The Versified Life of Saint Francis : FA:ED, vol. 1, p. 429

Filter by Franciscan Source (empty = all sources):
Multiple selections are allowed

Search For:

All words Any word Exact Phrase Phrase Prefix Wildcard Fuzzy query

FA:ED, vol. 1, 429The Versified Life of Saint Francis

The Versified Life of Saint Francis - 429

And displayed in your flesh when dying.^a Accept for yourself
This work of your poet, and deign to hear humble Minerva

²⁰Do the honors in song to your princely campaign!
Moreover you, holy father, good shepherd, Gregory Ninth^b
Making orison for gregarian sin,^{Sir 3:4} watching over congregational
Pastures, you fill the measure of so great a name^c
Prithee be gentle with me^d and deign to accept in your kindness

²⁵This smallest of gifts, O greatest of mortals!^e
Francis's native soil bathes in his light like the sun,
Shining in new refulgence^f as she glories in her great scion,
Veteran Assisi,^g in the upper reaches of Spoleto vale,
Clings to a rocky peak's sloping flanks,

³⁰With serried ranks of olive-trees
All covered from head to toe.^{Mt 27:51}^h
The boy's mother was upright, unpretentious and kind;
His merchant father violent and sly.ⁱ
O what a monster we've fashioned! Fickle nature's bad, consisting

³⁵Of opposing factors. Not to be excused as though it were rhetorical
Verbal inversion,^j our perverted state of affairs is such it upsets
And confuses everything. Honor is subjected to might;
Honor dominates to become liegeman in us;
The irresolute overrides the courageous,

⁴⁰The earthy, the celestial, the mortal, the durable.

Henri will explain this below, XII, 37ff.
We attempt to reflect in English the play on the syllables of Gregorius Nonus, if in a somewhat archaic and quaint manner. In this dedication verse, the first of the very many quotations from the works of Ovid occurs. "You fill the measure of so great a name." Epistulae ex Ponto, I, II. 1. These are numerous and in each case consist of no more than a couple of words, and so they will not be noted. The same applies to Vergil and other authors. A similar play on words is found in 2C 63; cf. Sir 3:4.
From Ovid, Epistulae ex Ponto, I, II. 1. d. Ovid, Fasti, I, 17.
Ovid, Fasti, I, 17.
Ovid, Heroides, IX, 107.
Cf. The Easter Exsultet and the words "O earth, in shining splendor."
Assisi, usually called Asisi of old, is mentioned by Strabo, Geographica V, 227; Ptolemy, Geographica universalis: vetus et nova; C. Pliny and the Elder, Naturalis historia III, 113; S. Aurelius Propertius, Elegy, IV [V] 1, 125.
The city was built on the slope, but not on the peak, of Mount Subasio, and is surrounded by olive groves and vineyards. The poet must have visited Assisi at some point.
The character of neither parent is described in1C 1. The poet introduced the distinction from the different behavior of each; cf. Below, I, 200ff. And II 85ff.; III, 57.
This is a figure of speech, the inversion of words; cf. Quintilianus, Institutio VIII 6, 62; IX 4, 26.

Legenda Sancti Francisci VersificataFontes,

Legenda Sancti Francisci Versificata, Fontes Franciscani, p.

Et moriens in carne palam, Francisce, tulisti,
Vatis opus tibi sume tui, celsaeque canendis

²⁰Militiae titulis humilem dignare Minervam!
At tu, sancte pater, bone pastor, None Gregori,
Qui pro peccato gregis orans, qui gregis oris
Invigilans tanti mensuram nominis imples,
Da mihi te placidum, precor, oblatamque libenter

²⁵Suscipe dignanter minimam rem, maxime rerum!
Francisci natale solum perfunditur huius
Luce quasi solis, tantique refloret alumni
Illustrata novis fulgoribus urbs veterana
Assisium, quae valle tenus protensa Spoleti

³⁰Pendet oliviferae corivexa cacumine rupis,
Tecta subalternans a summis usque deorsum.
Mater honesta fuit pueri, pater institor: illa
Simplex et clemens, hic subdolus et violentus.
O nostri monstrum figmenti! quam male constat

³⁵Inconstans ex oppositis essentia rebus!
Non excusandus per hyperbaton, omnia turbat,
Omnia confundit nostri praeposterus ordo.
Imperio pars digna subest, et digna subesse
Imperat in nobis, et vincit lubrica fortem,

⁴⁰Terrea caelestem, corruptibilisque perennem.

424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 Contents

Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 1, p. 429

{{{_source.title}}} {{#_source.showPrice}} {{{_source.displayPrice}}} {{/_source.showPrice}}