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Latin Poems and Translations

by
John Donne
a 1631

DE LIBRO CUM MUTUARETUR IMPRESSO;
DOMI A PUERIS FRUSTATIM LACERATO; ET
POST REDDITO MANUSCRIPTO

Doctissimo Amicissimoque V.

D. D. Andrews

PARTURIUNT madido quae nixu praela, recepta,
    Sed quae scripta manu, sunt veneranda magis,
Qui liber in pluteos, blattis cinerique relictos,
    Si modo sit praeli sanguine tinctus, abit;
Accedat calamo scriptus, reverenter habetur,
    Involat et veterum scrinia summa Patrum.
Dicat Apollo modum; Pueros infundere libro
    Nempe vetustatem canitiemque novo.
Nil mirum, medico pueros de semine natos,
    Haec nova fata libro posse dedisse novo.
Si veterem faciunt pueri, qui nuperus, Annon
    Ipse Pater juvenem me dabit arte senem?
Hei miseris senibus! nos vertit dura senectus
    Omnes in pueros, neminem at in juvenem.
Hoc tibi servasti praestandum, Antique Dierum,
    Quo viso, et vivit, et juvenescit Adam.
Interea, infirmae fallamus taedia vitae,
    Libris, et Coelorum aemulâ amicitiâ.
Hos inter, qui a te mihi redditus iste libellus,
Non mihi tam charus, tam meus, ante fuit.

EPIGRAMMA
Transiit in Sequanam Moenus; Victoris in aedes;
Et Francofurtum, te revehente, meat.

AMICISSIMO, ET MERITISSIMO
BEN. JOHNSON

In Vulponem

QUOD arte ausus es hic tuâ, Poeta,
Si auderent hominum Deique juris
Consulti, veteres sequi aemularierque,
O omnes saperemus ad salutem.
His sed sunt veteres araneosi;
Tam nemo veterum est sequutor, ut tu
Illos quod sequeris novator audis.
Fac tamen quod agis; tuique prima
Libri canitie induantur horâ:
Nam chartis pueritia est neganda,
Nascanturque senes, oportet, illi
Libri, queis dare vis perennitatem.
Priscis, ingenium facit, laborque
Te parem; hos superes, ut et futuros,
Ex nostrâ vitiositate sumas,
Quâ priscos superamus, et futuros.

TO MR. GEORGE HERBERT,

With one of my seals, of the anchor and Christ

QUI prius assuetus Serpentum fasce Tabellas
    Signare, (haec nostrae symbola parva Domus)
Adscitus domui Domini, patrioque relicto
    Stemmate, nanciscor stemmata jure nova.
Hinc mihi Crux primo quae fronti impressa lavacro,
    Finibus extensis, anchora facta patet.
Anchorae in effigiem Crux tandem desinit ipsam,
    Anchora fit tandem Crux tolerata diu.
Hoc tamen ut fiat, Christo vegetatur ab ipso
    Crux, et ab Affixo, est Anchora facta, jesu.
Nec Natalitiis pen;tus serpentibus orbor,
    Non ita dat Deus, ut auferat ante data.
Quâ sapiens, Dos est; Quâ terram lambit et ambit,
    Pestis; At in nostra fit Medicina Cruce,
Serpens; fixa Cruci si sit Natura; Crucique
    A fixo, nobis, Gratia tota fluat.
Omnia cum Crux sint, Crux Anchora facta, sigillum
    Non tam dicendum hoc quam Catechismus erit.
Mitto nec exigua, exiguft sub imagine, dona,
    Pignora amicitiae, et munera; Vota, preces.
Plura tibi accumulet, sanctus cognominis, Ille
    Regia qui flavo Dona sigillat Equo.

A SHEAFE Of Snakes used heretofore to be
My Seal, The Crest of our poore Family.
Adopted in Gods Family, and so
Our old Coat lost, unto new armes I go.
The Crosse (my seal at Baptism) spred below,
Does, by that form, into an Anchor grow.
Crosses grow Anchors; Bear, as thou shouldst do
Thy Crosse, and that Crosse grows an Anchor too.
But he that makes our Crosses Anchors thus,
Is Christ, who there is crucifi'd for us.
Yet may I, with this, my first Serpents hold,
God gives new blessings, and yet leaves the old;
The Serpent, may, as wise, my pattern be;
My poison, as be feeds on dust, that's me.
And as he rounds the Earth to murder sure,
My death he is, but on the Crosse, my cure.
Crucifie nature then, and then implore
All Grace from him, crucified there before;
When all is Crosse, and that Crosse Anchor grown,
This Seal's a Catechism, not a Seal alone.
Under that little Seal great gifts I send,
[Wishes,] and prayers, pawns, and fruits of a friend.
And may that Saint which rides in our great Seal,
To you, who bear his name, great bounties deal.

TRANSLATED OUT OF GAZÆUS, VOTA
AMICO FACTA. FOL.160

GOD grant thee thine own wish, and grant thee mine,
Thou, who dost, best friend, in best things outshine;
May thy soul, ever chearfull, nere know cares,
Nor thy life, ever lively, know gray haires.
Nor thy hand, ever open, know base holds,
Nor thy purse, ever plump, know pleits, or folds.
Nor thy tongue, ever true, know a false thing,
Nor thy word, ever mild, know quarrelling.
Nor thy works, ever equall, know disguise,
Nor thy fame, ever pure, know contumelies.
Nor thy prayers, know low objects, still Divine;
God grant thee thine own wish, and grant thee mine.