Stabat Mater

Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother:
This child is destined to be a sign that will be rejected;
and you too will be pierced to the heart.
Many in Israel will stand or fall because of him;
and so the secret thoughts of Mary will be laid bare.

1 Stabat Mater dolorosa
Iuxta crucem lacrimosa
dum pendebat Filius.

2. Cuius animam gementem,
contristatam et dolentem,
pertransivit gladius.

3. O quam tristis et afflicta
fuit illa benedicta
Mater Unigeniti.

4. Quæ mœrebat et dolebat,
Pia Mater cum videbat
Nati pœnas incliti.

 ... 

Oh darling child I loved too well for happiness,
your enemies will kill you and leave your mother forlorn.
Your own father’s nobility, where others found
protection, means your murder now.

I lived
never thinking the baby I had was born for butchery
by Greeks, but for lordship over all Asia’s pride of earth.
Poor child, are you crying too? Do you know what they
will do to you? Your fingers clutch my dress. What use
to nestle like a young bird under the mother’s wing?

Yours the sick leap head-downward from the height, the fall
where none have pity, and the spirit crushed out in death.
O last and loveliest embrace of all, O child’s
sweet fragrant body. Vanity in the end. I nursed
for nothing the swaddled baby at this mother’s breast;
in vain the wrack of labor pains and the long suffering.
Now once again, and never after this, come close
to your mother, lean against my breast and wind your arms
around my arms and put your lips against my lips.

 ... 

5. Quis est homo qui non fleret,
Matrem Christi si videret
in tanto supplicio?

6. Quis non posset contristari,
Christi Matrem contemplari
dolentem cum Filio?

7. Pro peccatis suæ gentis
vidit Iesum in tormentis
et flagellis subditum.

8. Vidit suum dulcem natum
moriendo desolatum,
dum emisit spiritum.

 ... 

I do not grudge them: Lord I do not grudge
My two strong sons that I have seen go out
To break their strength and die, they and a few,
In bloody protest for a glorious thing,
They shall be spoken of among their people,
The generations shall remember them,
And call them blessed;
But I will speak their names to my own heart
In the long nights;
The little names that were familiar once
Round my dead hearth.
Lord, thou art hard on mothers:
We suffer in their coming and their going;
And though I grudge them not, I weary, weary
Of the long sorrow — And yet I have my joy:
My sons were faithful, and they fought.

 ... 

9. Eia Mater, fons amoris,
me sentire vim doloris
fac, ut tecum lugeam.

10. Fac ut ardeat cor meum
in amando Christum Deum,
ut sibi complaceam.

11. Sancta Mater, istud agas,
Crucifixi fige plagas
cordi meo valide.

12. Tui nati vulnerati,
tam dignati pro me pati,
pœnas mecum divide.

 ... 

I didn’t consider
When I chose your name
How it would look
On a tombstone.

I didn’t teach you to ride
A two-wheeled bike
That summer
So you could die

The world is wide and alien
And I side with those
Who roll to the edge
But would I rather have
A grandchild
Than my own child
Dead of AIDS?

I didn’t raise you to behave this way
I mean, all of your pals were here today
Singing, drinking wine . . .
It’s been five years, for God’s sake,
And you love parties
Couldn’t you at least call?

 ... 

13. Fac me tecum pie flere,
Crucifixo condolere,
donec ego vixero.

14. Iuxta crucem tecum stare,
et me tibi sociare
in planctu desidero.

15. Virgo virginum præclara,
mihi iam non sis amara:
fac me tecum plangere.

16. Fac ut portem Christi mortem,
passionis fac consortem,
et plagas recolere.

 ... 

My child has said her farewells.
She has stretched out her arms to the sun —
— Sun, will it be warm where I lie?
She has stretched out her arms to the moon —
— Moon, will you wrap me in silver?
She has stretched out her arms to the river
— River, do not flow over me long.
Now she is alone with the earth.
She lifts her face to the wind
and remembers orange-scented trees
— Earth, I shall bring you soft blossoms
unwithered and fragrant
and you shall not harm me.

 ... 

17. Fac me plagis vulnerari,
fac me cruce inebriari,
et cruore Filii.

18. Flammis ne urar succensus
per te Virgo, sim defensus
in die judicii.

19. Christe, cum sit hinc exire,
da per Matrem me venire
ad palmam victoriae.

20. Quando corpus morietur,
fac ut animæ donetur
Paradisi gloria. Amen