On Easter

The seasons gleam, adorned with flower-bearing calm;

And the gate of heaven stands open with greater light.

The orbit of the sky leads the fire-breathing sun higher,

Who, wandering, goes out and enters the Ocean's waters.

Armed with rays, surveying the flowing elements,

On this brief night he stretches the day through the world.

Bright skies display a clear and serene face,

And the shining stars declare their own rejoicing.

The fertile earth pours forth her little gifts in varied cultivation,

When spring has bloomed well; and the year gives back its wealth.

Soft beds of violets paint the purple plain:

The meadows grow green with grasses, and the grass sparkles with its blades.

Little by little the starry lights of flowers come forth:

All the grasses smile upon their flowers.

With seed laid down, the crop springs up wide across the fields,

Promising the farmer that hunger can be overcome.

The vine-shoot, its stem forsaken, weeps its own joys:

Where it will give pure wine, the vine now gives water.

Rising from the bark of its mother with tender down,

The swelling bud prepares its bosom for birth;

And beneath the winter season, with the hair of leaves poured back,

The greening grove now restores its leafy roof.

Willow mingled with fir, hazel, osier, elm, maple, walnut,

Each pleasant tree applauds with its own foliage.

The bee, about to build its combs, leaving the hive,

Buzzing among the flowers, gathers honey with its knee.

The bird is called back to song, which, with its singing stilled,

Had been more sluggish and mute in the cold of winter.

Here the Nightingale tunes her organs to her own reeds;

And the breeze grows sweeter as the melody echoes back.

Behold, the grace of the reborn world bears witness

That all gifts have returned with their Lord.

For to Christ triumphant after the sorrows of Tartarus,

The grove with foliage everywhere, the grasses with flower, give favour.

The laws of hell being crushed, as he passes above the stars,

Light, sky, fields, and sea rightly praise God.

He who had been crucified—behold, God reigns through all things;

And all created things offer prayer to their Creator.

Hail, festal day, venerable throughout all ages,

On which God conquered hell and holds the stars.

Nobility of the year, kindly light of months and days,

Splendour of hours—all things that ring out give their favour.

Hence the forest applauds you with its foliage, hence the field with its ears of grain;

Hence the vine gives thanks to you with its silent branch.

Hence the thickets now resound for you with the murmur of birds;

Among these the sparrow sings with exceeding love.

O Christ, salvation of all things, good creator and redeemer,

Only offspring from the deity of the Father,

Flowing in unspeakable manner from the heart of the parent,

The Word subsisting, and mighty from the mouth of the Father,

Equal, concordant, companion, coeternal with the Father,

By whom as Prince the world took its beginning;

You suspend the heavens, heap up the soils, pour forth the seas;

And all things that dwell in their places, that live under governance.

You, seeing the human race to be plunged in the deep,

That you might rescue man, were also made man.

Nor did you wish only to be born from our body,

But flesh, which endured both to be born and to die.

You, author of life and of the world, endured the rites of death,

Giving the help of salvation along the path of death.

The sad chains of the infernal law have ceased;

And chaos shuddered to be overwhelmed by the face of light.

The darkness perishes, put to flight by the splendour of Christ:

The thick mantles of eternal night fall away.

But restore my anxious faith, I pray, O gracious Power.

The third light has returned: rise, my buried one.

It is not fitting that your limbs should be covered by a mean tomb;

Let not common stones press down the ransom of the world.

It is unworthy that he, in whose fist all things are enclosed,

Should be covered by a stone shutting him within the rock.

Take up the linen cloths, I pray; leave the burial cloth in the sepulchre:

You are enough for us; and without you there is nothing.

Loose the enchained shades of hell's prison,

And call back upward whatever has rushed to the depths.

Restore your face, that the ages may see the light;

Restore the day which fled from us when you died.

But plainly, returning, O holy victor, you have filled Olympus:

Tartarus lies crushed, and holds not its own rights.

Hell, opening its hollow throat insatiably,

Which always seized, let it be your prey, O God.

You snatch an innumerable people from the prison of death;

And freed, it follows where its own author departs.

The fierce beast fearfully vomits forth the people it had swallowed;

And the lamb draws the sheep from the throat of the wolf.

Hence, returning to the tomb after Tartarus, with flesh resumed,

You, the warrior, bear great trophies to the heavens.

Those whom punishing chaos had held, he has now given back;

And those whom death would claim, a new life holds.

O sacred King, behold, a great part of your trophy shines,

When the holy waters bless pure souls.

A gleaming host comes forth from the shining waves;

And the old sin is cleansed in the new stream.

A white garment also marks the shining souls;

And from the snow-white flock the shepherd takes his joy.

To this reward the priest Felix is added as a fitting partner,

Who wishes to give his Lord double talents.

Drawing toward better things those who wandered in gentile error,

Lest the beast should seize them, he fortifies the fold of God.

Those whom guilty Eve had first infected, these the pastor now restores

To the Church with the nourishing milk of her bosom.

Cultivating rustic hearts with gentle words,

By the gift of Felix a harvest is born from the briar.

The harsh Saxon people, living almost after the manner of beasts,

With you as healer, O holy one, the wild creature yields a sheep.

With a hundredfold return, to remain with you through the ages,

You fill the barns of an abundant harvest with grain.

May this spotless people be cherished in your arms,

And may you bear a pure pledge to the stars for God.

May one crown be given to you and bestowed from on high,

And another, gained from your people, bloom for you.