[Previous: lines 183-199]
Pontius Pilate, hoping to evade the responsibility for judging Jesus, sent him to Herod Antipater. But the Jewish ruler has returned his prisoner.
Hic me deficiunt animi, mens labitur aegra. [200]------------
Horresco meminisse, deI quae vera propago
pertulerit mala factus homo Deus, auctor Olympi,
quem mare, quem tellus vacuique patentia tractus
atria, nec capit immensi plaga lucida caeli.
Aura, tuo, omnipotens vires mihi reffice lapsu, [205]
aura polo demissa, tuo hie me numine firma.
Haec animi victus quoties evolvere tento,
omnia me circum nigrescunt: pallida cerno
astra, caputque atra roseum ferrugine solem
occulere, et moestum in lacrimas se solvere caelum. [210]
Tantane te pietas miserantem incommoda nostra,
tantus adegit amor, caeli o lux clara sereni,
vera dei ut soboles, vevus deus aether missus
tam gravia haec velles, perpessuque aspera ferre,
divinumque caput terrena mole gravatus [215]
subiiceres tot sponte malis? Haec praemia ferres,
nostra tua bonus ut deleres crimina morte?
Nos dulces vetita decerpsimus arbore foetus,
tu trunco infando pendens crudele luisti
supplicium, o nimium nostros miserate labores. [220]
Tu, quamvis deus, atque dei indubitaia propago,
Heu! nunc haec hominum, nunc cogeris illa subire
arbitria in vinclis, et iudicis ora vereri,
qui toti advenies olim datus arbiter orbi.
Pontius ut vinctum sua rursum ad limina reddi [225]
conspicit, arbitrio nec se subducere tristi
posse videt, saevis curarum tunditur undis,
iamque his, iamque illis iterumque, iterumque retentat
crudeles animos, et parcere nescia corda
irritus, ac studio frustra adversatur inani. [230]
Quam magis ille animis tendit sermone mederi,
nunc supplex, placidusque, minis nunc asper acerbis,
tam magis accensis crudescunt cordibus irae.
Tandem ait: “Haec redeunt (vestrorum antiqua parentum
vana superstitio) certis cum sacra diebus, [235]
unum ego de multis inclusis carcere suevi
reddere, et ex arctis impune emittere vinclis.
Hunc igitur vobis ipsum solvine iubetis
insontem? nam quem potius dimittere possim?
Et iam poenarum satis, ac feritatis abunde est. [240]
Aut solvo, aut porro vos hinc abducite, et atrae,
ut libet, immeritum sine me demittite morti.”
Non tulit, et medium sermonem abrupit acerbans
crimina falsa cohors, et poenas ingravat ore.
Here my mind misgives, thoughts sicken and fail. [200]------------
I shudder to remember what the true son
of God suffered in human form, Olympus’
maker, whose immensity not sea, nor earth,
nor the spacious halls of heaven could contain.
Descend, almighty breath of heaven, and [205]
support with your spirit my flagging strength!
For, often as my mind struggles to express
these things they grow black around me: I see stars
shrink pale, and the sun’s face turn rusty red
and fade as sobbing clouds conceal the sky. [210]
Did your faithfulness make you pity us?
Was your love so strong, clear light of heaven,
that you, true son of God, were truly sent
from heaven to endure so grievous a fate?
Weighed down by the gravity of flesh [215]
subjecting yourself to evil? Was this the reward
for your goodness—to cleanse our sins with your death?
We plucked the sweet fruit from the forbidden tree:
whilst you hang suffering on that cruel trunk
in torment, through too much pitying our lot. [220]
Though you are God, and undoubtedly God’s son
—alas!—you are compelled to undergo
the arbitrary will of wicked men. But fear
the judge! A world of arbitration will arrive.
Pontius, as the captive brought back to his [225]
threshold, knew he now must judge, and looked sadly
on him, buffeted by cruel waves of hate.
He tried again and again to check their
savage minds, and hardened hearts, but he was
frustrated, all his opposition vain. [230]
The more he tried to reason with these men,
now with calming words, now with sharper warnings,
the more hot enmity swelled in their hearts.
At last he said: “You recall (by the vain if
ancient lore of your forefathers) on holy days [235]
I free one man from many in prison
return him to you, released from his fetters.
Will you not therefore bid me release this
innocent man? Who else should I release?
Either he has been punished enough for you [240]
and we let him go, or else you lead him out,
though he doesn’t deserve it, to a black death.”
But, cutting his speech short, the mob pressed with
its false rote of crime, urging full punishment.
Line 200’s dēficiō means ‘I withdraw I forsake’ and also ‘I fail, disappoint, I fall short, I have shortcomings’. My ‘misgivings’ is perhaps a little feeble. And again, line 215’s gravatus means ‘burdened, weighed down, having been oppressed’, rather than ‘gravity’—but, you know, it sort of means gravity (it's where our word comes from of course) and I like the multiplied implications of weight, seriousness and sublunary materiality of the word, here.
Vida's account of Pilate's judgment, or of his attempts to avoid having to judge until brought forceably to the bar, exclusively concentrates on his interactions with the Sanhedrin. What's missing is the direct interaction between Pilate and Jesus himself. A very startling omission, this, since it is (after all) one of the most famous portions of the whole passion narrative:
Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the Praetorium, and it was early morning. But they themselves did not go into the Praetorium, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover. Pilate then went out to them and said, “What accusation do you bring against this Man?”As Francis Bacon so memorably put it: ‘What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.’ But Vida cuts this entire exchange. A charitable interpretation of this decision might be that his own prior aesthetic decisions have rendered it redundant: Books 3 and 4 have given him a detailed account of Jesus's life, sufficient for him to be able to say ‘I find no fault in Him at all.’ But that hardly washes, here. It looks more like special pleading, as if Vida the Roman wants to spare Pilate the Roman the embarrasment of standing dieecting in front of Truth Personified and smirking at him Quid est veritas? If so, it's a substantial failure of nerve by the poet.
They answered and said to him, “If He were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him up to you.”
Then Pilate said to them, “You take Him and judge Him according to your law.”
Therefore the Jews said to him, “It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death,” that the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled which He spoke, signifying by what death He would die.
Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”
Jesus answered him, “Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?”
Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?”
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?”
Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”
Pilate said to Him, “What is truth?” And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no fault in Him at all.” [John 18:28-38]
[Next: lines 245-260]
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