Metrum I
Songs with zeal flourishing I did once compose,
But now doleful, alas! Sad themes am compelled to undertake.
Lo! I, the tattered Muses say, must write of these things,
That with honest tears these elegiacs may bedew my face.
Upon the Muses, at least, could prevail no fear,
Lest as my companions they no longer follow my march.
They, the glory of my once-fortunate and flourishing youth,
Now comfort my Orlays’1 sad old age.
For hastened by evils came then she, unexpected Old Age,
And grief an epoch bid her begin -- her own.
Out-of-season are fallen from my brow hoary hairs
And trembling all over my exhausted body is my worn-out flesh.
Death is Man's fortune, for in pleasant years Death does not himself
Sow - but in sad times, oft called, cometh he.Alas!
How upon deaf ear does he from the wretched turn,
And weeping eyes does he deny to close, oh cruel Death!
All the while was with airy rewards Fortune in ill faith bestowing,
A life had a grim hour all but nearly devoured: mine own.
Now her own deceptive face has cloudy Fortune altered,
And forward drags unwelcome delays with unholy life.
Why me lucky did so oft ye vaunt, oh friends of mine?
He who has fallen, was upon a firm step not he!
Prosa I
While I was thinking on all these thing silently to myself and began to put my dutiful stylus to pen a tearful 'plaint, when a woman of fear-invoking countenance appeared standing near me and yet above my head. She had fire-flashing, sharp eyes, beyond the usual power of any person, and possessed a complexion fresh and also an unquenchable liveliness; although she seemed so full of the bloom of life that in no way would one believe her to be of our age, she carried herself with an uncertain distinction. While on the one hand she had the common height of a person, she also appeared to strike the heavens with the top of her head! Whenever higher she bore her head aloft, into the very heavens was she lost, and made those anyone who turned their eyes up at her cast their gaze in vain. Her raiment was of the most fine fibers, with the under-woven cloth a craft not-to-be-undone; and, as I learned after she later told me, she herself had woven them with her own hands. That particular dirtying of neglect which accompanies senescence had shrouded their appearance, just as imagines inevitably grow soot-covered. On the outermost edge of these was the Greek Π; but on the hemline a Θ was read there woven. And also, between either letter in the manner of stairs were certain marked steps seen, by means of which from the lower to the higher letter there be an upwards climb. However, this same garment had hands of some violent men rent and small parts --as many as able-- they had borne off. Her right hand booklets was wielding, and her left hand a scepter.
When this woman beheld the poetic Muses, how near my couch they stood and because of my weeping words were reciting, she was quite a bit disturbed and in her stern bright-eyes she was inflamed.
"Who," saith she, "has allowed these stage-playing strumpets towards this ill man to approach? What pains are these of his that not only with no medicines might they administer care, but --over and above this!--they with sweet poisons him nourish? For these are they, who with the blightful thorns of emotions they the crops of reason --abounding in fruit -- kill. And Men's minds they inure to illness. Set free they do not. But if this were any-old-someone -- just as is the common rabble accustomed to ye -- your flatteries would draw such one away; less irritatingly must he be endured I should consider -- for of course not at all would on such a one my efforts be betrayed. But him in the Eleatic and Academic pursuits has been nourished. But get ye gone; ye had better, ye Sirens! Up until the end sweet ye are, and him my Muses must care for and make him right -- now leave him!"
At these words, the lot of them reprimanded cast to the ground their countenance --so gloomy they were! -- and having avowed with red blushing their shamefacedness, the threshold they --so grim!-- departed. But I, whose sharpness of sight by tears drowned was darkened, nor to discern was I able, who pray this woman was of such commanding prestige. And with my gaze earth-ward fixed, what in the world she intended to do I continually to await began -- in silence. Then, nearer approaching, she on the outermost part of my little couch sat down and upon my face gazing, my face heavy with sorrow and upon the ground sadly downcast, with these verses my mind's disturbance did she lament.
Metrum II
"Alas! How in headlong depths drowned
Does thy mind grow dull and with proper light bereft,
It strives into outer shadows to go.
And by earthly gusts so many times grown large,
Thus grows into enormity this harmful worry!
Once before, this man under the open sky was free,
Accustomed into airy paths to trod.
Observing he was the rosy sun's rays!
Seeing he was the frosty moon's phases!
And whatever star in its wandering course
Drives on, bent in its manifold orbits,
A grasping of all their numbers, he, an expert, had.
And also, what are the causes: whence the noisy
Winds stir the level surface of the sea?
Or flieth what spirit upon the steadfast globe?
Or why into the Western waves the heavens
Are to fall, which riseth from the ruddy East?
Or what does make calm Spring's peaceful hours,
So that the earth with rosy blooms it does adorn?
Who makes it so that with a year fulfilled,
Fruitful Autumn with heavy grapes abound?
To reveal all these he was wont, and covert
Nature's diverse causes to openly declare.
Now lieth he, the light of his mind wearied,
And oppressed by heavy chains about his throat.
Down-turned by weight does he wear his face,
Compelled he is, alas! upon the coarse ground to gaze.
Prosa II
"But for remedies," saith she, "it is time more than for complaints." But then in her wide eyes me she held in her grasp: "Art thou he," asketh she, "who by our milk once nourished, by our provisions reared that into a manly spirit's vigour thou hadst emerged? But anywise, such arms had we brought together, which if not before thou hadst cast them aside, with un-vanquished steadfastness for thee they would be watching out. Dost thee not know me? Why art thou silent? Is it with shame or stupidity that thou hast been quiet? I would prefer shame, but thee, as I see it, stupidity crushes underfoot."
When I was not only silent, but tongueless, even more so dumb, me she had seen, she moved her hand to my breast softly. "There is no danger," saith she, "lethargy endures, the common disease of those minds fooled away to nothing. He has -- for awhile -- forgotten himself. He will recall easily, if indeed he will have remembered us a'fore. However much it is possible, for a time, let us his eyes with the fog of mortal-stuff darkening, wipe all away."
These things she said, and while mine eyes with tears were rising like waves, with her garment drawn together into a fold she dried them.
Metrum III
Then, with night shattered, out of me the shadows like water ran,
And to mine eyes as before returned mine own vigour,
As when by Corus rushing headlong foul weather is rolled together,
For then with teeming storm-clouds is2 the arch of heaven.
The sun is hidden away, and skyward come the stars,
And down from above unto the earth is night poured;
Then, just as if this night Boreas, sent forth from his Thracian cave,
Might strike and then unbar the day,
Shineth forth and, gleaming with light, does Phoebus
Mine amazéd eyes with light-rays strike.
Prosa III
Just so -- in no other way --, from sadness as the clouds melted away I drew up to the heavens and, Reason I received anew so that I might recognize my healer's face. And so when upon her I drew down mine eyes and my gaze upon her fixed, I then beheld again my nurse, at whose Lares from my boyhood on I had once spent my days: lo! Philosophia!
"And why," say I, "hast thou into these, our banishment's lonely confines, O guide of all virtue, fallen from the highest pole of the heavens come? Is it that also thou -- as I have! -- a defendant hast been driven here by untrue accusations?"
"Nay," saieth she, "should thee I have abandoned? And thy burden, which for an ill-will toward mine own name thou once bore, yea, should not have I taken a share of, and off of thee by sharing in the toil? And furthermore, it is not within Philosophia's godlike majesty to abandon the unaccompanied path of an innocent. Forsooth! mine own accusation ought I to fear? Ha! as if something new has happened -- should I at these things tremble? Hast thou now for only the first time taken the measure of it, that on account of wicked morals Sapientia has been hard assailed by perils? In the company of thine elders, yea also, those before our Plato's age, did we not an oft-great struggle 'gainst the rashness of Stultitia wage in combat? And although that selfsame man survived, did not his mentor Socrates a victory over irrighteous death merit while I stood nearby? Yes, while his own heritage do one after another still the Epicurean mob, and then the Stoics, and all the rest of them for their own faction only -- each one of them -- makes a move to steal me away; and all the while with me railing against them and struggling did they make off, into each their discipline for plunder's sake; all the while my garb, which with mine own hands I had woven, did they rend. And with scraps of cloth falling from my robe, all of me entire did they believe I had yielded to them; and then they left. Though there were times that in them certain of our demeanor's characteristics could be seen; but want of foresight, Imprudentia, did make seem several of them to be my followers; and, because of the a-straying mistake of an ungodly mob, she did overthrow them. Even if neither Anaxagoras' flight, nor Socrates' poison, nor Zeno's tortures -- since they are foreigners -- hast thou heard of, but then what of the Canii, the Senecae, the Sorani of the world, whose memory is neither very old nor un-celebrated? -- thou hast been able to know of these. These whom nothing else into ruin dragged down apart the fact that, because established by our morals they were, they seemed to be most unlike the pursuits of the wicked. And so there was nothing of the sort which thou would'st marvel at, if on the high seas of life by gales gusting all about we are driven, by these persons has the following been pronounced most excellently: to the very evil be disgusted. Indeed, even so their army, full in number, is to be despised, since by no leader is it ruled, but because of that a-straying mistake, so haphazardly and in all directions they by madness are seized. If ever this army against us in battle-array drawing up should prove the stronger and besiege us, then she, our leader, her own forces into the citadel withdraws, and the wicked are by despoiling useless little burdens kept busy. But yea, we from above do laugh at them as they seize everything of the least worth, while we are free from the worry of that whole raging upheaval. And we are fortified on this rampart near which it is not permitted by divine law for Stultitia in her assault to draw breath.
Metrum IV
"Whosoever is serene in his calmed lifetime
He does haughty Orlay underfoot throw down,
And while either Chance, Ill or Good, he sees,
Able is he then to keep upright his undefeated face.
Not when even the threatening sea's
Upheaving rage dost turn 'gainst him from its depths,
Nor whenever from its broken furnaces,
Does inconstant Vesuvius twist up smoky fires.
Or when accustomed to lofty towers strike,
Will a blazing lightning bolt make yon man worry.
Why so much do then the wretched at ruthless tyrants
Look upon amazed, the former strength-less lashing out?
Nor shouldst thou hope for anything, nor shouldst thou fear:
Thou shalt disarm the wrath of the man not master of himself.
But whosoever is afraid, struck with fear, or gives to hope,
Because not steadfast is he, and not his own master,
He hath cast down his shield and from the field retreated.
He hath tied the fetter by which one day he shall be dragged.
Prosa IV
"Dost thou perceive," saieth she, "and these things into thy mind are flowing, or art thou as,
'an ass before lyres'3?"Why dost thou weep? Why art thou with tears bedewed?
'Speak out! Hide it not inside thy mind'4!"If for the aid of a healer thou art awaiting, it would behoove thee thy wound to uncover."
Then I, with my mind gathered in strength, spake:
"Really? Art thou not yet wanting in rebuke? Does the harshness of Fortune not in thee stand out enough, that harshness raging against me? Does not thee the very appearance of this place move -- does it not? This very place is my library, a most purposeful library which thou --thy very self! -- had as a seat for thyself near mine own Lares chosen! Where in my company, often of the knowledge of all things pertaining to Man and to the Divine thou were sowing? Were mine habiliments such back then? Did my face read as such, whene'er with thee Nature's secrets did I unearth? Whene'er to me the constellations' paths with thy rod thou wouldst write down? Whene'er my morals and the course of mine entire life thou wouldst mould according to heavenly order? Are these then the rewards I bear back since I did obey? And yet thou didst this opinion from Plato's mouth decree: 'blessed shall be the Republics if either wisdom-seekers might rule them, or if it would have chanced the Republics' rulers to seek wisdom'. Advised didst thou from the same man's mouth that for wisdom-seekers that this be an important reason to take hold of the Republic, lest to dishonest and shameful citizens of the city the governorship be left and might a deadly plague such ruling bear upon the good. And so this authority I followed, and that which from thee in our secret leisurely pastimes I had learned, to apply this education into the action of the ministering of the Republic, this was my wish. Thou know me as well as the god who did sow thee into the minds of the wise, both ye know that I bore nothing in my administration apart from the common zeal of all good people. Thence with wicked men have I serious and unyielding feuds and, since I have a freedom of Conscientia ("Well-Knowing/Knowing Right & Wrong"), in the name of guarding over justice always is scorned the offense offered by powerful persons.
"How many times did I place myself in the way and removed Conigastus, who upon each weak-willed man's fortunes made he an assault? How many times did I Trigguillam, Prefect of the kingly-home, cast out before implemented was a harm as good as accomplished? How many times did I the wretched protect, wretched men whom with endless unjust charges the unpunished greed of barbarians was forever harassing, and was mine authority cast in the face of peril? Never me away from justice has anyone ever enticed to do harm. And of the provincials' fortunes, which at one time by private seizure and at other times by public taxation were ruined, I was pained no differently than those who were suffering it. When at the time of a harsh famine, a terrible and pointless compulsory purchase of supplies did seem to be on the verge of utterly ruining the province of Campania, all ruined because of want, did I then a contest against the Praetorian Prefect undertake for the reason of common necessity. With the king himself did I contend and, lest that compulsory purchase be carried out, I prevailed. Paulinus, a man of Consular rank, whose wealth those Palatine hellhounds would have already by hope, and then by their greed all but devoured -- from throats themselves of the yawning beasts, I drew him out. Lest Albinus, a man of Consular rank, be arrested to serve punishment for a pre-determined charge, did I expose myself to the hatred of the Denouncer Cyprian. Enough do I seem to have made worse the enmity against me? But among the rest of the people – more safe I should have been, for because of my love of justice was I in no way among the courtiers, those than whom I was greater, preserved. But by which detractors have I been struck down? There was Basilius, who, having from the king’s council been dismissed, into slandering of mine own name because of a need for foreign money was he compelled. And Opilio, and indeed Gaudentius, when on account of uncountable and manifold deceits, into banishment a kingly decree did order them. And when they were unwilling to appear, under the sanctuary of holy temples did they offer themselves and, when this had chanced been learned by the king, he decreed that if not within the preordained day they might from the city of Ravenna depart, then once they by brands be marked on their foreheads, then they might be driven out. What seems to be able to be added to this severity? But yet, on that day, by the very same slanderers of my name was an accusation admitted. What next! Did our skills merit thus? Did their own sentence, which already had been carried out, make those men righteous accusers? Is not Fortune thus ashamed, if not for innocence having been accused, than for the accusors' lowliness?
"But the summary of what crime I am charged, thou ask'st? It was the Senate: I am said to have wished the Senate saved. How, thou ask'st? Mine accusor, lest documents he might produce, by means of which he might the Senate make guilty of treason --this man I hindered; thus I am charged. What dost thou think of this, O Teacher? Shall I confess this crime, lest to thee I be a shame? But I did wish the Senate saved; and not shall I ever cease from wishing it. What shall I say? After all, the task of hindering my accuser has failed. But when I wished for the Senatorial rank's well-being -- shall I call that a wrong? Indeed, the king by his own decrees about me have made it so that wanting this is a wrong. But Imprudentia, forever to herself lying, is unable the facts of the case to change; nor to me right do I think it to, as it is in Socratic dictum,
'hide a truth or give way to a lie'."But that, whatever it may be, to the judgment of thee and the wise ought to be valued -- I leave it there. The chain of the events of this affair, and also its truth -- lest it escape the notice of posterity -- to pen and memory I have committed. For, in the matter of letters composed falsely, in which for Roman freedom I am accused to have hoped -- what is the good of speaking on it? The open falsehood of these documents would have been laid bare if the confession of the accusers themselves a thing which in all such official matters has the greatest strength, I would have been allowed to use! Because of this, for what remaining freedom is able to be hoped? Even more, would that there were any! I should have replied in the words of Canius, who, when by Gaius Caesar, Germanicus' son, was said that knowledgeable of a conspiracy against his person Canius had been, quoth he:
'Had I known of it, you would not have.'"In this affair, not so much has my feelings sadness weakened that I still bewail that the wicked have crimes against virtue committed --nay, but that the things they have hoped for, they have single-mindedly brought about: this amazes me. For the desire for baser things may be, perhaps, some failing of us all; the ability to carry out against innocence whatever every wicked fellow conceives, all with God watching -- that is akin to something monstrous. And hence, though hardly a wrong done to him, has a certain someone of thine own household asked, 'If yea, there be a God," saieth he, "whence evil? But whence good, if He is not?' But right it were that godless men, who for the blood of all good men and of the entire Senate do strive, should even me, whom while fighting on behalf of the good and the Senate they had beheld, wished they to utterly ruin. But did surely the same fate from the Senators I also deserve? Thou recall'st --I think thou dost, since when ready to speak or do something I was, ever present were thou thyself a-righting me. Thou recall'st, I say, when the king, greedy for the downfall of them all, the crime of treason brought forth against Albinus was the king to carry out threatening, then the whole Senate's innocence, with how much heedlessness of mine own danger I did defend.
"Thou know'st that these truths I have proffered, and no praise of myself -- ever -- have I flaunted, for a man hath lessened in some way his own Conscientia's value of himself whenever he hath by showing off his deed received a reward for fame. But even if of mine own innocence anyone would consider, thou see'st the outcome: instead of the rewards of true valor, I yet undergo the penalties of a false accusation of wrong-doing. And did ever the published confession of any crime keep the judges so single-hearted in their adherence to severity that neither any consideration to the very mistake of a human genius, nor to Fortune's lot -- an unstable mistress for all mortals -- would calm any of them? If I were said to have desired to set fire to sacred temples, if I were said to have desired to slit the throats of priests with a sword, if I were said to have engineered murder for all good people, still yet should a sentence have been pronounced on me while I was present in a law-court, and still yet should I have then confessed or been convicted. Now nearly five hundred miles away without voice and without defense I stand condemned to death and execution on account of a too well-disposed zeal towards the senate -- ah senators, would that ye have deserved it that no one else can be convicted of the same crime!
"Even they themselves who brought forth charges against me accused did see my dignity, and so that they may darken my name by a hodgepodge of some sort of wickedness, they charged me that due to ambition for my high office I had profaned my Conscientia by blasphemy. Even so, thou who art set fixed within me have long since been driving all lust of mortal desires from the seat of my soul, and under thine own eyes it hath not been allowed by God for blasphemy to have place. For thou hast long daily instilled in mine ears and thoughts that Pythagorean dictum:
'Follow thou after God.'"Nor hath it been fitting that me the captains of the vilest spirits should capture, I whom thou were moulding for this excellence so that thou may'st make me like unto God. The inner chamber of my guiltless home, my coterie of most honest friends, and a father-in-law regarded just as holy as thou art to be revered, do defend me from every suspicion of this accusation.
"But -- O God forbid it! For from thee have those accusers drawn their faith in the indictment of such a crime, and so for this very reason I am seen to have been an accomplice to evil-doing, given that in thy training I am steeped and by thy morals I am made resolute. Thus it is not enough that my reverence of thee hath proffered nothing, but beyond that, because of my accusation, thou shalt be torn apart. But now such a cloud as this doth also approach our own ills: the value the masses have towards someone doth not look towards facts, but rather to the outcome of fortune, and deems things only as Providence as what pure luck had rewarded. By which it happens that a good reputation of someone is first of all things to abandon the unlucky. The rumors which are amongst the people about my case, the varied and manifold opinions they have -- it pains me to be reminded of it. I would only say this, that the final burden of an unlucky fortune is that as long as upon the wretched some crime is leveled, these wretches are believed to have earned all that which they suffer. And indeed I, deprived of all my goods, from my honors cut off, by ill-repute seen as tainted, have borne this punishment because of my good deed. Moreover methinks I see the godless factories of the wicked with joy and gladness churning, and every one of the worst criminals threatening with new deceits of downfall, and the good lying prostrate in terror at my accusation, and each criminal roused to dare a shameful deed with impunity, and to bring their crime about for their own rewards, while the guiltless are not only of their rights but even of their protection are deprived.
"And so thus I proclaim:
Metrum V
"O Creator of the star-bearing spheres,
While resting upon thine un-ending throne,
Dost thou in a swift circle the heavens turn,
And ordered law thou force the sky to bear:
Like how with full horns oft shineth she the moon
When apart from her flame-engulfed brother
Doth she in her course dim the lesser stars;
And how hidden now are her horns, and loseth she her listless luster,
When nearer to Phœbus' bright blaze doth she move.
And when at that time early in the night
Doth Hesperos, the Evenstar, bring chill at his rising,
And how changeth again his usual course
Doth Lucifer, Lightbringer, pale at Phœbus' rising.
O thou, who at the cold of the leaf-falling Solstice
Draw close the light of day with but a short delay!
Thou, who when the boiling summer will hath come,
Dost nimble hours divvy up for the night!
Thy might tempers the ever-changing year,
That the leaves which Boreas' breath doth snatch away,
Returning them doth calming Zephyrus bring.
And each of the seeds Arcturus saw
Doth Sirius burn when grow they to tall crops.
There is nothing which due to thine ancient law is undone,
Nor abandoned by the each proper station's task,
Every thing under thy sure domain thou art guiding,
And Man's accustomed acts thou spurn'st
To constrain, though as our ruler thou justly could.
For why doth slippery Fortune change her whims
Such as they are? Harrying the innocent
Is the guilty punishment owed to the wicked,
And corrupted morals sit on a lofty
Throne, and on the necks of the righteous trample
The guilty in their irrighteous condition.
And hidden away is a secret valor,
Its brightness lies in covering shadowing, and bears
The just man the crime of the unjust.
Not at all doth their ugly wrongdoing harm themselves,
Nor at all their deceit, wrapped up in liar's color.
But when it pleaseth them to use their strength,
Then they delight to subvert the greatest kings
Whom countless peoples fear.
O, now upon these wretched lands look thou,
Whoever thou art who bind the universe's bonds!
We, part of such a work as this, not a mean part,
We men quake at the Fortune's tossing saltsea.
Thou ruler, overwhelm those rushing rapids
And with the law by which thou rule'st the boundless sky,
Make strong the lands and stay them still."
Prosa V
When these things I with ending pain bayed like a hound, Philosophia, with a calm expression and in no way moved by my complaints, spake:
"When thee, forlorn and weeping, I saw, I at once knew thee wretched and banished. But of how distant thy banishment is, if thy speech had not betrayed the fact, I would not have known. But it is not how far thou hast been from thine homeland drive out, but that thou hast wandered wide astray: though thou prefer'st to think of thyself as banished, rather thou thyself hast banished thyself. For this unfortunate matter surrounding thee would never have been allowed by God to happen to anyone else. For if thou wert to remember from what country thou were born, -- not in the country of the Athenians, a country once ruled by the power of the many -- but here, where:
'there [is] one lord! | One king[,]'
who is pleased by having a great number of citizens, not by banishing them; to be guided by his reins and to submit to his justice is freedom.
"Dost thou not know that particular law of thy state, by which it hath been decreed that it is not lawful to send into banishment anyone who hath chosen to make a home within the state? For he who is by wall and earthworks surrounded need not have any fear that he be treated as an exile. But should any cease to wish to live within the state, he accordingly ceases to deserve to do so.
"And so not so much doth the appearance of this place move me as thine own appearance, nor the walls of a library made of oaks and glass do I desire more than the palace of thy mind in which I gathered not books, but that which gives books value: the thoughts contained within my books. And yea, thou hast indeed spoken many truths about thy deserts towards the common good, but little of the great tally of thy accomplishments. In regards to either the truth or the falsehood of charges brought against thee thou hast said much that is known to all. In regards to the crimes or the lies of thine accusers rightly thou hast thought they must be cursorily touched upon, for they are better and more fully proclaimed by the mouth of the common people who, in the end, find out everything.
"Yea, thou hast forcefully lamented the deed of an unjust Senate. O'er mine own incrimination thou art aggrieved, and o'er the condemnation of mine injured reputation thou hast also shed tears. And at last, thy pain blazed forth against Fortune, and then thou complained that thy rewards are not counted as equal to thy deserts, and finally thou penned a prayer to thy raging Muse that whatever peace doth rule Heaven ought to rule on Earth. But since so great a disturbance of feelings doth assail thee and asunder do pain, anger, and sorrow draw thee, that thou art of the disposition that not yet are stronger medicines necessary. And so we shall gradually use easier remedies so that the illness which hath with disturbing humors hardened into a tumor may grow soft with a lighter touch in order that thou mayest receive the force of a stronger physic.
Metrum VI
"When under Phoebus' rays doth
Cancer's heavy stars blaze,
He who hath to unrepentant
Furrows entrusted countless seeds,
Is now cheated of his faith in Ceres,
And ought to seek out acorns under trees.
Never in a reddening grove
Ought thou go to gather violets,
When under fierce Aquilo's blasts
The roaring plain shakes a-quiver.
Nor should thou want with thy greedy hand
To prune Springtide vines:
If grapes thou wouldst fain enjoy,
Then rather in Autumntide
Doth Bacchus bestow his gifts.
Marketh God the seasons, affixing
Them to their proper duties He,
And not the orders He hath gathered
Doth he suffer to be disturbed.
Thus if anything in headlong rush
Should abandon His fixed decree,
It doth have no happy end.
Prosa VI
"And so firstly, willst thou suffer me to ask by trifling questions after the state of thy mind and to try to understand what method should be thy care?"
"Under thy true judgment," spake I, "ask thou what thou willst and I shall reply."
Then spake she: "This world of ours -- dost thou think it to be by heedless and chance disasters driven, or dost thou believe there is within it some ordered rule of reason?"
"Oh surely," spake I, "by no means have I imagined that it is by chance heedlessness such fixed bodies be moved, but it is God, I believe, the Creator who presideth o'er his work, nor ever shall there be the day which turns me aside from this statement of truth."
"Thus it is so," spake she. "For thus thou even a short time ago sang and bemoaned that only humankind is outside of the care of the divine. For in regards to the fact that everything else is governed by reason thou wert in no way moved; but my! I am quite astonished why thou, being so secure in such a wise statement, would fall ill. But let us more deeply examine, for something I do not know is missing, methinks. So tell me, since by God the world is ruled thou dost not doubt, dost thou turn thine attention to the rudders by which it is guided?"
"Scarcely," spake I, "know of what the meaning of thy question is, much less am I able to answer it!"
"Ah, it did not deceive me that something is missing, did it? That because of that which is missing in thee a sickness of disorder hath crept into thy soul like unto a gaping hole in the strength of a rampart. But tell me, dost thou remember what is the end of the Universe and whither what goal of all the natural world bends?"
"I had once heard it," spake I, "but my memory hath sorrow dulled."
"But surely thou know'st whence all else hath proceeded?"
"I know that!" spake I, and I replied that it was God.
"And how is it able to be that the the source of the Universe is known, but thou art unknowing of the end of the Universe? But though these humors of disorder are powerful enough to move a man from his place, not able are they to wholly wrest and tear him up root and stem. But there is this which I also wish to ask thee: dost thou remember that thou art human?"
"But how," spake I, " should I forget that?"
"And concerning what a human is art thou able to explain?"
"Art thou asking this? That I know that I am a rational being and mortal? I know it, and admit that I am it."
And she spake: "Dost thou not know what else thou art?"
"Nothing."
"Now I know," spake she, "another of thine illness' most serious cause: of what thou art thou hast ceased to know. For this reason I both have found the reason for thy sickness and the plan for regaining thy health. For, since thou art confused by forgetting who thou art, then thou art pained that thou art both an exile and stripped of thy goods. And since thou dost not know what the end of the Universe is, thou deemest worthless and evil people to be both powerful and fortunate. But since the rudders by which the world is guided thou hast forgotten, thou believest that these turns of fortune flow without a guide. Great enough are these to not only cause illness, but even death. But to the Author of our health let us give thanks that not yet hath nature wholly forsaken thee: we very much have the kindling of thy recovery in thy true statement regarding the guiding of the world, for thou believest it to not be subject to the rashness of chance disaster, but to the rationality of the Divine. Therefore, thou ought to fear nothing, as now from the tiniest spark as this hath the heat of life upon thee shone. But since it is not yet the time for hardier medicines, and that it is commonly known that it is this nature of human minds that as soon as they have thrown away the truth, they don falsehoods, from which arisen is a mist of disorder that confuses its true sight, then gradually with soft and soothing poultice shall I try to diminish this mist, so that with the shadows of deceitful passions scattered, thou mayest be able to recognize the splendor of the true light.
Metrum VII
"If in dark clouds
Are found the stars,
Then no light
Can they shed;
If upon the sea doth
The wild Auster blow
And stir the swell,
Then the once glassy-green
Waves, like unto calm
Days, are soon
By stirred-up grime
Now made filthy
And impede our sight.
And when wanders
Through mountains high
A down-flowing stream,
Then oft it halts
On a wall of stone
Loosened from a cleft.
Just so thou -- if dost wish
To with clear light
See the truth,
Then on the right path
Take up thy footsteps.
Thy joys send away,
Send away thy fear,
And thy hope put to flight,
Nor ought pain be here!
Clouded is the mind,
And bound by fetters
When these things hold sway."
1. "Orlays'". Many of our English words involving Fate, Fortune, and Destiny come from Latinate words: cf. fatum -i n. "Fate, Destiny lit: a thing spoken, an utterance"; fortuna, ae f. - "fortune, chance, lot, lit: that which is brought (to you) [cf. fors, fortis f. - "chance, luck, lot lit: a thing brought", cf. fero, ferre - "to bring, bear"]; and destino, destinare, destinavi, destinatus - "to tie, fasten; establish, appoint, lit. to set/lay out, cf. Eng: destination", respectively. The true Germanic equivalent of these Italic language concepts is "orlay", which comes from the Old English orlæġ (“fate”), which in turn comes from Proto-Germanic *uzlagą (“destiny; fate”, lit. “a thing which is laid out; an out-lay; a plan, cf. Lat: de+stino = destino, destinare.”), from *uz- (“out”) + *lagą (“situation, law, something laid”).↩
2. "is", more literally, "stands". The Latin here is:
cum praecipiti glomerantur sidera Coro
nimbosisque polus stetit imbribus
sol latet ac nondum caelo uenientibus astris
desuper in terram nox funditur;
-Boethius. Consolatio Philosophiae I.Metrum III. 3-6
stetit (bolded above) is a nice example of a Latin Gnomic Perfect. The Latin Perfect tense is a combination of two tenses more properly defined in other languages, such as Greek: the Aorist Tense and the true Perfect Tense. The Aorist defines a punctual or once-completed action in the past; contrariwise, the Perfect tense shows a completed action in regards to present time - the action was done in the past, but still has repercussions of some kind on the present:
"(Aorist) I verbed" vs. "(Perfect) I have verbed"
In Greek, the Aorist is often used to express a general truth, or to report aphorisms or maxims. The same are usually expressed in English in the Present tense: "Mothers can always tell", "A rolling stone gathers no moss." Examples of the past tense ("Curiosity killed the cat.") and future tense usage ("Boys will be boys.") also exist.
Here, Boethius seems to be yearning for a Hellenic Aorist tense and uses the Latin Perfect in much the same way, though in a poor imitation of that tense aspect which the language lacks. Many authors of the post-Classical age suffer from major Aorist envy.
In regards to translating stetit as "stands": I felt that the more literal "with teeming storm-clouds the arch of heaven stands" would be better rendered as the above, as the arch of heaven is always "standing". It just "is".
↩
3. "an ass before lyres". This Greek saying is quoted by Boethius as "ὄνος λύρας" and is taken from a lost satire of Varro. It refers to being incapable of understanding something, "obtuse to higher things", as lost as an ass would be when confronted by music. ↩
4. "Speak out! Hide it not inside thy mind". - Boethius quotes the Homeric line in Greek: "ἐξαύδα, μὴ κεῦθε νόῳ [...]"- Homer, Iliad A.363, where Thetis addresses her weeping son Akhilles after Agamemnon has taken his prize from him. ↩
5. Exsortes is found in Vergil Æneid Book V. It refers to divvying up plunder, as things which were exsortes were extra sortem, "outside of the drawing" and thus were prizes (sometimes human) reserved for individuals of rank and dignity. For Boethius, homines are extra sortem because he believes them to be neglected by God and outside of His watchful eye, while all else in the cosmos falls under His guidance.↩
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