Horti, deliciae Dominae
The Withered Garden
The beauty of the garden is revealed as a reflection of mortality and the decay of the mistress.
Gardens, the Lady's delights, eventually wither; you've decorated the grave, yet you aren't allowed to stay. Look, your beauty bristles with thorns, pulling the gardener's hand away with sharp anxiety: the flowers smell of earth and death, and the Lady's corpse breathes upon the nearby plants, and they in turn upon the roses. Violets bow their heads to the dark earth, and by their gravity, they teach where the Lady's home is.
Graveyards in Bloom
The poet redefines the garden as a graveyard and calls for all nature to return to the earth in mourning.
Why do I call you gardens, rather than graveyards, while every bed restores the absent mistress? Well done, perish all; and let no gem or herb go forth hereafter to seek its Lady. Let all things return to their roots and ancestral mounds, for the divine power has surely provided enough unbought graves; perish, or live for a while, until the evening dew honors the funeral with mournful waters.
Read the original Latin
Horti, deliciae Dominae, marcescite tandem; Ornastis capulum, nec superesse licet. Ecce decus vestrum spinis horrescit, acuta Cultricem revocans anxietate manum: Terram et funus olent flores: Dominaeque cadaver Contiguas stirpes afflat, eaeque rosas. In terram violae capite inclinantur opaco, Quaeque domus Dominae sit, gravitate docent. Quare haud vos hortos, sed caemeteria dico, Dum torus absentem quisque reponit heram. Euge, perite omnes; nec posthac exeat ulla Quaesitum Dominam gemma vel herba suam. Cuncta ad radices redeant, tumulosque paternos, Nempe sepulcra satis numen inempta dedit; Occidite; aut sane tantisper vivite, donec Vespere ros maestis funus honestet aquis.
The Latin Poems companion
Read all 57 of Herbert's Latin poems, one a day
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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
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