Verba Matris ad filiam, qualiter Roma debet mundari a zizania primo ferro acuto, secundo igne, tercio iugo boum.
The Cleansing of the Field
Rome is likened to a field overgrown with weeds that requires a three-fold process of pruning, burning, and plowing to be restored.
The Mother says, "Rome is like a field overgrown with weeds." So, it must first be cleared with a sharp blade, then purified by fire, and afterward plowed with a yoke of oxen.
The Severity of Divine Judgment
The Mother promises to transplant the faithful while describing the total and graphic destruction awaiting the city.
I will treat you just like someone transplanting seedlings to a new place. For such a punishment is being prepared for that city, as if a judge were to say: 'Skin it,' he says, 'strip off the entire hide, drain all the blood from the flesh, cut all the meat into pieces, and break the bones so that every bit of marrow flows out.'1
Read the original Latin
Mater loquitur: "Roma est quasi ager, super quem zizania excreuit. Ideo prius debet mundari cum acuto ferro, inde igne purgari, postea arari cum iugo boum.
Ideo faciam vobiscum sicut qui transfert plantas in alium locum. Illi enim urbi preparatur talis pena, quasi iudex diceret: 'Excoria,' inquit, 'totam pellem, extrahe totum sanguinem de carne, excide omnem carnem in frusta et confringe ossa ita, ut defluat omnis medulla.'"
Notes
- 1 ↩The imagery of flaying and breaking bones is a vivid, violent metaphor for total purification or destruction, echoing prophetic language regarding the judgment of cities.
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