Sordes ô tibi gratulamur istas,
O Musa aurea, blanda, delicata;
O Musa, ô tibi candidas, suoque
Jam nec nomine, jam nec ore notas:
Sacro carmine quippe delinitae
Se nunc, ô bene nesciunt, novaque
Mirantur facie novum nitorem.
Ipsas tu facis ô nitere sordes.
Sordes ô tibi gratulamur ipsas.
Si non hic natibus procax malignis
Foedo fulmine turpis intonasset,
Unde insurgeret haec querela vindex,
Docto et murmure carminis severi
Dulces fortiter aggregaret iras?
Ipsae ô te faciunt nitere sordes:
Sordes ô tibi gratulamur ipsas.
Quam pulchre tua migrat Hippocrene!
Turpi quam bene degener parenti!
Foedi filia tam serena fontis.
Has de stercore quis putaret undas?
Sic ô lactea surge, Musa, surge;
Surge inter medias serena sordes.
Spumis qualiter in suis Dione,
Cum prompsit latus aureum, atque primas
Ortu purpureo movebat undas.
Sic ô lactea surge, Musa, surge:
Enni stercus erit Maronis aurum.
TRANSLATION.
TO A TRACTATE ON THIS SUBJECT
PUBLISHED BY THE MASTER OF THE SCHOOL HIMSELF, WHICH IS CALLED 'PRISCIANUS VERBERANS ET VAPULANS.'
On this vile theme thee we congratulate,
O golden Muse, pleasing and delicate;
This fair white vileness, Muse, which by its own
Or name or face is now no longer known.
For, charm'd by thy poetic sacred strain,
It knows not, happily, itself again;
But with new face wonders at its new splendour—
For splendid e'en a vile theme thou canst render:
Congratulations for vile theme we tender.
For had not he,[114] with headlong buttocks base,
Gone flashing foully on with thunderous pace,
From whence would this avenging plant have sprung,
This solemn strain with polish'd music rung?
And whence had gather'd these brave angers tender?
O Muse, the vilest theme can bring thee splendour,
For which congratulations now we render.
Thy Hippocrenè comes with a fair face,
Finely unworthy of its father base;
Of a foul fountain so serene a daughter:
From dunghill, who would dream such crystal water?
Thus rise, O Muse, O rise, a milk-white queen,
Out of the midst of vileness rise serene.
Even as Venus rising from her spray,
When she discover'd to the light of day
Her golden limbs, the billowy waves surprising
With the first glory of her purple rising;
So rise, O Muse, thy milk-white grace unfold;
Ennius' dunghill will be Virgil's gold! R. Wi.
MELIUS PURGATUR STOMACHUS PER
VOMITUM QUAM PER SECESSUM.
Dum vires refero vomitus et nobile munus,
Da mini de vomitu, grandis Homere, tuo.
Nempe olim, multi cum carminis anxia moles
Vexabat stomachum, magne Poeta, tuum;
Aegraque jejuno tenuebat pectora morsu,
Jussit et in crudam semper hiare famem:
Phoebus, ut est medicus, vomitoria pocula praebens,
Morbum omnem longos expulit in vomitus.
Protinus et centum incumbunt toto ore Poetae,
Certantes sacras lambere relliquias.
Quod vix fecissent, scio, si medicamen ineptum
Venisset misere posteriore via.
Quippe per anfractus caecique volumina ventris
Sacra, putas, hostem vult medicina sequi?
Tam turpes tenebras haec non dignatur, at ipsum
Sedibus ex imis imperiosa trahit.
ERGO:
Per vomitum stomachus melius purgabitur, alvus
Quam qua secretis exit opaca viis.