"COLUMBANUS TO HIS MONKS"

c. 600(?)

Attributed to St. Columbanus

Born in Leinster c. 543, Columbanus (d. 615) became a member of the monastery at Bangor in Ulster, one of the most celebrated in sixth-century Ireland. In c. 590, he and a band of twelve companions set out on pilgrimage, traveling first to Britain (or Brittany), followed by Western Gaul, Burgundy, the Merovingian courts of Europe, and up the Rhine to Switzerland (when he presumably could have composed this Latin song). He ended up in Lombardy, receiving a strip of land there from the King and Queen, where he founded the monastery of Bobbio. This boat song (which the translator, James Carney, sees as an "exhortation to his monks to persevere to the end") captures the adventurous mood and robust faith of the wandering Irish monks. His writings certainly reflect a knowledge of classical Latin (e.g., this poem in hexameters with a recurring refrain).

SEE ALSO Hiberno-Latin Culture

See, cut in woods, through flood of twin-horned Rhine
passes the keel, and greased slips over seas—
Heave, men! And let resounding echo sound our "heave."

The winds raise blasts, wild rain-storms wreak their spite
but ready strength of men subdues it all—
Heave, men! And let resounding echo sound our "heave."

Clouds melt away and the harsh tempest stills,
effort tames all, great toil is conqueror—
Heave, men! And let resounding echo sound our "heave."

Endure and keep yourselves for happy things;
you suffered worse, and these too God shall end—
Heave, men! And let resounding echo sound our "heave."

Thus acts the foul fiend: wearing out the heart
and with temptation shaking inmost parts—
You men, remember Christ with mind still sounding "heave."

Stand firm in soul and spurn the foul fiend's tricks
and seek defence in virtue's armoury—
You men, remember Christ with mind still sounding "heave."

Firm faith will conquer all and blessed zeal
and the old fiend yielding breaks at last his darts—
You men, remember Christ with mind still sounding "heave."

Supreme, of virtues King, and fount of things,
He promises in strife, gives prize in victory—
You men, remember Christ with mind still sounding "heave."

MEDIEVAL IRISH LYRICS WITH THE IRISH BARDIC POET, translated by James Carney (1967), pp. 9, 11.