Good King Wenceslas looked out
|
Good King Wenceslas looked out on the Feast of Stephen, when the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even. Brightly shone the moon that night, though the frost was cruel, when a poor man came in sight, gathering winter fuel. "Hither, page, and stand by me, if you know it, telling, yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?" "Sire, he lives a good league hence, underneath the mountain, right against the forest fence, by Saint Agnes' fountain." "Bring me food and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither, thou and I will see him dine, when we bear them thither." Page and monarch, forth they went, forth they went together, through the cold wind's wild lament and the bitter weather. "Sire, the night is darker now, and the wind blows stronger, fails my heart, I know not how; I can go no longer." "Mark my footsteps, my good page, tread now in them boldly, thou shalt find the winter's rage freeze thy blood less coldly." In his master's steps he trod, where the snow lay dinted; heat was in the very sod which the saint had printed. Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing, ye who now will bless the poor shall yourselves find blessing. |
Bonus ut Bohaemius Rex prospiciebat, terra sub Brumalibus nivibus latebat. Male luna temperat hiemem nocentem, pauperemque illuminat ligna colligentem. "Huc, puer, et ille quis rusticus sit homo dic et, id si forte scis, qua tegatur domo." "Distat eius hinc casa subiacetque monti, silvae saepi proxima Virginisque fonti." "Taedas cumque poculis carnem conferamus, quis cenare traditis illum videamus!" Prorsus rex et servulus una sunt profecti, raucis tempestatibus hiemique obiecti. "Fit caligo nigrior; ventus ecce crescens! Longius prodire cor prohibet languescens." "Quas premo premens nives pone si sequere, frigus illud senties lenius nocere." Regis in vestigiis ponit ille pedes: fit vaporis in notis aestuosa sedes. Ergo bene locuples hoc considerabit: ADIUVANTEM PAUPERES DEUS ADIUVABIT. |