Vita Wenceslai (Legenda Gumpoldi)
A Night Vision of Desolation
Wenceslas recounts a profound nocturnal vision in which he saw the presbyter Paul's portico utterly deserted despite its grandeur.
As I lay in bed, a deep and profound vision swept over me in the silence of the night — you, my dear friends, and you, my beloved household companions — for I saw the portico of the presbyter Paul, utterly deserted despite the grandeur of its buildings and the beauty of its craftsmanship.
Grief for God's Faithful
The vision fills Wenceslas with sorrow and inner anguish on account of the distress of God's faithful ones.
When I saw this, I was struck with sorrow, and I am overwhelmed by an inner anguish on account of God's faithful ones — troubled by their distress.
Hope and the Call to Interpret
Trusting in God's boundless mercy and omniscience, Wenceslas resolves to interpret the dream clearly in light of the present crisis.
Yet I take heart, carried forward by the boundless mercy of the One who knows all things into the hope that is promised to the believer — that all things are possible. And so I undertake to explain the truth of this dream, which the present crisis now makes it necessary to understand clearly, using the bright key of its resolution to bring the matter to a thorough and certain examination.
Read the original Latin
Thoro me accubantem, dulces amici vosque o familiares clientuli, noctis silentio gravis et alta sustulit visio; quoniam Pauli presbiteri porticum tota aedificiorum sublimitate ac hominum cultu videbam penitus desolatam. Quo viso moestus deicior, ac internae pro dei fidelibussollicitudinis molestia consternor. Sed tamen ut inmensa omnium cognitoris pietate in spem, qua credenti cuncta posse promissum est, transferor, huius somnii veritatem inminente iam casu pernoscendam, clarae solutionis interpretamento ad certam rei excussionem explanare aggredior.
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