Preces Quotidianae
To Christ Crucified
The poet invokes the Muse to sing a majestic hymn to the Crucified King, then marvels at the ineffable mystery of the immortal God dying, the Father offering His Son, and the triumph of the resurrection, before being drawn back to the roaring scene of Calvary where Christ hangs between the thieves, utterly unlike them.
To Christ Crucified Monostrophic verses.1 There's been enough of frivolous inspiration; Muse, change the strings. And, picking up the lyre, Sound a majestic hymn To the Crucified King. O vast one of miracles O Treasure, and boundless One! What of yours shall I name first? I wish I could speak of what is beyond telling for human beings and an enigma even to the blessed angels, Who are you, immortal God, that you died? I would want to speak of the unsearchable depths of Mercy, because a ransom for enemies2 The Father offered His Son.✦3 I'd speak loftily the mystical triumph of the three-day corpse,✦4 And hell held captive,✦5 And death overthrown by death. Except that Mount Calvary is roaring around me, and my ears are weighed down by its crashing din6 Of those who destroy, and of those who perish.7 Leap up to the hill, eyes; Who hangs in the middle of the three, (How utterly unlike those two he is!)✦
Read the original Latin
IN CHRISTUM CRUCIFIXUM
MONOSTROPHICA.
SaTIS fuit inspirationis nugatorie;
Musa, permuta chordas,
Et, barbito arrepto,
Augustum insona hymnum
Crucifixo Regi.
O miraculorum vaste
Thesaure, atque immense !
Quid tuum, quid primum dixero? Vellem dicere inenarrabile hominibus
Beatisque Angelis enigma,
Qui, Deus immortalis, mortuus es? Vellem dicere imperscrutandas profunditates Misericordiz, quia lytrum pro hostibus
Fihum prebuit Pater.
Vellem sublimiter eloqui
Mysticum triumphum
'Triduani cadaveris,
Et captivum orcum,
Mortemque morte profligatam. Nisi quod mihi circumfremit Calvariorum mons, Et fragoso strepitu gravantur aures
Perdentium, pereuntiumque.
Exsilite ad collem, oculi ;
Quis medius trium pendet,
(Quam nil duobus ille similis !)
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.3.16;Rom.8.32 — For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life. Rom.8.32 — He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
- ↩1Cor.15.4 — and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
- ↩Eph.4.8;Col.2.15 — Therefore it says, 'When he ascended on high he led captivity captive, and he gave gifts to men.' Col.2.15 — He disarmed the rulers and the authorities, made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
- ↩John.19.18 — There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on each side, and Jesus in the middle.
Notes
- 1 ↩Latin monostrophica is a form-label (neuter plural as substantive): verses or prayers in a single repeated stanza form, not free prose.
- 2 ↩Normalized Misericordiz as Misericordiae ('of Mercy'); lytrum as lytrum/lutron ('ransom'). Sentence is incomplete as printed and continues into the next section.
- 3 ↩Source reads Fihum; almost certainly Filium (Son), completing the prior clause on the ransom for enemies.
- 4 ↩Triduani cadaveris is genitive, continuing the prior phrase Mysticum triumphum: the mystical triumph belongs to Christ’s body that lay three days in the tomb. Cadaveris is rendered ‘corpse’ for fidelity; liturgical English sometimes softens to ‘body.’
- 5 ↩orcum is classical Orcus (the underworld); in this Christian hymn-line it means Hell/Hades. captivum is accusative adjective: hell taken captive, not a captive person from hell.
- 6 ↩Calvariorum mons = Mount of Skulls / Calvary (Golgotha); circumfremit = roars/growls all around; fragoso strepitu = with a crashing, resounding noise.
- 7 ↩Genitive pair hanging from the prior section’s strepitus (crashing din) at Calvary: perdentium = those who destroy/ruin; pereuntium = those who perish/are dying. Rendered as parallel genitives to keep the elliptical Latin force.
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