St Bernard's 'In Praise of the Virgin Mother'

From 13th century MS. Public domain.

Our sister blog, Rosarium Aureum, has just started a series of instalments on some remarkable texts by the 12th century saint, Bernard of Clairvaux.

They are reproduced in Latin and are accompanied by references,  Latin notes and an English translation.




You can find the first in the series here.

Entente pentelopicale

The rules for writing a pentelope are simple to understand but devilishly difficult to translate into practice. There must be five lines; each line must end with a word of the same kind but with a different vowel in the last syllable. The vowels, moreover, must be in alphabetical order: ie, a e i o u (or their phonetic equivalent). The word 'pentelope' may be based on three Greek roots meaning 'five', 'end' and 'voiced'. For more, see here, et seq.

Here are three pentelopes produced as a result of recent exchanges between your author and a French friend and contributor to this site ('GH'). I've included a fairly simple translation of each French verse.

Sans teeth, sans everything

Ce qui me reste dans la mémoire?
Les fous-rires de ma grand-mère,
Mon petit cochon-tirelire,
Queqlues vieux contes du folklore,
Débris vivants d'une aventure.
GH 2019

[What remains in my memory? 
My grandmother's giggles,
My little piggy bank,
A few fairy tales...
Living remains of an adventure]

Intimations of immortality from early childhood

Me promenant tout seul dans l'allée des ha ! ha !
cette grande invention par Le Nôtre créée,
J'avançais là pensif encore tout ébahi
De tout ce que la vie recèle de cahots
Depuis les jours heureux au sortir du bahut.
GH 2019


"Le bahut"  (= the dining-room furniture suite) is the affectionate nickname of the secondary school one belongs to.

[Walking on my own along a ha-ha,
That wonderful creation of Le Nôtre,
I moved forwards thoughtfully and in amazement
At all the surprises life presents
From the happy days of infancy to the end of school days]


Here is a small offering to console all those masters and pupils we have known over the years,  with their  slightly differing tales of woe...

Bringing up the rires

or

'Must try harder'


Come in and won't you please sit down, Gérard?
Your French report, by my esteem'd confrère,
Reveals from 'First' you now 'bring up the rear'.
Your conjugations cause a fine furore:
The latest gaffe was writing crûrent for crurent!

PB 2019

Praying for the soul of a mother

Today is the anniversary of my mother's birthday and I am reposting a verse I wrote in her honour back in 1977, before her death on the 30th of November (the Feast of St Andrew).


I was living in Cambridge during this sad time. For no particular reason that I can recall, I felt an urge to make the train journey across country to pay a visit to my mother. I prepared the following poem en route, not knowing that my mother would depart this world only a matter of days after my arrival. She was sitting near the fireside when I saw her, nursing a hot water bottle. I explained that I had a poem to read to her and I could see that she was listening intently. When I had finished, she said: 'Well, how lovely!' She then retired to her bedroom and never left her bed again before her death a few days later.

Kirsty bheag is the Scots Gaelic for 'little Kirsty'. She was called 'little' to distinguish her from her mother, who was also called Kirsty. I completed the pen and ink drawing of the boat (21cm x 21cm) several years later and named it 'Kirsty' in honour of my mother. RIP.

Alone sate she

Kirsty. PB c1984

Alone sate she in soft and muted shade,
A fairy child of woodland ferns and flowers,
A slender sylph from Spring's most sacred glade,
A smiling sprite of silent, scented bowers.

Her careless hair was gold as sun-gold corn,
In breeze-blessed streams and tresses lightly flowing;
Her eyes were the smiling blue of a sky-blue morn,
Her cheeks with cheerest roses ever-glowing.

Withal a shape so supple, slim and svelte
As like a willow-sapling's lithely grace;
A light and happy spirit therein dwelt,
Whose dancing smiles did play upon her face.

Upon her lap an open book she lay,
Whose lines she scanned with fond and eager gaze;
Then 'loud the alien words she 'gan to say,
In heart to grave for all her mortal days.

Alone sate she, this darling Highland child,
In woods, in fields, by many a mountain stream;
But now in time long-lived to old age mild,
Of these her girlhood joys she doth but dream.

Envoi

Learn friends, this fairest She, she is no other
Than my own dear and much beloved mother.
 © PB 1977

The Apparition of the Blessed Virgin at Lourdes

In Apparitione Beatae Mariae Virginis

The Apparition of the Blessed Virgin at Lourdes

 

Ste Bernadette in death. [Public Domain]

Sainte Bernadette Soubirous

7 January 1844 – 16 April 1879.  Canonized by Pope Pius XI on December 8 1933.
On Thursday, February 11, 1858, fourteen-year-old Bernadette was sent with her younger sister and a friend to gather firewood, when a very beautiful lady appeared to her above a rose bush in a grotto called Massabielle. From the 11th of February until the 16th of July, the lady appeared 18 times. She revealed her identity to Bernadette in the words: Que soy era immaculada councepciou. (I am the Immaculate Conception). She caused a spring to pour forth water in the grotto which was to become a world-famous place of pilgrimage for the sick in soul and body from the lifetime of Bernadette until today.
  
Sa vie

Marie-Bernadette Soubirous est née le 4 janvier 1844 dans le bourg de Lourdes.  Ayant survécu à une épidémie de choléra, elle demeure de santé très précaire. Pour apprendre à lire et à écrire, elle est accueillie, en janvier 1858, dans la classe des petites filles pauvres de l’Hospice de Lourdes dirigé par les Sœurs de la Charité de Nevers.

Entre le 11 février et le 16 juillet 1858, sur la grotte de Massabielle, la Vierge Marie lui apparut 18 fois. Comme Bernadette lui demandait avec insistance son nom, elle répondit: « Je suis l’Immaculée Conception. » Le 18 février 1858, la Vierge Marie dit à Bernadette : « Je ne vous promets pas de vous rendre heureuse en ce monde mais dans l’autre. »

Après avoir transmis aux prêtres l’affirmation solennelle d’identité et d’autres messages célestes, Bernadette, pour mieux échapper à la vue du monde, demanda son admission chez les Sœurs de la Charité et de l’Instruction chrétienne de Nevers. Elle arriva à Nevers en juillet 1866. Modèle de fidélité religieuse, supportant avec la plus grande patience toutes sortes de croix et des infirmités prolongées, elle se livrait fréquemment à l’oraison et à la méditation de la Parole du Seigneur. Elle avait un amour filial la Vierge Immaculée. Elle portait sur elle la Médaille Miraculeuse.  Dans l’infirmerie devenue aujourd’hui un oratoire, âgée de trente-cinq ans, elle rend le dernier soupir et s’endort dans le Seigneur à 3 heures de l'après-midi, le 16 avril 1879.

Elle se tint, des années durant, silencieuse près de Marie au pied de la Croix, jusqu’au dernier moment, où elle , en murmurant: 

Sainte Marie Mère de Dieu, priez pour moi, pauvre pécheresse

Jamais une enfant dévouée à Marie ne pourra périr. O ma bonne Mère, ayez pitié de moi. Je me donne tout entière à vous afin que vous me donniez à votre très cher Fils, que je veux aimer de tout mon cœur. Ma Bonne Mère, donnez-moi un cœur tout brûlant pour Jésus. (Sainte Bernadette)

From the Mass for today

[19] Et apertum est templum Dei in caelo : et visa est arca testamenti ejus in templo ejus, et facta sunt fulgura, et voces, et terraemotus, et grando magna.[Rev. 11]
[1] Et signum magnum apparuit in caelo : mulier amicta sole, et luna sub pedibus ejus, et in capite ejus corona stellarum duodecim.
[10] Et audivi vocem magnam in caelo dicentem : Nunc facta est salus, et virtus, et regnum Dei nostri, et potestas Christi ejus : quia projectus est accusator fratrum nostrorum, qui accusabat illos ante conspectum Dei nostri die ac nocte.[Rev. 12]

[19] And the temple of God was opened in heaven: and the ark of his testament was seen in his temple, and there were lightnings, and voices, and an earthquake, and great hail. [Rev. 11]
[1] And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars:[Rev. 12]
[10] And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying: Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: because the accuser of our brethren is cast forth, who accused them before our God day and night. [Rev. 12]

Gospel: St Luke, Chapter 1

Ecce concipies. JJ Tissot.

[26] In mense autem sexto, missus est angelus Gabriel a Deo in civitatem Galilaeae, cui nomen Nazareth, [27] ad virginem desponsatam viro, cui nomen erat Joseph, de domo David : et nomen virginis Maria. [28] Et ingressus angelus ad eam dixit : Ave gratia plena : Dominus tecum : benedicta tu in mulieribus. [29] Quae cum audisset, turbata est in sermone ejus, et cogitabat qualis esset ista salutatio. [30] Et ait angelus ei : Ne timeas, Maria : invenisti enim gratiam apud Deum.[31] Ecce concipies in utero, et paries filium, et vocabis nomen ejus Jesum

[26] And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, [27] To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. [28] And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. [29] Who having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. [30] And the angel said to her: Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God.[31] Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus.[Luke 1]