
Media Vita
“In the midst of life
we are in death” sang fair
Notker the Stammerer
whose spoken words
when they emerged
wingless apart hobbled:
but when he sang
Notker’s sodden eyes
gathered gold like wheat
till we fared as kings
upon the bread of angels.
In the year 912, Notker the Stammerer, a monk of the Abbey of Saint Gall, is said to have written what became the Gregorian chant below, the English translation of which is a poetic adaption from the Book of Common Prayer (1549).
Media vita in morte sumus
quem quaerimus adjutorem
nisi te, Domine,
qui pro peccatis nostris
juste irasceris?
Sancte Deus,
sancte fortis,
sancte et misericors Salvator:
amarae morti ne tradas nos.
In the midst of life we are in death
of whom may we seek for succour,
but of thee, O Lord,
who for our sins
art justly displeased?
O Lord God most holy,
O Lord most mighty,
O holy and most merciful Saviour,
deliver us not into the bitter pains of eternal death.
2 Samuel 14:14
We must all die;
we are like water spilled on the ground,
which cannot be gathered up again.
But God will not take away life,
and he devises means
so that the banished one will not remain an outcast.
Image for Cee's Flower of the Day (FOTD), November 15, 2021 Linda at dVerse: Quadrille#140 asks us to use some form of the word "fair" in a poem of exactly 44 words. Click Mr. Linky and join in!