LXXIII. O magna res
The Hidden Greatness of Uncreated Life
The uncreated reality that endures in itself, neither made nor created by anything.
O great reality, which lay hidden in no created order, so that it was neither made nor created by anything, but endures in itself.
Death Entered Through Woman
The dawn of life revealed ancient wisdom, yet through woman death entered, bringing grief and lamentation.
O life, which rose in the dawn, in which the great King mercifully revealed the wisdom that in the ancient one had been with a wise man, because through the opening of the ancient destroyer death entered by woman. O grief—ah, sorrow, alas lamentation—built upon woman!
Washed Clean and Raised in Glory
The dawn washed clean through the first rib, and woman, sister of wisdom, is glorified as the strongest life rose in her, so that all creatures are adorned beyond their original state.
O dawn, you washed this clean in the form of the first rib.✦ O womanly form, sister of wisdom, how glorious you are, because the strongest life rose up in you, which death will never choke out. Wisdom raised you up, so that through you all creatures are adorned to a better state than they would have received in the beginning.
Read the original Latin
O magna res, que in nullo constituto latuit, ita quod non est facta nec creata ab ullo, sed in se ipsa permanet. O vita, que surrexisti in aurora, in qua magnus rex sapientiam, que in antiquo apud virum sapientem fuit, misericorditer manifestavit, quia mulier per foramen antiqui perditoris mortem intravit. O luctus, ach meror, he planctus, qui in muliere edificati sunt! O aurora, hec abluisti in forma prime coste. O feminea forma, soror sapientie, quam gloriosa es, quoniam fortissima vita in te surrexit, quam mors numquam suffocabit. Te sapientia erexit, ita quod omnes creature per te ornate sunt in meliorem partem, quam in primo acciperent.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.2.21-Gen.2.22 — So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. Gen.2.22 — And the LORD God built the rib that He had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man.
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