Hibernia nostra

Let Erin Remember

My Latin
Let Erin Remember
Let Erin remember the days of old, Ere her faithless sons betray'd her; When Malachi wore the collar of gold, Which he won from her proud invader, When her kings, with standard of green unfurl'd, Led the Red-Branch Knights to danger! Ere the emerald gem of the western world Was set in the crown of a stranger. On Lough Neagh's bank as the fisherman strays, When the clear cold eve's declining, He sees the round towers of other days In the wave beneath him shining: Thus shall memory often, in dreams sublime, Catch a glimpse of the days that are over; Thus, sighing, look through the waves of time, For the long-faded glories they cover.
Hibernia nostra
tempora lapsa diu memorentur, Hibernia nostra, queis te tradiderat nondum tua perfida proles. supremum regem signaverat aurea torques, invasore truci victorem in lite superbo: tempore quo viridi regum vexilla colore audendis equites rutilos duxere periclis, Hesperiae necdum Smaragditia gemma iacebat capta per externos, aliena inserta corona. est lacus insignis: ripa piscator in alta, solis ad occasum deerrans per frigus et umbram, viderit antiquas torres praestare rotundas, surgere fulgentes et aqua lucere profunda. sic etiam referent sublimia somnia menti grandia tempora, lapsorum simulacra dierum: vanescunt refugis aevis moribunda per undas, in queis iamdudum se pristina gloria condit.
Sung by Michael O’Duffy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtPsezf6qn0

Translation: Copyright © Timothy Adès

Tagus, Farewell

Tagus, Farewell

Thomas Wyatt

The Ambassador goes home from Spain, 1539: his English, my Latin
Tagus, Farewell
Tagus, farewell! that westward with thy streams Turns up the grains of gold already tried With spur and sail, for I go seek the Thames Gainward the sun that shewth her wealthy pride, And to the town which Brutus sought by dreams, Like bended moon doth lend her lusty side. My king, my country, alone for whome I live, Of mighty love the wings for this me give.
Tagus, Farewell
aurea qui, Tage, grana probas et flumine versas, qui petis occasum solis, Ibere, vale: namque peto Tamesim velo et calcare profectus; ad solem tendens ille superbit ope, et permit exsultans quam somnis quaesiit urbem Brutus, ut incurvat luna bicorne latus. vos lux una meaea princeps et patria vitae, ingenti hinc per vos ales amore feror.

Translation: Copyright © Timothy Adès

More poems by Thomas Wyatt...