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C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

De Resurrectione Domine, with Translation

By Adam de Saint Victor (Twelfth Century)

MUNDI renovatio

Nova parit gaudia;

Resurgenti Domino,

Corresurgent omnia,

Elementa serviunt

Et autoris sentiunt

Quanta sint solemnia.

Ignis volat mobilis,

Et aër volubilis,

Fluit aqua labalis,

Terra manet stabilis,

Alta petunt levia,

Centrum tenent gravia,

Renovantur omnia.

Cœlum fit serenius,

Et mare tranquillius,

Spirat aura levius,

Vallis nostra floruit,

Revirescunt arida,

Recalescunt frigida,

Post quas ver intepuit.

Gelu mortis solvitur,

Princeps mundi tollitur,

Et ejus destruitur,

In nobis imperium,

Dum tenere voluit

In quo nihil habuit

Jus amisit proprium.

Vita mortem superat;

Homo jam recuperat

Quod priùs amiserat,

Paradisi gaudium.

Viam præbet facilem,

Cherubim versatilem,

Ut Deus promiserat

Amovendo gladium.

Translation of the Preceding

THE RENEWAL of the world begets new joys; all things arise with the resurrection of the Lord. The elements obey [him] and feel how great are the feasts of their Creator.
The mobile ether and the whirling air are set in motion. The gliding water flows, the earth remains steady; what is light arises, what is heavy keeps its position at the centre [of the universe]. All things are renewed.
The heaven becomes more serene, the sea more quiet; one breathes gentle airs; our valley is [clothed] in flowers; what [was] dry becomes green again, what [was] cold grows warm again: after which the spring gains color.
The ice of death is loosened, the Prince of this world is done away with, and his power over us destroyed. While he wished to hold Him in whom he had not anything [cf. John xiv. 30], he lost the power that was his own.
Life conquers death; man now recovers what he had lost before, the joy of Paradise.
[Christ] makes the way easy [for us to travel] by removing, as God had promised, the sword of the Cherubim that “turns in every way” [Gen. iii. 24].