What gavest thou of thy wealth before private confession? What gavest thou of thy riches before the close and silent pit? And what thou hadst intended, thou hast left undone ; And thou sawest not how many thou shouldst have loved. And a benefit it would have been as regards the passions of the people. And the good would have come to so much prosperity. When thou of thy freedom purchasest a hundred things, they are uncertain, And vanish as suddenly as the motion of eyelid. Hast thou noticed that they love sinisterly while seeking violence? 30 Thou respectedst not Friday, of thy great humility; Thou chantedst not a paternoster at matins or vespers, A paternoster, the chief thing to be repeated: meditate on nothing Except the Trinity. Thou shouldst pay what is equal to three seven paternosters daily. What has been and is not, and their life has not passed away. Thou art more accustomed to the roaring of the sea than to the preaching of the evangel. Must thou not go to the pile, because thou hast not been Thou respectedst neither relics, nor altars, nor churches. utterance. 40 Thou didst not respect the law of the Creator of heaven before death. A strange mixture didst thou employ in thy speech. When I came to thee, small was my evil, But it came to me from thy grovelling co-operation. As for them, none will believe us respecting thy appearance of enjoyment. LXXVII. BLACK BOOK OF CAERMARTHEN VI. Text, vol. ii. p. 8. Notes, vol. ii. p. 328. SOUL, since I was made in necessity blameless True it is, woe is me that thou shouldst have come to my design, Neither for my own sake, nor for death, nor for end, nor for beginning. It was with seven faculties that I was thus blessed, With seven created beings I was placed for purification; I was gleaming fire when I was caused to exist; I was dust of the earth, and grief could not reach me ; I was a high wind, being less evil than good; I was a mist on a mountain seeking supplies of stags; 10 I was blossoms of trees on the face of the earth. If the Lord had blessed me, He would have placed me on matter. Soul, since I was made LXXVIII BLACK BOOK OF CAERMARTHEN VII. Text, vol. ii. p. 9. Notes, vol. ii. p. 328. ET us not reproach one another, but rather mutually save ourselves. Certain is a meeting after separation, The appointment of a senate, and a certain conference, And the rising from the grave after a long repose. The mighty God will keep in his power the man of correct life, And will let fire upon the unholy people, And lightning and thunder and wide-spread death. Neither a solitary nor a sluggard shall pass to a place of safety. And after peace there shall be the usages of a kingdom; 10 The three hosts shall be brought to the overpowering presence of Jesus: A pure and blessed host like the angels; Another host, mixed, like the people of a country; The third host, unbaptized, a multitude that directly after death Will proceed in a thick crowd to the side of devils, Not one of them shall go, owing to their hideous forms, Where there are singers tuning their harmonious lays, Happy will be their cogitations with the ruler of the glorious retinue; Where the Apostles are in the kingdom of the humble, 20 Where the bounteous Creator is on his glorious throne. May a disposition for the grave be given us; exalted is a relationship to Him; And before we are gathered together to mount Olivet, day The wonders, greatness, and puissance of the Creator none can relate. LXXIX. BLACK BOOK OF CAERMARTHEN IX. Text, vol. ii. p. 10. Notes, vol. ii. p. 330. ET God be praised in the beginning and the end. Who supplicates Him, He will neither despise nor refuse. The only son of Mary, the great exemplar of kings, Mary, the mother of Christ, the praise of women. The sun will come from the East to the North. Intercede, for thy great mercy's sake, With thy Son, the glorious object of our love, God above us, God before us, God possessing (all things). May the Father of Heaven grant us a portion of mercy; 10 Puissant Sovereign, may there be peace between us without refusal ; May we reform and make satisfaction for our transgressions, Before I go to the earth to my fresh grave, In the dark without a candle to my tribunal, To my narrow abode, to the limits assigned to me, to my repose; After my horse, and indulgence in fresh mead, We are in a state the wantonness of which is sad ; Like leaves from the top of trees it will vanish away. 20 Woe to the niggard that hoards up precious things; And unless the Supreme Father will support him, Though he is allowed to have his course in the present world, his end will be dangerous. He knows not what it is to be brave, yet will he not tremble in his present state; He will not rise up in the morning, will utter no greeting, nor will he sit; He will not sing joyfully nor ask for mercy. 30 And death will come upon hoary age; He is insatiable in the assembly and in the banquet. And age and hoariness will affect thee. May Michael make intercession for us, that the Father of heaven may dispense us His mercy! The beginning of summer is a most pleasant season, tuneful the birds, green the stalks of plants, Ploughs are in the furrow, oxen in the yoke, 40 When cuckoos sing on the branches of pleasant trees, Smoke is painful, sleeplessness is manifest. Since my friends are returned to their former state It was our desire, our friend, our trespass To penetrate into the land of thy banishment. Seven saints and seven score and seven hundred did he pierce in one convention. With Christ the blessed they sustain no apprehension of evil. 50 A gift I will ask, may it not be refused me by the God of peace. |