Sedulius: CARMEN PASCHALE

Iam placidas Iordanis item transgressus harenas,
Iudaeae sectatus iter: sine nomine mixtum
Vulgus, et innumeras relevans a clade catervas
Suscipit infirmos et dat discedere sanos.
Nil igitur summo de se sperantibus umquam                    5
Difficile est conferre Deo, cui prona facultas
Ardua planare et curva in directa referre;
Et quidquid natura negat se iudice praestat.
Namque foramen acus sicut penetrare camelus
Membrorum pro mole nequit, sic dives opima                    10
Fertilitate tumens tenuem non posset adire
Caelestis regni ducentem ad limina callem,
Ni genitor rerum, qui mundum lege cohercet
Et nulla sub lege manet, cui condere velle est
Quem frons nulla videt, sed totum conspicit ipse                    15

Now, having likewise crossed the placid sands of the Jordan,
pursuing the road of Judea: a crowd mingled without a name,
and, relieving countless companies from disaster,
he takes up the infirm and grants them to depart sound.
Therefore nothing is ever for those hoping from the Most High                    5
difficult to hand over to God, for whom the faculty lies ready
to plane the steep and to bring the curved back into straight lines;
and whatever nature denies, he, himself the judge, bestows.
For just as a camel cannot, by reason of the bulk of its members,
penetrate the eye of a needle, so a rich man, swelling with opulent                    10
fertility, could not approach the slender path leading to the thresholds
of the heavenly kingdom, unless the Begetter of things, who holds the world together by law
and himself remains under no law, for whom to will is to found,
whom no brow beholds, but he himself gazes upon the whole,                    15

'Hoc inpossibile est homini' dixisset, 'at alto
Possibile est ius omne Deo', multisque molestum
Divitibus tandem faceret mitescere censum.
Nam proprias bene tractas opes caeloque recondi
Thensauros vult ille suos, ubi quidquid habetur                    20
Non mordax aerugo vorat, non tinea sulcat,
Nec male defossum famulatur furibus aurum,
Ieiunis qui ferre cibum, sitientibus haustum,
Hospitibus tectum, nudis largitur amictum,
Solatur nexos in carcere, per fovet aegros,                    25
Atque aliis largus, sibi tantum constat egenus.
Nec dubie in caelum substantia pervenit illa,
Quae Christo conlata datur sub paupere forma,
Quae damnis augmenta capit, quae spargitur ut sit,
Quae perit ut maneat, quae vitam mortua praestat.                    30

'This is impossible for man,' he would have said, 'but to the High God all right is possible,' and for many rich men he would at length make the troublesome estate grow mild.
For he wants his own resources to be well handled and his treasures to be stored in heaven,
where whatever is possessed                    20
no biting rust devours, no moth plows,
nor does gold badly buried serve thieves,
he who bears food to the fasting, a draught to the thirsty,
gives a roof to guests, a garment to the naked,
consoles the bound in prison, fosters the sick through and through,                    25
and lavish to others, only to himself he proves needy.
And without doubt that substance makes its way into heaven,
which, conferred upon Christ, is given under a poor man’s form,
which takes augmentations by losses, which is scattered so that it may be,
which perishes so that it may remain, which, dead, bestows life.                    30

     Praeterea geminos Dominus considere caecos
Dum quoddam transiret iter comitante caterva
Conspicit, extinctae poscentes munera formae
Flebilibusque vagas implentes vocibus auras.
Nec cunctata solens pietas inferre salutem,                    35
Quae sentit flagrare fidem, mox lumina tangens
Evigilare iubet, quae somnus presserat ingens,
Atque diu clausas reserans sub fronte fenestras
Ingrediente die fecit discedere noctem.
     Hinc repetita sacri gradiens per moenia templi                    40
Lumina caecatis dedit et vestigia claudis.

     Moreover, the Lord sees twin blind men sitting,
while he was crossing a certain road with a company accompanying,
asking for the gifts of their extinguished sight,
and with plaintive voices filling the wandering airs.
Nor did the wonted piety, accustomed to bring salvation, delay,                    35
which, sensing faith to be aflame, soon, touching their lights (eyes),
bids to awaken those which a vast sleep had pressed,
and unbarring the windows long closed beneath the brow,
with day entering he made night depart.
     Hence, going on through the walls of the holy temple revisited,                    40
he gave light to the blinded and footsteps to the lame.

Talia Daviticam post facta reliquerat urbem
Bethaniae vicina petens, eademque reversus
Clarescente die properabat visere tecta.
Ecce autem mediis adstans sublimis in arvis 45

After such things had been done he had left the Davidic city,
seeking the places near Bethany, and returning to the same,
as the day grew bright he was hastening to visit the roofs.
Behold, moreover, standing lofty in the midst of the fields 45

Frondea ficus erat, cuius in robore nullum
Repperit esuriens lustrato stipite pomum;
Arboreisque comis 'iam nunc ex germine vestro
Nullus', ait, 'fructus reliquum generetur in aevum'.
Confestim viduata suis ficulnea sucis                    50
Aruit et siccis permansit mortua ramis
Omnis enim quicumque Deo nil fertile nutrit,
Ceu sterilis truncus lignis aequabitur ustis,
At iustus palmae similis florebit amoenae,
Semper habens frondes et tamquam Libana cedrus                    55
Multiplicandus adest et vertice sidera tanget.
     Post oblatus ei virtutem sensit erilem
Insanus sermone carens, quem faucibus artis
Angebat vis clausa mali, vitiumque tacendo
Prodiderat, sed cuncta solens infirma levare                    60

There was a leafy fig-tree, on whose trunk the hungry one,
with the stock inspected, found no fruit;
and to the tree-crowns: 'even now, from your germ
let no', he says, 'fruit be generated for the remainder of time.'
Forthwith the fig-tree, widowed of its own juices,                    50
withered, and remained dead with dry branches.
For everyone who nourishes nothing fertile for God,
like a barren trunk will be made equal to burned wood;
but the just man, like to the pleasant palm, will flourish,
always having leaves, and, like the Lebanon cedar,                    55
stands to be increased and will touch the stars with his top.
     Afterwards, one offered up to him felt the Master’s power—
a madman, lacking speech, whom in his strait throat
the enclosed force of evil was choking; and by keeping silence he had betrayed his defect—
but he, accustomed to lift all the infirm,                    60

Conditor obsessa pepulit de fauce latronem
Et voci patefecit iter nexuque soluto
Muta diu tacitas effudit lingua loquellas.
     Post Dominus Pharisaea petens convivia cenae
Orantis dapibus sese inpertivit amici.                    65
Tunc mulier, quam fama nocens et plurima vitae
Mordebant delicta suae, clementia supplex
Conruit amplectens vestigia, quaeque profusis
Inrigat incumbens lacrimis, et crine soluto
Nec tergere sacras nec cessat lambere plantas                    70
Unguento flagrante fovens, sententia donec
Lata Dei, quem ferre manum non paenitet umquam,
Si nos paeniteat veterem quaesisse ruinam,
'Vade, fides, mulier, tua te salvavit ab omni'
Dixisset', quodcumque mali gessisse videris:                    75

The Creator drove the robber from the besieged throat
and opened a path for the voice, and with the bond loosed
the tongue long mute poured forth little utterances once silent.
     Afterwards the Lord, seeking Pharisaic banquets of dinner,
imparted himself to the feast of a friend who was beseeching.                    65
Then a woman, whom a harmful report and the very many
offenses of her life were biting, as a suppliant for clemency
fell down, embracing his footsteps, and, leaning, she waters
them with outpoured tears, and with loosened hair
she does not cease to wipe nor to kiss the sacred soles,70
cherishing them with fragrant unguent, until the sentence
of God was given—of him whom it never repents to extend a hand,
if it repents us to have sought our ancient ruin—
“Go, woman; your faith has saved you from every [evil],”
he said, “whatever of evil you seem to have committed.”                    75

Utere pace mea'. magna est medicina fateri
Quod nocet abscondi, quoniam sua vulnera nutrit
Qui tegit et plagam trepidat nudare medenti.
En polluta diu, modicum purgata recessit
Per gemitum propriique lavans in gurgite fletus, 80
Munda suis lacrimis redit et detersa capillis.
Iamque Capharneae synagogam intraverat urbis
Rite docens populos.

Use my peace'. great is the medicine to confess
that what harms is hidden, since he nourishes his own wounds
who covers them and dreads to bare the lesion to the medic.
Lo, long polluted, somewhat purified she has withdrawn,
washing by groan in the whirlpool of her own weeping, 80
Clean she returns by her tears and wiped with her hair.
And now he had entered the synagogue of the city of Capernaum
duly teaching the peoples.

quem cum vidisset iniquus
Humano sub corde latens, clamore protervo
Spiritus infremuit 'quid nobis et tibi?' dicens, 85
'Perdere nos heu Christe, venis? scio denique qui sis,
Et sanctum cognosco Dei' nec plura locutus
Imperio terrente tacet hominemque reliquit
Pulsus et in vacuas fugiens evanuit auras.
Sic etiam variis finem languoribus esse 90

whom, when the iniquitous spirit, lurking beneath a human heart, had seen, with a forward clamor
the spirit roared, saying, 'What have we to do with you?' 85
'Do you come to destroy us, alas, O Christ? I know at last who you are,
and I recognize the Holy One of God'; and, having spoken no more,
at the terrifying command he is silent and leaves the man,
driven out, and fleeing, he vanished into the empty airs.
Thus also there is an end to various languors 90

Fecit et exclusos semper reticere coegit
Daemonas ac talem prohibet se pandere testem.
Olim quippe ferox et nigrae mortis amator
Ille nocens anguis, deiectus culmine caeli
Cum pompis sociisque suis omnique nefandae                    95
Agmine militiae, Christum, quem noverat illic,
Conspicit in terris, velamine carnis opertum,
Et gemit esse homini Dominum virtutis amicum.
     Dumque Tyri transgressus iter, Sidonia rursus
Arva legens, placidas Dominus calcaret harenas,                    100
Curavit gemino miserum spiramine clausum,
Qui vocem non ore dabat, non aure trahebat,
Sidereaeque manus ruptis penetralibus omnes
Adtactu patuere fores, laetusque repente
Audirique loquens meruitque audire loquentes.                    105

He also made the expelled demons always keep silence, and prohibits them to lay themselves open as such a witness.
Once, indeed, the ferocious and black-death-loving noxious serpent, cast down from the summit of heaven with his pomps and his associates and with the whole battle-line of a nefarious soldiery,                    95
beholds Christ—whom he had known there—on earth, covered with the veil of flesh,
and he groans that the Lord of power is friend to man.
     And while, having crossed the road of Tyre, again traversing the Sidonian fields, the Lord was treading the placid sands,                    100
he cured a wretch shut off in the twin spiracles,
who gave no voice with the mouth, nor drew it in with the ear;
and the starry hands, the inner chambers broken, made all the doors stand open by a touch,
and, happy suddenly, speaking so as to be heard, he also deserved to hear those speaking.                    105

     Tu quoque virtutis sensisti munus erilis
Procumbens oculis, cuius in lumine Christus
Expuit et speciem simulatae mortis ademit.
     Hinc maiora docens populos caelestia verum
Se reserat sermone Deum turbasque frequentes,                    110
Quae nimis inruerant, cupiens vitare parumper
Stagna petit parvaque sedens in Simonis alno,
Litore sistentem firmabat ab aequore plebem.
Et dictis iam finis erat; tunc altius actam
In pelagus iubet ire ratem vastoque profundo                    115
Retia dimitti piscantia, quae nihil omnem
Claudere per noctem vacuo potuere labore.
Simon paret ovans et aquosis gentibus instans
Linea claustra iacit tantumque inmanis apertos
Implevit captura sinus, ut praeda redundans                    120

     You too sensed the gift of the Master’s virtue,
falling prostrate, your eyes, upon whose light Christ
spat, and removed the semblance of feigned death.
     Hence, teaching the peoples greater celestial things, truly
he discloses himself by speech as God, and the thronging crowds,                    110
which had rushed in too much, wishing to avoid them for a little while,
he seeks the still waters and, sitting in Simon’s little alder-boat,
from the water he was steadying the people standing on the shore.
And now there was an end to the words; then he bids the craft, driven higher,
to go into the open sea, and on the vast deep                    115
that the fishing nets be let down, which through the whole
night had been able to enclose nothing with empty labor.
Simon obeys rejoicing and, pressing upon the watery peoples,
he casts the line-barriers, and such an immense catch filled the opened
folds that the prey, overflowing                    120

Turbaret geminas cumulato pisce carinas:
Nam socia stic puppis erat: sic maxima saepe
Gaudia non ferimus propensaque vota timemus;
Quodque Deo facile est homines optare nec audent.
     Talibus insignis virtutibus ibat in urbem,                    125
Quae sit dicta Naim, populo vallatus ipimo
Et grege discipulum, miserum cum comminus ecce
Conspicit ecferri iuvenem gelidumque cadaver,
Pluribus exsequiis et inani funere passum
Triste ministerium, cuius sors invida matrem                    130
Iamdudum viduam gemina viduaverat urna.
Nec remorata diu pietas, inimica doloris,
Auxilium vitale tulit tactoque feretro
'Surge' ait 'o iuvenis'; parensque in tempore dicto
Mortuus adsurgit, residensque loquensque revixit                    135

It would trouble the twin hulls with the fish heaped up:
for there was a partner ship yonder: thus the greatest joys we often do not bear, and we fear propitious vows;
and that which is easy for God men do not even dare to desire.
     Marked by such virtues he was going into a city,                    125
which is called Nain, walled about by a packed people
and by a flock of disciples, when at close hand, behold,
he sees being carried out a youth and a cold corpse,
one who had undergone many obsequies and the empty funeral—
a sad ministry—whose envious lot had long since the mother,                    130
already a widow, bereaved with a twin urn.
Nor did piety, an enemy of grief, delay long;
it brought life-giving aid, and, the bier having been touched,
“Rise,” he says, “O youth”; and, obeying at the spoken moment,
the dead man rises, and, sitting up and speaking, he lived again.                    135

Atque comes genetricis abit: nam funere torpens
Et licet amissae passus discrimina vitae,
Non poterat famulus Domino clamante tacere
Nec vita praesente mori. mox agmine verso
Deponens trepidum recidivo tramite luctum,                    140
Candida felicem revocavit pompa parentem.
     Nec tibi parva salus Domino medicante, Maria,
Multiplici laesum curavit vulnere sensum,
Quam fera septenis rabies invaserat armis,
Daemonico cuneata globo; sed squameus anguis                    145
Imperiosa sacri fugiens miracula verbi
Corde tuo depulsus abit volucresque per auras
In chaos infernae lapsus penetrale gehennae
Septem ingens gyros, septena volumina traxit.
     Neve redundantem cumulato germine messem                    150

And he goes off as his mother’s companion: for, numbed by the funeral,
and though he had endured the crises of a life lost,
the servant could not keep silent when the Lord was calling,
nor die with Life present. Soon, with the procession turned back,
laying down his trembling grief on the back-tracked path,                    140
a white procession called the happy parent back.
     Nor was your salvation small, Mary, with the Lord acting as physician,
he healed the sense wounded by multiple wounds,
whom a fierce madness had assailed with seven arms,
arrayed in wedge by a demonic cohort; but the scaly serpent,
                    145
fleeing the imperious miracles of the sacred Word,
driven from your heart, departs, and through the flying airs,
having fallen into the chaos of the infernal, the inmost penetral of Gehenna,
he dragged seven vast gyres, seven coils.
     And lest the harvest, overflowing with heaped-up seed,                    150

Exiguis Dominus sineret languere colonis,
Discipulosque alios, quorum mens conscia recti
Puraque simplicitas numero meritoque refulgens
Aurea libra fuit, velut agnos praecipit inter
Sanguineos properare lupos 'adsumite' dicens                    155
'Iura potestatis, nullum metuatis ut hostem;
Vipereasque minas et scorpion atque inimicae
Omnia virtutis sensu calcate fideli:
Nulla meis famulis feritas adversa nocebit.
Nec tantum hoc gaudete, viri, quod spiritus ater                    160
Subiaceat vobis, quantum quod nomina vestra
Scribat in aeterno caelestis littera libro'.
Ius est quippe Dei vitam praeponere factis.
Nam merito cessante bono miracula nil sunt,
Quae faciunt plerumque mali, quibus arbiter orbis                    165

Nor would the Lord allow the scanty husbandmen to languish,
and other disciples, whose mind, conscious of the right,
and whose pure simplicity, shining in number and in merit,
was a golden balance; he bids them to hasten like lambs among
bloodthirsty wolves, saying, 'take up                    155
the rights of authority, that you may fear no one as an enemy;
and the viperish threats and the scorpion and all the power
of the enemy, tread down with a faithful sense:
no opposing ferocity will harm my servants.
And do not so much rejoice, men, that the black spirit                    160
is subject to you, as that the heavenly letter writes your names
in the eternal book.'
For it is God’s right to put life before deeds.
For with meritorious good ceasing, miracles are nothing,
which the wicked very often do, for whom the arbiter of the world                    165

'Nescio vos' dicturus erit, 'discedite cuncti
Artifices scelerum, rebus qui semper iniquis
Divinum simulastis opus'. sic tempore Moysi
Carminibus quidam vanae Memphitis in oris
Signa dabant non sponte Dei, sed imagine falsa                    170
Visibus humanis magicas tribuere figuras.
     Post Pharisaeorum cuiusdam principis intrat
Clarificare domum, non escam sumere tantum,
Ad quam tunc facili convenerat ille precatu.
Hic homo perspicuo distentus ventre tumebat                    175
Plenus aquae gravidamque cutem suspenderat alvus,
Inclusam paritura necem.

'I do not know you,' he will be about to say, 'depart, all of you,
craftsmen of crimes, who have always, in iniquitous affairs,
simulated the divine work.' Thus in the time of Moses
certain men on the shores of vain Memphis by chants
were giving signs, not by the will of God, but by a false image                    170
to human eyes they were attributing magical figures.
     Afterward he enters the house of a certain prince of the Pharisees
to glorify the house, not to take food only,
to which then he had come at an easy prayer.
Here a man was swelling, distended with a transparent belly,                    175
full of water, and the belly had hung a pregnant skin,
about to bring forth an enclosed death.

Iam membra fluebant
Adcrescente sinu, miserosque infusa per artus
Turgida perflatum macies tenuaverat aegrum
Inque uteri spatium totus convenerat hydrops. 180

Now his limbs were flowing
as the swelling bosom/belly kept increasing, and the turgid flood, infused through his wretched limbs,
leanness had attenuated the sick man, though puffed-up,
and the hydrops had entirely gathered into the space of the belly. 180

Non tulit hanc speciem mundi Pater, et sua transit
Sabbata non curans, hominem curare paratus
Quem voluit magis esse suum: nam sabbata propter
Condita sunt hominem, non est homo sabbata propter.
Tunc pius umentem siccata corporis unda                    185
Iussit abire luem: fluvidus mox viscera morbus
Deserit et vacuae resident in pectore fibrae
Carnalemque lacum pestis lymphata reliquit.
     Coeperat interea Dominus Galilaea per arva
Transgrediens sancto quoddam pede tangere castrum.                    190
Hunc procul ut videre decem maculosa gerentes
Leprosi portenta viri, quos corpore foedo
Discolor obscenis turpabat poena figuris,
'Praeceptor, miserere, potes namque omnia, Iesu',
Clamantes dixere simul: tunc flexa potestas,                    195

The Father of the world did not endure this appearance, and, not caring for his own Sabbaths, he passes them by, prepared to cure the man whom he wished rather to be his own: for the Sabbaths were founded on account of man; man is not on account of the Sabbaths.
Then the pious one, the moisture of the body having been dried, ordered the pestilence to depart: soon the fluid disease abandons the viscera, and the empty fibers settle in the breast, and the water-logged plague left the fleshly pool.
Meanwhile the Lord had begun, crossing through the Galilaean fields, to touch a certain fort with his holy foot. 190
As from afar ten leprous men, bearers of maculate portents, saw him—men whom, with a foul body, a variegated punishment was defiling with obscene figures—
‘Preceptor, have mercy, for you can do all things, Jesus,’
crying out they said together: then the power, bent, 195

Quae numquam pietate vacat, clementior infit:
'Ite, sacerdotum conspectibus ora referte!'
Cumque viam peterent, subito mundata vicissim
Mirantur sua membra viri variumque tuentes
Esse nihil sese pariter speculantur et omnes 200
Explorant proprias alterno lumine formas.
Ex quibus ut grates ageret pro munere tanto,
Vix unus reduci conversus tramite planta
Sternitur ad terram Dominum virtutis adorans
Atque sacerdoti vero sua protulit ora. 205
Denique pontificum princeps summusque sacerdos
Quis, nisi Christus, adest? gemini libaminis auctor
Ordine Melchisedech, cui dantur munera semper
Quae sua sunt, fructus segitis et gaudia vitis.

Which never is void of piety, more clement, begins:
'Go, bring back your faces to the sight of the priests!'
And as they made for the road, suddenly cleansed in turn
the men marvel at their limbs, and, looking at the variegation,
they observe that it is nothing; they scrutinize themselves alike, and all 200
explore their own forms with alternating light.
Of whom, that he might give thanks for so great a gift,
hardly one, turning back with foot on the returning path,
is laid on the ground, adoring the Lord of might,
and to the true priest he offered forth his face. 205
Finally, the prince of pontiffs and the highest priest—
who, if not Christ?—is present, the author of the twin libation
in the Order of Melchizedek, to whom gifts are always given
which are his own, the fruits of the cornfield and the joys of the vine.

Cum residens caecus Timei filius illud 210

When, sitting, the blind son of Timaeus, that 210

Propter iter, Dominum per quod cognoverat ire,
Vociferans crebro lumen clamore petisset
Nec populo prohibente tacens, accedere iussus
Ad Dominum palpante manu, visumque recepit
Et nullo ducente redit. quam fortiter instat 215
Inportuna fides! Quidquid res dura negarit,
Sola frequens votis oratio praestat honestis.

Because of the road, along which he had come to know the Lord was going,
crying aloud repeatedly he sought light with clamor;
nor, though the people were forbidding, did he keep silent; ordered to come near
to the Lord with a groping hand, he received his sight,
and with no one leading he returns. How strongly importunate faith presses on! 215
Importunate faith! Whatever a hard circumstance has denied,
prayer alone, frequent with honest vows, bestows.

Unanimum panem sic ille petebat amicum,
Qui foribus clausis per opaca silentia noctis
Obnixeque diu confidenterque neganti                    220
Vocibus adsiduis precibusque extorsit anhelis.
     Praeteriensque viae Dominus loca Samaritanae
Humanam flagrante sitim collegerat aestu,
Fonsque perennis aquae, modicam desiderat undam,
Ut biberet qua corpus erat. tunc accola gentis                    225

Thus he was asking his like‑minded friend for bread,
who, with the doors closed, through the opaque silences of night,
and, to one refusing stubbornly for a long time and confidently                    220
by assiduous voices and panting prayers he wrung it out.
     And the Lord, passing along the way, past the places of the Samaritan,
had taken on human thirst with the blazing heat,
and the perennial fountain of water desires a modest wave,
that he might drink where the body was. then a dweller of the nation                    225

Stans mulier, parvum puteo quae traxerat haustum,
Cum dare cunctatur periturae munera lymphae,
Agnoscens propriam numeroso coniuge vitam,
Orat inexhausti tribui sibi dona fluenti,
Aeternam positura sitim, qua nemo carere                    230
Dignus erit, Domini nisi mersus gurgite Christi
Percipiat placidas animae, non corporis undas.
     Dumque sui media residens testudine templi
Ore tonans patrio directi ad pervia callis
Errantem populum monitis convertit amicis,                    235
Ecce trahebatur magna stipante caterva
Turpis adulterii mulier lapidanda reatu,
Quam Pharisaea manus placido sub iudice sistens
Cum damnare parat, plus liberat; omnibus illis
Nam simul e turbis proprie sine crimine nullus                    240

Standing, the woman, who had drawn a small draught from the well,
while she hesitates to give the gifts of the perishing water,
recognizing her own life with a numerous consort,
she prays that the gifts of an inexhausted flowing be granted to her,
to lay aside eternal thirst, which no one will be worthy to lack,                    230
unless, plunged in the gulf of the Lord Christ,
he may receive the placid waves of the soul, not of the body.
     And while, sitting in the midst beneath the vault of his temple,
thundering with a paternal mouth to the pervious paths of the direct track,
he turns the wandering people with friendly admonitions,                    235
behold, there was being dragged, with a great throng pressing,
a woman, shameful with the charge of adultery, to be stoned,
whom the Pharisaic hand, setting before the placid judge,
when it prepares to condemn, it more liberates; for to all those
for at once from the crowds, in truth, none is without crime                    240

Accusator erat, saxum qui missile primus
Sumeret obscenae feriens contagia moechae.
Nec poterat quisquam fistucam vellere parvam
Ex oculo alterius, proprio qui lumine grandem
Sciret inesse trabem. profugus sic ille recessit 245
Impetus et clemens donat sententia culpam,
Iam non peccandi sub condicione solutam.

There was an accuser, who would be the first to take up a missile stone,
smiting the contagions of the obscene adulteress.
Nor could anyone pluck the small speck
from another’s eye, who knew a great beam to be
in his own eye. Thus that onrush receded in flight, 245
and a clement sentence grants pardon for the guilt,
now released under the condition of not sinning.

Nam vomitum quicumque suum canis ore relambit,
Nec veterem studet hic veniam nec habere futuram,
Huius damna tenens, huius conpendia perdens.                    250
     Inde means genitum cernit considere caecum,
Qui male praegnantis dilapsus ventre parentis
In lucem sine luce ruit. tunc sanguinis ille
Conditor humani mundique orientis origo,
Inperfecta diu proprii non passus haberi                    255

For whoever, like a dog, re-licks his own vomit,
neither strives for an old pardon nor to have a future one,
holding its damages, losing its profits.                    250
     Then he sees a blind man, born so, sitting,
who, having slipped amiss from the womb of a pregnant parent,
rushes into the light without light. then He, the Founder
of human blood and the Origin of the world’s rising,
not allowing His own work to be held imperfect for long,                    255

Membra operis, natale lutum per claustra genarum
Inliniens hominem veteri de semine supplet.
Nec visum tamen ante capit, quam voce iubentis
Accepta Domini Siloam venisset ad undam
Et consanguinei tutus medicamine limi 260
Pura oculos fovisset aqua. mox ergo gemellas
Vultibus effulgent acies tandemque merentur
Ignotum spectare diem.

Members of the work, anointing the natal clay across the enclosures of the cheeks,
he completes the man from the ancient seed. Nor yet does he take sight before he had,
the voice of the commanding Lord received,
come to the wave of Siloam,
and, safe by the medicine of kindred mud, 260
had the pure water cherished his eyes. Soon therefore the twin
lines of sight shine forth in his features, and at length they merit
to behold the unknown day.

Cognoscite cuncti,
Mystica quid doceant animos miracula nostros:
Caeca sumus proles miserae de fetibus Evae, 265
Portantes longo natas errore tenebras,
Sed dignante Deo mortalem sumere formam
Tegminis humani, facta est ex virgine nobis
Terra salutaris, quae fontibus abluta sacris
Clara renascentis reserat spiramina lucis. 270

Recognize, all,
what mystical miracles teach our souls:
we are the blind progeny from the brood of wretched Eve, 265
bearing the darkness begotten by long errancy,
but with God deigning to assume the mortal form
of human covering, there was made for us from a virgin
a salutary earth, which, washed in sacred fountains,
unbars the bright spiracles of re-nascent light. 270

Bethaniaeque solum repetens intrarat: ibique
Lazarus occidua tumulatus sorte iacebat
Iam quarto sine luce die claususque sepulchri
Marmore corruptum tabo exalabat odorem.
Flebant germanae, flebat populatio praesens, 275
Flebat et Omnipotens, sed corpore, non deitate,
Exanimosque artus illa pro parte dolebat,
Qua moriturus erat; lacrimis implevit amicum,
Maiestate Deum. quid credere, Martha, moraris?

and revisiting Bethany’s soil he had entered: and there
Lazarus, entombed by a dying lot, lay
now on the fourth day without light, and shut of the tomb
by marble, he was exhaling a corrupted stench of putrid decay.
his sisters were weeping, the present populace was weeping, 275
the Omnipotent too was weeping—but in body, not in deity,—
and he was grieving over the lifeless limbs, in that part
by which he was to die; with tears he fulfilled the Friend,
with Majesty the God. Why do you delay to believe, Martha?

Quidve, Maria, gemis? Christum dubitatis, an unum 280
Possit ab infernis hominem revocare cavernis,
Qui dabit innumeras post funera surgere turbas?
Ergo ubi clamantis Domini sonuit tuba dicens:
'Lazare, perge foras!', magno concussa pavore
Tartara dissiliunt, herebi patuere recessus, 285

What, Mary, do you lament? Do you doubt Christ, or that he alone 280
is able to call a man back from infernal caverns,
he who will grant innumerable throngs to rise after funerals?
Therefore, when the trumpet of the Lord, crying out, sounded, saying:
'Lazarus, go forth!', Tartarus, shaken with great dread, bursts asunder; the recesses of Erebus lay open, 285

Et tremuit letale chaos, mortisque profundae
Lex perit atque anima proprias repente medullas
Cernitur ante oculos vivens adstare cadaver.
Postque sepulchralem tamquam recreatus honorem
Ipse sibi moriens et postumus extat et heres.                    290
     Utque caduca vagi contemnens culmina saecli
Monstraret se rite Deum, non curribus altis,
Qui pompae mortalis honor, rapidisque quadrigis
Pulvereum sulcavit iter nec terga frementis
Ardua pressit equi, faleris qui pictus et ostro                    295
Ora cruentatum mandentia concutit aurum,
Sed lento potius gestamine vilis aselli
Rectori suffecit honos, levis ungula cuius
Ut tanto sessore decus mirabile portans
Nobilior sub fasce foret, non illius inpar,                    300

And the lethal chaos trembled, and of deep death
the law perished; and the soul is seen, suddenly, before the eyes,
to take its stand in its own inmost marrows—the corpse alive.
And after the sepulchral honor, as though re-created,
he himself, dying, stands forth both posthumous and heir to himself.                    290
     And so, despising the decaying summits of the wandering age,
to show himself duly God, not with lofty chariots,
which are the honor of mortal pomp, nor with swift quadrigae,
did he furrow the dusty road, nor did he press the lofty backs
of the neighing horse, who, painted with trappings and purple,                    295
shakes with his mouth the bloodied gold he is chewing;
but rather the slow bearing of a cheap little ass
sufficed as honor for the Ruler, whose light hoof,
carrying as a marvelous adornment so great a rider,
might be nobler under the burden, not unequal to him,                    300

Qui patulo Christum licet in praesepe iacentem
Agnovit tamen esse Deum. plebs omnis adorans
In solido molles subiecit tramite vestes.
Dicite, gentiles populi, cui gloria regi
Talis in orbe fuit?

Who, though Christ lay in a wide-open manger,
nevertheless recognized him to be God. all the plebeian crowd, adoring,
laid soft garments beneath on the solid path.
Say, gentile peoples, for what king
was there such glory in the world?

Cui palmis compta vel umquam 305
Frondibus arboreis laudem caelestibus ymnis
Obvia turba dedit? Domino nisi cum patre Christo,
Qui regit aetherium princeps in principe regnum.
<Cui Sanctus semper conregnat Spiritus aeque.>

To whom, ever adorned with palms, 305
with arboreal fronds, did praise with celestial hymns
the throng, meeting (him), give? Except to the Lord Christ with the Father,
who, a Prince in the Prince, rules the aetherial kingdom.
<With whom the Holy Spirit always co-reigns equally.>