Classic Poem

Pride is the yeast of all evil; through it came the first hosting; the hostile hosting by which heaven was plundered was the war caused by the angels' arrogance. Lucifer from the floor of heaven thought of a venture in which he did not succeed — the heavenly King understood his intention — he vied against his lord. Anger entered the Lord of all, he banished the miscreant; grim the dominion he prescribed for him: he shaped a city to take him. He did not leave Lucifer without function, he gave him sovereignty of hell; the house of God closed against the devil and he was tormented in his own prison. The angels — haughty their warring — followed Lucifer and eventually they became demons because they clung to Lucifer. The Creator gave the angels gloom because of their inordinate pride; God granted no peace to the angels; it was a merciless stroke by the High King. The High King of heaven wanted to increase his household: humans in place of the angels were to be a bright, new company in heaven. Before creating us the craftsman of all created the world for us; the world before we were sent abroad into it was an empty board without pieces. He made Adam of the fair, tressed hair from the four elements; the fine limbs of his body were made of four equal elements. It was cold water and hot earth, fire and air together from which the Creator shaped man — no other craftsman would have known how. Eve was a rib from Adam's side; this was a cure from the hand of a good physician — the lack of her very limbs and her blood was not apparent in him. God gave the world with its wealth to Adam and Eve to save them; throughout the world he forbade of its produce only one tree. He set Eve and Adam of the curly hair to keep Paradise * * * * * * * * * so that they did not fear old age. There were in all ten apple-trees in paradise about which transgression occurred; the man took possession of no smooth, pale apple-tree of them except the tenth. " That tree has put forth", said the devil in the guise of a serpent, " the flavour of drops of honey upon its fruit, which every mouth that tastes it will discover. If you were to try the apples, Eve, of the sweet, smooth, fragrant tree, were its fruit but to reach your beauty, it would not be likely to grow old". The woman took the soft apple, his half comes to Adam of the white breast; his portion of the apple — it was foolish piety — Adam did not refuse. The Lord put forth from paradise the two sinners; he let them have in their power no apples nor plants nor fragrant branches (i.e. in paradise). Although Eve of the soft hair did not leave his one apple for the High King, the world was in their power, both nuts and leaves and bushes. The crimes against the tenth tree were the origin of the eight sins; God will not be the guardian of wealth unless he gets his tenth part. The Lord God is glad to receive it because of my love of wealth; it is not the desire for riches that causes the Son of Mary to ask for his tithes from anyone. If a man willingly kept of his tithe even as much as an egg, were he to put the whole world in the scales, the egg would outweigh it. May the mother of the Lord God not exact the penalty of Eve's sin from us; no nearer to me is Eve's kinship than that of mother Mary. May the virgins who withstand the devil, the holy widows, the confessors, the angels and the apostles all together plead for me. May the Holy Spirit come into me from the sole of my foot to the crown of my head and may he yonder fill my flesh and blood to the tips of every one of my fingers. One cannot oppose the arms of the Son of the Virgin and of the Father; may the rasp of the two High Kings be filing away my sin from me. May God surround my herds and my horses, may God direct my plough-team; may the Son of great God and of Mary be a herdsman to them. May the mother of the miraculous son be a woman-cook in my cellar; may the Son of God who became man within the Virgin, be a steward in my cellar. Blessed was the sharing of five loaves that was enough to fill five thousand, both man and woman; may the blessing of God that wrought the sharing be present, O Lord, at my sharing of food. Grass and trees and rocks and the sand of the green sea, every shower of snow that it snows — it is no easier to count them than his wonders. No single man could enumerate all Jesus' miracles; all the plants upon the ground, they are a mere handful of his wonders. May God be a shield overshadowing my soul — great my falsity and my worthlessness — let me not be laid low unprotected; I am afraid of Lucifer. The taste of honey upon the bitter world was to carry me off to hell; the devil dispenses a sweet drink: I ask for honey because of my unfaith. Lucifer puts into the form of every person the flower that you love: chalk whitens the cheeks of woman, the devil reddens them with rouge. It is death to sell heaven for the perfidious beauty of bright, stately-eyed women; the full pale bodies of women will perish and become bare bones. O impermanent mortal man, you who love the softly-shaped woman, choose the King of heaven rather than the lovely face of your mistress. O you man, whose woman has died, open the grave in which she was buried; see what the smoothness of the ringleted woman looks like now. The Son of great Mary will seize the chance for those who have sinned least, until we separate from our corruption as we are purified there in the fire. The Son of God will come to the judgment-meeting and make our faces flush; he will be very strict and meticulous when he judges us; he does not forgive sin because of kinship.