Sunday, April 3, 2011

Stabat mater


Stabat mater dolorosa
iuxta Crucem lacrimosa,
dum pendebat Filius.


contristantem et dolentem


Round her all the nations wept
in vigil  her in comfort kept,

until her son  to rise was seen.
Now by his side  she reigns as queen.

For her the robes are laundered white,
for her the tapers burn all night,

and daughters named abundantly:
Maria, Mary, and Marie.

*

Yet on that day another stood
alone, beneath a darker rood.

Unnamed, unknown, alone she grieves
beneath the cross reserved for thieves.

To her no dove of grace was sent;
the one she mourns  did not repent.

Her tears are dry as desert sands.
The dust enfolds her.  Still she stands.



*
For a mini-movie
of madness and salvation,
click here:

[For a somewhat similar theme, of unmediatized suffering,
cf. Kipling's poem of 1891,
"The Last of the Light Brigade."]

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