Ninth lesson | Why have you brought me out of the womb?

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by Bible or other Sacred Texts

Translation © by David Wyatt

Lectio Nona

Language: Latin

Our translations: ENG FRE

Quare de vulva eduxisti me? 
qui utinam consumptus essem, 
ne oculus me videret! 
Fuissem quasi non essem, 
de utero translatus ad tumulum.
Numquid non paucitas dierum 
meorum finietur brevi?
Dimitte me ergo, ut plangam 
paululum dolorem meum:
antequam vadam, et non revertar, 
ad terram tenebrosam et
opertam mortis caligine, 
terram miseriae et tenebrarum,
ubi umbra mortis, et nullus ordo, 
sed sempiternus horror inhabitat.

Text Authorship:

by Bible or other Sacred Texts , Job 10 : 18 -22 [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Roland de Lassus (1532 - 1594), "Lectio Nona", published 1582, from Lectiones sacrae novem, ex libris Hiob excerptae, no. 9. [
text verified 1 time
]

Available translations, adaptations, and transliterations (if applicable):

FRE French (Français) (Guy Laffaille) , title 1: "Neuvième lecture", copyright © 2010, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ENG English (David Wyatt) , title 1: "Ninth lesson", copyright © 2012, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Guy Laffaille [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2010-04-05
Line count: 15
Word count: 63

Ninth lesson

Language: English after the Latin

Why have you brought me out of the womb?
I wish I had been devoured, 
that no eye had seen me!
If only I could have been as if I never was, 
carried from the womb to the grave.
Could not the small number of my days 
be finished in a short while?
Let me go then, that I can lament 
my sorrow for a little while:
Before I go to the dark land 
covered by the gloom of death, 
from which I shall not return, 
a land of wretchedness and darkness,
Where there is the shadow of death, but no order, 
and eternal horror dwells.

Text Authorship:

Translation from Latin to English copyright © 2012 by David Wyatt, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:

a text in Latin by Bible or other Sacred Texts , Job 10 : 18 -22
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2012-05-18
Line count: 15
Word count: 106