Eugenius Toletanus: illness and old age.

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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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenius_II_of_Toledo