Some time ago I bought `A History of
Latin Secular Poetry in the Middle Ages’, by F.J.E. Raby. It contains a wealth
of information and poems of which many, buried in dusty editions, are hardly
read. One such poem is this one by Bishop Eugenius Toledo (647 - 657). It forms
the concluding part of a fairly long poem in which he laments his ill health
and old age. This poem is written in various meters and the final part is Sapphic.
Eugenius was in his time an important leader of the Spanish church and also writer
of prose and poetry. He must have been well read by later scholars and his
poetry is a bridge between classical poetry and the poetry of the Carolinian Renaissance.
As no translation of this poem can be found on internet – and I doubt whether
it has ever been translated – I have made my own. Of course it does not pretend
to have any literary merit.
Eugenius
Toletanus, poem 14, 81 - 100.
Nosse quicumque cupis aut requiris,
Quae mei causa fuerit laboris,
Huius ut uitae mala funerarem,
Disce benigne.
Dum quaterdenos simul et nouenos
Vita non felix agitaret annos
Dumque me pigra peteret senectus
Praepete cursu,
Accidit lasso grauis aegritudo,
Quae ferae mortis minitaret ictum
Ac diu fessa cruciaret acri
Membra dolore.
Febris incerta terebrabat ossa,
Languida morbis caro defluebat,
Nulla quassatum recreabat esca,
Potio nulla.
Tanta me crebro mala dum ferirent,
Mortis horrendae trepidus pauore
Labilem cursum fugientis aeui
Carmine
planxi.
nosse: novisse
cupio cupivi
cupitum:
to desire, wish
requiro requisivi
requisitum: to
search for, ask
funero (-are): to bury (He buries the evils of
his body, while his soul will go to heaven, he hopes.)
disco didici: to learn
quaterdenus: fourteen
dum: the use of dum plus the subjunctive is not
classical, but in Later Latin little distinction was made between cum and dum with the meaning `while’, `when’.
simul et: as well
agito (-are): to set in motion, keep going
piger: unwilling,
tedious
peto petivi, petii (-ere): strive for, rush at
praepes praepetis: swift
lassus: faint, weary,
tired (mihi lasso)
aegritudo
aegritudinis
(f.): illness
minito (-are): to threaten (minitor is the classical verb)
ictus ictus (m.): blow,
stroke
diu: all day, a
long time
fessus: tired
crucio (-are): to torture, torment
febris febris (f.): fever
terebro (-are): to pierce
morbus: disease
quasso (-are): to shake, shatter, weaken (me quassatum)
esca: food
potio potionis (f.): drink
crebro: often
ferio (-ire): strike
beat
pavor pavoris (m.): fear
aevum: eternity, (old)
age
plango planxi planctum (-ere): to strike, lament, bewail
If
you, whoever you are, want to know or ask
what
the reason was for my trouble
that
I bury the evils of this life,
learn
with kind mind.
While
during fourteen and nine years
my
life did not pass happily
and
while tedious old age rushed at me
with
rapid course,
came
a grave illness to me, weary,
which
threatened with the blow of a cruel death
and
for a long time tormented my tired limbs
with
sharp pain.
A
fever pierced my tired bones,
and
weak flesh vanished by diseases.
No
food recovered me, weakened,
Nor
drink.
While
such evils stroke me often,
I,
trembling with fear for a cruel death,
lamented
the feeble course of fleeing age
in
a poem.
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