[Previous; lines 647-683]
Joseph narrates. Mary and he have brought Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem.
“Ecce hominum subito turbantur pectora casu.------------
Nomen avi Simeon referens erat obsitus annis, [685]
quo nemo tota urbe fuit servantior æqui.
Huic, ut erat longè venturi præscius, olim
aethereæ vis omnipotens promiserat auræ
visurum sese ante Deum, auctoremque salutis
expectatum orbi, quàm lucis linqueret auras. [690]
Iamque erat hunc vitæ pertæsum, ægerque senectæ
oplabat duros lelo finire labores
sed spes illa animo cupido usque infixa manebat.
Ergo ubi adesse Deum præsensit numine plenus;
qualis, ubi gressum per agros comitatus herilem, [695]
forte canis leporem vi longè sensit odora,
continuò intenditque aures, atque aera captat
naribus, et cæptum rumpens iter avius errat;
atque oculis incerta feræ vestigia lustrans,
nunc hos, nunc illos cursus fert, atque recursus, [700]
incertus; longè latratibus arya resultant:
talis erat senis in templo exultantis imago.
Tum puerum tremulis correptum amplectitur ulnis,
atque arctè premit; hinc lacrymis ita fatur obortis:
‘Macte, infans, virtute, Dei indubitata propago, [705]
mundi opifer, qui nostra yenis, veterumque parentum
sponte admissa tui largo lavere amne cruoris;
et liquidas aperire vias ad sidera coeli:
exoptatus ades; nec me tua maxima fallunt,
summe pater, promissa: mori me denique fas est. [710]
Nunc ô me nunc, ad requiem finemque laborum,
corporis exutum vinclis, dimittis, ut olim
pollicitus: iam viderunt mea lumina, quem tu
auxilium mundo misisti, ut gentibus esset
in tenebris lux, Isacidos nova gloria prolis.’ [715]
His dictis; matrem versus mox fatur ad ipsam:
‘O cui te forma assimilem? cui laudibus æquem?
Quasve tibi referam grates, quæ sola salutem
felici peperisti utero mortalibus ægris?
Quanquam etiam exitio multis hunc affore partum, [720]
et tempus fore prædico, illætabile tempus,
cùm tibi cor gelidum gladius penetrabit acutus,
ah! miseræ, et magno virgo dotabere luctu,
mutataque fluet Jordanis decolor unda.
Tum serus segnisque dies nascetur, et ægrè [725]
lutea vix terris ostendet pallidus ora;
atque gravi tellus optabit mole relinqui
ipsa sua, et rupto per inania fædere labi.’
Hæc ubi, confestim veluti cedentia somno
lumina demisit, placidaque ibi morte quievit. [730]
Obstupuere alii: sed nos queis cætera nota,
terremur magis, inque vicem disquirimus ambo
solliciti, quosnam matri denunciet enses,
aut quibus exitio tantùm puer ipse fulurus.
Haud longum fuit in medio dehinc tempus: utrumque [735]
exitus edocuit, dubiosque ambage resolvit;
ni nobis majora etiam nunc vulnera restant,
atque alia ex aliis semper graviora parantur.”
“Then a strange event troubled our human hearts.------------
A man of good family, Simeon, very old, [685]
the equal of any in the city for righteousness,
had the gift to see into the future, and
heaven’s almighty power had promised him
he would see the coming god, salvation’s author
long awaited by the world, before he died. [690]
And though he was weary of life, weak, aged,
ready to bring an end to his hard labours
still that hope stayed fixed in his avid soul.
At last, filled with divine presence, he sensed
a nearness, as when a hound goes with its master [695]
into the country and smells a hare far off:
immediately it pricks its ears, sniffs the breeze
and suddenly breaks into a run, rushing,
his eyes darting around the uncertain track,
now this way, now that, dashing forward and back, [700]
unsure; and filling the fields with his barking:
so did this old man exult in the temple.
He picked up the child in his trembling arms,
and held him tight. Weeping he spoke these words:
‘Blessed child! Indubitable son of God [705]
who made the world, come to us from your father
of your free will to cleanse our ancestral sin;
with your blood, and open the way to heaven:
longed-for help! You have not failed me, father
of all, in your promises: at last I can die. [710]
Now, o now grant me rest from my labours,
deliver me from the chains of the body as
I was promised: for my eyes have seen the light
sent into the world to brighten every nation:
light in the dark, a glory for the sons of Isaac.’ [715]
He spoke; and then turned to the mother, saying:
‘Who is like you in beauty? How to praise you?
How can I thank you, who alone have saved
fortunate humanity with your fertile womb?
Although I also foresee much destruction, [720]
an outpouring of death, the unhappy time
when a sharp sword will pierce your frozen heart
ah! drenching you, virgin—and us—with grief,
and a discoloured Jordan will reverse its flow.
That day, when it comes, will dawn late and slow [725]
unwilling to show the world its pallid face;
and the earth will wish to shuck off its weight
to break its pact and slide into empty void.’
“As soon as he spoke his eyes closed as if in sleep
leaving the light as he died a peaceful death. [730]
Others were amazed: but we, as parents,
were greatly afraid, unsure of the prophesy:
worrying how the boy could turn swords on
his own mother, what destruction he'd bring.
We were not long in uncertainty: for [735]
the results have worked themselves out, now; and all
that remains is to see if greater wounds follow
and more grievous sorrows are being prepared.”
Simeon is from Luke 2:
25 And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.The gospel does not mention Simeon's death, and by hurrying straight into that demise Vida runs the risk of overbalancing the mood of his passage. If an old man hugged my baby, said a series of praising things about him and then dropped dead right in front of me, I'd be pretty freaked. But Simeon is supposed to be extremely old, and his prayer for release from death at Luke 2:29f (the Latin opening words of which, nunc dimittis, has become the basis for some beautiful songs and hymns) was surely answered soon enough. How old was he? Well: ‘according to a tradition in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Simeon had been one of the seventy-two translators of the Septuagint. As he hesitated over the translation of Isaiah 7:14 ("Behold, a virgin shall conceive...") and was going to correct it to γυνή (woman), an angel appeared to him and told him that he would not die until he had seen the Christ born of a virgin. This would make him well over two hundred years old at the time of the meeting described in Luke, and therefore miraculously long-lived’.
26 And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
27 And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law,
28 Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,
29 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:
30 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
31 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
32 A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.
33 And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him.
34 And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against;
35 (Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
At the head of the post: Simeon in the Temple, by Rembrandt van Rijn (1631).
[Next: lines 739-778]
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