Vergene, tu mi fai
The Necessity of Divine Charity
The speaker acknowledges the Virgin's intercession as the gateway to the highest mercy and charity, without which the soul remains in darkness.
Virgin, you draw me to prayer because you never stop pleading with the Lord on my behalf.1 O charity, highest mercy—anyone who doesn't turn to you accomplishes nothing at all.2 I see it clearly and truly: everyone is blind and sightless, and white looks black to them, if they don't draw near to you. O charity, etc.3
Hope and Redemption in the Virgin
The Virgin is presented as the sure hope of the world and the vessel through whom the Son brings redemption to humanity.
You are the sure hope of everyone in the world; anyone who doesn't put their trust in you is trying to fly without wings.4 O charity, etc.5 If it weren't for your fruit, we would be damned; but it is your Son entirely who has redeemed us.✦6 O love, etc.7
Read the original Latin
Vergene, tu mi fai Orando a te venire, Perchè non resti mai Per me pregar el Sire. O carità, Somma pietà, Chi non ricorre a te, niente fa.
Io veggo chiaro e vero, Ch’ogn’omo è orbo e cieco, E pargli el bianco nero, Chi non s’accosta a te. O carità, ec.
Tu sei certa speranza Di tutti gli om mundani; Ch’in te non ha fidanza Sì vol volar senza ale. O carità, ec.
S’el non fusse el to frutto, Noi saremmo damnati; Ma gli è el tuo Figliol tutto Che c’ha ricomperati. O carità, ec.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Luke.1.42 — And she cried out with a loud voice and said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb."
Notes
- 1 ↩Perchè non resti mai can be read as causal (because you never cease) or, with a final force, as purpose (so that you never cease). Causal best fits the perpetual Marian intercession sense; resti is formally ambiguous between indicative and subjunctive.
- 2 ↩Carità is kept as charity (theological virtue / personified Love), not reduced to mere kindness; somma pietà rendered as highest mercy rather than generic pity.
- 3 ↩Abbreviated refrain (ec. = etc.) of the full stanza refrain in SavLaud.1.9.1.s2: 'O carità, Somma pietà, Chi non ricorre a te, niente fa.' Carità kept as theological 'charity' (personified divine love / Marian compassion), not generic kindness.
- 4 ↩om mundani: early Italian omini/uomini mundani, ‘worldly people/men’; rendered as ‘people in the world’ for modern readability while keeping the worldly scope.
- 5 ↩carità kept as charity (theological virtue / refrain address), not flattened to generic affection; ec. is the source’s abbreviated refrain mark (etc.).
- 6 ↩frutto: Marian ‘fruit’ (the Son of her womb); to is dialect for tuo.
- 7 ↩ec. marks the abbreviated refrain (O carità…), as in neighboring stanzas; carità rendered as love per charity/love lexeme policy.
Lauds companion
Never lose the rhythm again
Chosen Portion delivers your morning, midday and night office to your phone — the Hours, without the bells.
Chosen Portion is a modern Book of Hours: it turns the fixed-hour structure this collection preserves into scheduled, tappable daily prayer on your phone.
- Three daily prayer moments scheduled around your real calendar, not a monastery's
- Psalms and historic prayers sequenced for you — no page-flipping or decision fatigue
- A visible streak of completed offices, so the rhythm compounds instead of collapsing