Done is a battle on the dragon black,
Our campion Christ confoundit has his force;
The yettis of hell are broken with a crack,
The sign triumphal raisit is of the cross,
The devillis trymmillis with hiddous voce,
The saulis are borrowit and to the bliss can go,
Christ with his blood our ransonis dois indoce:
Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro.
The first of five (stanzas?) parts to a poem by William Dunbar (c. 1460-c.1530). It is a lot harder to read a poem like this, with so many unfamiliar words and spellings, but (I think) worth the effort.
Here are definitions given in the book (A Sacrifice of Praise: An Anthology of Christian Poetry in English from Caedmon to the Mid-Twentieth Century, edited by James H. Trott) for some unfamiliar words:
trymmillis- tremble
our ransonis- ransom
indoce- endorse
Surrexit Dominus de sepulchro- "The Lord has risen from the grave"
3 comments:
It is a lot harder to read a poem like this, with so many unfamiliar words and spellings, but (I think) worth the effort.
Agreed! I like this line:
The yettis of hell are broken with a crack
page 38, here defines "yettis" as "gates". So, "the gates of hell shall not prevail" against the Church, because Christ has already broken them!
Thank you for posting!
That's great stuff! I must take a note of the reference - better than Shakespeare or Chaucer in my h.o.
!
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