Bound in a sorrow they could not sing out,
Lost in a lament of grunts and growls.
Some fools believed in their unholy faith
That Circe could change both body and mind, 90
Both skin and soul with her evil sorcery,
But no power under heaven can shift the soul
Or remake the mind with dark magic.
The power of the spirit, created and quickened
By the Lord himself, is a mighty miracle. 95
The mind rules the body from head to foot—
Breathing, walking, waking, talking.
Mind and body may move together,
But one is stronger, the other weaker,
And the mightiest one may not be seen. 100
Every power that the body possesses
Originates in the mind—from speech to step,
From heart to health, from fear to flight.
The vice of the mind will prove more blinding
Than the illness of the eye. An evil idea 105
Can destroy more good than an angry hand.
No one can expect the world-weary flesh
To divert and delight a suffering mind,
But a dark thought, a depraved idea,
Can bend a body in devious ways.” 110
[Wisdom and Boethius again debate the question of why evil appears to go unpunished in this life. Wisdom teaches Boethius that evil deeds bring their own suffering as a man turns from the greater good to a lesser one and from true happiness to worldly pleasure. He also assures Boethius that the peril and punishment of God’s judgment awaits all evildoers. Wisdom then argues that those who are punished in this life for their evil deeds are more fortunate than those who are not, because they may, through suffering and reflection, amend their ways and return to virtue. He encourages Boethius to keep his mind on heavenly things instead of earthly ones and to have mercy on those who are evil. Then Wisdom begins to sing:]
27
“Why must you men stir up your minds
With unwise thoughts and unfair hatred,
Just as the wind-driven waves disturb
The ice-cold sea with terrible storms?
Why do you rant and rail against fate 5
For having no power, no obvious purpose?
Why can’t you wait for the bitter death
That the Lord has wisely created for you,
That hastens to embrace you from the end of life’s
Long road, coming nearer each day? 10
Can you not decipher this worldly truth—
That time unwinds every earthly purpose,
That inexorable death is a devouring shadow
That seeks all creatures from bird to beast,
From fish to fowl, from king to commoner? 15
Death is a dark hunter walking the world,
Stalking each life in relentless stealth.
Its pursuit is endless, its power pervasive.
It never stops to rest, it never falters.
Death eventually catches everything in creation. 20
It is a grim irony that many wretched men
Cannot be content to simply wait for death.
They rush headlong to greet their killer
Before their time like mad beasts
Or wild birds determined to slay 25
Their nearest neighbor on pad or wing
Or be ravaged and slain in bloodlust battle.
Sometimes it seems in this mad world
That every killer wants to be killed.
It’s wrong for a man to bitterly hold 30
Hatred in his heart, murder in his mind,
Like a savage wolf or a carrion crow.
A good man should carry mercy in his mind,
Holiness in his heart, be slow and sure
In his earthly judgments. It is only right 35
To reward those who deserve respect,
To honor those who aid others,
To love those who accomplish good.
Have mercy on those snared in sin—
Your own evil lurks not far away. 40
Love the sinner but despise the sin,
And cut away vice from the cankered heart.”
[Boethius challenges Wisdom again, maintaining that a just and wise God would not allow the good to suffer while the wicked thrive in this world and wondering if such events are not the result of random fortune. Wisdom reaffirms that fortune is an illusion and that God rules the world with a providential hand, even if Boethius and other mortals cannot comprehend his plan and purpose. Wisdom then sings about the order of the cosmos. In the poem, the author seems not to have fully understood the cosmological details of his Old English prose source, whose author was equally confused about the details of Roman cosmology in his Latin source (see Godden and Irvine, v. II, 458, 517).]
28
Then Wisdom began to sing again:
“What man who lacks learning on earth
Does not marvel at heaven’s holy wonder,
The subtle movement of the far firmament,
The swift circling of the shimmering stars, 5
The way celestial bodies revolve and rotate
Around the world? Who does not marvel
At the myriad stars and their varied orbits,
Some short, some long? One of the clusters
Is a constellation called the Wain or Plow, 10
Which circles the world in a short orbit
Because it’s close to the northern pole
Of the unseen axis of the great firmament,
Around which everything so smoothly glides.
Who does not marvel, except the sages 15
Who understood the method long ago,
That some stars have a much wider orbit
And must move through the sky more swiftly
Than their sister stars circling near the poles?
The wise ones say this is clearly the case 20
Around the equator where the stars speed up
Because of the distance of their nightly travel,
Farthest from the firmament’s two poles.
One wide traveler is known as Saturn.
It orbits the earth every thirty years. 25
A star-group called Boötes, the Herdsman,
Also comes and goes every thirty years.
Who does not wonder at the astonishing stars
That appear to travel beyond the sea
Or drop down under the ocean’s edge 30
As it seems to watchers? Some men believe
That the sun dives down in the sea each night,
Dancing up at dawn in the morning air,
But this myth is now known to be untrue.
The sun seems to move in an ethereal arc 35
From sea to sea in the day’s course
Until it rests at night in its ocean bed,
But it’s not nearer the sea at dawn or dusk
Than it is at noon. Who does not marvel
At the full moon, sometimes robbed of its light 40
When it disappears suddenly behind the clouds?
Who does not wonder why the shining stars
Are so clearly seen all through the night,
Even next to the moon with its greater light,
But never during the day when next to the sun? 45
Why do we wonder about the strangeness of stars,
When we take for granted our endless feuds,
The earthly hostility that so often exists
Between all creatures, both beasts and men?
Do the heavenly bodies ever clash in battle, 50
Crash in their course, blast and burn?
Why do the sages who study the stars
Never wonder about the power of thunder
And lightning to suddenly scorch the sky,
Ravage the land with flaming fury, 55
Turning the world into a torment of flame,
Only t
o hide out again in heaven’s home,
Then suddenly appear in blaze and boom,
Raining down death in intermittent rage?
And why do the waves lash out at the land 60
And war with the wind? And how can ice
Be born out of water, the hardest of children,
Hanging from a roof or riding the wave,
Freezing a stream or locking the land,
Only to be melted by the mighty sun, 65
Returning to the watery womb of its mother?
These are the miracles we see each day,
The wonders of creation in our daily world,
But men are often blind to such marvels,
The gifts of God. Their mundane minds 70
Are more often moved by things seldom seen,
Though these are less a wonder to the wise.
Men tend to dream about isolated events,
Nature’s eruptions, the darkening sun,
A swallowing sea-storm, a savage wind, 75
Which they like to think are acts of chance
Or the dark face of fortune behind the mask
That smiles and seduces, dreams and deceives.
We don’t see the deeper pattern or purpose
In the endless movement of eternal creation. 80
The limited mind is a pitiful thing,
But a man may learn. A curious student
Can ask a question, discover an answer,
Comprehend in time the ways of the world.
The Guardian of life can remove the shadows 85
That eclipse the mind of the unknowing man.
Through study and skill, he may learn the laws
Of land and sky, sea and air, earth and heaven.
What was once a miracle will seem mundane.
[Boethius is still troubled by the apparent random order of events. In the longest prose section of the work, Wisdom explains that what Boethius sees as chance or fate is only a misperception of the providential working out of God’s divine purpose, which mankind can only imperfectly understand. He goes on to explain that the world is ruled by a caring and just God, who tempers judgment with mercy. God is the strength and center of all worldly movement like the axle of a moving wheel. Boethius still wonders why the good sometimes suffer while the wicked thrive, but Wisdom explains that wickedness alienates a man from God and therefore separates him from true happiness. Goodness brings a man closer to God, even if a man suffers for his good acts in this world. People cannot easily discern this because of their limited, time-bound perception. They cannot see with the eternal eyes of God. Boethius grows weary and wants another poetic song, which Wisdom provides for him:]
29
“If you want to see clearly the order of the universe
And the power of the Creator who rules all realms,
Consider the peace of the heavenly stars,
Who never battle or leave their respective places
In endless space. This has always been true 5
Since the beginning of time. Almighty God
Also created the fiery sun to follow a course
Across the sky without intersecting the path
Of the snow-cold one, the shimmering moon.
Neither of those bold heavenly bodies 10
Ever impacts the other. Ursa the Bear
Never wanders west but circles around
The celestial pole, never rising or setting
As the other stars do, descending each night
Under the earth, following the sun. 15
This is no wonder since it is so far eastward
And near the top of the firmament’s axis.
One star is fairer than all the others,
Rising and beckoning the sun-bright one
At the edge of dawn. The children of men 20
Call this wonder the morning star
Because it proclaims to everyone on earth
That God’s glorious candle is coming
To waken the towns and warm the fields.
The sentinel star rises out of the east 25
Before the sun, gracing the sky
With its bright beauty, then later fades,
Following that radiant one across the evening,
Westward to their unseen resting place
Under the world. That twilight wonder 30
Is renamed by watchers the evening star.
It is swifter than the sun in the unseen world,
For it always passes that traveler at night
Until it arrives again in the morning light
To announce the coming of the radiant one. 35
Two noble stars, the sun and moon,
Share the sky parceled into day and night,
Harmonious in heaven by God’s plan,
His purpose and power, from the bright beginning.
Such stars will never tire of traveling 40
Heaven’s road until Judgment Day.
Then God will gather all the stars of heaven,
Doing what’s fitting according to his will.
The Lord rules the sky with his celestial laws:
He never lets the sun and moon come together 45
On the same high road at the same time
Lest they collide and destroy other creatures,
Heavenly bodies and the children of men.
God reconciles all the celestial forces
In the infinite space with his eternal power. 50
Sometimes the dry air drives out the wet;
Sometimes the cold combines with the heat
By the Creator’s skill, the King’s command.
Sometimes a great flame rises in the air.
Sometimes the fire burns deep in the earth, 55
Even when the land is locked in ice—
It hides and burns by some holy power.
Each spring the earth brings forth creatures.
The land gives birth to fish and fowl,
Beast and bird, seed and shoot. 60
The summer fattens fruit and grain,
Prepares and dries seeds and crops
Across the earth for the children of men.
Fall brings a ripe harvest home
Through the hands of men to fill the table. 65
Then follows rainstorm, snow and hail,
Moistening the earth all through winter.
The seeds of spring awake to drink
And send up sprouts, shoots, and blooms.
Our mighty Maker and merciful Lord 70
Nourishes everything that buds and blooms,
Spreads and grows, flourishes and fills,
Hiding some fruits in the wild wood,
Revealing others in the open fields.
Thus God the Savior serves and supports 75
All earth-dwellers. The King of creation
Sits on his throne and sustains the world.
The Lord of life holds firmly in heaven
The unseen reins of all earthly creatures,
All worldly forces, all ordered seasons. 80
He is Source and Sustainer of all creatures,
Lord and King of all living things,
Eternal Law-giver, Guardian of the universe.
He sends all creatures into our world
To live in his light, then calls them home. 85
His order sustains each earthly thing;
His steadfast hand keeps us all safe.
Without his power, we would not be stable.
We would scatter and fall, shatter and break,
Wither in the wind, darken into dust. 90
Without the Creator, we would come to nothing.
All the countless creatures of heaven and earth
Share one thing in common—love of the Lord.
They serve and adore this sustaining Ruler;
They reverently rejoice in their almighty Father. 95
This is no wonder since no creatures could survive
&n
bsp; And live somewhere else in the universe
If they were not serving their sustaining Lord,
In touch with their origins, carrying out the will
Of their loving Creator, the God of glory.” 100
[Wisdom continues to clarify for Boethius the idea that fate is a mistaken way of explaining what happens in this world from a limited human perspective. Everything that happens, whether difficult or delightful, offers man the opportunity to respond in a virtuous way that will allow him to partake of true happiness and the goodness of God. Every form of what we call fate is useful in some way, either to teach us or to chastise us. A wise man is one who understands the balance of pleasant and unpleasant fates in the world and holds to his faith in eternal Providence. Wisdom goes on to discuss God’s infinite knowledge of all things past, present, and future and to explain how this knowledge does not limit man’s free will. Humans have the freedom to choose wisely or unwisely. When we choose eternal things, our freedom is greater. When we choose worldly things, our freedom is less. The more we choose the good, the more we fulfill our God-given nature and find both greater freedom and truer happiness. Wisdom goes on to talk about the nature of creation, contrasting the poet Homer’s powers with those of God.]
30
Wisdom began to sing to Boethius:
“Homer was the greatest of human shapers,
Skilled and gifted among the Greeks,
A song-smith who crafted powerful poetry,
A trusted friend and teacher of Virgil— 5
He provided a model for that famous poet.
Homer often sang of the sun’s bright beauty,
Proclaiming its nobility in verse and prose.
The sun can shine brilliantly on the world,
But it cannot illuminate every creature, 10
Every corner of the earth, every stretch of the sea,
And it cannot enlighten the inner man,
Offering a light both inside and out.
But almighty God, our majestic Maker,
Ruler of all radiance, illuminates everyone 15
From head to heart. He sees us
And sees through us. His power is pervasive.
He is the light that knows no darkness,
The brightness that exists beyond boundaries,
The grace that gathers in an interior space. 20
He is our Savior, the one true Sun
We can praise in poetry, powerful and perfect.”
[Wisdom pursues the discussion of what appears to be God’s foreknowledge, which is actually his omniscient knowledge of all events in all times, and its relation to human freedom. Boethius wants to know why God permits evil to occur if he knows about it beforehand. Wisdom explains that God has given man free will to make choices, whether good or evil. Each man may do as he desires and must then reap the resulting rewards on earth and in eternity. Wisdom continues to explain that God knows everything in all worldly times because of his eternal nature, but his knowing does not preclude man’s freedom to choose. This is the central paradox: We choose freely, but God knows from his eternal perspective what we choose. Angels can understand this because their perception is closer to that of God. Mankind can only partially understand this. Animals cannot understand anything of the sort. People should imitate the angels in their understanding insofar as they can. Wisdom then offers his final poem, saying:]
The Complete Old English Poems Page 102
