Quid nugor calamo favens
The Pen and the Garden
The author questions his own literary efforts in light of his mother's serene, heavenly life.
Why do I trifle, favoring the pen? A mother, drenched in eternal joys, cultivates Eden in a small garden, sheltered from the northern winds.
A Double Birth
The author reflects on his mother's influence as a guide to both his earthly existence and his spiritual transformation.
Indeed, the heavens are mine—the glory of my mother and the debt of my name; and as I keep watch over these, a frequent companion of the stars, I am stripped of my mortal skin. Therefore, I urge on my own sphere, working with tireless fingers: celebrating you, mother, by day, and by night celebrating you as a rival to the light. Through you I am born into this world, and by your example I am born into another; twice you were a mother to me, so that glory might run on equal legs.
Read the original Latin
Quid nugor calamo favens? Mater perpetuis uvida gaudiis, Horto pro tenui colit Edenem Boreae flatibus invium. Quin coeli mihi sunt mei, Materni decus, et debita nominis; Dumque his invigilo frequens Stellarum socius, pellibus exuor. Quare Sphaeram egomet meam Connixus, digitis impiger urgeo: Te, mater, celebrans diu, Noctu te celebrans luminis aemulo. Per te nascor in hunc globum, Exemploque tuo nascor in alterum; Bis tu mater eras mihi, Ut currat paribus gloria tibiis.
The Latin Poems companion
Read all 57 of Herbert's Latin poems, one a day
Chosen Portion delivers a Herbert poem (or another royal-court devotional text) as your free daily reading on iOS
Herbert's short poems were written for meditative re-reading; Chosen Portion serves one per day, turning the two collections into a two-month devotional cycle
- All 57 Latin poems in modern English, roughly two months of daily readings
- One short poem a day, readable in under 5 minutes
- Includes the full Sub Rosa archive of 78 historic devotional works