Last
week I bought The wandering Scholars
by Helen Waddell second hand for 50 cents.
I felt overjoyed as I wanted to have this book already for a long time and suddenly
there it stood almost overlooked by me! It describes the lives of the vagantes in the Middle-Ages and as Helen
Waddell was a gifted writer and poet herself, she delighted in making
translations of the Latin poems those scholars wrote.
The
following poem is written by Paulinus of Nola (354-431) for his friend and teacher
Ausonius (310-394). Both men belong to the great minds of late Antiquity
Paulinus
withdrew from public life and left for Spain where he later was ordained as
bishop, without telling, taking leave and answering letters. Ausonius wondered
what happened and also felt a bit offended by Paulinus. Then finally after
years Paulinus answered and ended his letter with a poem for Ausonius which is
still one of the best poems ever written about friendship. But alas, despite
the strong wish of Ausonius to see his younger friend once more before death
would take him, they never met again…
Carmen
XI
Ecce te per omne quod datum mortalibus
et destinatum
saeculum est,
claudente
donec continetor corpore,
discernar orbe quolibet,
nec
ore longe, nec remotum lumine,
tenebo fibris insitum,
videbo
corde, mente complectar pia
ubique praesentem mihi.
Et
cum solitus corporale carcere
terraque provolavero,
quo
me locarit axe communis Pater,
illic quoque animo geram.
Neque
finis idem qui meo corpore
et amore laxabit tuo.
mens
quippe, lapsis quae superstes artubus
de stirpe durat coeliti.
Sensus
necesse est simul et affectus tuos
teneat aeque ut vitam suam,
et
ut mori sic oblivisci non capit,
perenne vivax et memor.
te…..discernar:
I will be set apart from you
saeculum:
predicate to destinatum: by all what
is destined as world (as opposite to heaven)
donec continetor:
as long as I am held
longe ore:
you are not far away from my mouth ( i.e. in my thoughts I am speaking to you)
fibris insitum:
insitum (insero) is a bit strange, but it can mean `incorporated’, so
`wearing clothes’ In heaven people wear no clothes as the soul is incorporeal,
so fibris insitum ` in this world’.
solvo solvi solutum:
to set free
provolo:
to fly forth
axis:
here `heaven’
illic:
in this place, there
animo geram:
I will keep you in my heart
finis laxabit
: both with meo corpore and amore tuo: nor shall the same end, which
shall release me from my body, release me from my love for you.
quippe:
of course
superstes:
surviving
lapsis artubus:
when the joints (= body) has collapsed
duro:
to last, remain
de stirpe coeliti:
because of a heavenly origin
Sensus necesse est et
affectus tuos / teneat aeque ut vitam suam
= necesse
est ut (mens) simul sensus et affectus tuos teneat aeque simul vitam suam
(it is necessary that the mind holds to the feelings and affections for you equal
as to its own life)
capio:
to choose (and in order that mind doesn’t choose to die and so to forget)
vivax:
holding to life, everlasting
memor:
mindful
Here
is the translation and adaption by Helen Waddell:
I, through all chances that are given to
mortals,
And through all fates that be,
So long as this close prison shall contain
me,
Yea, though a world shall sunder me and
thee,
Thee shall I behold, in every fibre woven,
Not with dumb lips, nor with averted face
Shall I behold thee, in my mind embrace
thee,
Instant and present, thou, in every place.
Yea, when the prison of this flesh is
broken,
And from the earth I shall have gone my
way,
Wheresoe'er in the wide universe I stay me,
There shall I bear thee, as I do today.
Think not the end, that from my body frees
me,
Breaks and unshackles from my love to thee;
Triumphs the soul above its house in ruin,
Deathless, begot of immortality.
Still must she keep her senses and
affections,
Hold them as dear as life itself to be.
Could she choose death, then might she
choose forgetting:
Living, remembering, to eternity.
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