Lectio Nona
Language: Latin
Available translation(s): ENG FRE
Quare de vulva eduxisti me?
qui utinam consumptus essem,
ne oculus me videret!
Fuissem quasi non essem,
de utero translatus ad tumulum.
Numquid non paucitas dierum
meorum finietur brevi?
Dimitte me ergo, ut plangam
paululum dolorem meum:
antequam vadam, et non revertar,
ad terram tenebrosam et
opertam mortis caligine,
terram miseriae et tenebrarum,
ubi umbra mortis, et nullus ordo,
sed sempiternus horror inhabitat.
Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , title 1: "Neuvième lecture", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- ENG English (David Wyatt) , title 1: "Ninth lesson", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Researcher for this page: Guy Laffaille
[Guest Editor] This text was added to the website: 2010-04-05
Line count: 15
Word count: 63
Ninth lesson
Language: English  after the Latin
Why have you brought me out of the womb?
I wish I had been devoured,
that no eye had seen me!
If only I could have been as if I never was,
carried from the womb to the grave.
Could not the small number of my days
be finished in a short while?
Let me go then, that I can lament
my sorrow for a little while:
Before I go to the dark land
covered by the gloom of death,
from which I shall not return,
a land of wretchedness and darkness,
Where there is the shadow of death, but no order,
and eternal horror dwells.
Authorship:
- Translation from Latin to English copyright © 2012 by David Wyatt, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:
This text was added to the website: 2012-05-18
Line count: 15
Word count: 106