Paschal Song

Sedulius, tr. Sigerson, 1922; selections

He sought the sea; His footsteps press the dryShore-weed, and where an oaken skiff lay …

He sought the sea; His footsteps press the dry
Shore-weed, and where an oaken skiff lay nigh,
He entered—His disciples followed fast
And raised the shiv’ring sail upon the mast;
The ship ploughed onward and with fav’ring breeze
Soon lost the land and crossed the middle seas,
But then a sudden storm the waters smote
Which surged in fury and o’erleaped the boat.
Fear seized His people, deeming all was lost
They stretched their shipwrecked arms towards the coast.

He peaceful mid the tempest slept, Who keeps
Eternal watch—(because He never sleeps
Who Israel guards), so when, tumultuous,
Their terrors cry: “Be merciful to us,
Lord, help, we perish”—naught delayed His will.

The Lord arising bade the Winds be still,
The swelling Waves subsided at His word—
Not even Ocean when its deeps are stirred
With fellest rage resists; nor yet the course
Of storms careering all in furious force.

The happy Sea to Christ in homage brings
Its lofty billows down, the Tempest springs
In joy away on softly wafting wings.

Then sought the Lord, sea-borne, another strand,
His body’s birthplace, where His own command
To Him, its Father, made a Father-land,
Behold there come, a living corpse who bear,
Four men: and, on the litter lying there,
One, hardly man, alive, but void of use,
Death’s Image he—his prostrate limbs lie loose,
Their every service gone, and flaccid all
His joints inert and strengthless sinews fall.

He reached the wailing walls, the House of Sighs,
Where smote by doom the death-pale maiden lies:
A trembling tumult ululates, of groans
And bitter cries, the flute funereal moans,
In weeping dirge, and frequent sound on sound
Of lamentable blows¹ the place confound.

Then that His own disciples might achieve
Like deeds, it pleased Him all full power to give:
“Go forth,” He said, “and to my people tell
(Enlarged not yet the House of Israel)
The Reign of Heav’n; their cruel pests expel,
Cast demons out; and heal the leprosied;
Call life unto the chill limbs of the dead;
Freely receiving, give to all men free.”

As though He said: “I now confide to ye
My flock to guard. I am their Shepherd good,
And largely open all My fields for food;
Let no man sell my sheep these pastures—Mine.”

Thus taught th’ Omnipotent the law divine
In apostolic ears, that thence the lore
Through after times should flow for evermore.

As from one crystal fount of Paradise
Four mighty ways of water take their rise,
And spread, diverging, all the world to bless,
Whatever be God’s work—not selfishness
Of man, but God-confided—comes, be sure,
A pure gift, one that shall be given pure,
As though by Stewards not by Traders held.
So David sang in canticles of eld:
“I yet shall enter, where my hopes aspire,
My Lord’s repose because I know not hire.”

The dying Day beyond the warm blue wave
Of ocean sinks, that forth may come the grave
Pale Night, and Hesper lead her starry shades.

Leaving their Lord amongst the mountain glades
The Twelve put out upon the lake, where now
The threat’ning waters rock the labouring prow
And winds adverse.

As darker grows the air
The Lord walked forth upon the waters there
And trod their fluid fields; with ripples fleet
The sea, subsiding, kissed His sacred feet.

Th’ amazed disciples saw the pathway o’er
Ship-bearing seas: then Peter, evermore
The first to know his Lord, essayed the wave,
But, sinking in the waters, called, and clave
Unto his Master’s hand, outstretched to save.
That hand his haven!—forth he moved and free
O’er crystal meads, a Walker of the Sea.

The Transfiguration

The mortal vesture, of His mother ta’en
With human form, was seen to veil in vain
The Lord divine. No city on a hill
Is ever hid, none neath a bushel will
A lamp enclose, but raising let it light
With spreading beams the darkness of the night.

Upon the mount He stood, made manifest,
His Form in all ethereal Splendour drest:
Sun-bright His Glory was; His Face excelled
The glowing Day; His robe such Radiance held,
Its fairness far the whitest snow dispelled!

Sublimely favoured Three, who thus received
On Earth to see what Earth has not believed:
With Moses and Elias to take part—
Unknown, they knew them by the seeing heart—²
That we, with larger faith, might henceforth learn
The first and last of all things to discern,
Alpha and Omega.

At either side
Th’ adoring Prophets there have testified
One entering Life, and one who never died.
All heard the Voice descending from above
Proclaim the Son and speak the Father’s love.

Soon came disciples asking with debate
Who should in Heaven’s kingdom be most great?

Then He, as God and Doctor Wonderful,
Replied: “The Humble highest is: he all shall rule
Who unto all is subject, modest, mild,
Who thinks himself the least”—ev’n as the child,
Whom in their midst He placed that men, made wise,
The child-like character might recognise,
Nor years but mind regard:

The youthful heart
No pomp nor honours seeks in worldly mart,
Nor swells superb. A pure life’s path though driven
Most close to earth is yet most nigh to heaven.
For minds aspiring sink from what they seek,
The heart that would descend ascends the peak!
Behold, the Lord exalts the lowly things,
And gives them place among the mighty kings,
But casts the arrogant and haughty Great
To deeps Tartaric down, disconsolate.

Little I say His special acts to trace
Whilst meditating on His general grace.³

Notes

In lamentation, the Irish Gael often smite the palms of the hands together: this would give the “plangorque frequens.” Their minstrels also played the airs of lamentation.
Ignotos oculis viderunt lumine cordis.
The last two lines are not essential nor even required, and are the more interesting because they appear to me added, in order that Sedulius might conclude this, like each of his Books, with a distich fashioned in Irish metric. These are his words:
Parua loquor, si facta dei per singula Curram,
et speciale bonum, quum sit generale reuoluam.
The last words in the lines, “curram” and “reuoluam” give perfect double-syllable vowel-rimes, and there is consonantal alliteration—p c and s s.
There are also four inlaid two-syllable rimes, “parua,” “loquor,” “facta,” “bonum,” which rime also, by their vowels, with the end-rimes, whilst “generale” and “speciale” rime in each of the four syllables. See Appendix II.