Ecce Quod Natura
December 13, 2014
I HOPE this hymn, reportedly dating from the 14th century and recorded here by the Pro Arte Singers, will rinse from your mind some of the canned Christmas cacophony you hear everywhere in stores.
Here are the words in Latin and English.
Ecce quod natura mutat sua jura: virgo parit pura dei filium.
Ecce, novum gaudium, ecce novum mirum: virgo parit filium,
que non novit virum; que non novit virum, sed ut pirus pirum, gleba fert sphirum, rosa lilium.
Mundum dus flebilem videns in ruina, florem delectabilem produxit de spina; produxit de spina virgo que regina, mundi medicina, salus gencium.
Nequivit divinitas plus humiliari,
nec nostra fragilitas magis exaltari; magis exaltari quam celo locari, deo coequari
per conjugium.
Behold, nature changes her law: a pure virgin bears God’s son.
Behold, a new joy,
behold, new wonder:
a virgin bears a son
without knowing man;
without knowing man,
but as the pear tree bears a pear, the earth creates a sapphire
and the rose a lily.
This doleful world
God saw in ruins,
so a delectable rose
he produced from the thorn; he produced from the thorn a virgin queen,
a healing for the world
and the salvation of its people.
Divinity could not be more humbled,
nor could our fragility be more exalted;
than to be placed in heaven, equal with God,
through this union.
