Day of Satan's painful duty!
Dies iræ! dies illa! Earth shall vanish, hot and sooty; Solvet sæclum in favilla So says Virtue, so says Beauty. Teste David cum Sibylla. Ah! what terror shall be shaping Quantus tremor est futurus, When the Judge the truth's undraping— Quando Judex est venturus. Cats from every bag escaping! Cuncta stricte discussurus. Now the trumpet's invocation Tuba mirum spargens sonum Calls the dead to condemnation; Per sepulchra regionem, All receive an invitation. Coget omnes ante thronum Death and Nature now are quaking, Mors stupebit, et Natura, And the late lamented, waking, Quum resurget creatura In their breezy shrouds are shaking. Judicanti responsura. Lo! the Ledger's leaves are stirring, Liber scriptus proferetur, And the Clerk, to them referring, In quo totum continetur, Makes it awkward for the erring. Unde mundus judicetur. When the Judge appears in session, Judex ergo quum sedebit, We shall all attend confession, Quicquid latet apparebit, Loudly preaching non-suppression. Nil inultum remanebit. How shall I then make romances Quid sum miser tunc dicturus, Mitigating circumstances? Quem patronem rogaturus, Even the just must take their chances. Quum vix justus sit securus? King whose majesty amazes, Rex tremendæ majestatis, Save thou him who sings thy praises; Qui salvandos salvas gratis; Fountain, quench my private blazes. Salva me,
Fons pietatis. Pray remember, sacred Saviour, Recordare,
Jesu pie, Mine the playful hand that gave your Quod sum causa tuæ viæ; Death-blow.
Pardon such behavior. Ne me perdas illa die. Seeking me, fatigue assailed thee, Quærens me sedisti lassus Calvary's outlook naught availed thee; Redemisti crucem passus, Now 'twere cruel if I failed thee. Tantus labor non sit cassus. Righteous judge and learnèd brother, Juste Judex ultionis, Pray thy prejudices smother Donum fac remissionis Ere we meet to try each other. Ante diem rationis. Sighs of guilt my conscience gushes, Ingemisco tanquam reus, And my face vermilion flushes; Culpa rubet vultus meus; Spare me for my pretty blushes. Supplicanti parce,
Deus. Thief and harlot, when repenting, Qui Mariam absolvisti, Thou forgavest—complimenting Et latronem exaudisti, Me with sign of like relenting. Mihi quoque spem dedisti. If too bold is my petition Preces meæ non sunt dignæ, I'll receive with due submission Sed to bonus fac benigne My dismissal—from perdition. Ne perenni cremer igne. When thy sheep thou hast selected Inter oves locum præsta. From the goats, may I, respected, Et ab hædis me sequestra, Stand amongst them undetected. Statuens in parte dextra. When offenders are indited, Confutatis maledictis, And with trial-flames ignited, Flammis acribus addictis, Elsewhere I'll attend if cited. Voca me cum benedictis. Ashen-hearted, prone and prayerful, Oro supplex et acclinis, When of death I see the air full, Cor contritum quasi cinis; Lest I perish too be careful. Gere curam mei finis. On that day of lamentation, Lacrymosa dies illa When, to enjoy the conflagration, Qua resurget et favilla, Men come forth,
O be not cruel: Judicandus homo reus, Spare me,
Lord—make them thy fuel. Huic ergo parce,
Deus!
Composition date is unknown - the above date represents the first publication date.
The lyrical form of this poem is aaa.1.
Bierce prefaces his translation with the following explanation:
A recent republication of the late Gen.
John A.
Dix's disappointing translationof this famous medieval hymn, together with some researches into its history,which I happened to be making at the time, induces me to undertake a translation myself.
It may seem presumption in me to attempt that whichso many eminent scholars of so many generations have attempted beforeme; but failure of others encourages me to hope that success, beingstill unachieved, is still achievable.
The fault of many translations,from Lord Macaulay's to that of Gen.
Dix, has been,
I venture to think,a too strict literalness, whereby the delicate irony and subtle humorof the immortal poem--though doubtless these admirable qualitieswere valued by the translators--have been sacrificed in the result.
In none of the English versions that I have examined is more than atrace of the mocking spirit of insincerity pervading the wholeprayer,--the cool effrontery of the supplicant in enumerating his demerits,his serenely illogical demands of salvation in spite, or rather because,of them, his meek submission to the punishment of others, and the manysimilarly pleasing characteristics of this amusing work being most imperfectly conveyed.
By permitting myself a reasonable freedomof rendering--in many cases boldly supplying that "missinglink" between the sublime and the ridiculous which the author,writing for the acute monkish apprehension of the thirteenthcentury, did not deem it necessary to insert--I have hoped at least partly to liberate the lurking devil of humor from hisletters, letting him caper, not, certainly, as he does in the Latin,but as he probably would have done had his creator writtenin English.
In preserving the meter and trochaic rhymes of the original,
I have acted from the same reverent regard for the musicwith which, in the liturgy of the Church, the verses becomeinseparably wedded that inspired Gen.
Dix; seeking rather tosurmount the obstacles to success by honest effort, than to avoid themby adopting an easier versification which would have deprived my version of all utility in religious service.
I must bespeak the reader's charitable consideration in respectof the first stanza, the insuperable difficulties of whichseem to have been purposely contrived in order to warn offtrespassers at the very boundary of the alluring domain.
I have got over the inhibition--somehow--but David and
Sybil must try to forgive me if they find themselves representedmerely by the names of those conspicuous personal qualitiesto which they probably owed their powers of prophecy, as Samson's strength lay in his hair.
