Cosmographia
Description
Research
Translation

Bernard Silvestris (12th c)
Adaptation and translation by Fabian Lochner

Part One:
Megacosmos Pro mundo Natura rogo;

Pace tua, Nous alma, loquar:
I, Nature, make a plea on behalf of the universe; With your permission, o kindly divine mind, I will speak:

Utquid ab eterno comitata Carentia Silva? Prime fundamina cause ingenite lites germanaque bella fatigant.
Why has Silva been associated with Poverty from all eternity? The very foundations of the First Cause are worn down by inner strife and war.

Neque pax, nec amor, neque lex, nec ordo. Ecce rursus cupit nasci ortu novo Silva, res antiquissima.
There is neither peace, nor love; neither law, nor order. Behold: Silva, this most ancient being, desires to be born again by a new birth.

Fluit refluitque sibi contraria moles; Fortuitis modis incerta elementa feruntur; Distrahiturque globus raptatibus inconsultis In vertigine massa turbida.
The mass of matter ebbs back and forth, at odds with itself; the unshaped elements are tossed about at random. The globe is torn up by sudden seizures, like a violent mass in a whirlpool.

Adde iubar, figuram asscribe, rescinde globum, partesque resigna. Fateatur opus quis fecerit auctor.
Bring light, give form, divide the globe, define its different parts! Let the work profess the author who made it!

Pro mundo Natura rogo; Pace tua, Nous alma, vite viventis imago, michi vera Minerva. Si rerum mundique suum natale videbo, satis est, nichil opto.
I, Nature, make a plea on behalf of the Universe; with your permission, o kindly divine Mind, Image of the Living Life, my true Minerva. If I may behold the birth of the universe and its creatures, it is enough, I desire no more.