Io son quel misero ingrato
The Wretched Soul Returning
The speaker confesses their state as a lost sheep and prodigal son, acknowledging the soul's inherent restlessness until it finds rest in God.
I am that wretched, ungrateful sinner who has gone so far astray. I'm that prodigal son returning to my father: I've been in great danger, living in exile from you, God; but you are so gentle and merciful that you don't look at my sin. I am that little sheep her shepherd has lost: you, shepherd, leave the whole flock for her, and you've followed me; O sweet, infinite love—I was lost; now you've healed me. Alas, oh me—I was carrying myself and my riches on a ship: harsh, crushing fortune has swallowed the cargo and the vessel; a plank has now brought the shipwrecked man into port.1 I was sound, pure, and beautiful, but I was wounded right through the center of my breast. That knife caused me crushing pain and the fear of death—yet you, the perfect physician, have completely healed this wound. The pure soul, in love with you, God—her father and spouse—then, blinded by the devil, has killed her beloved: she can never find rest: this, wretch that I am, is her state.2 Because she comes from you, she rests only in you, and finds her peace: and so nothing else does this afflicted soul any good; she must keep moving until she has found you, God.
The Harbor of Divine Mercy
The soul finds its true harbor and healing in the restoration of the relationship between the Father and the son, and the Shepherd and the lamb.
Then our life has a harbor, when I return to you, O God. It heals the mortal wound; it finds the sweet and devout Bridegroom.3 And the father has his wayward son, and the shepherd has found the lamb.
The Sweetness of Holy Sorrow
God's grace transforms the hardness of the heart into a torrent of tears, creating a sweet and holy bondage to Jesus.
Your Word has melted the hardness of my mind: from your Spirit a wind is drawn that turns weeping into a torrent; then I'll joyfully reap what I've sown in tears.✦ O marvelous holy God, how You work and act within me! For I take such pleasure in weeping that I would never want to do anything else! O sweet sorrow, that has bound me to sweet Jesus! Oh, sweetest chain that God has placed around my neck! Oh, immense and complete sweetness that God has granted to those who love him! God doesn't give such grace often; and whoever has it must not be ungrateful for it.
Longing for the Vision
The soul contemplates the present mirror of faith and yearns for the future face-to-face vision of God, seeking the wings to fly to its true rest.
I see you now as if in a mirror, and you make it so pleasing to me; what I dream of and dote on here almost melts me with sweetness—what will it be like, then, face to face, when I see you in blessedness?4 In this the mortal heart remains until it returns to the place from which it seems to go out: give it, God, a dove's wings, so that it may fly and rest. You are, God, that sweet food that has satisfied holy desire.5
Read the original Latin
Io son quel misero ingrato peccator, c’ho tanto errato.
Io son quel prodigo figlio, che ritorno al padre mio: stato sono in gran periglio esulando da te, Dio: ma tu se’ sí dolce e pio, che non guardi al mio peccato.
Io son quella pecorella, che ’l pastor suo ha smarrito: tu, pastor, lasci per quella tutto il gregge, e m’hai seguíto; o amor dolce, infinito, perduto ero; or m’hai sanato.
Lasso, omè, sopra una nave me e mie ricchezze porto: la fortuna acerba e grave ha le merce e ’l legno assorto: una tavola ora in porto il naufrago ha portato.
Ero sano, puro e bello, fui ferito a mezzo il petto: grave doglia tal coltello diemmi, e di morir sospetto: ma tu, medico perfetto, questo colpo hai ben sanato.
L’alma pura innamorata di te, Dio, suo padre e sposo, poi, dal diavolo accecata, ha ucciso il suo amoroso: non può mai trovar riposo: questo è, misero, il suo stato.
Perché da te vien, si posa solo in te, e sua pace trova: e però niun’altra cosa a quest’alma afflitta giova; ma convien sempre si muova, finché te, Dio, ha trovato.
Allor porto ha nostra vita, quando a te ritorno, o Dio. Sana la mortal ferita, truova ’l sposo dolce e pio. E ’l padre ha il suo figlio rio, e ’l pastor l’agna ha trovato.
Il tuo Verbo ha liquefatto la durezza della mente: dal tuo spirto un vento è tratto, che di pianto fa torrente: mieterò poi lietamente quel che in pianto ho seminato.
O ammirabil Dio santo, come in me operi e fai? ché mi piace pianger tanto, che altro non vorrei far mai! O dolor dolce, che m’hai con Gesú dolce legato!
Oh dolcissima catena, che m’ha Dio al collo messo! Oh dolcezza immensa e piena, che a chi l’ama ha Dio concesso! Non dá Dio tal grazia spesso; e chi l’ha non ne sia ingrato.
Quasi in un specchio ora veggio, e tu fai che sí mi piaccia: quel che qui sogno e vaneggio, di dolcezza par mi sfaccia; or che fia, a faccia a faccia quand’io ti vedrò beato?
In questo è il cor mortale, finché torna onde par esca: dágli, Dio, di colomba ale, sí ch’e’ voli e requiesca: tu se’, Dio, quella dolce ésca, che ’l disio santo ha saziato.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.126.5 — Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy.
Notes
- 1 ↩Italian 'fortuna' is personified Fortune/fate (not wealth); 'legno' is the ship by metonymy (the wooden hull); 'tavola' is a wreck-plank. The stanza also plays on 'porto' as 'I carry' and 'port/harbor'.
- 2 ↩Commas around misero read most naturally as a vocative self-address (matching the chapter voice of the ungrateful wretch), not as an adjective on stato.
- 3 ↩Subject of sana/truova is unstated in Italian; rendered as 'it' continuing from the return/harbor of s1 (the restored life/return that heals and finds Christ the Sposo).
- 4 ↩beato may modify either the speaker (when I, blessed, see you) or the vision of God (when I see you in blessedness / O Blessed One). Rendered as the beatific state of seeing God.
- 5 ↩Wordplay on esca (‘goes out’) and ésca (‘food/bait’): the heart seems to ‘go out,’ and God is the ‘sweet food’ that has sated holy desire. Rendered as ‘go out’ / ‘food’ to keep both senses without archaism.
Spiritual 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