Lorsch Riddle 2
NEVILLEMOGFORD
Date: Wed 21 Apr 2021Matching Commentaries: Commentary for Lorsch Riddle 2
Original text:
Dum domus ipsa mea dormit, vigilare suesco
Atque sub angusto tenear cum carcere semper,
Liber ad aetheream transcendo frequentius aulam,
Alta supernorum scrutans secreta polorum.
5 Omnia quin potius perlustro creata sub orbe,
Rura peragro salumque peto, tunc litora linquens
Finibus inmensum fundum rimabor abyssi.
Horrifera minime pertranseo claustra Gehennae,
Ignea perpetuae subeo sed Tartara Ditis.
10 Haec modico peragro speleo si claudar in arvis,
Mortifero concussa ruant ni ergastula casu.
Sin vero propria dire de sede repellor,
Mortis in occasu extimplo fio pulpa putrescens.
Sic sunt fata mea diversa a patre creata.
Translation:
When my house sleeps, I am usually awake,
and although I am always held in a narrow jail,
I am free to ascend to the celestial palace very often,
exploring the lofty mysteries of the high heavens.
5 In fact, I travel past all created things on earth,
I wander the countryside and I head for the sea, and then, leaving the coast,
I will explore the limits of the vast depths of the abyss.
I will not pass through the terrible gates of Gehenna,
but I will enter the fiery Tartarus of everlasting Dis.
10 If I am locked away on earth, I will wander from the tiny cave through these places
unless, shaken by deadly chance, the prisons should collapse.
But if I am forced unluckily from my own residence,
in the event of death, I immediately become rotting flesh.
In such ways, my father fashioned my various fates.
Heart, mind, soul.
Notes:
This edition is based on Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Palatinus latinus 1753, folio 115r. You can find images of this manuscript here.
Tags: latin