Showing posts with label walahfridus strabo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label walahfridus strabo. Show all posts
Wednesday, 7 October 2020
Walahfridus Strabo: Mondnacht (Cum splendor lunae).
Walafrid Strabo (808-849) was one of those brilliant minds attached to the court of Charlemagne. He was a prolific writer and today best known for his book about gardening Liber de cultura hortorum also known as the Hortulus, which he wrote after he became abbot of a monastery at Reichenau in 838.
The elegy below is dedicated to a further unknown friend: though separated, the light of the moon connects them and is the visible sign of their spiritual love.
In a time without internet and Skype, communications were poor and so watching the same sky, stars, moon and sun gave - and gives - the feeling of being connected. This poem by Strabo is not the only literary example exploring this idea. Take for example Goethe:
Ich denke dein, wenn mir der Sonne Schimmer
Vom Meere strahlt;
Ich denke dein, wenn sich des Mondes Flimmer
In Quellen malt.
I think of you, when the shimmering sun
Gleams from the sea;
I think of you, when the glittering moon
Is mirrored in streams.
(tr. Richard Stokes. I can’t resist putting a link below to the musical setting by Schumann, sung by Lauritz Melchior and Lotte Lehmann in 1939)
And the Indian poet Kalidasa (5th century?) tells in his Meghadūta (The Cloud Messenger) how a Yaksha – a kind of elf – asks a passing cloud to bring a message to his love. Internet is indeed a lot faster, but by far not that romantic.
Walafrid Strabo
Ad amicum (meter: trochaic septenarius)
Cum splendor lunae fulgescat ab aethere purae,
tu sta sub divo cernens speculamine miro,
qualiter ex luna splendescat lampade pura
et splendore suo caros amplectitur uno
corpore divisos, sed mentis amore ligatos.
si facies faciem spectare nequivit amantem,
hoc saltem nobis lumen sit pignus amoris.
hos tibi versiculos fidus transmisit amicus ;
si de parte tua fidei stat fixa catena,
nunc precor, ut valeas felix per saecula cuncta.
fulgesco (- ĕre): to glitter, shine
sub divo: under the open sky
cerno crevi certum: to perceive, see
speculamine miro: in wondrous gaze
splendesco (- ĕre): to shine
lampas ādis (f.): lamp
suo… uno: its unique
amplector amplexus: to encompass, embrace
caros…divisos: friends divided
ligo (-are): to bind (together)
nequeo nequivi nequitum (as eo, ire): to be unable
saltem: at least
pignus (-oris, n.) amoris: pledge/bound of love
fide fixai: not only attached to faith in each other, but also faith in God
catena: the chain of friendship
Translation and adaptation by Helen Waddell
To his friend in absence
WHEN the moon's splendour shines in naked heaven,
Stand thou and gaze beneath the open sky.
See how that radiance from her lamp is riven,
And in one splendour foldeth gloriously
Two that have loved, and now divided far,
Bound by love's bond, in heart together are.
What though thy lover's eyes in vain desire thee,
Seek for love's face, and find that face denied ?
Let that light be between us for a token ;
Take this poor verse that love and faith inscribe.
Love, art thou true ? and fast love's chain about thee ?
Then for all time, O love, God give thee joy !
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walafrid_Strabo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGqjXdN21es
Sunday, 9 April 2017
Walahfridus Strabo: a useful herb.
The cultivation of herbs was an important part of the
work of monasteries in the Middle Ages. Medical care was often in the hands of
dedicated monks and they mostly had no other options than using herbs and a lot
of praying for the sick.
Walahfridus Strabo (808 – 849) was abbot at Reichenau and
an important Carolinian writer. Amongst his many works is a poem about cultivating
an herbal garden, Liber de Cultura
Hortorum also known as Hortulus,
in which he describes 24 plants. He dedicated this poem to his friend Grimaldus,
abbot of Sankt Gallen. Whether or not Walahfridus was himself an enthusiastic
gardener is unknown, but he was at least an enthusiastic poet and with this work
he has created the oldest didactic poem on herbs in the Middle Ages
The following poem is about sage, still a popular herb
for use in the kitchen, but I don't think it is still in use as a medical herb.
Walahfridus Strabo, Hortulus,
IV Salvia (Salvia officinalis L.)
Meter: hexameter
Lelifagus prima
praefulget fronte locorum,
Dulcis odore, gravis virtute atque utilis haustu.
Pluribus haec hominum morbis prodesse
reperta
Perpetuo viridi meruit gaudere iuventa.
Sed tolerat civile malum: nam saeva
parentem
Progenies florum, fuerit ni dempta, perurit
Et facit antiquos defungier invida ramos.
lelifagus: derived
from ἐλελίσφακος, the Greek name for salvia
prima: with (in) fronte
`at the very entrance’
locorum: of the
places (i.e. the plant beds). So salvia
stood at the entrance of the garden.
praefulgeo: to
glitter in front, shine greatly
gravis:
eminent
haec: despite
the masculine gender of lelifagus
haustu:
supinum of haurio `to drink’
morbus:
disease
prodesse reperta:
found to be useful
perpetuo viridi
meruit gaudere iuventa: she had deserved to enjoy (gaudeo + abl.) her green youth for ever
tolero (-are): to endure, suffer
civile malum:
civil strife
saeva parentem
progenies florum perurit : the wild child destroys the parental flower.
New sprouts of Salvia have to be cut in time as otherwise it will overgrow the
parental plant.
demo dempsi
demptum (-ere): to remove
facit defungier
( = defungi): causes to die (The
archaic form defungier is found in Terence.
Roman comedies were well-known during the Middle Ages.)
invidus:
envious
ramus: branch
Women picking leaves of a salvia plant (Picture from Tacuinum Sanitatis in Medicina c. 1498)
There is no ready translation for copy paste on internet,
but a translation can be found here:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)