccato dominante iugum, servilia summus 55
Membra tulit Dominus, primique ab origine mundi
Omnia qui propriis vestit nascentia donis
Obsitus exiguis habuit velamina pannis;
Quemque procellosi non mobilis unda profundi,
Terrarum non omne solum, spatiosaque lati 60

O kindly piety! lest a servile yoke hold us
with sin ruling, the Most High 55
bore servile limbs, the Lord; and from the first origin of the world
he who clothes all things being born with their proper gifts
had coverings, wrapped in meager rags;
and whom the wave of the stormy deep does not move,
nor all the soil of the lands, and the spacious reaches of the broad 60

Non capit aula poli, puerili in corpore plenus
Mansit et angusto Deus in praesepe quievit.
     Salve, sancta parens, enixa puerpera regem,
Qui caelum terramque tenet per saecula, cuius
Nomen et aeterno conplectens omnia gyro                    65
Imperium sine fine manet; quae ventre beato
Gaudia matris habens cum virginitatis honore
Nec primam similem visa es nec habere sequentem:
Sola sine exemplo placuisti femina Christo.
Tunc prius ignaris pastoribus ille creatus                    70
Enituit, quia pastor erat, gregibusque refulsit
Agnus et angelicus cecinit miracula coetus.
     Talia Bethleis dum signa geruntur in oris,
Eoi venere magi saevumque tyrannum
Grandia sollicitis perturbant nuntia dictis:                    75

Heaven’s hall does not contain him; full in a boyish body
he remained, and God in a narrow manger rested.
     Hail, holy parent, the puerpera who brought forth the king,
who holds heaven and earth through the ages, whose
Name and Empire, embracing all in the eternal gyre,                    65
abide without end; who, with a blessed womb,
having the joys of a mother with the honor of virginity,
were seen neither to have a like before nor to have one after:
you alone, without example, have pleased Christ as a woman.
Then first to the unknowing shepherds did he, born, shine forth,                    70
because he was a Shepherd; and to the flocks the Lamb re-shone,
and the angelic cohort sang the miracles.
     While such signs are being wrought on Bethlehem’s borders,
the Eastern magi came, and the savage tyrant
they disturb with great tidings in anxious words:                    75

Iudaicis nuper populis orientis ab axe
Progenitum fulsisse ducem, hoc caelitus astra,
Hoc stellam radiare novam. ferus arbiter aulae
Aestuat Hebreae ratus hunc succedere posse
Mox sibimet, qui primus erat: tunc fronte serena 80
Nubila mentis alens clam mandat ubique requiri
Sicut adorandum, quem tractat fraude necandum.
Quid furis, Herodes!

To the Judaic peoples lately from the axis of the Orient
that a begotten leader has shone; that from heaven the stars,
that a new star radiates this. The fierce arbiter of the court
seethes of the Hebrew realm, having reckoned that this one could succeed
himself soon, who was first: then with serene brow 80
Nubila of mind nourishing, he secretly mandates that he be sought everywhere
as one to be adored, whom he contrives by fraud to be slain.
Why do you rage, Herod!

Christum sermone fateris,
Et sensu iugulare cupis, legemque legendo
Neglegis et regi regum tua regna minaris.                    85
Ne tamen insano careant tua nomina facto,
Patrandum sub honore crucis (sed crimine gentis)
Herodes alius quod tu molire videbit.
     Ergo alacres summo servantes lumina caelo
Fixa magi sidusque micans regale secuti                    90

You confess Christ in speech,
and you long to throttle him in thought, and by reading the law
you neglect it and you menace the King of kings with your realms.                    85
Yet, lest your names be without an insane deed,
to be accomplished under the honor of the Cross (but as the crime of the nation),
another Herod will see to the accomplishment of what you are contriving.
     Therefore, alert, keeping their eyes fixed on the highest heaven,
the Magi, having followed the regal, shining star,                    90

Optatam tenuere viam, quae lege futura
Duxit adorantes sacra ad cunabula gentes.
Thensaurisque simul pro religione solutis,
Ipsae etiam ut possint species ostendere Christum,
Aurea nascenti fuderunt munera regi, 95
Tura dedere Deo, myrram tribuere sepulchro.
Cur tria dona tamen?

They kept the longed-for way, which by the law to come
led the adoring nations to the sacred cradle.
And with their treasures at the same time, for religion, opened,
that the very species too might be able to display Christ,
they poured out golden gifts to the newborn king, 95
they gave frankincense to God, they assigned myrrh to the sepulcher.
Yet why three gifts?

quoniam spes maxima vitae est
Hunc numerum confessa fides, et tempora summus
Cernens cuncta Deus, praesentia, prisca, futura,
Semper adest semperque fuit semperque manebit 100
In triplici virtute sui. — Tunc caelitus illi
Per somnum moniti contemnere iussa tyranni
Per loca mutati gradientes devia callis
In patriam rediere suam. — Sic nos quoque sanctam
Si cupimus patriam tandem contingere, posquam 105

since the greatest hope of life is
This number confessed by faith, and the Most-High God,
seeing all times—present, primeval, future—
is always present and always was and always will remain 100
in the triple virtue of his own. — Then, for them, from heaven
admonished in sleep to contemn the commands of the tyrant,
going by changed routes through devious bypaths,
they returned into their own fatherland. — Thus we also, the holy
if we desire fatherland at last to attain, after 105

Venimus ad Christum, iam non repetamus iniquum.
     Ergo ubi delusum se conperit, impius iram
Rex aperit (si iure queat rex ille vocari,
Qui pietate caret, propriam qui non tegit iram)
Ereptumque gemens facinus sibi, ceu leo frendens,                    110
Cuius ab ore tener subito cum labitur agnus,
In totum movet arma gregem manditque trahitque
Molle pecus — trepidaeque vocant sua pignera fetae
Nequiquam et vacuas implent balatibus auras —
Haut secus Herodes Christo stimulatus adempto                    115
Sternere conlisas paruorum strage catervas
Inmerito non cessat atrox. quo crimine simplex
Turba perit?

We have come to Christ, let us now no longer return to the iniquitous one.
     Therefore, when he perceived himself deluded, the impious
king lays bare his wrath (if by right that one can be called king,
who lacks piety, who does not veil his own anger),
and, groaning that the deed has been snatched from him, like a gnashing lion,                    110
from whose mouth a tender lamb suddenly slips away,
he rouses arms against the whole flock and chews and drags
the soft herd—and the teeming mothers in trepidation call their pledges
in vain and fill the empty airs with bleatings—
not otherwise does Herod, goaded at Christ having been taken away,                    115
not cease, savage, to lay low crushed crowds with a slaughter of the little ones.
For what crime does the simple throng perish?

cur qui vixdum potuere creari
Iam meruere mori? furor est in rege cruento,
Non ratio; primosque necans vagitus et audens 120

why have those who had scarcely been able to be created
now deserved to die? madness is in the blood-stained king,
not reason; and, killing the earliest wailings, and daring 120

Innumerum patrare nefas puerilia mactat
Milia plangoremque dedit tot matribus unum.
Haec laceros crines nudato vertice rupit,
Illa genas secuit, nudum ferit altera pugnis
Pectus et infelix mater (nec iam modo mater) 125
Orba super gelidum frustra premit ubera natum.
Quis tibi tunc, lanio, cernenti talia sensus?

To perpetrate an immeasurable nefarious crime he slaughters infant thousands;
and he gave one lament to so many mothers.
This one, with her crown laid bare, tore her tattered hair,
that one cut her cheeks; another strikes with her fists her naked
breast; and the unlucky mother (and now no longer a mother), 125
bereft, in vain presses her breasts upon her icy son.
What feeling had you then, butcher, beholding such things?

Quosque dabas fremitus, cum vulnera fervere late
Prospiceres arce ex summa vastumque videres
Misceri ante oculos tantis plangoribus aequor?                    130
Extinctisque tamen quamvis infantibus absens
Praesens Christus erat, qui sancta pericula semper
Suscipit et poenas alieno in corpore sentit.
     Ast ubi bis senos aetatis contigit annos,
Hoc spatium de carne trahens, aevique meatus                    135

What rumblings were you giving, when you looked out from the topmost citadel and saw the wounds seething far and wide, and saw the vast sea
to be mingled before your eyes with such great lamentations?                    130
Although the infants were extinguished, yet, though absent,
Christ was present, who always undertakes sacred perils
and feels the penalties in another’s body.
     But when he reached twice six years of age,
drawing this span from the flesh, and the courses of lifetime,                    135

Humana pro parte tulit, senioribus esse
Corde videbatur senior legisque magistros
Inter ut emeritus residebat iure magister.
     Nec mora (quas etenim volitans per tempora mundus
Novit habere moras?) usus maiore iuventa,                    140
Sex quasi lustra gerens placidam Iordanis ad undam
Venit ut acciperet hoc, quod dare venerat ipse.
     Hunc Baptista potens ut vidit ab amne Iohannes,
Quem matris dum ventre latet nondumque creatus
Senserat obstruso iam tunc sermone prophetes                    145
Ut muto genitore fluens, cui munera linguae
Post noni taciturna diu spiramina mensis
Parto redduntur nato, mox praedicat: agnus
Ecce Dei veniens peccatum tollere mundi.

He bore on the human side; to the elders he seemed elder in heart, and among the masters of the law he sat as by right an emeritus magister.
No delay (for what delays, indeed, does the world, flitting through the seasons, know how to have?) making use of fuller youth, 140
bearing, as it were, six lustra, he came to the placid wave of the Jordan to receive this which he himself had come to give.
Him the mighty Baptist John, when he saw from the river—him whom, while he lay hidden in his mother’s womb and was not yet created, the prophet had even then sensed with speech obstructed, as one issuing from a mute begetter, to whom the gifts of the tongue, after the long breathings of the ninth month, are restored upon the child being born—soon proclaims: Behold the Lamb of God coming to take away the sin of the world.145

Tollere cum dicit, quod non habet, hoc mihi tollit: 150

When he says "to take away," what he does not have, this he takes away for me: 150

Non mala ut ipse gerat, sed ut ipse nocentia perdat.
     Qualiter in medias cum lux praeclara tenebras
Funditur et proprium non obfuscata serenum
Decutit expulsas inlaesis vultibus umbras,
Sic delicta fugans Salvator nostra gerendo                    155
Tersit et adactu procul evanescere iussit.
     Tunc vada torrentum simplex ingressus aquarum,
In se cuncta lavat nostrae contagia vitae
Ipse nihil quod perdat habens, sanctoque liquentes
Corpore mundavit latices famamque beavit                    160
Gurgitis et propriis sacravit flumina membris.

Not that he himself bear evils, but that he himself destroy the harmful things.
     Just as, when into the midst of darkness a very bright light
is poured forth and, with its own serene brightness not obfuscated,
it shakes off the expelled shadows from faces uninjured,
thus, putting sins to flight, the Savior, by bearing our [things],                    155
wiped them and by a driving thrust ordered them to vanish far away.
     Then, having simply entered the shallows of the rushing waters,
he washes in himself all the contagions of our life,
he himself having nothing that he might lose; and with his holy
body he cleansed the liquid waters and made blessed the repute of the flood,                    160
and he consecrated the rivers with his own members.

Senserunt elementa Deum, mare fugit, et ipse
Iordanis refluas cursum convertit in undas.
Namque propheta canens: quidnam est, mare, quod fugis, inquit
Et tu, Iordanis, retro quia subtrahis amnem? 165

The elements sensed God, the sea fled, and the Jordan itself
turned its course into back-flowing waves.
For the prophet, singing, says: ‘What is it, sea, that you flee,’
‘and you, Jordan, why do you withdraw your stream backward?’ 165

     Ergo ubi flumineum post mystica dona lavacrum
Egrediens siccas Dominus calcavit harenas,
Confestim patuere poli, sanctusque columbae
Spiritus in specie Christum vestivit honore
Mansuetumque docet multumque incedere mitem                    170
Per volucrem quae felle caret, Natoque vocato
Voce Patris triplici Deus ex ratione probatur,
Quod Pater et Natus, quod Spiritus est ibi sanctus,
Quo manet indignus qui non numeraverit unum.
     Inde quater denis iam noctibus atque diebus                    175
Ieiunum dapibus, sacro Spiramine plenum
Insidiis temptator adit doctusque per artem
Fallaces offerre dapes: si filius, inquit,
Cerneris esse Dei, dic ut lapis iste repente
In panis vertatur opem, miracula tamquam                    180

     Therefore when, after the mystic gifts, the riverine bath,
going out the Lord trod the dry sands,
immediately the heavens lay open, and the holy Spirit
in the appearance of a dove clothed Christ with honor,
and teaches him to advance gentle and very meek through the bird                    170
which lacks gall; and with the Son called
by the threefold voice of the Father, God is proved by reason,
namely that there are the Father and the Son, that there is the Holy Spirit there—
whereby he remains unworthy who has not counted the One.
     Thence, now for forty nights and days,                    175
fasting from banquets, full of the sacred Breath,
the tempter approaches with snares and, skilled by art,
to offer deceptive viands: “if you are seen,” he says,
“to be the Son of God, tell this stone forthwith
to be turned into bread for aid,” as though miracles                    180

Haec eadem non semper agat, qui saxea terrae
Viscera frugiferis animans fecundat aristis
Et panem de caute creat. — Hac ergo repulsus
Voce prius hominem non solo vivere pane
Sed cuncto sermone Dei, labefactus et amens,                    185
Altera vipereis instaurans arma venenis
Cum Domino montana petit cunctasque per orbem
Regnorum monstravit opes: haec omnia, dicens,
Me tribuente feres, si me prostratus adores,
Quantum perversus, tantum perversa locutus:                    190
Scilicet ut fragilis regna adfectaret honoris
Qui populis aeterna parat, monstrumque nefandum
Pronus adoraret, cuius super aethera sedes,
Terra pedum locus est, quem nullus cernit et omnis
Laudat in excelsis submissa voce potestas.                    195

Let Him not always be doing these same things, He who, animating the rocky
bowels of the earth with fruit-bearing ears, makes them fecund,
and creates bread from the crag. — Thus, repulsed by this
voice first, that man does not live by bread alone
but by every word of God, undermined and out of his wits,                    185
renewing other weapons with viperous poisons
he makes for the mountain-heights with the Lord and showed the opulence
of all the kingdoms throughout the orb: all these things, he says,
you will receive, with me bestowing, if prostrate you adore me —
in proportion as he was perverted, so pervertedly did he speak:                     190
as though He would aspire to the kingdoms of brittle honor
who prepares eternal things for peoples, and, bent low, would adore
the unspeakable monster — of Him whose seat is above the aether,
the earth is the place of His feet, whom no one beholds and every
power praises on high with submissive voice.                    195

Christus ad haec: tantum Dominum scriptura Deumque
Iussit adorari et soli famularier uni.
     His quoque deficiens congressibus audet iniquus
Ter sese adtollens animo perstare superbo,
Terque volutus humo fragili confidere bello.                    200
     Tunc adsumpsit eum sanctam sceleratus in urbem,
Et statuens alti supra fastigia templi:
Si natum genitore Deo tete adseris, inquit,
Inpiger e summo dilapsus labere tecto.
Nam scriptura docet de te mandasse Tonantem,                    205
Angelicis subvectus eas ut tutior ulnis,
Ad lapidem ne forte pedem conlidere possis.

Christ to these: Scripture has commanded that only the Lord and God
be adored, and that service be rendered to the one only.
     Failing also in these encounters, the iniquitous one dares,
thrice lifting himself, to persist with a proud mind,
and thrice, rolled on the fragile soil, to confide in a brittle battle.                    200
     Then the wicked one took him up into the holy city,
and, setting him above the roof-ridges of the lofty temple, said:
If you assert yourself, by Father God, to be the Son, he says,
unlagging, glide down, dropping from the highest roof.
For Scripture teaches that the Thunderer has commanded concerning you,                    205
that, borne up on angelic arms, you may go safer,
lest by chance you collide your foot against a stone.

O quam caeca gerit nigro sub pectore corda
Mens tenebris obscura suis! hunc ardua templi
Culmina et erectae quamvis fastigia pinnae 210

O how blind hearts beneath a black breast it bears
the mind, obscure with its own darkness! him the steep summits of the temple
and the gable-tops of the upraised pinnacle, although 210

Credidit in praeceps horrescere, maxima summi
Curvavit qui membra poli caelosque per omnes
Vectus in extremae discendit humillima terrae,
Inferiora petens et non excelsa relinquens.
     Dixerat, et validi confossus cuspide verbi,                    215
Quod temptare suum Dominumque Deumque nequiret,
Victoris fugit ora gemens. tunc hoste repulso
Caelicolae adsistunt proceres coetusque micantes,
Angelici Christo famulantur rite ministri.
     Protinus ergo viros ex piscatoribus aptos                    220
Humanas piscari animas, quae lubrica mundi
Gaudia sectantes tamquam vaga caerula ponti
Caecaque praecipites tranant incerta profundi,
Discipulos iubet esse suos talesque supernae
Conciliat vitae, quos non ventosa loquendi                    225

He believed that he would shudder at a headlong plunge—the One who has bent the vast limbs of the highest pole and, borne through all the heavens, descended to the most lowly places of the farthest earth,
seeking the lower things and not relinquishing the lofty.
     He had spoken, and, pierced by the spear-point of the mighty Word,                    215
that he could not tempt his own Lord and God,
he flees the face of the Victor, groaning. Then, with the foe repulsed,
the celestial nobles stand by and the glittering companies,
angelic ministers duly serve Christ.
     Forthwith therefore men from among fishermen, fit                    220
to fish human souls—who, pursuing the slippery joys of the world,
like the wandering cerulean expanses of the sea,
blind and headlong, swim through the uncertainties of the deep—
he bids to be his disciples, and such men he reconciles to the supernal
life, whom not the windy art of speaking                    225

Gloria nec vana de nobilitate superbus
Sanguis alat sed fama tacens, humilique refulgens
Mente nitor caelo faciat de plebe propinquos.
Namque stulta potens elegit et infima mundi
Fortia confringens Deus et sapientia perdens.                    230
     Quin etiam celerem cupiens conferre salutem
Orandi praecepta dedit, iudexque benignus
Indulgenda peti breviter iubet, ut cito praestet,
Sic dicens: orate patrem, baptismate nostrum,
Iure suum; propriumque homini concessit honorem                    235
Et quod solus habet cunctos permisit habere.
     Qui dominum caeli patrem memoramus, in ipso
Iam fratres nos esse decet nec origine carnis
Germanum tractare odium, sed spiritus igne
Flagrantes abolere doli monumenta vetusti                    240

Let not proud blood feed vain glory about nobility,
but let silent fame, and, shining with a humble mind,
splendor make from the common people those near to heaven.
For the Mighty chose the foolish and the lowest of the world,
God, shattering the strong and destroying sapience.                    230
     Moreover, wishing to bestow swift salvation,
he gave precepts of praying, and the benign judge
bids that things to be forgiven be asked briefly, that he may grant quickly,
thus saying: pray, “our Father,” by our baptism, his by right;
and he granted to man a proper honor,                    235
and he permitted all to have what he alone possesses.
     We who call to mind the Lord of heaven as Father, in him
it befits us already to be brothers, and not, from the origin of flesh,
to cultivate brotherly hatred, but, blazing with the fire of the Spirit,
to abolish the monuments of ancient guile.                    240

Atque novum gestare hominem, ne forsan ab alto
Degenerent terrena Deo, cui nos duce Christo
Fecit adoptivos caelestis gratia natos.
     Sanctificetur ubi Dominus, qui cuncta creando
Sanctificat, nisi corde pio, nisi pectore casto?                    245
Ut mereamur eum nos sanctificare colendo,
Annuit, ipse prior, sicut benedicier idem
Se iubet a nobis, a quo benedicimur omnes.
     Adveniat regnum iam iamque scilicet illud,
Morte vacans et fine carens, cui nulla per aevum                    250
Tempora succedunt, quia nescit tempus habere
Continuus sine nocte dies: ubi principe Christo
Nobile perpetua caput amplectente corona
Victor opima ferens gaudebit praemia miles.

And to bear the new man, lest perhaps earthly things degenerate away from the High God, for whom, with Christ as leader, heavenly grace has made us adoptive sons.
Where is the Lord to be hallowed, he who by creating sanctifies all things, if not in a pious heart, if not in a chaste breast? 245
That we may merit to sanctify him by worshiping, he himself first grants, just as the same bids himself to be blessed by us, by whom we all are blessed.
May that kingdom now, now indeed come, void of death and lacking an end, to which through the age no seasons succeed, because an unbroken day without night knows not to have time,
where, with Christ as prince, the soldier, bearing rich spoils, will rejoice in the prizes, his noble head embraced by a perpetual crown.

Hoc iugibus votis, hoc nocte dieque precemur, 255

For this with continual vows, for this let us pray by night and by day, 255

Illius ut fiat caelo terraque voluntas,
Qui nusquam vult esse nefas hostemque nocentem
Utque polo sic pellat humo, ne corpora nostra
Tamquam vile solum saevus sibi vindicet hydrus;
Sed qui cuncta fovet plena pietate redundans                    260
Omnipotens animas pariter conservet et artus:
Altera pars etenim caeli sumus, altera terrae.
     Annonam fidei speramus pane diurno,
Ne mens nostra famem doctrinae sentiat umquam
A Christo ieiuna, suo qui corpore et ore                    265
Nos saturat simul ipse manens verbumque cibusque.
Dulcia nam Domini nostris in faucibus haerent
Eloquia exuperantque favos atque omnia mella.
     Debita laxari qui nobis cuncta rogamus,
Nos quoque laxemus; proprii nam cautio verbi                    270

That his will may be done in heaven and on earth,
who wills that nowhere there be nefarious wrong and a nocent enemy,
and as from the pole so may he drive it from the ground, lest our bodies
a savage hydrus claim for himself as a vile soil;
but may he who cherishes all things, overflowing with full piety,                    260
the Omnipotent, preserve souls and limbs alike:
for we are one part of heaven, another of earth.
     We hope for the grain-allotment of faith by the daily bread,
lest our mind ever feel a hunger of doctrine,
fasting from Christ, who with his body and with his mouth                    265
at once, he himself remaining, feeds us both as Word and as food.
For the sweet utterances of the Lord cling upon our throats
and surpass honeycombs and all honeys.
     We who ask that all debts be remitted to us,
let us also remit; for the surety of the very word                    270

Spondentes manifesta tenet, gravisque soluti
Nectimur alterius si solvere vincla negemus:
Incipietque pius decies millena talenta
Dimittens Dominus, si nos adfligere propter
Denarios centum conservum senserit ullum,                    275
Tradere confestim tortoribus, inque feroci
Carcere constricti non permittemur abire,
Donec cuncta brevem reddamus adusque quadrantem.
     Non quia nos Dominus, lucis via, semita pacis,
In laqueos temptantis agat, sed cum mala nostra                    280
Deserit, ire sinit. nam quisquis retia mundi
Deliciosa sequens luxus et gaudia blandae
Perditionis amat, Deus hunc, virtutis amator,
Linquit, et ingreditur qua se temptatio ducit.
Ab hac ergo pedem retro faciamus et artum                    285

Sponsors are clearly held, and, though loosed, we are gravely bound
if we refuse to unfasten another’s bonds:
and the pious Lord, dismissing ten thousand talents,
will begin, if he shall have perceived that any fellow-servant is being afflicted by us
on account of a hundred denarii,                    275
to hand [us] over forthwith to the torturers, and, bound in a fierce
prison, we shall not be permitted to depart,
until we render everything, down to the tiny quadrans.
     Not because the Lord, the way of light, the path of peace,
drives us into the snares of the tempter, but when our evils he leaves alone,                    280
he allows us to go. For whoever, following the delectable nets of the world,
loves the luxuries and joys of flattering perdition, God, a lover of virtue,
leaves him, and he enters where temptation leads him.
Therefore from this let us draw back our foot and the strait                    285

Corde petamus iter, tenuis qua semita monstrat
Ire per angustam regna ad caelestia portam.
Si cupimus vitare malum, debemus adire
Sectarique bonum: hic quia liberat, ille trucidat;
Hic alit, ille necat. nam quantum sidera terris, 290
Ignis aquis, lumen tenebris, concordia bellis,
Vita sepulturis, tantum bona longius absunt
Dissociata malis.

With the heart let us seek the way, where the slender footpath shows
to go through the narrow gate to the heavenly realms.
If we desire to avoid evil, we ought to approach
and to follow the good: this one frees, that one butchers;
this one nourishes, that one kills. For as much as the stars from the earth, 290
fire from waters, light from darkness, concord from wars,
life from burials, so far are goods removed,
dissociated from evils.

dextrum quicumque necesse est
Aut laevum gradiatur iter. sed dextra bonorum
Semita conspicuos vocat in sua gaudia iustos 295
Inque tuos, patriarcha, sinus: at laeva malorum
Exercet poenas et ad impia tartara mittit.
Ergo agnis ovibusque Dei est haec sola voluntas
Et bona libertas: evadere torva cruenti
Ora lupi vitaque frui per pascua Christi. 300

whoever must go the right-hand path
or the left-hand path. But the right-hand footpath of the good
calls the conspicuous just into its own joys, 295
and into your bosom, patriarch; but the left of the wicked
inflicts penalties and sends to impious Tartarus.
Therefore for the lambs and sheep of God this is the sole will
and good liberty: to escape the grim, blood-stained
jaws of the wolf and to enjoy life through the pastures of Christ. 300