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A Transliteration & Addition to the Latin Dies Irae<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n \nThe Dies Irae<\/em> was authored by Friar Thomas Celano, biographer of Saint Francis, and its view of God is conditioned by the emergent Holy Roman Empire, whose peripatetic king would visit his manors all across the West in a movable judgement that brought even the mightiest count or duke to the bar, before the sacral emperor. It has been praised as a hymn of “singular awe and piety”, though to modern ears its vision of a vengeful God is alienating and crude. Its triple-rhymed Latin is about as far from a modern sound as one can achieve, yet there is something modern about it, perhaps its lack of classical elegance and folk (we would say pop or popular) origin. It was chanted at All Soul\u2019s Day, and Catholic scholars seem fairly unanimous in regarding it as the greatest specimen of sacred poetry in the Middle Ages (excluding, of course, Dante\u2019s Inferno<\/em>, whose worldview is remarkably consistent with the Dies Irae<\/em>). <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Note: I have given, here, a more modern, non-rhyming version of the poetic thoughts in the poem, although I also have done a more literal translation. Knowing even a little Latin, nothing can really compare with the Latin chant. So this is merely a loose paraphrasing from the text of the Graduale Seraphico-Romano and Roman Breviary. I should also note that any who want to read an in depth treatment of how the Holy Roman Empire founded Europe ought to consult Rosenstock-Huessy’s Out of Revolution<\/a> or Kantorowicz’s The King’s Two Bodies<\/a>. The only disclaimer is that these are secular, but relatively accurate and scholarly collections of data about the overwhelming pre-eminence of the early German emperors in Europe’s foundations. On a personal note, I will say that this was done when I was “less traditional”, & therefore, the traditional note is all the more obvious against the Semitic influence; the Dies Irae<\/em> naturally breaths the air of transcendence, even with its heavy Christian piety.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Transliteration & Addition to the Latin Dies Irae The Dies Irae was authored by Friar Thomas Celano, biographer of Saint Francis, and its view of God is conditioned by the emergent Holy Roman Empire, whose peripatetic king would visit his manors all across the West in a movable judgement … Continue reading <\/div>\nA Thoroughly Modern Day of Wrath<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\nMelting skies in the wolf-day, world-dissolving!<\/div>\nThe Sky-breaker clenches our globe,<\/div>\nAnd coals tumble from a note-singing trumpet,<\/div>\nHorrible comets that heat stone to ashes,<\/div>\nJust as David sang a black psalm on the lyre,<\/div>\nOr the blind Sybil read from demon lips.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe Strong-Sustainer hurls fire down,<\/div>\nAnd that thick book enscripted at dawn,<\/div>\nThe pregnant dawn containing all things.<\/div>\nOur whole earth gapes like a rotten fruit,<\/div>\nAnd every thing crawls to the king of gods.<\/div>\nThe trumpet astonishes the brute dead,<\/div>\nAnd lashes dead souls with quick fear,<\/div>\nFear that shrieks at the roots of the mountains,<\/div>\nShaking the silver tears of Mother Nature,<\/div>\nStupefying that tyrant, shockless Death.<\/div>\nAll ooze and flesh and dust awake to flame,<\/div>\nAll hidden things quake at the brassy throne,<\/div>\nShame is the garment of the unjust,<\/div>\nWhen invisible vengeance appears at the last.<\/div>\nDown sits the Mighty Judge and Lord,<\/div>\nHis judgment accomplishing itself and done<\/div>\nBefore He draws the sword and strikes,<\/div>\nWritten already in the book of doom.<\/div>\nWhat shall the miserable wretch plead,<\/div>\nWhat great patron shall intervene?<\/div>\nThe just and good are scarcely snatched<\/div>\nFrom bright red, hungry hell.<\/div>\nEmperor of awful heaven\u2019s abyss,<\/div>\nWho freely saves any who escape this day,<\/div>\nKiss me, O fountain of white,<\/div>\nDo not deny me this day.<\/div>\nSurely You fell from the sky,<\/div>\nNot to lose your work on the cross,<\/div>\nNot in vain so far, dying for filth.<\/div>\nLose me not, or lost I will burn.<\/div>\nAdam\u2019s broken skull cracks wide,<\/div>\nAnd the Pegasus of mercy springs wild,<\/div>\nAnd Mary the whore was absolved,<\/div>\nAnd the thief at the end of days.<\/div>\nGive to me their same strong hope,<\/div>\nAnd pass over my unworthy prayers,<\/div>\nDeal most kindly, Good God,<\/div>\nFor long has my black heart cursed.<\/div>\nYour red, right hand of fire<\/div>\nSilences the wicked goats.<\/div>\nUnder the cold stars I lament,<\/div>\nFor inside me there is nothing.<\/div>\nLet Paradise come in an instant,<\/div>\nOr never at all, for I fail,<\/div>\nAnd the cosmos ends and is rent,<\/div>\nSo hide me at your riven side.<\/div>\nO Accuser and Defender,<\/div>\nMake our tomb like broken Golgotha,<\/div>\nI pray this in the ash, Our Maker,<\/div>\nAnd hear what is not spoken in the heart.<\/div>\nO, Thou God of All-Majesty,<\/div>\nSustaining, Shining Trinity,<\/div>\nBe to us, now and in eternity.<\/div>\n