Sunday, March 18, 2012

Deus Nobis Haec Otia Fecit

Here is today's emblem and distich by Gabriel Rollenhagen, Book 1.77, with an English rendering by George Wither. The title comes from Vergil's Eclogues, 1.6, although Rollenhagen has adapted it to his own evangelizing purposes, rebuking the unbelieving Jews.
The much-desired Messages of Heav'n,
For which, our Fathers would their lives have giv'n,
And (in Groves, Caves, and Mountaines, once a yeare)
Were glad, with hazard of their goods, to heare;
Or, in lesse bloudy times, at their owne homes,
To heare, in private, and obscured roomes.
Lo; those, those Ioyfull-tydings, we doe live
Divulg'd, in every Village, to perceive;
And, that, the sounds of Gladnesse, eccho may,
Through all our goodly Temples, ev'ry day.
Wither's entire poem is very much about the evangelizing which is depicted in the emblem; he does not mention the Jewish unbeliever at all.

Deus Nobis Haec Otia Fecit
O Iudaee, Deus nobis haec otia fecit,
Nolebas, vellet cum facere illa tibi.

The Gospel, thankefully imbrace
For, God, vouchsafed us, this Grace.


Here is the vocabulary:

deus - god
nos - we, us
hic - this, this one
otium - leisure
facio - make, do
O - o! oh!
Iudaeus - Jewish; Jew
nolo - will not, want not, refuse
volo - want, wish
cum - when, since
ille - that, that one
tu - you