Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Alms-giving, Pharaoh, Lords Prayer I

(More smaller poems from the Exeter Book)

Almsgiving



            It will turn out well for the earl, cruel minded man,
            who inside him has a roomy heart;
            Before the world, that will be for him the greatest of honors (lit., honor-memorials)
            and before our Lord the greatest of glories/judgments.
5          Even as he might extinguish a welling flame
            with water, so that it can no longer ravage,
            bright (and) burning, the boroughs/cities,
            so he with alms-giving completely pushes aside
            the wound of sins, and cures souls (his soul?).

 Pharaoh 

            “Tell me what there would be of all the hosts
            in Pharaoh’s army, when they began to persecute
            God’s folk through (their) hatred?”
                 “I don’t know at all, but I guess thus:
5          that there were, declared by number,
            six hundred fine chariots of the weapon-wielders;
            that the sudden-swipe of waves destroyed (them) all
            by ferocious fate in the world-kingdom.

Lord’s Prayer I

            … [hol]y Father, you who live in the heavens,
            honored by the joy of glory. Let your name be hallowed
            by the children of men for your works; you are the Savior of men.
            May your kingdom come far and wide, and your counsel-firm will
5          be raised under the sky’s roof, (and) also on the spacious earth.
            Give us today, glory-firm Splendor,
            our loaf, Helper of men,
            perpetual (bread), truth-firm Measurer.
            Do not let temptations strike us too powerfully,
            but give us freedom, Wielder of peoples,
            from every evil, for ever and ever.

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