O Virga ac diadema
O virga ac diadema
Purpure regis
Quae es in clausura tua
Sicut lorica
Tu frondens floruisti
In alia vicissitudine
Quam Adam omne genus humanum
Produceret
Ave, ave, de tuo ventre
Alia vita processit
Qua Adam filios suos
Denudaverat
O flos, tu non germinasti de rore
Nec de guttis pluviae,
Nec aer desuper te volavit
Sed divina claritas
In nobilissima virga te produxit
O virga, floriditatem tuam
Deus in prima die creaturae suae
Previderat
Et te Verbo suo auream materiam
O laudabilis Virgo
Fecit
O quam valde plangendum
Et lugendum est
Quod tristicia in crimine
Per consilium serpentis
In mulierem fluxit
Nam ipsa mulier
Quam Deus matrem omnium posuit
Viscera sua cum vulneribus ignorantiae
Decerpsit
Et plenum dolorem generi suo
Protulit
Sed, o aurora,
De ventre tuo novus sol processit
Qui omnia crimina Evae absersit
Et maiorem benedictionem
Per te protulit
Quam Eva hominibus nocuisset
Unde, o Salvatrix
Quae novum lumen
Humano generi protulisti
Collige membra Filii tui
Ad caelestem armoniam
O branch-rod and crown
For the King's purple robes
You who in virginity's fastness
Are like a corselet of mail
You, in full leaf, flowered
In another season
Than that in which Adam
Fathered thr race of Man
Hail, hail! Another life
Has proceded from your womb
Than that in which Adam
Plundered his sons
O flower, you did not bloom in the dew
Nor in droplets of rain
Nor has air flown over you
But the divine shining
On the noblest bough produced you
O branch, God foresaw
Your efflorescence on the first day
Of Creation
And from His word he made
A golden soil, o viring commanding
All praise
O how great in its powers
Was the side of the man from whom God
Drew the form of womankind
Whom he made the mirror
Of all his splendour
And the beloved of all Creation
Whence the instruments of heaven sing
And all the Earth wonders
O Mary commanding all praise
Because God so greatly loved you
How much it must be lamented
And bewailed
That grief and shame
Have streamed into Womankind
Through the guile of the Serpent
For this same woman,
Whom God set as the mother of all
With wounds of folly has plucked away
The fruit of her womb
And has brought forth the full grief
Of her race
But, o dawn,
A new sun has rised from your womb
Which has dried away all the guilt of Eve
And brought forth a greater blessing
Through you
Than the harm which Eve did to Man
Whence, o saviour Mary
Who has made known a new radiance
To the race of Man
Summon the members of Ecclesia
Your sons, to the music of Heaven