Be gathered up at last in his loving grace,
The eternal embrace of his welcoming arms.
If you can look up into the perfect light
With clear eyes and an unclouded mind, 40
Then you will behold in unabated glory
The Lord and Creator in such rich radiance
That it will make the sun seem like a shadow
In the brilliant bliss of his eternal light,
Shining without end for all blessed souls.” 45
[Wisdom tells Boethius that the greatest good is unified and whole. It is eternally sufficient; it lacks nothing. This unified oneness can only be God. Each creature seeks this unmatched good, which is its place of origin and its perfect fulfillment. Each creature seeks its own highest state and an eternal existence unbound by time. Wisdom continues in this vein, saying:]
22
“Anyone who wants to inquire inwardly
After the right in proper fashion
Must seek the good within himself,
Discovering the Lord’s divine truth
Deeply locked in his heart’s hoard, 5
A secret treasure in his soul’s security,
Where no earthly power can ever steal it.
The greatest treasure cannot be grasped,
Saved, or spent. Let the true seeker
Examine his heart, abandon anxiety, 10
Marshall his thoughts, eagerly meditate,
And say to his mind, ‘All that is best,
All that is truest, exists within,
Not outside where you so often seek.’
With unclouded eyes, he will finally see
The useless evil that afflicts his heart, 15
The vanity that veils his vision of the truth,
Now clearly revealed like the sun’s radiance,
When the heavenly star, the jewel of the sky,
Shimmers and brightens the summer’s day.
The evil and iniquity that drag down the body 20
Can never destroy the divine soul
Or remove righteousness from the human spirit.
Though sin may trouble a man’s mind
And make him forget his inborn faith
Or follow an evil path, break his promise, 25
Or embrace vice instead of virtue
So that the veil of error obscures his mind,
The seed of truth, the grain of grace,
Always exists within the mind, safe in the soul,
While it dwells in the worldly house of flesh. 30
That seed will sprout with a simple question
And gather into growth with true teaching.
How could a right-thinking man use reason
To find the truth through endless inquiry,
If the seed were not planted long ago, 35
If the mind had no wisdom or discretion,
If the soul had no sense of its hidden strength?
No man is so unreasonable or inept
That he can’t find deep in his mind
An answer to a question if it is asked. 40
For this is a truth that Plato taught us,
Our ancient philosopher, the sage who said:
‘A man who has lost his way to wisdom
Should turn back on the road of his own mind,
Travel to the homeland of his inner heart, 45
And unearth the intelligence that is buried there
Beneath ignorance, confusion, suffering, and sorrow,
The weight of the world, the drag of flesh,
The earthly agony in the turbulence of time.’”
[Wisdom returns now to an earlier topic of how God rules the world and deals with those who resist his will. He teaches Boethius that God has unlimited power to do anything, but since God cannot do evil, evil is essentially nothing or the absence of good. He proposes to take up some ancient stories which, though limited in vision, will illustrate God’s power, and he begins with an introductory praise-song on the power and perfection of God:]
23
“A man would be happy his whole life on earth
If he could see clearly the purest stream
Of heavenly radiance, the source of goodness
That bathes us all in a shimmering bliss,
And could cast away the dark mists 5
That obscure the mind and veil the truth.
Yet with God’s help, we can heal your heart
And uncloud your mind with old tales
And ancient myths. So listen to this story
And find your way on the righteous road 10
To your eternal home, the soul’s haven.”
[Wisdom relates to Boethius the ancient story of Orpheus and Eurydice and afterwards explains the moral of the story: Anyone who wishes to flee the darkness of hell and seek the light of the Lord should not look back, recalling his previous evil deeds, so that he replays them in his mind and begins to enjoy them once again. The story causes Boethius to remember his own unjust suffering and untold grief, and he asks Wisdom again, as he did earlier: “If God is good, why does he permit the existence of evil?” Wisdom reminds Boethius that evil is only the lack of good and is essentially a form of unbeing. He wants to show Boethius the true pathway to the heavenly city from which he came, so that he can see for himself the true goodness and happiness of God. But first he must give Boethius wings for his mind, so it can lift and fly to its true homeland, forsaking all earthly concerns. He can only do this with poetry, so he begins to sing:]
24
“I have wings to fly swifter than a bird
Over this earth and the high roof of heaven.
If I could lend your mind this miracle,
Stitch to your soul these sacred wings
So you could see and scorn this world 5
And lift your thinking as high as heaven—
You could soar above all earthly clouds,
Beyond the mists that dim the mind,
Wheel and hover in the ethereal air,
Gliding above the celestial fire, 10
Pure flames beneath the fixed firmament
That separate sky from space, ether from air,
Just as God created it in the beginning.
You could travel the sun-road among the stars,
Spreading your wings in the endless air, 15
Passing by the lonely, ice-cold star
That we call Saturn, the highest wanderer
Above our world. Beyond that star
In this strange miracle of your soaring mind,
You can finally pass beyond the firmament, 20
Leaving behind the highest sky-realm
To suddenly see the Lord’s true light,
Where the King of heaven rules all creation,
Both heaven and earth, sea and sky,
Land and air, and all its creatures, 25
From plants to planets, beginning to end.
He is the wisest king, Ruler of all realms,
Who holds in his hands the reins of the sun
And all the planets, controlling creation,
Securing the spheres of heaven and earth, 30
Steering and sustaining each orb in the air,
Each world-wagon, each bridled chariot,
With his sure strength and wielding will.
He is the steadfast Shaper, the righteous Judge,
Eternal, unchanging, forever fair, 35
A beauty unblemished, a grace unalloyed.
If you’re able to find that heart’s homeland,
A glorious place you’ve forgotten for now,
If you ever return to that heavenly radiance,
You’ll suddenly see and say to yourself: 40
‘This is my home which has always been here
Right from the beginning before my birth.
This is the land I’ve always longed for,
This is the light I’ve always known.
This is the cradle of my own begin
ning, 45
The comfort of my ending, my place of peace.
Here I was born through my Maker’s power,
Here I would stay with my Father’s will,
Never again thinking to leave my Lord.’
Then if you return from this radiant paradise 50
To the world of darkness where evil abounds,
You will finally see with unclouded eyes
The tyranny and torment caused by kings,
Who afflict the wretched and ruin the poor,
Who wield their power to promote their gain, 55
No matter what the cost in pain and suffering
To those who endure their lives in agony.
Yet these same kings are themselves as wretched
As those poor people who so greatly fear them.
Their souls are suffering, their hearts are heavy. 60
Their wickedness is its own dread weight.”
[In the continuing dialogue with Boethius, Wisdom argues that in spite of worldly appearances, evil is actually powerless, while good is powerful. All men naturally seek goodness and happiness, but those who are evil cannot achieve it. They lack the willpower to fulfill their own God-given natures. Whoever forsakes the goodness of God and his own true happiness lessens his humanity. Whoever is virtuous and seeks the good fulfills his nature and discovers true happiness. That person is blessed by God. Then Wisdom begins to sing about earthly kings, whose power is fleeting:]
25
“Listen to my story of proud and powerful,
Unjust and unrighteous earthly kings,
Who shimmer brightly in their silver robes
And glimmer nightly in embroidered gold,
Surrounded by sycophant lords and thanes. 5
Adorned with jewels, they vainly occupy
Their haughty thrones that reach to the roofs.
Their warriors wear bright battle-gear,
Swords and sheaths, spears and shields,
Studded with gems, garnished with gold, 10
All serving each other and their arrogant king.
They oppress their neighbors near and far
With punishing power. The lord who leads them,
The king who controls them, shows no mercy
To anyone on earth, friend or foe. 15
He rushes on all men like a mad dog,
Drags them down, crushes their resistance,
Seizes their land, destroys their lives.
He dreams himself an unconquerable king
Because he thrives on his thanes’ cruelty, 20
Their savage force. Should anyone come
To strip off his strength, remove his robes
Of power and peril one by one,
And steal his servants, the soldiers of death,
Then you might see his authority undone, 25
His strength sapped, himself unkinged.
He would be just another sycophant thane,
Serving someone more powerful than he,
Dreaming of one day becoming the king.
If fortune should turn bitterly against him, 30
Fate bring him down to the naked dust,
Time take back his trappings of power,
His new life would be like a darkening hole,
An endless abyss, a prison of pain,
Where the once proud wretch is shackled in chains, 35
Tortured and tormented. I’ll teach you the truth:
From unrestrained pride and unbridled anger,
From immoderation in both dress and drink,
From guzzling wine and gorging on food,
From feasting on power and seeking out sin, 40
Life turns into a fierce frenzy of lust,
Seething a man’s mind, heaving his heart,
Churning up pride, creating conflict,
Inviting evil, undermining his soul.
His heart will swell up inside his chest 45
With a terrible fury, a ravenous rage,
Awakening a subtle, evil enemy
Inside himself. He will wield the sword
Of his own unbound passion and power
Against himself and find his soul chained 50
To endless suffering, gripped with grief,
Engulfed in agony. His vengeance will hope
For an obvious enemy, some hostile foe,
But he will stay stifled, deluded by dreams
That his raging heart may find some release. 55
His anger will snarl and snap here and there,
Trying to gnash and gnaw his own soul,
Hungry for one thing or another.
An unrighteous spirit will prove ravenous
To a power-hungry king. I told you before 60
That each and every creature in the world
Deeply desires to follow his inborn nature
To embrace the good and discover happiness,
The bright blessing of being with God.
Earthly kings abounding in iniquity, 65
Embracing injustice, will never know good.
They are bound in sin, voluptuous in vice.
They may rule people but are ruled in turn
By their own fears, their own evil,
Their own unrighteous and unruly hearts. 70
Many will not even struggle against sin
To free their souls. They should strive
Against iniquity even if their strength is sapped
And they cannot succeed. Their effort to struggle
Against evil may ease their shame, 75
Reduce their suffering, and assuage some blame,
Even if they are overcome in the end.”
[Wisdom explains to Boethius that those who seek good are rewarded with it, while those who seek evil are both powerless and punished for their evil choices. Virtue is its own reward, and vice is its own sentence. Goodness raises someone above his nature in the direction of God; evil lowers him in the direction of a beast. So a robber is like a wolf; a deceiver is like a fox. One who is proud and angry is like a lion; one who is lusty is like a pig. Wisdom then illustrates the dangers of evil, animalistic behavior by telling the story of Ulysses and Circe:]
26
“Now I will tell you an ancient story,
A strange fantasy crafted in poetry,
To illustrate the evil we are talking about.
Once upon a time, the warrior Ulysses
Controlled two kingdoms under the emperor, 5
Ruling the realms of Thrace and Retia.
He served his lord and master Agamemnon,
King of the Greeks, who was at the time
Bent boldly on battle in the Trojan War,
A bloody battle beneath the skies. 10
Ulysses sailed with him to attack Troy,
Leading one hundred ships over the sea.
They assaulted Troy for over ten years.
The mighty Greeks finally fashioned
A great victory out of power and pretense, 15
Devising a devious, timbered riddle
And rode into Troy in a horse’s belly.
They defeated the Trojans, sacking the city.
It was a costly battle on both sides
As the high and humble fell to the sword. 20
After the victory, Ulysses set sail
In the strongest and greatest of Greek ships
With a stout belly and three oar-banks,
Leaving behind the other ninety-nine.
He rode in a boat with foamy sides, 25
The swiftest and best of Greek ships.
Then a ravaging storm roiled the waves,
Fierce winds lifted and lashed the ship,
Bitter cold descended on king and crew,
And the dark weather relentlessly drove 30
The warriors across the Mediterranean Sea
Onto an island where the beautiful daughter
Of noble Apollo, the son of Jove,
Had l
ived like a goddess for a long time.
Though great Apollo was the son of Jove, 35
He liked to pretend in his passionate power
To every man and woman he met
That he was the highest and holiest god,
Deceiving his subjects, living this lie,
Exulting in this error. Many believed him 40
Because at that time each king was considered
A kind of god born into the glory
Of a noble family. Everyone thought
That Jove’s father, who was called Saturn,
Was also a god. Those tribes considered 45
Each king in the line of succession
An eternal god. So Apollo’s daughter Circe
Was deemed a goddess by her foolish followers
Across the island. She was a magician
Who performed spells, raised powers, 50
And practiced perversity, all the dark arts.
She ruled that island where Ulysses landed
In his storm-driven ship, the sea’s exile.
That was a dangerous, unhealthy place
For the king of Thrace to harbor in. 55
Soon the arrival of Ulysses was known
To everyone who lived on Circe’s island.
The queenly magician fell madly in love
With the seafaring lord, the king and captain,
And he also drank deeply of desire 60
For the brazen, beautiful, seductive sorceress.
His heart was turned away from home—
He shunned the ship and all his thanes,
Who felt displaced in that alien land.
They loved their lord but were determined to leave 65
This island of dreams. People began to talk,
Saying that Circe was transforming the men
Into wild animals and binding them with chains.
Some became wolves who lost their words
And could only howl for their former selves. 70
Some were wild boars and began to grunt
And snort their sorrow in a swine’s lament.
Some were lions who savagely roared,
Fiercely calling for their lost companions.
The place was thick with animal warriors, 75
Both young and old. They nursed their anger
At the edge of thought, pacing restlessly
By the brutal bars of their cruel cages.
Each man was turned into the very animal
He often resembled in his human form— 80
Sly fox, mad dog, greedy pig, lone wolf—
Except for the king whom the queen loved.
None of the creatures would eat human food—
They wanted to feast like wild animals
On other meat. That was hardly fitting! 85
They were beasts in blood but men in mind,
The Complete Old English Poems Page 101
