[Previous: lines 759-790]
John is still narrating his experience as one of Jesus's disciples.
“Nec verò sacris, aut templo demit honorem,------------
Nec gentis leges, veterumve edicta refigit,
quamvis visceribus monet et lustralibus extis
parcéndum posthac, nec jam ultra caede litandum.
Verùm alios longè ritus, moremque sacrorum [795]
indicat obscura verborum ambage latere;
legiferique aperit voces animumque magistri.
Quodque magis mirere, sciunt, et scire fatentur,
aereas vatem venturum lucis ad auras,
unus qui nobis cœli invia claustra recludat, [800]
e tenebrisque pios vehat alta ad sidera manes:
id patribus promissum, omnes id volvere vates;
hunc animis certi expectant : miseri, quibus atris
non datur in tenebris praesentem agnoscere lucem;
et mediis largi sitiunt in fluminis undis. [805]
nam quem non moveant, nisi prorsum aversa voluntas,
tanta viri virtus, tot facta ingentia, talis
oris honos? Ipse, ut vidique hausique loquentem,
et dulcem toto jactantem corpore amorem,
fortunas, patriam, genitricem, cuncta reliqui. [810]
Id socii fecere: neque hunc me deinde secutum
pœnituit: verùm quantùm ingens saepe favillâ
surgit ab exiguâ, semperque fit acrior, ignis;
huius amortantùm visus mihi crescere in horas,
et mage cor dulci semper flammescere cura: [815]
quique adiere semel, validis compagibus haerent.
Nec no saut donis autu verbis fallere crede
pollicitis blandis illectos: omnia nobis
aspera promittit, cunctos diversa manere
scilicet exilia extorres, passimque vagantes. [820]
Promissis nec vana sides: adeò usque malorum
pullulat ex alia atque alia densissima sylva.
Unius ferro tantùm caput excipit; unum,
quisquis is est, placidâ clausurum lumina morte;
ast alios caedes omnes instare cruentas. [825]
Nostra jubet nos interea contemnere, opesque
partiri, atque inopi miserorum impendere turbae,
quos circumveniunt morbique, algorque, famesque;
pauperiemque pati, rebusque assuescere egenis.
Multi nos ideo viderunt saepe per agros [830]
aut silice in nuda projectos ducere somnos,
aut gravidas fessos rerum decepere aristas,
indomitisque famem solari frugibus, undamque
alta haurire cavis pronos ad flumina palmis,
aut siquos usquam tellus dabat arida fontes. [835]
Non, mihi perpetuam si centum pectore aheno
sufficiant vocem linguae, percurrere possem,
quantas quoque modo aerumnas, quantosque labores,
hoc ducente, animis durantes hausimus aequis.
Nam licet interdum penuria adaxit edendi [840]
exhaustos, rerumque inopes quas flagitat usus;
regum, opibus tamen usque animos aequavimus altos,
et mens in parvis aderat ditissima cuique.”
“In truth he neither dishonours the temple------------
nor dismisses the laws of our forefathers—
although he does command we no longer
offer slaughtered organs or blood in sacrifice.
But he does show that truer rituals hide [795]
beneath the obscurity of these sacred words,
explains the real meanings of our law-giver.
What's more surprising: they admit they know
a prophet will emerge to the light of day
who alone can open heaven’s impassable barriers, [800]
and lead us from darkness to the highest stars.
This was promised our forefathers; our prophets
predicted what we all await. Sad indeed
are those so darkened they cannot see the light;
who live beside a great river and suffer thirst. [805]
For who, save those whose will is turned away,
could fail to see the virtue of the man, deeds
and words? Me, when I first saw and heard him,
such sweetness of love poured from his body
I gave up wealth, country, parents—all of it. [810]
Every disciple did the same. We don’t
regret it. Truly the smallest of sparks
can rise up into the strongest of fires!
This love I feel increases with the hours
and my heart always sweetly blazes for him: [815]
To see him once is to be bound unbreakably.
He did not seduce us with gifts or deceive
with flattery and promises: instead
he assured us things would be rough, our path
cast through in exile and endless wanderings. [820]
No empty promise, this! Evil surrounds us
like a dense forest, rising on every side.
Only one, he says, will escape the sword—
whoever he is—and die a peaceful death;
the rest of us are doomed to bloody murder. [825]
Meanwhile, he insists we pool all our wealth
divide it, and give it to the crowds of poor
who gather, galled by disease, hunger and cold;
whilst we became accustomed to poverty.
Many have seen us dwelling in the fields [830]
or stretched-out on the bare ground to sleep;
seen us wearily picking ears of corn
satisfying our hunger with wild berries
cupping our hands in the river to drink
or at any fountain the earth provided. [835]
Even if I had lungs of brass and a hundred
tongues, I would not be able to tell you
how many woes and labours we endured
with equanimity, guided by him.
For although we have lived in poverty [840]
though exhaustion and lack have been our lot
in our souls we are as wealthy as kings,
preciousness despite our indigence.”
The ‘lawgiver’ mentioned in line 797 is, of course, Moses, whom Jesus is fulfilling and superseding. All the light vs darkness stuff here riffs on John 1:5’s ‘And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not’; and it is John himself who is fated to be the only disciple to die peacefully of old-age (as per line 823), or so tradition reputes—he went into a kind of exile on Patmos and wrote his Revelation, where all the other disciples were martyred in various horrible ways. Gardner thinks Aeneid 12:646-7 (where Turnus anticipates the prospect of dying: Vos O mihi Manes/este boni, quoniam superis aversa voluntas!; ‘be kind to me, O shades, since the gods above have turned their faces from me!’) is behind Vida’s line 806, which could be. He also thinks Vida’s line 852, about Christ ‘radiating love’, owes something to Lucretius’s De rerum natura 4:1053-54 (sive puer membris muliebribus hunc iaculatur seu mulier toto iactans e corpore amorem: L. is saying that anybody may be wounded by Venus’s shaft ‘...perhaps a boy with girlish limbs launches the dart, or a woman radiating love from her whole body’) which strikes me as a pretty pungently erotic intertext in this context. But maybe so. Line 834, about drinking from naturally occurring fountains, riffs on Propertius’s Elegies 1.20.43 and line 842 on hard work outdoors being better than riches on Georgics 4:132. Of ‘if I had brass lungs and a hundred tongues …’: pectus aheneum is a standard epithet. ‘[Some] epithets are metaphorical … as those which give the qualities of material things to abstract ideas; cruda viridisque senectus, rosea juventa, florens ætas, Hyperbolical epithets of this kind are not displeasing; ferrea vox, pectus aheneum.’ [M D C Jani, The Art of Latin Poetry (Cambridge 1828)].
The image at the head of the post is a window in Saint Bernard Catholic Church, Corning, Ohio. Rather nice, I think.
[Next: lines 844-878]
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