boethius consolatio philosophiae poems books one and two

7/29/2019 Boethius Consolatio Philosophiae Poems Books One and Two

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Book One

1

I who once wrote poems with flourishing zeal

Am now pitiably forced to sing sad tunes.

The harsh muses tell me what to write

And my mouth is moist with real tears.No fear can deter them

From being my travelling companions.

My fate as a sad old man

Finds consolation only in the glory

Of a once happy and vigorous youth.

Old age has come unexpectedly

Hastened by misfortune

And grief has announced that it is here to stay.

Grey hairs flow prematurely from my head

And the loose skin of my weak body

Begins to tremble.Death is fortunate

When it comes not in the sweet years

But after much calling in the sad ones.

But oh, how deaf an ear

It turns to the wretched

And savagely refuses

To let weeping eyes close.

While untrustworthy Fortune

Favoured me with insubstantial goods,

I scarcely endured a moment of discomfort.

But now deceptive Fortune has changed her features,

And unfaithful life promises

Only dreary delay.

My friends, you boasted so often of my happiness.

But the one who falls was never on a steady foot.

2

My mind gapes, sunk in a deep abyss,

And, having departed from its own light,

Moves towards the outer darkness.

Destructive care, swelled so often by the winds of earth,Grows and grows.

Here the free man under an open sky

Once used to wander,

Able to see the bright red light of the sun

And the gleam of the cold moon.

Successfully following

The recurrent wandering of the stars

Through all their orbits

And understanding

Why the seas

Are troubled by noisy gales,Which spirit turns the unmoving earth,

Why the star descending in the waters of the West


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Rises glowing and red in the East,

Why spring brings days of mildness

And decorates the earth with flowers,

Why autumn is rich and full

And overflows with heavy grapes.

It was his habit to ask

Nature to reveal its many secrets.But now he lies, with the light of his mind enfeebled

And forced by the heavy chains pressing on his neck,

To look down at the earth

And consider its dullness.

3

Then the night dissolved.

Darkness left me.

My former strength returned with the light.

As, when the clouds are gathered

In headlong chorusAnd the sky is full of grey showers,

The sun is hidden and, the stars not yet in the sky,

And night begins to fall on earth.

The north wind, blowing from its Thracian cave,

Beats the earth and releases the day,

Phoebus shines forth and, shimmering with sudden light,

Strikes the watching eyes with its rays.

4

The one who serene in a settled age

Has brought proud fate to heel

And justly looking at each fortune

Has been able to keep his face unconquered,

He will not be moved

By the anger and threats

Of a swelling raging sea

Nor by the swirling smoke-filled fires

That break out of Vesuvius

Nor by the lightning that strikes the highest towers.

Why do the poor admire

Vicious tyrants in their powerless rage ?When you have disarmed the anger

Of the impotent,

May you not hope for anyhing

May you not fear anything.

But those who tremble and are afraid,

Or keep wishing,

They do not know

That they have given up their freedom.

They throw away the shield,

Desert the battle

And make tighter the chainsOf their captivity


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5

Founder of the star-studded sky,

Who sits on an eternal throne

And directs the heaven with rapid spinning

And compels the stars to submit to law,

That the moon, shining fullAnd meeting all the flames of its brother,

May create smaller stars

And, waning, may lose its brightness

As Phoebus approaches,

That the one who at nightfall

Stirs the cold Hesperi as they rise,

Lucifer,

May once again change course

And fade with the rise of Phoebus.

You draw in the light

In the cold of leaf-destroying winter.You break up the agile hours of the night

When the heat of summer rages.

Your power regulates the changing year,

So that the leaves blown away by the north wind

Return with the gentle wind of the west

And the seed that is seen in the winter

Grows high with the heat of the the summer.

It is ancient law that everything has its place.

Ruler, you guide everything with unwavering purpose

And reject only the actions of men

Obliging them to behave in a decent way.

Why does slippery Fortune make so many changes ?

It taxes the innocent with a punishment

Worthy of a crime.

Moral perverts sit on high

And, viciously unjust,

Kick the holy in the neck.

Virtue is hidden and obscure,

Shining in its darkness.

The just suffers the penalty of the criminal,

But he is not punished for his perjury,Falsehood and deceit.

But force can be used at will,

And he rejoices in humiliating the highest kings

Feared by so countless peoples.

Look at the wretched lands,

You who keep the world together,

Whoever you may be.

We humans,

Not the least part of so great a work,

Are shaken and tossed about

On the sea of fortune.Ruler, check the rapid waves

And the laws you use to rule the heavens


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Use them also to regulate the earth.

6

The star of Cancer swells heavily

With the rays of Phoebus

And the one who has placed his trust

In those furrows that refuse the broadcast,Let him go to the oak trees,

Deceived by his faith in Ceres.

May you never seek the purple grove

To pick violets,

When the field bristles

Screeching with the savage north wind

Nor may you seek with greedy hand

To prune the spring shoots

That it may enjoy the grapes.

Bacchus brings his gifts

Later in autumn.The proper times

For the proper occasions

Are appointed by the god

And he permits no mixing

Of the times he has ordained.

So, what leaves the fixed order

In precipitate flight

Can only end in tears.

7Stars that are hidden

Among the black clouds

Can never shed light.

When the wild south wind,

Is churning the sea

Embroiling the tide,

The water, lately

Glazed and serene,

Fills with filth and mud,

Becomes unlimpid.

The wandering streamFlowing through hills

Often encounters

Barriers of rocks.

You too, if you wish

To see clear the truth,

Walk along the path

With upright footsteps.

Banish all pleasure.

Drive away your fear

Put your hope to flight

Let pain be absent.The mind is cloudy

And checked with bridles,


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Where these things hold sway.


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Book Two

1

She, when she has turned fortune with a proud right hand

And is borne like Euripus swelling and raging,Savagely treads on once fearful kings

And deceptively raises up the humble face of the conquered.

She does not hear the wretched

And does not care

For the weeping and moaning she has caused.

So she plays, so she tests her strength

And provides melancholy theatre

When someone is seen at once

To be both happy and prostrate.

2All the sand poured out by the sea

Stirred up by strong winds

All the stars that shine in the sky

Brought out on clear nights

Plenty with its cornucopia

May pour out so much wealth

And not stay its hand

And the human race may still not cease

To weep and complain.

Although the willing god,

Generous with much gold,

Receives prayers

And adorns those greedy for honours,

Once acquired they seem to be nothing,

And savage greed devours what it has sought

And opens up its jaws for still more.

What check can put a certain end

To this headlong greed

When the thirst for things

Rages even more, increased

By prizes already consumed.He is never rich, who moaning and fearful

Thinks himself in need.

3

After Phoebus has begun

To scatter light in the North

On his reddish chariot,

The star, beset by the flames of the sun,

Grows dim,

Its face becoming pale.After the grove has reddened

With the roses of spring


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In the gentle winds of the west,

The misty south wind blows

Its unhealthy breath

And beauty disappears from the thorns.

The sea, tranquil and serene

With unmoving waves,

Sometimes radiates.The north wind upsets

The sea sometimes

With hurricanes.

Its form may seldom be fixed

And it may continue to change,

But the fortunes of men can be trusted to fall

And their wealth to disappear from them in flight.

There is only one eternal and constant law:

Everything born will die.

4Those who wish to build

A cautiously permanent house

And wish it to withstand the noisy west wind

And take care to stay far from the sea

With its threatening waves,

They would do well to avoid

Hilltops and beaches.

Hilltops are exposed to the wind.

Beaches lack foundations.

Avoid the dangerous fate of a pleasant spot

And remember to build your house

On low secure ground.

The wind may churn up the sea

And fill it with flotsam and jetsam,

But you will be happily concealed

Behind the quiet strength of your rampart

And you will smile serenely

At the angry outbursts of the weather.

5

An earlier and happier ageContent with faithful fields

Not lost in useless luxury

Was easily used to satisfying hunger

With its fruits.

The mixture of the Bacchic gift

And honey was unknown.

And so too was silk dyed with purple.

Health-giving sleep was provided by the grass,

Drink by the river and shade by the tall pine.

The sea was unsailed

Merchants with their goodsHad not yet seen foreign shores.

The savage trumpets of hateful war


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Had not yet sounded

And fields were not soaked with bitter blood.

There was no enmity to move men to arms,

Where they would see gruesome wounds

Or the rewards of blood.

I wish it were possible to return

To those ancient days.But greed burns more brightly

Than the fires of Etna.

Who was that first man

Who dug out gold from the ground

And jewels that wished to be unfound.

Ah, the dangers of wealth.

6

We know how much havoc Nero wrought,

With cities in flames and parents slaughtered,

Who murdered his brother and steeped himself wildlyIn the blood of his mother,

Wandering with a body so cold to look at,

Unweeping, but able to

Decide to snuff out beauty.

But he ruled with a sceptre peoples

Whom Phoebus, coming from his faraway home,

Sees as he brings his rays beneath the waves,

Whom the seven freezing constellations press down,

Whom the south wind, as it fans the burning sands,

Violently scorches with its dry heat.

Was a power on high able to deflect the madness

Of a morally depraved Emperor ?

It is a difficult fate to bear,

Each time the iniquitous sword is made more deadly

By a savage poison.

7.

Whoever seeks glory with headlong mind

And believes it is the highest good,Let him look at the wide open spaces heaven

And the narrow confines of earth.

He will be ashamed of a swollen name

Unable to complete the brief round.

The proud, why do they vainly

Lift up their necks in a mortal yoke ?

Fame may wander through remote peoples

And far and wide unfold their tongues,

The great house may be gleam with famous titles

But death mocks the glory of the high

Overwhelms the proud and the humble alikeAnd levels the high and the low.

Where are the bones of faithful Fabricius now ?


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What is Brutus or the unpliant Cato ?

8

That the world varies harmonious change

With a stable faith,

That warring seeds keep a treaty forever,That Phoebus advances the rosy dawn

With his chariot of gold,

So that Phoebe may rule over

What is brought from the west,

So that an all-embracing sea

May confine the waves

Within a set boundary,

Lest wandering lands be allowed

To extend their wide boundaries,

Love that that rules land and sea

And dictates to heavenBinds these things together.

If it relaxes the reins,

Whatever things love each other

Will wage uninterrupted war.

The machine that they move

With beauty and trust

They will struggle to destroy.

Love keeps people joined by a holy bond

And binds the sacrament of marriage

With pure love.

It governs its followers with its laws.

O happy race of men

If the love by which heaven is ruled

Should rule your hearts.

boethius consolatio philosophiae poems books one and two

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