ENGLISH TRANSLATION
When Diana lighteth
Late her crystal lamp,
Her pale glory kindleth
From her brother’s fire.
Sleep through the wearied brain
Breathes a soft wind
From fields of ripening grain,
The sound
Of running water over clearest sand,
A millwheel turning, turning slowly round,
These steal the light
From eyes weary of sight.
Little straying west winds
Wander over Heaven,
Moonlight falleth,
And recalleth
With a sound of lute-strings shaken.
Love’s sweet exchange and barter,
Then the brain sinks to repose;
Swimming in strangeness
Of a new delight.
The eyelids close;
Oh sweet the passing o’er from love to sleep.
But sweeter the awakening to love.
When Diana lighteth
Late her crystal lamp,
Her pale glory kindleth
From her brother’s fire.
ORIGINAL LATIN
Dum Diane vitrea
sero lampas oritur,
et a fratris rosea
luce dum succenditur.
Morpheus in mentum
trahit impellentem
ventum lenem
segetes maturas,
murmura rivorrum
per arenas puras,
circulares ambitus
molendinorum,
qui furantur somno
lumen oculorum.
Dulcis aura zephyri
spirans omnes etheri
nubens tollit;
sic emollit
vi chordarum pectora.
Post blanda Veneris commercia,
lassatur cerebri substantia.
Hinc caligantes mira novitate,
oculi nantes in palpebrarum rate!
hei quam felix transitus amoris ad soporem,
sed suavior regressus soporis ad amorem.
Dum Diane vitrea
sero lampas oritur,
et a fratris rosea
luce dum succenditur.
Text taken from the Thirteenth Century Benedictbeuern
Manuscript of the monastery of the same name. The Benedictbeuern Monastery was founded
in Bavaria in the eighth century and is the source of the Carmina Burana.
Words: Mediaeval Latin.
Music: Katharine Blake.
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