F. J. H. Jenkinson (ed.), 1908 — Latin texts. Rendered into modern English. The Hisperic Latin of these poems is deliberately obscure, full of coinages and Grecisms; where a medieval gloss or the sense is recoverable it is rendered, and where the Latin itself is corrupt this is marked.

A-Text (Fleury) #

The broad region of the breast awakens the cavern of gladness: I draw the blightless thing from my lungs. But a joy-flowing tempest from the breast-strings in the airy heights, when the famous watchers of wisdom draw forth from their throats an excellent draught of smooth liquor, and fashion viper-like syllogisms of letters; to whom a triple-square band of rhetoricians turns its flowery reins over the earthly world; and who have abandoned the remote conflicts of the vast foundation. Do they draw forth fabulous treasures through their mouths? Does a slaughtering brood of strifes grow up among their sons? Does placid offspring put to flight the sceptres? Does a savage company of famed armed men overthrow poisons in the battle-line of striving? Does the white robe(?) glisten with streams of oyster-blood? Or has a foamy channel of the sounding sea crushed the sluggish rowers in shipwreck? Or has a frightful doom snatched the dwellers by common slaughter? — whom you teach the reckonings.

To what rhetor do adhere? This challenger of readers I invite with a skilful finger-post(?), who shall have fashioned the sophic wrestling-place eagerly; for I have fought with three athletes before — I have sacrificed duellists and cut down tough companions, and the stronger I have prostrated, the cyclopes in the field. Hence none escapes me equally; while fierce little mouths(?) tear at me, at once I unsheath a crafty sword that slaughters gracious statues. I take a tree-borne shield(?) in my hand(?) that defends the fleshly legs with its covering. I brandish a steel dagger whose piercing edge(?) wears down the snouts of the foes. For this cause I brandish all companions into the contest.

This fair confusion of pronouncements shines, which heaps up no viciously-fashioned heap(?) and keeps the vigour safe by a chosen balance. For with equal fashioning it pours forth the honey-flowing sprinkling of Ausonian speech through the throats of the people — as innumerable swarms of bees run through the hollow hives and sip the honey-flowing streams, and chew the wonted honeycombs with their beaks. This fair band of enchanters adorns the company, to whose like through the long course of passing ages we have seen no equal phalanx; nor in the future rolls of the temporal globe shall we descry a company matched in glorious fame. But a horrible serpent stands ready which will wound such a throng with its viper-stroke, unless they drive out the ruler of the vast heaven, who shall loose the flowery host in a regular division.

In the new time of the cyclic globe I have resolved to seize the Hisperic sceptre; therefore I utter a rude discourse, and a little stream creeps through mouths. But if a long course of temporal life had bound me with an Ausonian chain, a sounding draught of speech would pour through my throat, and an immense flood of polished utterance would stream from my jaws.

Why do you fashion a thing belonging to you?(?) do you split the fostering oaks with axes? would you fashion oratories of dense timbers in four-square fashion? Or do you bake pure gold in a fire-bearing furnace, beating out golden crescents with solid hammers? Or do you raise a tinkling song on stretched strings? Perhaps you blow hollow reeds into sounding harmonies? But you are not distinguished by an intelligible sharpness of mind, who watch the woolly flocks of sheep in the fragrant pastures, who follow the harmful(?) assemblies of enchanters along the accustomed path; and who bear on your shoulders a bent sheep-hook, and bind with a reed(?) the reddish udders of the cattle, and graspest a woven cloak with fleshly limbs. And you do not search out sophic mysteries with an ingenious point, but follow in effete effort the learned troops of story-tellers. Hence I, a wondrous one, foretell you by ingenious balance: to rush upon the native soil of your father’s field, that you may have fashioned orgia(?) with a rustic’s sturdy gesture. For broken are the fences that stand everywhere; the growing herds of cattle devour the crops. The sad aged mother waters her cheeks with tearful drops, for the infant whimpers in wailing; and the flowery field resounds with the crying. The child-bearing mother drives off the stranger and celebrates placid weddings in soothing chambers. All these things urge you to enter the bound of the natal orgia(?).

Or the mountainous toil swims through the stony channels; the wave-wandering erosion uproots the leafy ash-trees; it rolls shapeless pebbles with a murmur; it sacrifices the muddy bank with a rivering channel; it tears out the concrete gravel in the whirlpool; like Ausonian, it pours forth the river with abundant swelling. As the rosy flame of the summer hearth burns the aged pears with acrid rust, and dims the gnarled oaks with ashy heaps; the fiery furnace breathes a hot belch and bends the flickering flames through the panelled ceiling — so would I with torrid fervour roast the learned companies. As the savage bullock terrifies the herds of cattle, let him sacrifice the fattened bullock with close restraint; he fills the horrible maw with entrails and sucks the bloody stream through a slaughtering gap — so do I trouble the wretched story-telling throngs with terror.

If ever you should reach the glassy hollow of the open sky — the twin stars of foremost whiteness, the northern bounds of sevenfold Olympus — should you count the sandy grains of the shore-wandering planets, should the seedbed of the sea live in the furrow, and the living breathing-place of the world be reckoned among the dwellers of the deep — you shall not drink of Hisperic liquor with eager throat.

Inasmuch as the eastern differs from the western bound, and the Titan sun surpasses the starry torch with ampler golden gleam, and the sounding crash of contending warriors precedes the honey-sounding hum of bees, and the furious bear overcomes the tender ewe-lamb — in so far are the divinities of our loquacious strain sundered apart.

Six years I have examined the ways of those who rend the Ausonian palate; of these, two feats stand forth which wound the verbal structure with a viper’s touch. One infects the loquacious path with barbaric increase and supports it with a twin model; it knits four specimens, adds famous letters of the alphabet, and snatches the appointed writing with poisonous damage. It moves literal characters of city speech, and transmutes the steady tenor of the picture with a poisonous barrier. Another was born upon a famous soil, by which the Hisperic eulogy is violated with regular stroke; it gnaws the sensible portions of speech. The rest of the sins are noted which wound the Italic gold of chosen speech. Which of these faults do you fix upon the loquacious tenor in this assertion?

Here Begins the Law of the Day #

The Titan brightness inflames the Olympian board; it brightens the sea-plain with its glow; it cuts the upper sky with flaming radiance; it climbs the vault of the fostering firmament. The Phoebean light suppresses the pale moon at once; the splendours of the Pleiades are not dimmed by the Fiery(?) one; the sun-flowing mark gives out the darkened spot; the dense Phaethontean burning draws off the mists; it dries the dewy droppings with its heat; and the rain-cloud does not bedew the leafy oaks; the shower does not scatter the heavy clusters. The dewy fire scorches the little pools and burns the worldly circle. The winged flock re-echoes the placid concert; they murmur tinkling harmonies with open beaks; they warm the hollow slopes of the ears with sweetness. The leaf-hairy fowl leave their lurking-places; they sting the Capanean clods; they gulp down the fragments of the pit; they goad the dunghills; they fill the little bellies of the eaters with juices.

The beastly band traverses the vast pastures; they tread the stone paths with their hooves; they sow the fields with various councils; they fill their inward entrails with hoary herbs; they chew the grassy fodder with cud-chewing motions; they divide the innocent sheepfolds. They cross the tree-built bridges by a footpath; the woolly troops enter the grassy fields; they pluck the grassy clusters with their teeth; the shaggy crew forsakes its sty; they root up the earthy sands with their snouts; they suck the stable roots of ferns and taste the herb-juice. The wain-horses leave the stabled stalls; they tread the worn paths with stumbling motions and loosen the iron fetters of the sitters’ legs; they fill the hollow bellies with eager motions. The witless crew of savage offspring tramples the fostering fields.

They tread the roughest scrub beneath their feet; the hunch-backed groundlings gaze on the petulant youngsters; the hornless dolphins sweep the foaming deep; they gulp the salt sea through the open gates of their throats and devour the scaly bellies. All the rustics work at the wonted task; the rest fashion earthy ditches with drawn mattocks; they make fences dense with thorns; they pile up stone walls with massy heaps; others drive the many kinds of flocks into the pastures and raise their sounding cries; they trouble the fierce herdsmen(?) with lowing. Innumerable troops enter the leafy wood by a beaten path; they smite the fostering oaks with sword-blades; they hurl the hewn missiles with axes; and they split the felled ash-trees with rams’ engines; and they carry the loaded wains on sturdy poles.

Here a sounding tumult rouses us from drowsy chambers: to gather the bodily heaps of the coverings, to bind the soft shoes on the limbs, to gird the snowy shirts with rude thread and leather belts, to fix the silver crescents on the tawny cloaks, to roll out the soft coverings, and to fit the soft wool-clasped carpets. Adorn the sophic colony and observe the literal letters. Let none make a trophy for the enchanter if he take wholesome sleep within the breast’s chamber — unless he pluck the dream-wrought delight from his eyelids at the glowing flame of Phoebus’ rising, and fit the woven rug about his loins, and beat out a reader’s industry.

But why do you overwhelm us with thunderous clangour of speech, and trouble the inward caverns of the ear with a swelling din? For we have spent the whole course of the night in reader’s vigils; you have pleased your limbs with drowsy languor; therefore a somnolent touch now goads us. Let some steward of this learned company approach the foaming water, that he may pour a glassy stream upon the water-drops(?), to wash the nocturnal stain with the fountain’s wave. Unloose the hoarse reckonings in the hollow vessels, and hear the sophic industry. Let a murmurous applause be raised in the air, and let the verbal clang resound if the whole company stand united in the hall. Separate then such a cohort; let the rest approach the sunny huts; others traverse the leafy groves; others be established in this ample cabin.

The Phoebean brightness cuts the summit centre of the sky, and the mid-space of the day draws near. Hence the breast burns with devouring hunger; therefore let us visit the continual territories, that the lords may have furnished the honeyed food to the hungry. Who, knowing the honourable places, shall lead the company through the ways?

“I have often traversed these secret passes, and explored the remote fields of this clime, and surveyed the comely dwellers who feed the wandering choirs of enchanters. Pack close the narrow path; set staves in the starry furrow, lest the fierce lads torture the day with cruel darts. Not such do viperous robbers beset the ways; they strip the many kinds of wayfarers’ bands of their spoils and snatch the gathered plunder; they slaughter the weaponed troops with swords. Therefore let us rush with close-wedged band through the perilous paths; we tread the rough fields with our steps — those which pile their rocky statues with burning mass and bear thorny berries(?) and adorn the flowery fields, which heap purple scallops(?) and do not confine the stony pebbles, but join the grey-leaved clusters of herbs. A canine murmur sounds through the city woods. Perchance a strange robber clings to the walls, or they catch in their ears the sound of a moving band; the twin claps raise a sounding clamour. Then the glad warder turns the wandering company to the inn; draw the curved seal of the bar at once.”

This hollow hall encloses a gulf of brooms(?), which is swept continually with birch besoms; and it gathers no filth. Here stands a foul thing(?) of the air, which casts off the caked motes of filth; nor do the leaf-strewn brooms sweep the threshold. Fill the steady basin with watery liquor, and wash the dirty feet with wavy streams, and wipe the muddy soles with glassy clearness. Fix the wooden hooks(?) in the wall, and set the flaxen cord in a comely row, that the rustics may judge a wide spectacle. Wipe the seats with leather cloaks; set the rosy furnace of pitchy torment on the hearth; heap small sticks of dry tinder, that the flame-bearing fire may blaze, that it may poise the warm touch and draw out the chill hearth(?).

Who will ask such possessors that they may grant honeyed abundance? For an Ausonian chain does not bind me; therefore I do not display a Scottish-born eulogy, but I shall strike the furious warders with a staff(?). The comely dwellers excuse themselves to embrace the scanty nourishment under divine will. Divide these granted provisions with sharp blades, and load the wooden tables with a dish-bearing heap.

Separate the learned choir in four rhythms; wash your hands with watery nitre, that the washed knuckles may be known. Raise a dish-bearing song to the rustic troops, that it may pour wholesome juice into the breast. Warm the provisions with flame-born hairs(?), that they may pour a sweeter savour into the jaws. Hide the crumbs of the fragments in hollow baskets. I ask the fostering lord of the sky, lest the dwellers rush upon the Fiery(?) leaf; but may they reach the upper height of the sevenfold heaven, who have granted the sweet-bearing heaps of food. Let each exactor ask the comely mother, that the salted waters(?) may leap through the ashes, that the crisped salty small fry may foam in the caldron.

Let us approach the appointed town, where we have fixed a pact with fellow-citizens. You who have sucked sweeter comforts — we chewed wheaten crusts with cud-chewing motions, on which Scottish-born seasoning of smeared oil had sprouted; we chewed flesh-bearing hams with pressed teeth; a milky draught overflowed; though we tasted a joy-flowing beer(?).

The Titan brightness reddens the western sea; it bends its rosy rays beneath the lowest sphere; the lunar star adorns the vast sky; the shining wardens of the Pleiades vary; the night cloud weighs down the herbs; the vapour beds the tree-tops, and the black dark shades the worldly circle. The countless herds of cattle go the stony paths and enter the stalls’ fences; the four-square companies climb the halls; the shaggy swine traverse the worn sties; the charioteers fasten the iron fetters of the steeds with supports; the innumerable rustic troops unbind the wonted bond of labour from their legs, and rest in the halls of the wonted covering of the sunny(?) kind.

Therefore let us approach the fostering walls of the civil globe, to seek fitting hospitality from the kindly dwellers. Press on with a sounding clamour, that he may gather this learned company into the inn. Set up the appointed seats of leather mats; feed the torrid furnace with tinder; light the ruddy lamp in the hearth; pour the glassy fruit in a wooden cup(?); wash the foul supports; divide the daily allowance in the wonted company. Let the rest rush to the wooded hill with swift course, and cut the tinder with drawn straps(?); let others approach the watery height and carry down a full pitcher on their shoulders; let others cook the flesh-hams in wine, and fashion wheaten rounds; cut up the appointed heaps of food with knives, load the wooden tables with dish-bearing plenty, and heap the honeyed fragments in woven baskets.

In the innermost hiding-places of the hollow breast I desire that the dwellers should prolong an honoured dwelling, who have bestowed the honeyed bounty, who have granted the sweet-bearing heaps of food. Light the dyed torches with seasoning(?) in the oven(?), and search out a reader’s industry in the reckonings. The eyelids confine a sleep-bearing heaviness; therefore cover the pleasing couches with fleecy mats, and spread rude carpets for coverings, fold the soft pillows with cushions, cover the coaly lumps with an ashy heap, lest the neighbouring particles kindle and burn with the fire of a wide furnace. Shut the square gates of the kingdom with a bar, lest savage robbers burst in to steal hidden treasures. Let the rest hear the reader’s wisdom with the mind’s point; let others drive off the dreamy comfort of the limbs; let others keep the night watches — until the rosy onset of Phoebus’ rising shall redden.

[On the sky] #

From this ample firmament of Olympus I shall draw forth loquacious heaps in a slow murmur. This celestial sphere is fashioned of ashen(?) sort, which encompasses the shade-bearing tracts in its wandering covering, and clasps the fire-haired stars in its vast mass; it turns the twin brightnesses of the torrid light. The Titan Orion reddens the daily bounds; the pale moon(?)-luminary lights the submerged west(?); the glassy sky confines five girdles; the rest confine a burning comfort and scorch the worldly climes with heat; the others breathe a chill belch and unfold a snowy sprinkling and scatter icy winters with dreadful blast and blow forth a stormy motion — the many-formed rainbow is fashioned by a slender veil of sun-wandering clouds. The heavenly pole turns itself into a whirling wheel; the steadfast hinges run around the axle. The Olympian throne supports the angelic companies; it bounds the excellent vault with a hoary mark(?). The natural philosophers assert a sevenfold cycle of the sky. Innumerable signs stand on heaven’s summit, which I essay not to unfold in temporal delay.

[Here begins] ON THE SEA #

From this ample lucid wave of Amphitrite I essay to beat out a loquacious round. This foaming main encloses the worldly tracts; it beats the earthly margins with its yearly(?) waves; it rushes upon the rocky shores with watery masses; it mingles the lowest pebbles with a booming whirlpool; it scatters foam on the starry furrow; it is often shaken by sounding winds; and the chattering south wind wearies the channels. The Titan droplets bedew the airy circle; the sea beats the stony paths with grey locks; it sacrifices the endangered ships in wreck. At other times the calm sea knits its state, nor does it blow forth sighs of horrid storm; but the chattering waves melt in a tranquil warmth; the Neptunian wave establishes a twin order — at once it prevails to the foamy shore, and folds back the refluent retreat in its ancient bosom; it turns its twin running into a wonted course. The foamy tide drags the yellow boundary(?) of the sea and swims the margined bounds in flood, and overflows the vast straits with swelling fulness. It bends the woody ash-trees earthward into the fields; it heaps the continual seaweed into the shore’s bosom; it digs up the broad marbles from the crags; it roots out the smeared purple shells; it unfolds the bubble-built shapes of many-formed stuff to the sandy port; and the wave-wandering levels waver over the sow-haunted(?) straits, and the foaming brine growls with a swelling.

Sometimes it swallows the swelling flow within; it does not swim the wonted thresholds of the margined depths. It bears the beaked keels aloft on stern waves; it roars out the oaken rafts with wave-sounding stream and carries vast skiffs in its marble gulf; and huge ships voyage the belly of such a sea. The dolphin-seed gambols beneath the grey waves; the shapeless monsters strive through the vast course; they chew the wretched maws and devour the glassy brine with their throats and swallow the little fishes whole. The Neptunian crew sweep the foamy blue with their forked tails; the salt-born wave of the sea assails those who taste it.

If all the dwellers of the worldly orb should see the inner womb of the deep, a sudden deadly prison would rush upon them in a whirlpool.

On fire #

Here the rosy flame of the pitchy torment crackles, which breathes forth torrid fury with its heat; it folds its flaming blades in rust; it burns the bending branches with fiery glow; it invades the dry brushwood with its fuel; the swift pile belches a smoking vapour; it scatters ashen sparks with its heats; the Fiery(?) heat fashions innumerable servitudes: at once it roasts wheaten cakes with its coal-warmth; it cooks the raw trembling things in hollow pots; it softens silver metals in the furnace, and masses of red gold melt in the forge; it warms the liquor of all things with verdant fosterings(?).

And the natal rigour of the fire-bearing hearth I shall draw forth in slow murmur. It lived formerly in the womb of the hard flint; the steel kindler twisted the tinder with skilled effort; the sparkling touch blazed up in the sunny sponge, and the inciter bent the gathered tow; and a tiny spark belched smoke in a moving whirl; it heaped the aged sticks into a heap, and an immense pile grew with swollen flames. It draws forth its shade-bearing coverings in the lurking roofs, and the hostile furnace drives out the chills with flame-sound, and involves the torrid burnings.

As if all the dwellers were to fell the trunks, the fire would consume the green-haired face of the earth(?).

[On the land/field] #

Here the flowery field adorns with ample brightness; it embraces the city walls of the vast globe; in which turreted cabins stand in many-formed frame; the field-like site disposes its lofty enclosures; it brings forth ripe grain beneath a fruitful covering; it heaps up fragrant vineyards which knit the swift(?) grapes on little branches; the skill sweeps the field bare with thorny things; the watery rivers water the yellow veins; the earth belches forth bursting springs with a fountaining swell; and the fields are rich in rosy sward, and they join the delicate home-steads, and it produces blue-green herbs which fill the beastly troops. Lofty halls surround the bare field, and woodland oaks prune the uttermost fields; it masses countless fruits of foliage; which fill the differing crops on spreading branches; deep ditches sunder the grassy lands which heap the grey-green clusters with handles(?). The earthly bound feeds innumerable herds of cattle, and the huge foundation bears the terrestrial stones. The field-like soil knits many-formed figurations, which I essay not to unfold in a loquacious path, lest I burden the learned veins of the rhetoricians.

On the wind #

Here the sounding west wind sacrifices the fostering oaks; it folds the strong hollies in furrows; it strips the turreted cabins with sturdy gusts; it rubs the upper panellings of the summits; it turns the Titan blue-grey toward the earth and exalts the sea-foams to the stars; the south wind wearies the grey-locked sea. The natural philosophers assert twice six zephyrs, and they mark out there four east winds, to which the alternating north winds cling with a crash, and they overshadow as it were the subject wings. They blow through the worldly heaven into the leaf. The murmurous north wind beats the triple trophies, which has snatched the flood on high and resolved to seize the ruling quarter, and strikes the bodily forms with its touch; nor can the hissing storm be looked upon. And the high ruler of the sky shall reckon from the murmuring wings of the winds a humped(?) discourse(?).

On many things #

This noble company glitters with flowery shows, which masses tawny rugs without; and they knit the bodily heaps with a many-formed band. Some bind up purple mantles; others gird grey(?) cloaks on their members; others heap hyacinthine robes on their bodies; the many fold their cloaks in a fleshly frame; they wear out(?) the purple-dyed bracers(?); they nourish yellow caps on their crowns and smooth crisped locks, and join flowing tresses; they bear shining hooks(?) on their necks; countless men take four-square shields in their bucklers; they brandish daggers in their hands; and others heap up fashionings which I express not in temporal delay.

On the book-satchel [De taberna] #

Here a wooden tabernacle adorns, which confines thick bristles in a small covering; a four-square structure is sewed in a bare arrangement; a single opening clasps the upper face, which is shut by a lid with straight round wheels(?); and it is bound with twice six thongs; and a bent load of enchanters is carried on their necks(?). Its appointed course of the curved thing(?) I shall draw forth: it once covered the fattened flanks of a beast, which the butcher stripped with a sharp blade — the shaggy hide — and it was stretched dense among the wattles of the wall, and dried in the fiery smoke; and the bending craftsman cut the appointed structure; he furnished the leathery cover with bound straps; he fashioned twice two corners, and completed a leather case with a chosen carrying. The rest of its story I unfold not in speech, lest I stir up weariness in the learned camps.

On the writing-tablet #

This wooden tablet is fashioned of chosen fomentations; it joins a waxy smearing from another clime(?); it knits the fastened pillars with a wooden interspace, in which a comely carving played. Another wooden side confines a larger site with a larger course(?), adorned with varied pictures; and it confines the comely edges. This was once a leafy thing that grew among the grey-green oaks of the ground; the craftsman cut off the growing stock with a steel axe; he hewed the four-square growth with a wooden nerve(?); he drew out a small pearl(?) with the adze and finished the adorned tablet, which is borne in the right hand of the story-tellers, and it heaps the sophic mysteries on its waxen planets. Now I draw back the loquacious path with a swift turn, lest I burden the ingenious houses of the rhetoricians.

On the oratory #

Here a wooden oratory is fashioned of boarded tables; it confines its sides joined in twin yokes; the four-square foundations establish the decreed temple; on which a dense boarding grew with globular defence; it knits the upper vault; four-square joists are set in the comely roofs; it joins a rustic altar in its bosom, at which the priests celebrate the gathered Mass; it embraces a single doorway on the western side, which is shut by a wooden bar with drawn bolts(?); a boarded gathering confines an extended porch; it knits four wings at the top; it masses innumerable fashionings which I essay not to unfold in loquacious round.

On prayer #

I ask the upper Lord of the vast sky, who founded the worldly mass with fostering divinity, who walls the earthly shore with a Titan girdle, who restores human servants with chosen increase; who covers the grey-haired wastes with a heap of leaves(?), who nourishes the flower-bearing stalks from the earth, who sets the prizes of the fostering throne among the troops of men(?). To me voyaging the summer strait, grant a sturdy ship, that I may escape the furious perils.

On a deed done #

Once in the yearly courses of the whirling deep, at the glowing dawn of Phoebus’ rising, a certain furious robber of armed men entered the borders of a hostile land. Then, as they ranged the grey-locked hills by a swift path among the crests, he marked a bristly band of swinish kind among the groves. Then a certain sturdy tyrant pierced the shaggy side of the fat boar with a wild dart; and at once he turned the dewy corpse on the neck with a wide skilled pull in its purple gore; and the keepers slaughter the vast bitterness with their swords. And they smite the flint with iron metal and spread the sunny pile with brushwood; the flame-vomiting hearth sends smoke over the leafy wood. Then a four-square gridiron is set on the spits; and they roast the bristly limbs with rosy flames; and they thread the raw hams on wooden spits; the drops of bloody liquor fall among the fires, and the warriors taste the roasted morsels of fleshly weight; they gulp the swinish feast in their throats.

Then the dwellers, offspring of that land, plucked continually the utmost borders of the natal soil, lest the hostile peril should prevail over their fathers’ furrows. And now, ranging the wonted windings of the final globe, they spy the decreed robber among the woodland oaks. Then the leafy glade crashes at the rushing troop, and the wanton company cries out at once that no survivors should escape from the band in the cruel slaughter — before the savage claws of birds should bear them into the air. Then the furious tyrants mass the drawn battle-line, and the weapon-bearing snouts(?) carry swords; the wooden(?) belt(?) is scattered in a brazen furrow; the fierce darts pierce with balanced sway; the digested(?) javelins bore the fleshy limbs; and the flesh-bearing streams of purple gore creep through the sides; the shapeless giants fall in the field; and the fighters loose the men with swords, while the poisonous robber breaks the rushing phalanx with combat-strength. They strip the corpses of their heap of deadly garments, and the cruel ones exult in a dreadful tumult.

Then returning by the backward road to their fatherland, the dwellers frame a fabulous story.

HERE THE HISPERIC SAYINGS END. AMEN.

B. Echternach Text #

(A mutilated parallel version of the Famina from the Echternach MS.)

…a shaking of the canvases; the human strife shakes the race of the blast; they blow Phitian(?) separations among the tyrants, and sow heavy slaughters; the fierce packed rulers overturn the regimes; hence food diminishes for all the husbandmen; and little wretched provisions stand among the children. Though with such a chosen council of enchanters I invite the famous contest(?) with full speech — whoever shall rush upon the noble circle of the reader’s pomp, that he may have fashioned the contending trophies; for I am hemmed by a sturdy rampart of armed chanting; at once I unsheath an iron sword with swift pull, which slaughters the bodily frames with viper-stroke; and I bind the paling foe(?) to the fleshly loins, who knits the packed tubes(?) with a close blush; I brandish the steel dagger of regular sharpness, which pierces the fostering forms with a poisonous stroke; and poison-sharp ulcers infest the limbs. I warred with three athletes in the struggle; I cut down the rude soldier(?); I prostrated the strong coeval in warlike combat, and resolved that the fierce Cyclopes should strive, who wage the stronger strife in the field.

This flowery troop adorns the upper light, which binds the comely rugs on the limbs, and heaps the golden signs, and nourishes the braided locks on the crowns of men; here the fair blaze of the honourable company burns. Hence let them ask the excellent lord of the Olympian throne, that they may judge to bend a fitting support. For lo, a sturdy bear breathes fury which burns to swallow this shining phalanx, and balances savage wounds on the trembling cohort — unless the ruler of the sky grant a fostering protection.

You who watch this comely council with a swift step(?) of the kiss, and knit many-formed heaps of garments with manifold brightness, blow forth an immense pride in the aged company; you turn with the tongs of loquacious clangour a wondrous round which confines the safe tenor of comely speech; and no sins resound with a foul heap; and you bewitch the windy applause with a tinkling concert, and excellest the blowy note with a dense(?) sound; whereby you entertain the learned houses of the multitude. But a light-bearing sprinkling adorns not the ample pomp of sound, since you fashion an external rumourous enchanter possessing(?) with thick foliage, for no trophies assist you — since you utter not the wonted fashioning of speech.

Therefore give the noble counsel(?) to the wheeling clangour(?), that he may divide the path of this shining assembly — may he rush with swift step upon his natal bound, that he may have bound(?) in a grey cloak(?) with a solid bond…

[About 200 lines are missing here.]

…they overshadow the grey(?) birds; fix the dense hooks among the wattles, that they may stand a flaxen path of snowy vapour on the wall(?); may it stir a sudden spectacle for the rustic dwellers. Cover the standing couches with leather mats, and let the weary company sit with bent limbs.

Feed the sparkling furnace with dry sticks, gather the sunny torch, that the fire-haired glow may breathe out burnings and draw forth a dark cloud of smoke; may it warm the cold salted flanks with a coal-touch. Separate the skilled exactor from this teachable band, who shall ask such owners in chosen speech that they grant honeyed provisions with bounteous favour. For a close bond of the Roman tenor rules me, nor do I display a Scottish-born series with an open forceps(?), but with a staff taken from a wooden club I shall quell the canine(?) tumult. The comely dwellers of this castle excuse themselves with a marble(?) clangour, for the husbandmen are burdened by wandering troops with continual assault; yet they will grant a small meal with their serving-men. Divide the granted heaps of comforts, and separate the choir in twice-two rhythm.

Load the burdened tables with a rich heap for the company; hallow the savoury hunger with a heroic concert, that it may pour forth wholesome sweetness into the breasts. Warm the ancient food in a sturdy furnace, that the burnings may draw forth a hot vapour; fill the hollow baskets with a heaping of fragments — lest the dwellers rush upon the torrid leaf of Acheron, who have bestowed the honeyed plenty of the feast. But let them sue the summit of the heavenly throne, that, clad in tawny robes, they may stand among the holy companies. Let each ask the noble mother with a slow flux of words, that she may pour the watery Lethean(?) into the ashen washing-place — so that with foaming salt liquor he may boil the hairy hides. For the foul hair-cloth overshadows the man; yet washed with lye it sharpens the houses(?); the thick mane restores the sharp little knee(?).

Let us hasten to visit our hosts, with whom we have made fast a pact — you who have chewed savoury provisions; we ground the wheaten crusts with our jaws; we sucked the fore-sweet refection with the bendings of our teeth; we sipped the milky draughts of the sleepy showers(?). The Titan inflames the salt-born blue-grey of the western Amphitrite; he turns the torrid ruddy ones beneath the night cloud; the day confines the alternate…

[lacuna]

…the glow embraces the east. Another day-luminary reddens the fore-space; another, the submerged star, lights the hidden shadow; the shining Pleiades hide the sky, and it joins the twin warriors(?) in lightning whiteness; the blazing Boötes hide the Olympian palate; others run their courses nearer the boards of heaven; others cut the remoter climes; the upper sphere embraces the digested(?) whole; it weighs the axle and the convex hinges in turning revolution; it moves the seven globes with a flowing course; the celestial site embraces twin hemispheres; the clouded barriers cover the sky; and they sow the watery summits with a dark harrow. The angelic companies possess the high throne of the firmament, who sit on golden seats of heavenly honour, on whom the purple headbands of gems glitter, clad in snowy robes; the companies run through the longed-for bounds. Olympus masses the ample colleges of the adorned, which… of speech-making sayings… [here the text breaks off, as A 380]

[And: “Lest I stir up weariness in the learned cohort” = A 529.]

[On prayer] #

I ask the sublime Ruler, who governs the Olympian sphere with ample command, who founded the soil of earthly things with fruitful restraint, which brings forth countless offspring with fruit-bearing fashionings; who masses fragrant spices; who restores the many-formed companies of living things; who furnishes food-bearing delights to the digested(?) troops; who calms the foamy channels of the sea(?); and represses the stormy separations of the ocean; who covers the sky-blue land with stormy billows, and confined the grey bound in the worldly depth; who often swells the wave-sounding sea with blasts, so that the troubled waters tremble; and at other times restrains the chattering waves with calmed warmth, and compresses the sturdy gusts of the winds; at other times swells the air with a clamorous blast of north winds.

Who covered the fostering oaks with leather-clad clusters(?); who led the Israelite troops through the deep, and the overhanging mound of Titan murmur stood on either side; they wondered at the footpath in the marble sea; the Egyptian company the deep swallowed. To the heavenly host he made nectar-sweet food flow with a brazen harrow(?); the camps lay open in fragrant sweetness. He opened the hard rock with a ruling stream, and dared to draw ever-flowing brooks from the glassy gulf(?); he kept the three children in the furnace’s heat by a pious mist of rain; he drew the famous prophet from the lion’s maw and held fast the savage jaws, lest they touch the holy limbs with pestilent bite — so may He steer the safe raft through the glassy waves, that I may reach the flowery port with wholesome rowing.

[On a deed done] #

Once a certain tyrant of furious draconic pride, not content with his wonted royal throne, summoned a huge expedition; then, the forces being summoned from every side, puffed up with proud arrogance, and ships gathered to the shore, he prepares to embark a fleet. Then with sturdy paces, ranging the ample meadows in troops, they carry the beaked barks on their necks; and treading the shore-fields with their steps, they push the marble(?) things with resounding soles. And twisting the giants’ pride(?) among the blue-grey ships, they set the chosen path with oar-strokes; the rowers sit on the solid benches; and when the canvas is stretched they spread it with the rigging(?) then, among the roaring waves with the oars, the fleet is borne into the deep.

Now voyaging through the waters with sturdy strokes, the quivering north wind shakes the straits; the salt rain scatters into the starry furrows with the whirlwind; and with wave-wandering motions the perilous sides of the ships are battered; the salt bilge flooded the prows; the frightened keels sank into the lowest valleys of the waves; and the sky flashed with frequent lightnings; and the thunderous clangour resounded over the deep; and the sailors feared the offended rocks; they thought the treacherous reefs held shipwreck in their embrace.

Then, as they swept the glassy foam of the wave-sounding gulf with their ships, a monster yawns with savage jaws, and swallowed the trembling fleet with a horrible gape; and the vast crew of sailors sat in the deep(?). Then, striking the hard flints with iron metals and gathering the spawn of sunny fungus(?), the rowers nourish a torrid pyre, and slaughter with blades the morsels of the monster’s carnal mass; then roasting the entrails on the flames, and with drops of fat trickling through the burning, and with a rosy glowing furnace, the provoked monster rushed into the huge throat(?) upon the goaded limbs(?).

Now the rowers, imperilled with famine’s heat, build a gridiron in the dolphin-womb(?); and revive their breast with the roasted feast of fleshly weight; then they twisted the huge monster to the trembling channels of the wave-sounding sea toward the shores; the foamy blue-grey carried the giant across. It hung among the shore-rocks with shapeless mass. This struck horror into human posterity, who saw the unwonted monster of the vast gulf in the reefs — the dwellers of the whole earth rushing in from every side to gaze on the shapeless rock, to cut the monster’s flanks with blades, to carry the huge limbs on their necks; they bore away the vast weights, and cutting the twin ribs with axes… [lacuna]

…with the covering of unforeseen nakedness(?) on their heads, they at once spy the robber. And this famous tale shone among the human races, and the decreed fame grew among the children.

THIS WORK WAS FINISHED IN THE NAME OF THE HEAVENLY BASILEUS. BE IT SO. IT IS ENOUGH. THIS IN THE NAME OF ELION. EIE.

The Sphere of Pythagoras #

§1. The reckoning of the sphere of Pythagoras the philosopher, which Apuleius describes: for whatever thing you wish to know — for instance of the sick — on what day of the week it happened and what moon it was, you must know; and add also the name of the man himself according to the letters written below, and so gather into one and divide into thirty; and whatever remains, look in the sphere, and so you shall find it. And if you find it above, he shall live and it shall be prosperous; if below, he shall die.

[The figure: an upper semicircle headed “From heaven — life”, a lower “From earth — death”, containing the lucky and unlucky numbers; with a table giving each letter its value: A=3, B=4, E=12, F=4, I=15, K=15, N=16, R=13(?), S=8, T=10, V=7, Y=4; and the numbers i–xxx distributed between the two halves. In the Petersburg MS. (lat. Q. i. 34, 9th c., from Corbie) the values differ: C=27, D=24, E=25, M=16, N=15, R=23.]

Miscellanea #

§2. Galen says that in the human body the signs of death are these: the brow reddens, the eyebrows droop, the left eye shrinks, the tip of the nose whitens(?), the chin falls, the pulse runs ahead(?), the feet grow cold, the belly fails; the wakeful youth and the sleepless old man(?).

Urine white in the morning, red at dinner, and again clear after dinner is best. Black urine is bad — worst of all. Urine pure and cloudy signifies death near at hand. Red urine, if it have a sediment, is not dangerous.

§3. Mons Aquilus(?): the Paraclete. Thus the lion, the shepherd, and the kid — “How girdled with torches the sodomite lust of the fathers” (Prudentius, Psychomachia 42).

§4. In six days God fashioned the matter of created things: on the first day He made light; on the second, the firmament of heaven; on the third, the form of sea and land; on the fourth, the stars; on the fifth, the fishes and the birds; on the sixth, the beasts and the cattle; last of all He made man — the first Adam — in His own image.

From the beginning of the world to the Flood there are 2,242 years.

The sun — from which it took its name: because it is alone (solus) (from Isidore).

A Dialogue #

§5. “To my God I wish to turn; my wife I wish not; Lord, this I beg of You: to You alone I wish to serve; depart from me, wife.”

“Well did God join us; my soul rejoices; had this pleased God, my sweet spouse had been taken from me(?). Calamity departs from me; I will not hear those words; if marrying delights you, you seek another husband(?).”

“Day and night I grieve and weep for my dear husband; if it cheat you of me(?) you lie not at the side of your sweet spouse.”(?)

C. Echternach Glossae Collectae #

(A glossary of the hard words of the Famina, with Latin and Old Breton/Irish interpretations.)

1. cadus — wave; 2. folium — valley; 3. haud — not; 4. pulla — black; 5. domescas — minds/wits; 6. conclauas — veins; 7. lectriceam — of the reader; 8. conis — eyes; 9. baiolat — carries; 10. stemata — signs; 11. ausonicum — Italic; 12. propinnat — serves/ministers; 13. forcipe — mouth; 14. austam — douohinuom; 15. sophismatum — questions; 16. cespitis — of earth; 17. sulco — rec; 18. lectriceus — of the reader; 19. cetus — drogn [troop]; 20. remota — guparth [far]; 21. rumoris — clot [fame]; 22. ora — end; 23. digestus — narrated; 24. uibrat — crihot; 25. pernas — limbs; 26. uicerricatus — rocredihat; 27. ulcera — creithi [wounds]; 28. assiles — cronion [fighters]; 29. gugras — heads; 30. garrulis — riglion [speaking]; 31. turmae — multitude; 32. limphis — waters; 33. spumaticus — euonoc [foaming]; 34. pontus — sea; 35. inertes — blinion [sluggish]; 36. liquidis — moist; 37. abdit — conceals; 38. indolis — offspring; 39. tabe — [decay]; 40. ufedis — nicedlestneuiom; 41. gibrose — human; 42. pacatis — pacified; 43. genimina — offspring; 44. gibras — men; 45. regulosis — natrolion [regular]; 46. orgiis — imrogalou [rites]; 47. dusmus — devil; 48. bellicamina — wars; 49. quis — by which; 50. mansia — life; 51. migrus — small; 52. esciferis — boitohon [food-bearers]; 53. senis — eusiniou [old]; 54. fidis — toruisiolion [confident]; 55. fusam — gurpait; 56. uerniam — gladness; 57. crasici — pectoral; 58. uenereis — couuuantolion; 59. prosapia — offspring; 60. sulcauissent — roricseti [ploughed]; 61. cimbis — ships; 62. samo — ancou [height]; 63. follaminis — valley; 64. congelo — I gather; 65. incalculatis — innumerable; 66. factio — troop; 67. inm[…] — airoho; 68. alborea — white; 69. olluauit — rogulipias; 70. semigilatis — hantertoetic [half-yellow]; 72. fenosa — gueltiocion [grassy]; 73. machides — airmaou; 74. alligeris — atanocion; 75. orticumetris — birds; 76. essum — diprim [eating]; 77. afroniosus — euonoc [foaming]; 78. guturicauit — roluncas [swallowed]; 79. titonis — of the sea; 80. reumas — ships; 81. fultris — hooks; 82. inormis — huge; 83. arcontium — of princes; 84. indolis — of races; 85. phalanges — bodiniou [bands]; 86. pastricant — they rule; 87. arcontes — princes; 88. decrecit — dodimenu [diminished]; 89. essura — dorued [hunger]; 90. turmae — multitude; 91. lugubres — [mournful]; 92. apocatur — is placed; 93. pantes — all; 94. grasatur — dodipre; 95. uecordia — bicolod [madness]; 96. normae — rules; 97. nequit — nepen [he cannot]; 98. uiraginis — of a woman; 99. incerte — blin; 100. edulia — doruedou [foods]; 101. decoreo — cadr [fair]; 102. collegio — cuntullet [assembly]; 103. acri — deurr [sharp]; 104. lastro — (no gloss); 105. docilia — teachable; 106. atrocia — arotrion [fierce]; 107. armamenta — arms; 108. prepugnis — ardren [very swift]; 109. auelloso — catol; 110. spadam — sword; 111. inormia — dermorion [huge]; 112. concitis — buenion [swift]; 113. somata — bodies; 114. partimonia — rannou [portions]; 115. candentem — white; 116. tolibus — limbs; 117. peltam — shield; 118. pastricat — rules; 119. litturam — Unom; 120. neui — tigom [marks]; 121. durili — calut; 122. spicula — javelins; 123. fidoque — torguisi; 124. occupat — acupot; 125. tutamine — (no gloss); 126. toles — limbs; 127. acrostratam — golbinoc; 128. regulosi — poisoned; 129. uibro — creham [I brandish]; 130. toxicis — deadly; 131. perforo — treorgam [I pierce]; 167. cum priscae imagines — narratis; quis — aquibus; humana — mortalem; numerum — strouis; obsequiis — natrolion; occidi — militem; astoitou — catalmol; enarima — occidi; opera — airou; signis — turbae; electa — candidis; gubernant — innumeratas; ornati — collocant; uestes — collocant; liou — milinon; cron — guiltiatou; mogou — cripeticion; ableuou — comtoou; entic; 168. tegnae — cepriou; 169. scratu — aqrimunou; 170. natus — son; 171. turmae — trebou; 172. munimenta — caiou; 173. concitis — bueniou; 174. lastrat — invites; 175. praecentur — iolent; 176. phalangem — bodin; 177. instans — present; 178. reseratis — opened; 179. queraesta — beast; 180. cianti — aarecer; 181. forcipe — mouth; 182. palat — reveals; 183. etossilem — ascrunol; 184. sennarum — of teeth; 185. seriem — nim; 186. eximius — best; 187. polici — [heavenly]; 188. exigendus — to be asked; 189. herus — god; 190. censuerit — judged; 191. factionem — drog; 192. emulamenti — cormo; 193. collegia — cuntelletou; 194. lustrant — arcera; 195. unitum — one; 196. perfundo — doguorennam; 197. consolatum — counsel; 198. uulgantem — wandering; 199. perauia — ndohinto; 200. basium — pedum; 201. articus — end; 202. etagrica — tiroliou; 223. hisperica — scotica(?); ornauerit — cron; predicas — sententias; congregationis — douolouse; ore — reuelas; quis — aquibus; cobrouol — emcobloent; bud — adiutoris; sententiis — ferat; dodocetic — uestimenta; nouo — holeused.

Hisperica Famina: D-Text #

(Paris MS. lat. 11411 — a fragmentary fourth text, badly faded.)

[On the sea] #

[Of this…] I compose the round. This sounding sea belches a salt belch from its shore-depth; and it beats the airy courses; the twofold Titan(?) encircles the field(?)… the shore journey of the planets; at other times it makes its own in the womb with waves; the mutual opening(?) fashioning; it is often shaken by the stormy gusts of the winds; the sea rouses a roar; sometimes raging the sea… the warmth; nor does it breathe any strifes with strong blast; the lowest it belches forth with foamy clangour; it strikes the sublime crags with waves; it uproots the rolling oysters in the parting; it rolls the seaweed into the fields with wave-wandering things; it… the broad channels of the sea(?); it breeds innumerable dolphins beneath the ruling gulf; it sweeps the sounding mackerel(?)-channel; the deep nourishes countless little fishes; it carries the keels in the storm(?); it supports many skiffs with grey mane. If the dwellers should see the deep womb of the swift sea, they would perish at once…

[On fire] #

This rosy pyre rages with trembling blades; it folds flames in the coal; so the fire(?) breathes out molten morsels; it belches an ample thing in black vapour; it assails the warm touch on the limbs of men; it quenches the chill with its belch; it draws out the shady roofs; and it drives out the dark gloom with sadness(?); it warms the flame-sounding things; and it softens the inner waters’ liquors; it roasts the raw hams; it scorches the caked crusts in the heat — all for human dwellers. It burns the woodland things with torment; it licks the brushwood with fuel; it diminishes the ashen things into embers. In the golden(?) womb of the flint the fire-bearing… and it balances masses with a softening heat; it melts the silver metals in the furnace — if all the dwellers should open the ash-trees(?), the ashen heap would break it in the flame-sound.

[On the sky] #

…the sphere rules the wondrous site; it bounds the excellent vault by a company; the pole joins the high top(?) ; the twin stars of chief brightness; one adorns the daily bounds with glow and chokes the starry(?) Hyades in splendour; another with pale rays… the submerged night; and the darkness of night vapour; it heaps the roseate summit… they shine out with gleams of upper whiteness(?). The sky rules the five zones; the others burn the deep in hot blaze and breathe out the fiery burning; the rest breathe the excessive dire whirlwind and scatter the sparkling motes upon the earthly soil. And it is ever veiled with dark clouds, through which the varied shower of sprinkled liquor flows; the courses of the sky run more swiftly…; they weigh the mobile climes and weigh the convexity in revolution… lest the flood beguile(?) the slope of heaven; the innumerable globe knits the signs, which with wordy… I treat in company.

[On the field] #

…the earthly soil is walled about with a Titan sea-girdle; by the clear… shores; the ample worldly cycle; the mountainous and fostering summits which are veiled with leafy woods; and countless things fold the generations of wild beasts in the valleys, which possess and tread the scrub with steps. The worldly(?) rules the houseroofs; the covered tiles bewitch(?) the round; they knit the fourfold stature; [treasures]; countless… to human; it brings forth grain-crops in the clods; and generations; on the leafy stretched; which the sweet-bearing on the leafy hills; it fosters the fragrant with chosen sprouting and fills the troops; the earthly; which heap the nectar-like clusters on the vine-shoots; innumerable; they set the juices; and the many herbs’ food; but the poisonous; countless… they hurl; the sounding straits flow through the circle(?); which foamy… the mouths flow; and manna-like it aids the crops; it joins the earthly rustic tracts; itself the twin… of horses; the sea bounds…; the Irish collected(?)…

[On the wind] #

…it turns the foamy channels of the ocean with tumult; it shakes the pools with a trembling touch; the Titan blue-greys from the crags; it assails the perilous ships; it bends the fostering oaks with its swelling; and it breaks the other leaves with tumult; it strips the upper roofs with its assault; it sacrifices the close-set fences with clamorous warmth… and they mark out there four winds; the north-winds with murmuring crash; and as it were the wings; they blow the worldly thing in the vast air; the murmurous north wind beats the trophies, which snatched up the deluge on high and the ruling quarter; and it strikes the bodily forms with its touch; nor can the storm be looked upon; and the high… of men digested… from the wings of the winds…

[On the book-satchel] #

…with the warm stuff(?) ; it is shut with a curved lid; it knits the pack; on the shoulders; within… the reckonings; who expressed the famous wisdom; this digested thing whitens outwardly the curve(?); which joins the bristly texture with a thick weft; it once covered the flanks of a certain beast; hence the whole page(?) of the hide was stripped; and at last the… the books digested…

Manuscripts of the Lorica #

B = Leabhar Breac (14th c.); C = Book of Cerne (9th c.); H = Harl. 2965 (8th c.?); K = Cologne, formerly Darmstadt (9th c.).

“This lorica Laidcenn sang thrice every day.”

The Lorica #

Help, O Unity of the Trinity; have mercy, O Trinity of the Unity; help me, I pray, set as it were in the peril of the great sea, lest mortality draw me with it this year, nor the world’s vanity; and this same I ask of the sublime powers of the heavenly host, that they leave me not to be torn by enemies, but now defend me with mighty arms, and that those hosts of the heavenly army go before me into the battle-line — Cherubim and Seraphim with thousands, and Michael and Gabriel and the like. I pray the living thrones, the archangels, the principalities and powers and angels, that defending me in dense array I may be able to overthrow my enemies. Then also the other champions: the patriarchs, the four-times-four prophets, the apostles — pilots of Christ’s ship — and all the martyrs, the athletes of the faith, I ask: that through them salvation may hedge me about, and every ill perish from me.

May Christ strike with me a firm pact, whose fear(?) may terrify the foul crowds. O God, defend me on every side with impenetrable guard and power; deliver all the limbs of me a man(?), with a safe shield protecting each one, that the foul demons may not hurl their darts into my sides as they are custom — the man, the head, with the hairs and the eyes, the face, the brow(?), the ears, the nose, the lip, the teeth, the neck, the throat, the knee(?), the heel(?), the both hands — my crown therefore with its hairs: be the helmet of salvation to my head, to my brow, my eyes, and my threefold brain; to my face, my lips, my temples, my chin, my beard, my eyebrows, my ears, my cheeks, my jaws, the space between the nostrils, my pupils, the wheels(?) of my eyes, the eyelids, the sockets(?), the gums, the jaw(?) the upper jaws and the throat; to the teeth, the tongue, the mouth, the uvula, the gullet, the windpipe, and beneath the tongue, the neck, the crown(?) the centre, the cartilage — be present, O merciful God, with Your protection. Then be a most safe breastplate about my limbs, about my inward parts, that You may thrust back from me the invisible stakes and nails which the hateful ones fix. Therefore cover me, O God, with a strong breastplate: the shoulders with the shoulder-blades and the arms; cover the elbows with the forearms and hands, the fists, the palms, the fingers with their nails; cover the spine and the ribs with the joints, the back, the loins(?) and the nerves with the bones; cover the skin, the blood with the kidneys, the loins, the hams(?), the buttocks with the thighs; cover the legs, the calves, the thighs’ coverings(?), with the knees, the hams, and the knees; cover the ankles with the shins and the heels, the legs, the feet, and the soles of the feet; cover the branches(?) growing together ten times(?), with the nails twice five, the sinews(?); cover the throat, the little breast, the breasts, the stomach, and the navel; cover the belly, the loins, the genitals, and the womb(?), and the vitals of the heart; cover the threefold liver and the inward parts, the marrow(?), the little kidneys, the midriff with its bond; cover the flesh(?), the chest with the lung, the veins, the sinews, the gall with its sack; cover the neck(?) with the marrows, the spleen, the tortuous intestines; cover the bladder, the fat, and all the countless orders of the joints; cover the hairs and the remaining members whose names perchance I have passed over; cover all of me with the five senses, and with the ten skilfully-made doors(?), that from the soles to the crown I may sicken in no member, without or within; lest pestilence, fever, languor, or pain may drive out life from my body — until now, God granting, I grow old, and blot out my sins with good deeds, that departing from the flesh I may lack the depths, and be able to fly to the heights, and, God pitying me, be borne rejoicing to the heavenly refreshment of the kingdom. Amen.

Rubisca #

(An alphabet-poem addressed to the poet’s raven; the stanza-initials run A, B, C… The school glosses are given in the notes.)

A. Spare, O Lord, the worthy one telling, though sinning openly and unworthily; he falls prostrate with dutiful love, in whose sight is the fear and dread of You.

B. A little crumb(?): hail, well-fitted, good; with two feet(?) boldly pour Yourself, Your own; entering here before my cabin — Rubisca is rare in comings.

C. O you that have two eyes(?)… since the third day past I have turned my course to you(?) — who(?) so great a force, as the rule of Your whiteness of wit(?).

D. Therefore sing a song to an unknowing one(?), and to the poet’s burnt(?) poem, everywhere robbed of the muses’ caves, poor beyond the stridulous voice.

E. No rather the dictatrix of common love(?), a lewd thing bound in the bond of love, importunate with an equal burning, the petitioner of necessity.

F. Now another and another slips from me by a surface of sound(?) speaking, that I may speak with Your peace: I have found You in the bottom of my breast.

G. Do well for me, O least offspring(?), from Your whole adopted(?) [self]; singing the mortal solar songs near the doors, hearing the wonted strains(?).

H. Show first the chattering hard little beak, with the short vibrating tongue within, smoky with both nostrils, and within with close-set teeth, pale-yellow(?)…

I. The gaping forceps thus urges(?) the face, and the gaping jaw which gapes the gullet; the breathless passage of the voice runs, the great bite, will it nill it.

K. With hairs of yellow(?), so combed, with the ears hearing, the whole red head with cherub-face(?) valves, a garment(?) equal to seven.

L. With both round, as in warlike look blacker than the crow, of bilberry or cast-away(?) wood, or of blackest glass — the eyes.

M. Without circle of the eyelids, yet equal grace of the brows — philosophers bear no eye(?) without them, yet they bear it not without(?).

N. As they speak(?) of the world’s rosy belly(?) — once knowing ones the fire-bearing; as it were moving the boxwood plectrum of the pipe like a timbrel.

O. White shoulders both ways, hence and hence equally all the broad flat sides(?); the feathered backs(?) by which the limbs(?) swell with little feathers.

P. O triple one, ineffable, and O God unsearchable, O inscrutable artificer — guard the fashioner(?), You.

Q. Of pure brightness, by will with the whole… the womb of the throat(?) with stone, the tail(?) stretched toward the ground, and turned in contrary wise.

R. Show the twice-two so many spreadings of the feet, equal to the strings of certain chords(?), the filed straight scraped shanks, the toes, the legs, the crooked claws(?) hooves.

S. My Rubisca, described, return in the morning; seek the pulpit with a glad garment(?) ; sing the mystic songs inscribed in the cave(?) — less a mime-player(?).

T. All things at rest, you labour not ever(?) you need not, watch, sow not, reap not, sail, grind, gatherest, reap, sow; cease not to lift the gain of the little voices(?).

U. Your monarch through these, as He says, the Olympian(?), scans the whole; by Molossus(?) of things, things are tamed(?); and by the warlike the vigilant bell is sounded(?).

V. The way of… it searches the paths(?), and the swineherd rejoicing gathers; the servant ministers the commands; be you steadfa; let nothing destroy you.

X. Hymn the God of this one, the Father, the one(?), and the God, the saviour of souls, of the catholic flesh(?); and the Spirit, holy, almighty.

Y. Hymn, all you nations of the earth, of the seas, the one, of the heavens… and of the degrees and of the infernal ones(?)…

Z. Hymn, Jonah(?)… in these ages(?); by this wisdom all things you did make, and me also by art; O hero eternal in the citadel of the sky, be merciful to me, O Lord.

Manuscripts of “Adelphus Adelpha” #

C = Cambridge University Library Gg. 5. 35 (11th c.); S = St Omer 666 (10th c.).

The Alphabet-Hymn “Adelphus Adelpha” #

A. Brother, sister, mother — also the son(?), the daughter — father(?): they die(?) equally.

B. We see all the saints(?) conquered by the dying ones(?) — so is the life of this world.

C. Let us call upon the Lord that He give His will(?) and His help to us.

D. Teach, O master, the whole book acutely; you must not keep silence.

E. An equal crown(?) we have with God, if we let go(?) the evil.

F. Deceitful is the life of the world; it falls like the flower of the hay; the kingdom of God remains.

G. O man, do good; avoid the bloody man(?), that you may be helped in Sion.

H. Go from evil; dwell in Christ’s law, that you may be an heir in heaven.

I. The people is of God who ever serves Him, and it shall be in the sceptre of the sky.

K. The lover(?) of the world in the last season fails like violets.

L. Low is the place(?) below, where the sinner from among the devils is cast into mourning.

M. Drunkenness kills the soul; after it passes hence(?) let us look to the body.

N. Deaf is the man, and his eye blind, not doing God’s commands.

O. With shield(?) in the anchorite(?) He defends the warriors(?).

P. Heap up works, that when they have pleased(?) you may be a dweller in bliss(?).

Q. The Lord… His holy one(?), reckon yourself(?).

R. Wretched is the waxing man(?); the champion-wise who becomes just without blemish.

S. Our flesh is nourished; afterwards it is driven; by evil pains it dies.

T. I wonder in my mind that I have seen on earth a man without blemish.

U. Know you first the faithful(?)…

[The text ends incomplete here in the edition’s printing, with the glosses: Tamaxo — “I wonder”; idon — “I saw”; Uonitue — “understand”; proten — “first”; amomum — “faithful”.]

The hymn closes (in the manuscripts) with:

"…the shining (asarum nitentem) with the high(?)… the presules(?) holding a brief whole(?)… acting the holy anxiety(?); and the father-God received the Passion-vessel(?) for the redemption of men."