Highlighted stanza numbers are links to corresponding stanzas in the translation below. Other highlighted words are links to notes.
1. Levis exsurgit zephirus
et sol procedit tepidus,
iam terra sinus aperit
dulcore suo difluit.
2. Ver purpuratum exiit,
ornatus suos induit,
asperit terram floribus,
ligna silvarum frondibus.
3. Struunt lustra quadrupedes
et dulces nidos volucres,
inter ligna florentia
sua decantant gaudia.
4. Quod oculis dum video
et auribus dum audio,
heu pro tantis gaudiis
tantis inflor suspiriis.< /P>
5. Cum mihi sola sedeo
et hec revolvens palleo,
si forte capud sublevo
nec audio nec video.
6. Tu saltim veris gratia
exaudi et considera
frondes flores et gramina,
nam mea languet anima.
1. The soft west wind arises
and the warm sun advances,
now the earth lays bare her breast
and flows out with her sweetness. [Return to Latin text]
2. Spring clothed in crimson goes out,
dresses in her finery,
she scatters flowers on the earth,
the trees of the forests with leaves. [Return to Latin text]
3. Four-footed ones build their dens
and the sweet birds their nests,
among the flowering branches
they sing out their joys. [Return to Latin text]
4. While I see this with my eyes
and hear it with my ears,
alas, instead of such great joys,
I am filled with such great sighs. [Return to Latin text]
5. I sit alone with myself,
and, thinking over these things, I grow pale,
if perhaps I raise my head,
I do not hear, I do not see. [Return to Latin text]
6. You, at least, for the sake of spring,
listen to this and look closely at
the leaves, the flowers and grass,
for my soul languishes. [Return to Latin text]
1. For background on this manuscript, see Martin Irvine, The Making of Textual Culture: Grammatica and Literary Theory, 350-1100 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp.358-64, and A. G. Rigg and G. R. Wieland, "A Canterbury Classbook of the Mid-Eleventh Century (the Cambridge Songs Manuscript)," Anglo-Saxon England 4 (1975): 113-30. The "Cambridge Songs" section of this manuscript has be edited and translated by Jan Ziolkowski, The Cambridge Songs (Carmina Cantabrigensia) (Hamden, CT: Garland, 1994). Return to text
2. The feminine form of the adjective sola, which modifies the first person speaker, marks the speaker as female. This poem is in the genre of the "woman's song", a lament for a lost or absent lover or husband. Return to text