Sedulius: CARMEN PASCHALE

Primus suae Dominus thalamis dignatus adesse
Virtutis documenta dedit convivaque praesens
Pascere, non pasci veniens, mirabile! fusas
In vinum convertit aquas: amittere gaudent
Pallorem latices, mutavit laeta saporem 5
Unda suum largita merum, mensasque per omnes
Dulcia non nato rubuerunt pocula musto.
Implecit sex ergo lacus hoc nectare Christus:
Quippe ferax qui vitis erat virtute colona
Omnia fructificans, cuius sub tegmine blando 10
Mitis inocciduas enutrit pampinus uvas.

First the Lord deigned to be present at bridal chambers of his own,
he gave proofs of his Virtue, and present as a guest,
coming to feed, not to be fed—wonderful! he converted the poured-out
waters into wine: the waters rejoice to lose
their pallor, the glad wave changed its flavor, 5
having bestowed its pure wine, and over all the tables
the sweet cups blushed red, not with newborn must.
Therefore Christ filled six basins with this nectar:
for he was the vine’s cultivator by virtue, fruitful,
making all things bear fruit, beneath whose gentle covering 10
the mild tendril nourishes unfading grapes.

Post regulus nato quidam moriente rogabat
Flebilis et supplex Dominum, quo viseret aegrum
Febre laborantem puerum trepidamque vetaret
Labi animam de sede sua. tunc larga potestas, 15

Afterward a certain ruler, his son dying, was asking
tearful and suppliant, the Lord to visit the sick
boy laboring with fever, and to forbid the trembling soul
to slip from its seat. Then the bountiful power, 15

Credenti quae nulla negat nec dona retardat,
Velocem comitata fidem, sermone salutem
Concedens facili: vivit iam filius, inquit,
Perge, tuus. quantum imperii fert iussio Christi!
Non dixit 'victurus erit' sed 'iam quia vivit' 20
More Dei, qui cuncta prius quam nata videndo
Praeteritum cernit quidquid vult esse futurum.

To the believer—who denies nothing nor withholds gifts—accompanied by swift faith, conceding salvation with an easy word: 'already your son lives,' he says, 'go, yours.' How much imperium the injunction of Christ bears! He did not say 'he will live' but 'now because he lives' 20
in the manner of God, who, by seeing all things before they are born, discerns as past whatever he wills to be future.

     Inde salutiferis incedens gressibus urbes,
Oppida, rura, casas, vicos, castella peragrans,
Omnia depulsis sanabat corpora morbis.                    25
     Ecce autem mediae clamans ex agmine turbae
Leprosus poscebat opem variosque per artus
Plus candore miser: si vis, Domine, inquit, ab istis
Me maculis mundare, potes. 'volo' Christus ut inquit,
Confestim redit una cutis proprioque decore                    30

     Thence, advancing with salutiferous steps, traversing cities,
towns, fields, cottages, villages, strongholds,
he was healing all bodies, the diseases having been driven away.                    25
     Behold, however, a leper, crying out from the midst of the thronging band,
was asking for help, more pitiable by the whiteness across his various limbs:
'If you will, Lord,' he says, 'you can cleanse me from these
stains.' 'I will,' Christ says; immediately the skin returns whole and with its own comeliness.                    30

Laeta peregrinam mutarunt membra figuram,
Inque suo magis est vix agnitus ille colore.
Forte Petri validae torrebat lampadis aestu
Febris anhela socrum, dubioque in funere pendens
Saucia sub gelidis ardebat vita periclis, 35
Inmensusque calor frigus letale coquebat.
At posquam fessos Domini manus adtigit artus,
Igneus ardor abiit, totisque extincta medullis
Fonte latentis aquae cecidit violentia flammae.

Joyful, the limbs changed their foreign figure,
and, more in his own color, he was scarcely recognized.
By chance, with the heat of a mighty torch,
a panting fever was scorching Peter’s mother-in-law, hanging upon a doubtful funeral;
her wounded life was burning under icy perils, 35
and the immeasurable heat was cooking deadly cold.
But when the hand of the Lord touched the weary limbs,
the fiery ardor departed, and, with all the marrows quenched,
by the fountain of hidden water the violence of the flame fell.

Quin etiam rabidas nigrorum depulit iras 40
Spirituum, ne flatus atrox laceraret iniqua
Peste homines operisque Dei vexaret honorem,
Quem norat non esse Dei; passimque catervas
Ut pius innumeras pulso languore saluti
Reddidit et varia populos a clade levavit. 45

Nay even he drove away the rabid wraths of the black Spirits, 40
of the Spirits, lest the atrocious breath might lacerate men with unjust
pestilence and vex the honor of the work of God,
a breath which he knew was not of God; and everywhere the crowds
as a pious one he restored innumerable, with languor driven back, to health, and he lifted peoples from diverse disaster. 45

     Inde marina petens arentes gressibus algas
Pressit, et exiguae conscendens robora cumbae
Aequoreas intravit aquas; Dominumque sequentes
Discipuli placido librabant carbasa ponto.
Iam procul a terris fuerat ratis actaque flabris                    50
Sulcabat medium puppis secura profundum,
Cum subito fera surgit hiems pelagusque procellis
Vertitur et trepidam quatiunt vada salsa carinam.
Perculerat formido animos, seseque putabant
Naufraga litoreis iam tendere brachia saxis.                    55
Ipse autem placidum carpebat pectore somnum,
Maiestate vigil, quia non dormitat in aevum,
Qui regit Israhel neque prorsus dormiet umquam.

     Thence, seeking the sea, he pressed with his steps the parched seaweeds,
and, mounting the stout timbers of a small skiff,
he entered the sea-waters; and the Disciples, following the Lord,
balanced the canvas upon the placid deep.
Now the craft had been far from the lands, and driven by blasts,                    50
the stern, secure, was furrowing the mid-deep,
when suddenly a wild storm rises, and the sea is turned by squalls,
and the salt shallows shake the trembling keel.
Dread had struck down their spirits, and they thought
that, already shipwrecked, they were stretching their arms to the shore-rocks.                    55
But he himself was taking peaceful sleep in his breast,
wakeful in Majesty, for he does not slumber forever,
who rules Israel, nor will he ever sleep at all.

Ergo ubi pulsa quies cunctis lacrimantibus una
Voce simul 'miserere citus, miserere, perimus, 60

Therefore, when sleep was driven away, as all, weeping, with one voice at once, cried: 'have mercy quickly, have mercy, we are perishing,' 60

Auxilio succurre pio', nil vota moratus,
Exurgens Dominus validis mitescere ventis
Imperat et dicto citius tumida aequora placat.
Non erat illa feri pugnax audacia ponti,
In Dominum tumidas quae surgere cogeret undas,                    65
Nec metuenda truces agitabant flamina vires:
Sed laetum exiliens Christo mare conpulit imum
Obsequio fervere fretum, rapidoque volatu
Moverunt avidas ventorum gaudia pinnas.
     Interea placido transvectus marmore puppem                    70
Liquerat et medios lustrabat passibus agros,
Cum procul e tumulis gemino stridore ruentes
Prosiluere viri, quos non mala daemone pauco
Sed legio vexabat atrox, nexuque cruento
Saeva catenatis gestantes vincla lacertis                    75

'With pious aid, succor [us],' not having delayed the petitions,
rising up the Lord bids the strong winds to grow mild
and, faster than the word, he placates the swollen waters.
It was not the pugnacious audacity of the fierce sea
that would compel billows to rise swollen against the Lord,                    65
nor did the truculent blasts drive forces to be feared:
but the sea, leaping elate for Christ, drove its very depths,
made the flood to seethe in obedience, and with rapid flight
the joys of the winds set eager pinions in motion.
     Meanwhile, borne across the placid marble, he had left the ship                    70
and was traversing the midmost fields with his steps,
when, far off, out of the tombs, rushing with twin screech,
there sprang forth two men, whom not by a petty evil demon
but a fierce Legion tormented; and with a bloody bond,
savage, bearing chains on arms enchained with fetters.                    75

Angebat quoque poena duplex. heu dura furoris
Condicio! qui vim patitur magis ille ligatur.

A double penalty also was tormenting. alas, harsh Condition of fury!
He who suffers violence, that man is bound the more.

Tunc Domini praecepta tremens exire iubentis,
Spiritus infelix hominem non audet adire,
Effigiem reddit quam Christum cernit habere:                    80
Sed pecus, inmunda gaudens lue, semper amicum
Sordibus atque olido consuetum vivere caeno
Pro meritis petiere suis tristesque phalanges
Porcinum tenuere gregem: niger, hispidus, horrens
Talem quippe domum dignus fuit hospes habere.                    85
     Hinc alias Dominus pelago dilatus in oras,
Intravit natale solum, quo corpore nasci
Se voluit patriamque sibi pater ipse dicavit.
Ecce aderant vivum portantes iamque cadaver
Bis bina cervice viri lectoque cubantem                    90

Then, trembling at the Lord’s precepts bidding it to go out,
the unlucky spirit does not dare to approach the man;
it gives back the effigy which it perceives Christ to possess:                    80
But the herd, rejoicing in unclean lues, always friendly
to filth and accustomed to live in reeking mud,
the grim phalanges sought according to their deserts and seized
the porcine flock: black, bristly, horrent—
such indeed a house was a worthy host to have.                    85
     From here the Lord, carried over the sea to other shores,
entered his natal soil, where in body to be born
he willed, and the Father himself consecrated as his fatherland.
Lo, there were present men carrying a living and now already corpse
with twice-two necks, and him reclining on a couch (litter).                    90

Vix hominem, cui vita manens sine corporis usu
Mortis imago fuit, resolutaque membra iacebant
Officiis deserta suis, fluxosque per artus
Languida dimissis pendebant vincula nervis.
Hunc ubi virtutum Dominus conspexit egentem 95
Robore, peccatis primum mundavit ademptis,
Quae generant augmenta malis miseroque iacenti:
Surge, ait, et proprium scapulis adtolle grabatum,
Inque tuam discede domum. nil iussa moratus,
Cui fuerat concessa salus, vestigia linquens 100
Tandem aliena suis laetatur vadere plantis
Vectoremque suum grata mercede revexit.

Scarcely a man, for whom life, remaining without the use of the body,
was an image of death, and the loosened limbs were lying,
deserted of their functions, and through his lax joints
slack bonds were hanging, the nerves let go.
When the Lord of powers saw this one, lacking strength, 95
he first cleansed him, with sins removed,
which generate augmentations for ills for the wretch lying there:
Rise, he says, and hoist your own pallet upon your shoulders,
and depart into your home. Not at all delaying the commands,
to whom salvation had been granted, leaving footprints, 100
at last he rejoices to go with his own soles instead of another’s,
and bore back his bearer with grateful recompense.

Principis interea synagogae filia clauso
Functa die superas moriens amiserat auras.
At genitor, cui finis edax spem prolis adultae 105

Meanwhile, the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, her day closed,
dying had lost the upper airs.
But the father, for whom the devouring end had consumed the hope of his grown progeny 105

Sustulerat, sanctos Domini lacrimansque gemensque
Conruit ante pedes, vix verba precantia fari
Singultu quatiente valens, 'miserere parentis
Orbati, miserere senis, modo filia' dicens
'Unica virgineis nec adhuc matura sub annis                    110
Occidit et misero patris mihi nomen ademit.
Adfer opem lapsamque animam per membra refunde,
Qui totum praestare potes.' haec inquit: et auctor
Lucis ad extinctae pergebat funera gressum
Vix populo stipante movens, permixtaque turbis                    115
Ibat inundantem mulier perpessa cruorem,
Quae magnas tenuarat opes, ut sanior esset,
Exhaustaque domu nec proficiente medella
Perdiderat proprium pariter cum sanguine censum.
Ast ubi credentis iam sano in pectore coepit                    120

Sustulerat, and weeping and groaning he collapsed before the holy feet of the Lord, scarcely able to utter praying words, shaken by sobbing, saying, 'have mercy on a bereft parent, have mercy on an old man; just now my only daughter, not yet mature within maiden years,                    110
has died and has taken from me the name of father. Bring aid and pour back the slipping soul through her limbs, you who can furnish the whole.' He said these things: and the author of light was advancing his step to the obsequies of the extinguished, scarcely moving with the people pressing around, and, mingled with the throngs,                    115
there went a woman who had suffered an inundating flow of blood, who had attenuated great resources that she might be sounder, and, the house exhausted and the remedy not making progress, had lost her very estate together with her blood alike. But when in the sound breast of the believing woman there now began                    120

Dives adesse fides, mediis inmersa catervis
Nititur aversi vel filum tangere Christi.
Posteriusque latens subitam furata salutem
Extrema de veste rapit siccisque fluentis
Damnavit patulas audax fiducia venas.                    125
Senserat ista Deus, cuius de fonte cucurrit
Quod virtus secreta dedit, furtumque fidele
Laudat et egregiae tribuit sua vota rapinae.
     Ventum erat ad maesti lugentia culmina tecti
Deflentemque domum, moriens ubi virgo iacebat                    130
Extremum sortita diem, trepidusque tumultus
Omnia lamentis ululans implebat amaris,
Funereosque modos cantu lacrimante gemebant
Tibicines, plangorque frequens confuderat aedes.

A rich faith was present, immersed in the midst of the throngs,
she strives to touch even the thread of Christ turned away.
And, hiding from behind, having stolen sudden healing,
she snatches from the edge of the garment, and with the streams dried
bold confidence condemned the gaping veins.                    125
God had sensed these things, from whose fount there ran
what the secret virtue gave; and he praises the faithful theft
and grants his boons to the remarkable seizure.
     They had come to the lamenting gables of the sad roof
and the house that was weeping, where the maiden lay dying,                    130
having drawn her final day; and a trembling tumult,
howling with laments, was filling everything with bitter wailings,
and the flute-players were moaning funeral measures with weeping song,
and frequent beating and wailing had thrown the house into confusion.

Ponite sollicita conceptos mente dolores, 135

Lay aside the anxious pains conceived in the mind, 135

Hic sopor est, Salvator ait, nec funus adesse
Credite, nec somno positam lugete puellam.
Dixerat et gelida constrictum morte cadaver
Spiritus igne fovet, verboque inmobile corpus
Suscitat atque semel genitam bis vivere praestat.                    140
Obstipuere animis, inopinaque vota parentes
Aspiciunt versisque modis per gaudia plangunt.
     Inde pedem referens duo conspicit ecce sequentes
Caecatos clamare viros: fili inclite David,
Decute nocturnas extinctis vultibus umbras                    145
Et clarum largire diem.

This is sleep, the Savior says; believe that there is no funeral present, nor lament the girl laid in sleep.
He had spoken, and the Spirit warms with fire the corpse constricted by icy death, and by a word he rouses the motionless body and grants that she who was once begotten live twice.                    140
They were astounded in spirit, and the parents behold unexpected vows fulfilled, and with modes reversed they lament through joys.
     Then, turning back his step, behold, he sees two men following, blind, crying out: illustrious son of David,
Shake off the nocturnal shades from faces extinguished of light,                    145
And grant bright day.

quam credere tutum,
Quam sanum est cognosse Deum! iam corde videbant
Qui lucis sensere viam; tunc caeca precantum
Lumina defuso ceu torpens ignis olivo
Sub Domini micuere manu, tactuque sereno 150

how safe it is to believe,
How healthful it is to have known God! now with the heart they were seeing
who sensed the way of light; then the blind
eyes of the praying, like a torpid fire with olive-oil poured out,
glittered beneath the Lord’s hand, and by a serene touch 150

Instaurata suis radiarunt ora lucernis.
His ita dimissis alius producitur aeger,
Multiplici languore miser, qui voce relictus,
Auditu vacuus, solo per inania membra
Daemone plenus erat. hunc protinus ordine sacro 155
Curavit versis Deus in contraria causis,
Daemonio vacuans, auditu et voce reformans.

Their faces, with their own lamps restored, radiated.
With these thus dismissed, another sick man is brought forward,
wretched with manifold languor, who, left without voice,
empty of hearing, was full of a demon alone throughout his hollow limbs.
This one straightway by sacred rite 155
God cured, the causes turned into their contraries,
emptying him of the demon, restoring him to hearing and voice.

     Nec minus interea proprios iubet omnia posse
Discipulos totisque simul virtutibus implens:
Ite, ait, et tristes morborum excludite pestes,                    160
Sed domus Israhel (quia necdum nomine gentes
Auxerat hoc omnes), caelorum dicite regnum,
Daemoniis auferte locum, depellite lepram
Functaque subductae revocate cadavera vitae:
Sumpsistis gratis, cunctis inpendite gratis.                    165

     Nor less meanwhile he bids that his own disciples be able to do all things
and, at once, he fills them with all powers:
Go, he says, and shut out the grim plagues of diseases,                    160
but the house of Israel (for he had not yet by this name
extended it to all the nations), announce the kingdom of the heavens,
take away place from the demons, drive away leprosy,
and recall to life the corpses withdrawn from life:
You have received gratis; expend gratis upon all.                    165

Ac velut hoc dicens: ego vobis quippe ministris
Servandos conmitto greges, ego denique pastor
Sum bonus et proprios ad victum largior agros:
Nemo meis ovibus quae sunt mea pascua vendat.
Haec in apostolicas ideo prius edidit aures                    170
Omnipotens, ut ab his iam sese auctore magistris
In reliquum doctrina fluens decurreret aevum:
Qualiter ex uno paradisi fonte leguntur
Quatuor ingentes procedere cursibus amnes,
Ex quibus in totum sparguntur flumina mundum.                    175
<Quisquis enim deitatis opus, quod non habet ex se
Sed Domino tradente gerit, sub nomine puro
Suscipiet, puro dispenset munere, possit
Ut dispensator non ut mercator haberi
Davidisque modis vitam cantare futuram:                    180

And as though saying this: I, indeed, to you ministers
I commit the flocks to be kept; I, in fine, am the good pastor
and I lavish my own fields for sustenance:
let no one sell to my sheep the pastures which are mine.
Therefore the Omnipotent first uttered these things into apostolic ears,                    170
so that from these teachers, with himself as author,
the doctrine, flowing, might run down through the remaining age:
just as from the one font of Paradise there are read
four huge rivers to proceed in their courses,
from which streams are scattered into the whole world.                    175
<For whoever will undertake the work of divinity, which he does not have from himself
but carries out with the Lord handing it over, under the pure Name,
let him dispense with a pure gift, so that he may be held
as a steward, not as a merchant, and in Davidic modes to sing the life to come:                    180

Intrabo in Domini requiem, quia nescio mercem.>
     Exin conspicuam synagogae ingressus in aulam,
Aspicit invalidum, dimenso corpore mancum,
Seminecem membris, non totum vivere, cuius
Arida torpentem damnarat dextera partem;                    185
Imperioque medens gelidam recalescere palmam
Praecepit et reduci divino more saluti,
Sicut semper agit, nil tollit et omnia reddit.
     En iterum veteres instaurans lubricus artes
Ille chelydrus adest, nigri qui felle veneni                    190
Lividus humano gaudet pinguescere tabo,
Quodque per alternos totiens disperserat aegros
Viros in unius progressus viscera fudit:
Cui vocem lumenque tulit, triplicique furore
Saucia membra tenens mutum quatiebat et orbum.                    195

I shall enter into the Lord’s rest, because I know not a wage.>
     Then, having entered the conspicuous hall of the synagogue,
he beholds an invalid, maimed in a body diminished,
half-dead in his limbs, not living in his whole, whose
dry right hand had condemned a part to torpor;                    185
and healing by his command he ordered the icy palm
to grow warm again and to be restored to health in divine fashion,
as he always does—he takes away nothing and gives back everything.
     Lo, again renewing his ancient arts,
that slippery chelydrus is present, who, livid with the black gall of poison,                    190
rejoices to grow fat on human gore;
and what he had so often scattered by turns among sick men
he poured into the entrails of one man in a single onslaught:
from whom he took voice and light, and with triple frenzy
holding the wounded limbs he was shaking him, mute and blind.                    195

Tunc Dominus mundi, lux nostra et sermo parentis,
Sordibus exclusis oculos atque ora novavit:
Verbaque per verbum, per lumen lumina surgunt.
     Venerat et mulier morbo contracta vetusto
Non senio, tremebunda, gemens, incurva, caducis                    200
Vultibus et solam dispectans cernua terram.
Quae Domino miserante iuges post octo decemque
Membra levat messes, caelumque ac sidera tandem
Cernit et ardentem solis reminiscitur orbem,
Totum erecta videns: quia quos malus opprimit hostis                    205
Ima petunt, quos Christus alit sine labe resurgunt.

Then the Lord of the world, our light and the Word of the Father,
with the filth expelled renewed eyes and mouths:
and words through the Word, by the light lights arise.
     And a woman had come, constrained by an ancient sickness
not by old age, trembling, groaning, bent, with drooping                    200
features, and bowed, gazing only at the ground.
Who, the Lord taking pity, after eighteen unbroken
harvests raises her limbs, and at last the sky and the stars
she perceives and recalls the burning orb of the sun,
seeing everything upright: because those whom the evil enemy oppresses                    205
seek the depths; those whom Christ nourishes, without stain, rise again.

Cumque dehinc populum sese in deserta secutum
Ut typicus Moyses verusque propheta videret
Antiquam sentire famem, maioribus actis
Antiquam monstravit opem. tunc alite multa 210

And when thereafter he saw the people who had followed him into the deserts
as the typical Moses and true prophet
to be feeling the ancient famine, with greater deeds accomplished
he showed the ancient aid. then with much fowl 210

Carnis opima dedit, geminis modo piscibus auxit;
Sufficiens tunc manna pluit, modo panibus amplum
Quinque dedit victum per milia quinque virorum.
Cetera turba latet, numero nec clauditur ullo
Maxima parvorum legio vel maxima matrum.                    215
Quodque magis stupeas, cophinos ablata replerunt
Fragmina bis senos, populisque vorantibus aucta
Quae redit a cunctis non est data copia mensis.
     Iamque senescentem calidi sub caerula ponti
Oceano rapiente diem, cum pallor adesset                    220
Noctis et astriferas induceret hesperus umbras,
Discipuli solo terris residente magistro
Undosum petiere salum, fluctuque tumenti
Torva laborantem iactabant aequora puppem;
Adversus nam flatus erat.

Carnal opulence he gave, and just now he augmented it with twin fishes;
Then sufficient manna he rained, and just now with loaves an ample
sustenance of five he gave for five thousand men.
The rest of the crowd is hidden, nor is it enclosed by any number—
the greatest legion of little ones or the greatest of mothers.                    215
And what makes you marvel more, the fragments taken up filled
twice six baskets, and, even as the peoples were devouring, the stores increased—
the abundance which returns from all is not the supply that was given to the tables.
     And now, the day aging beneath the blue of the warm sea,
as Ocean was snatching it away, when the pallor was present                    220
of Night and Hesperus was bringing in star-bearing shadows,
the disciples, with the master sitting alone on the land,
sought the wavy surge, and the grim waters with the swelling wave
were tossing the struggling ship; for the wind was adverse.

tunc noctis opacae 225

then of the dark night 225

Tempore calcatas Dominus superambulat undas
Et vasti premit arva freti, glaucisque fluentis
Circumfusa sacras lambebant marmora plantas.
Miratur stupefacta cohors sub calle pedestri
Navigeras patuisse vias: at Petrus amicam                    230
Doctus habere fidem Christumque agnoscere semper
In medias discendit aquas, quem dextra levavit
Labentem Domini, nil tanto in gurgite passum:
Cui portus fuit ille manus, pelagique viator
Libera per vitreos movit vestigia campos.                    235
     Genesar inde soli Domino veniente coloni
Infirmos traxere suos, ut fimbria saltim
Vix adtacta Dei morbis mederetur acerbis:
Et quotquot tetigere iugem sensere salutem.
Quam pretiosa fuit quae numquam vendita vestis,                    240

At that time the Lord walks over the trodden waves,
and he presses the fields of the vast strait, and with glaucous streams
the surrounding marbles were licking the sacred soles.
The astonished cohort marvels that, beneath a pedestrian path,
navigable ways had lain open: but Peter, taught to have friendly
faith and always to recognize Christ, goes down into the midst of the waters,
whom the right hand of the Lord lifted as he slipped, having suffered nothing in so great a whirlpool:
for whom that hand was a harbor, and the voyager of the sea
moved free footsteps across the glassy fields.                    235
     Thence the colonists of Gennesar, as the Lord was coming to land,
dragged their infirm, so that the fringe at least,
scarcely touched, of God might heal their bitter diseases:
and as many as touched felt perpetual health.
How precious was the garment that was never sold,                    240

Ipsa omnes modici redimebat munere fili!
     Hinc Tyrias partes Sidoniaque arva petentem
Anxia pro natae vitio, quam spiritus atris
Vexabat stimulis, mulier Chananaea rogabat,
Se canibus confessa parem, qui more sagaci                    245
Semper odoratae recubant ad limina mensae,
Adsueti refluas dominorum lambere micas.
Vox humilis, sed celsa fides, quae sospite nata
De cane fecit ovem gentisque in sentibus ortam
Conpulit Hebraei de gramine vescier agri.                    250
     Alta dehinc subiens montis iuga plebe sequente
Milia caecorum, claudorum milia passim
Leprososque simul populos surdasque catervas
Invalidasque manus et quidquid debile vulgi
Venerat, in priscum conponit motibus usum                    255

Itself was redeeming all by the gift of a modest thread of the cloth!
     Thence, as he was seeking the Tyrian parts and the Sidonian fields,
anxious on account of her daughter’s defect, whom a spirit with black
goads was vexing, a Canaanite woman was begging, confessing herself
a peer to the dogs, who in shrewd custom                    245
always lie by the thresholds of the fragrant table,
accustomed to lick the falling-back crumbs of their lords.
A humble voice, but a lofty faith, which, with the daughter safe,
made from a dog a sheep, and, sprung in the thickets of the Gentile race,
drove her to feed on the grass of the Hebrew field.                    250
     Then ascending the high ridges of the mountain, the crowd following,
thousands of blind, thousands of lame everywhere,
and at once leprous peoples and deaf cohorts
and feeble hands and whatever of the common crowd that was weak
had come, he restores to their pristine use by his motions.                    255

Et revocata suis adtempterat organa nervis.
     Dumque medens aegrum refovet virtute tumultum,
Tertia lux aderat, sterilique in cespite nullum
Contigerat plebs tanta cibum, nimiosque labores
Nutribat geminanda fames si saucia callem                    260
Turba per ingentem dapibus ieiuna rediret.
Qua flexus pietate Deus, qui semper egentum
Panis adest victumque locis sine frugibus infert,
Pisciculis paucis et septem panibus agmen
Pavit inorme virum, praeterque infirma secundi                    265
Sexus et aetatis saturavit quattuor illic
Milia vescentum.

And he had essayed the organs, recalled to their own nerves.
     And while, as healer, he re-comforts the ailing tumult by his power,
The third light was at hand, and upon the barren sod no
food had so great a crowd touched, and excessive labors
would be nourished by a hunger to be doubled, if the wounded crowd                    260
should return through the vast way, fasting from viands.
Whereat, moved by such piety, God, who always for the needy
is present as bread and brings victual in places without produce,
with a few little fishes and seven loaves the throng
of men enormous he fed, and, besides the weaker of the second                    265
sex and of age, he there satisfied four
thousand of those eating.

plus ut mireris, et auctas
Disce fuisse dapes, epulas nutrivit edendo
Vulgus, et adtritae creverunt morsibus escae.
Reliquiasque suas, sportarum culmina septem, 270

so that you may marvel the more, learn that the banquets had been augmented:
the crowd nourished the feasts by eating, and the viands, worn away by bites, grew.
And their leftovers, the summits of seven baskets, 270

Expavit fugitiva fames, ubi fragmine sumpto
Vidit abundantem modico de semine messem.
     Nec tamen humano quamvis in corpore Christum,
Matris ab occasu mortalia membra gerentem,
Clam fuit esse Deum, quia non absconditur umquam                    275
Urbs in monte sedens, modio nec subditur ardens
Lychnus, anhelantem sed spargens altius ignem
Cunctis lumen agit: radians nam testibus amplo
Discipulis fulgore tribus velut igneus ardor
Solis, in aetheriam versus splendore figuram,                    280
Vicerat ore diem, vestemque tuentibus ipsam
Candida forma nivis Domini de tegmine fulsit.
O meritum sublime trium, quibus illa videre
Contigit in mundo quae non sunt credita mundo!

Fugitive hunger took fright, when, with a fragment taken,
it saw an abundant harvest from a modest seed.
     Nor yet was it hidden that Christ, although in a human body,
bearing mortal limbs from the mother’s downfall,
was God; for a city sitting on a mountain is never hidden,                    275
nor is a burning lamp put under a bushel, but, breathing forth and scattering the fire higher,
it drives light for all: for, beaming to the witnesses,
the three disciples, with ample radiance, like the fiery ardor
of the sun, turned by splendor into an ethereal form,                    280
had outshone the day in countenance, and the very garment, to those beholding,
shone from the covering of the Lord with the white form of snow.
O sublime merit of the three, to whom it befell to see
those things in the world which are not believed by the world!

Quid quod et Heliam et clarum videre Moysen? 285

What of the fact that they saw both Elijah and the illustrious Moses? 285

Ignotos oculis viderunt lumine cordis,
Ut maior sit nostra fides: hunc esse per orbem
Principium ac finem, hunc [alpha] viderier, hunc [omega].
Quem medium tales circumfulsere prophetae,
Alter adhuc vivens, alter stans limite vitae.                    290
Sidereoque sono 'meus est hic Filius' aiens
Ostendit verbo genitum vox patria Christum.
     Posquam corporeos virtus regressa per artus
Texit adoratam carnis velamine formam,
Seque palam Dominus populis dedit: ecce repente                    295
Vir humilis maesto deiectus lumina vultu
Procedit supplexque manus et brachia tendit
Inploratque gemens: unus mihi filius, unus
Est, Domine; horrenda lacerat quem spiritus ira
Nec linquit, nisi mergat aquis aut ignibus atris                    300

They saw, unseen by the eyes, with the light of the heart,
so that our faith may be greater: that this one is, through the orb, the Beginning and the End, this one to appear [alpha], this one [omega].
Whom, in the midst, such prophets shone around,
the one still living, the other standing at the boundary of life.                    290
And with a sidereal sound saying 'this is my Son'
the fatherly voice showed Christ, the begotten, with a word.
     After the Power, having returned through the bodily limbs,
covered the adored form with the veil of flesh,
and the Lord gave himself openly to the peoples: behold, suddenly                    295
a humble man, his eyes cast down with a sad countenance,
comes forward and stretches forth suppliant hands and arms
and, groaning, implores: One son is mine, one
there is, Lord; whom a spirit’s horrendous wrath lacerates,
nor does it leave him, unless it plunge him into waters or dusky fires.                    300

Opprimat, atque animam dubia sub morte fatigat.
Hunc, precor, expulso miseratus utrumque furore
Redde mihi vel redde sibi, ne caeca potestas
Expellat trepidam subtracto lumine vitam.
Dixerat et genua amplectens genibusque volutans 305
Haerebat; Dominusque pio iam pectore votis
Adnuerat.

It oppresses, and fatigues the soul under dubious death.
This one, I pray, pitying us both, with the frenzy expelled,
restore to me or restore to himself, lest blind power
drive out the trembling life, the light withdrawn.
He had spoken, and, embracing the knees and rolling at the knees 305
he was clinging; and the Lord had now, with a pious heart, assented to the prayers.

tunc praedo furens ac noxius hostis,
Cui possessa diu est alieni fabrica iuris,
Pervasa migrare domo conpulsus, in iram
Tollitur accensam correptaque carpere membra                    310
Nititur et frustra Domino prohibente laborans
Fugit in obscuras puero vivente tenebras.
     Rex etiam solus regum et Dominus dominantum
Non dedignatus Petro piscante tributum
Solvere Caesareum, medii de gurgite ponti                    315

then the robber, raging, and the noxious enemy,
by whom the fabric of another’s right had long been possessed,
having been compelled to migrate from the house he had pervaded, is lifted into kindled
wrath and strives to pluck at the limbs he had seized,                    310
he strives, and laboring in vain with the Lord forbidding,
he flees into obscure darknesses, while the boy lives.
     Also the King, sole of kings, and the Lord of lords,
not having disdained, with Peter fishing, the tribute
to pay the Caesarean, from the mid-eddy of the sea’s gulf                    315

Hamum ferre iubet gerolum didragmatis aurei.
Incola mox pelagi pendentia fila momordit,
Iussa tributa ferens, graviorque onerante metallo
Vilis honor piscis pretio maiore pependit.
     Discipulisque suis se percontantibus, aulae                    320
Caelestis regni quis possit maior haberi:
Ut Deus et doctor mirabilis: omnibus, inquit,
Celsior est humilis cunctisque potentior ibit
Qui cunctis subiectus erit seseque minorem
Dimissa cervice feret, velut iste videtur                    325
Parvulus (et monstrat puerum consistere parvum);
Scilicet ingenium teneri sectemur ut aevi
Non annis, sed mente iubet, quia mollior aetas
Nil pompae mundalis amat, non ambit honorem,
Nec resupina tumet: sic purae semita vitae                    330

He bids the hook be borne, the bearer of a golden didrachm.
The inhabitant of the sea soon bit the hanging lines,
bearing the commanded tribute, and, heavier with the burdening metal,
the cheap honor of the fish hung at a greater price.
     And as his disciples were inquiring of him, of the hall                    320
of the celestial kingdom who might be able to be held greater:
As God and wondrous doctor: “He says, to all,
the humble is loftier and will go more powerful than all,
he who will be subject to all and will bear himself as lesser
with lowered neck, just as this little one appears                    325
little” (and he points out a small boy to stand);
surely he bids that we follow the disposition of a tender age
not in years, but in mind, since the softer age
loves nothing of worldly pomp, does not ambit honor,
nor swells resupine: thus the pathway of pure life                    330

Quantum prona solo, tantum fit proxima caelo.
Mens etenim vergens altum petit altaque vergit,
Inferiorque gradus quo vult discendere surgit.
Ecce humilem Dominus de stercore tollit egentem
Et facit egregios inter residere tyrannos: 355
At contra tumidum pugnaci mente rebellem
Praecipitem caelo sub tartara iussit abire.

By as much as it is prone to the soil, by so much it becomes nearest to heaven.
For the mind verging seeks the height and verges toward high things,
and the lower step rises, by which it wishes to descend.
Behold, the Lord lifts the humble needy man from the dunghill
and causes him to sit among eminent tyrants: 355
But, on the contrary, the swollen rebel with a pugnacious mind
he has commanded, headlong, to depart from heaven down beneath to Tartarus.

Parva loquor si facta Dei per singula curram
Et speciale bonum, cum sit generale revolvam.

I speak small things if I run through the deeds of God one by one,
and I would revolve as special a good, though it is general.