[266] [70] Tunc mortis oppressus {vigor} <rigor>,

Tunc lex subacta est Tartari:

Tunc vis diei fortior

Noctem coegit cedere.

Iam iam quiescant improba,

[75] Iam culpa furva obdormiat,

Iam noxa let{h}alis suum

Perpessa somnum marceat.

Vigil vicissim spiritus

Quodcunque restat temporis

[80] Dum meta noctis clauditur,

Stans, ac laborans excubet.

Iesum ciamus vocibus

Flentes, precantes, sobrii:

Intenta supplicatio

[85] Dormire cor mundum vetat.

{Stat} <Sat> convolutis artubus

Sensum profunda oblivio

Pressit, gravavit, obruit,

Vanis vagantem somniis.

[90] Sunt nempe falsa, et frivola

Quae mundiali gloria

Ceu dormientes egimus,

Vigilemus, hic est veritas.

Aurum, voluptas, gaudium,

[95] Opes, honores, prospera,

Quaecunque nos instant mala,

Fit mane, nil sunt omnia.

Tu Christe somnum {disiice} <disdice>,

Tu rumpe noctis vincula,

[100] Tu solve peccatum vetus,

Novumque lumen ingere.

[70] Then the inflexibility of death was crushed,

then the law of Tartarus was subjugated:

then the strength of day being stronger

forced the night to go away.

Now let sinfulness lie quiet,

[75] now let dark sin go to sleep,

 now let mortal punishment at once

wither its own sleep.

Let the vigil spirit in its turn

whatever time remains

[80] while the end of night closes itself,

standing up and working to be on the alert.

Let us call upon Jesus

weeping, praying, in our soberness:

intense supplication

[85] forbids the pure heart to sleep.

With enough rolled up limbs

a deep oblivion the thought

oppressed, overloaded, flooded,

which wander through empty dreams.

[90] For they are false and frivolous

those things which for the glory of this world

we have done as though asleep,

let us be wakeful, the truth is here.

Gold, pleasure, joy,

[95] wealth, honors, prosperities,

every evil thing is overhanging us,

morning comes, all of them are nothing.

You, Christ, drive away the slumber,

You break the bonds of night,

[100] You wipe out old sin,

and bring new light inside.

Sed hactenus Gallus in bonam partem acceptus est, possit etiam in malam accipi, et significare, ut avis est libidini dicata maxime, qui muliebria sectatur, et voluptatum magis amator est, quam Dei, unde apud Esaiam[1] dicitur: Ecce Dominus asportari te faciet, sicut asportatur Gallus Gallinaceus.

But until this moment the rooster has been accepted in right side, let him be accepted also in the bad one and indicate it, since he is a bird extremely devoted to lust chasing after womanly things and he is more a lover of pleasures than of God, whence it is said in Isaiah: Lo, the Lord will cause you to be transferred just as a rooster is transferred.

Superest modo, ut de Gallina etiam dicamus: de qua D. Augustinus[2] in expositione huius versus Psalmistae: Exurge in occursum mihi, et vide: Aliquid, inquit, me dicere admonet in hoc loco capitis ipsius nostri sublimitas, quoniam infirmatus est usque ad mortem, et assumpsit infirmitatis carnem, ut pullos Hierusalem colligeret sub alas suas, tanquam Gallina infirmata[3] cum parvulis. Non enim in aliqua ave hoc aliquando conspeximus, earum etiam, quae nidificant ante oculos nostros, sicut parietum Passeres, sicut Hirundines, tanquam annuae nostrae hospites, sicut Ciconiae, sicut aliae aves, quae ante oculos nostros nidificant, et ovis insidunt, pullos alunt, sicut ipsae Columbae, quas cotidie videmus, aliquando avem <in>firmari cum parvulis non agnovimus, non vidimus. Gallina quomodo hoc habet? Certe notam rem dico, quae in conspectu nostro quotidie versatur, quomodo raucescit vox, quomodo sit hispidum totum corpus, demittuntur alae, laxantur plumae, et vides circa pullos nescio quid aegrotum, et ea est materna charitas, quae invenitur infirmitas. Quare ergo Dominus nisi propter hoc Gallina esse voluit in sancta scriptura, dicemus. Hierusalem, Hierusalem, quoties volui congregare filios tuos tanquam Gallina filios suos sub alas, et noluisti?[4] Congregavit autem omnes gentes tanquam Gallina pullos suos, qui infirmatus est propter nos, accipiens carnem a nobis, id est, a genere humano, crucifixus, contemptus alapis caesus, flagellatus, ligno suspensus, lancea vulneratus. Ergo hoc maternae infirmitatis est, non amissae maiestatis. Quum ergo talis esset Christus, et tamen carnem sine peccato suscepisset, factus est particeps nostrae infirmitatis, non iniquitatis, ut ex eo quod nobiscum communicavit, infirmitatem solveret nostram iniquitatem.

It remains only to speak also of the hen: of which Saint Augustine speaks during the commentary on this verse of the Psalmist: Jump up to come towards me, and behold: The sublimity of our Head Himself at this point urges me to say something, since He submitted Himself to human weakness up to the death, and He took on Him the flesh of the weakness, to gather under His wings the chicks of Jerusalem, as a weakened hen does with her little ones. For we never observed this among any bird, also among those nesting in front of our eyes as sparrows of walls, as swallows which  are, so to speak, our annual guests, as storks, as other birds nesting in front of our eyes and crouching on eggs, raise the chicks, as the doves themselves that we see every day, we have never known, we have never seen a bird to weaken with its little ones. How does the hen possess this characteristic? Certainly I say a known thing, that is present daily in front of our eyes, how the voice grows hoarse, as the whole body is ruffled, the wings are held low, the feathers are opened, and you can see around the chicks something sick, and it is the maternal love finding itself to be weakness. Therefore we can just say that the Lord exactly for this wanted the hen to be present in the Holy Scripture. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how many times have I willed to gather your children as the hen is doing with her children under the wings, and you didn’t want it? But He has gathered all the peoples as the hen is doing with her chicks, He who tired Himself because of us, taking from us the flesh, that is, from the humankind, He was crucified, despised, struck with slaps, flagellated, hung upon a pole, wounded with a lance. Then this is sign of maternal weakness, not of lost majesty. Then since Christ was such and had nevertheless assumed the flesh without having sinned, He shared our weakness, not our iniquity, so that He could dissipate our iniquity since He shared the weakness with us.

Et[5] rursus exponens illud Psalmographi: Et sub alis eius sperabis: Si Gallina, inquit, protegit pullos suos sub alis, quanto magis tu sub alis Dei tutus eris, et adversus diabolum, et angelos eius, quae aëreae potestates, tanquam Accipitres circumvolitant, ut infirmum pullum auferant? Neque enim sine causa comparata est Gallina ipsi sapientiae Dei. Nam ipse Christus dominus noster, et salvator tanquam Gallinam se dixit: Hierusalem, Hierusalem, etc. Noluit illa Hierusalem, velimus nos, illa rapta est ab aeris potestatibus fugiens alas Gallinae, praesumens de viribus suis quum esset infirma, nos confitentes infirmitatem nostram, sub alas Dei fugiamus. Erit enim nobis tanquam Gallina protegens pullos suos. Non est enim iniuriosum nomen Gallina. Attendite caeteras aves. Multae aves ante nos foetant, calefaciunt pullos suos, nulla sic avis infirmatur cum pullis suis, quomodo Gallina. Attendat charitas vestra, Hirundines, Passeres, et Ciconias videmus extra nidos suos, nec cognoscimus utrum foetus habeant: at Gallinam cognoscimus in infirmitate vocis, et in relaxatione plumarum, tota mutatur a foetu pullorum, quia illi infirmi sunt, infirmam sese facit. Quia ergo et nos infirmi eramus, infirmam se fecit sapientia Dei, quia verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis, ut sub alis eius speremus.

And afterwards, explaining what the psalmist writes he says: And under His wings you will hope: If the hen protects her chicks under the wings, how much more you will be safe under the wings of God, and in front of the devil and his messengers, those celestial authorities flying around as hawks to sweep away the weak chick? And not for no reason the hen has been compared to the wisdom itself of God. For Christ Himself our Lord and Savior said to be like a hen: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, etc. That Jerusalem didn’t want Him, we have to want Him, she was abducted by celestial authorities running away from the wings of the hen, relying upon her strength since the latter was weak, confessing our weakness we must see to shelter under the wings of God. For He will be for us like a hen protecting her chicks. In fact the epithet of hen is not insulting. You pay attention to the other birds. Many birds lay eggs in front of us, they heat their chicks, no bird weakens so much with its chicks as the hen. Your love must watch out, we see the swallows, the sparrows and the storks out of their nests, neither we know if they have some offspring: but we recognize the hen from the weakness of the voice and from the unfolding feathers, she is entirely changed by the birth of chicks, because they are weak she makes herself weak. Then, since we also were weak, the wisdom of God made itself weak, because the Word grew flesh, and He dwelt in us, so that we hope under his wings.

Et rursus alibi[6]: Hoc, inquit, genus animantis magnum affectum in filios habet, ita ut eorum infirmitate <affecta> et ipsa {infirmitate} <infirmetur>, et quod difficilius in caeteris {animalibus} <animantibus> invenies, alis suis filios suos protegens contra Milvum {pugnat} <pugnet>: sic etiam mater nostra sapientia Dei per carnis susceptionem infirmata quodammodo, dicente Apostolo: Quod infirmum est Dei, fortius est hominibus[7], protegit infirmitatem nostram, et resistit diabolo, ne nos rapiat. In qua defensione, quod illa adversus Milvum conatur affectu, haec adversus diabolum perficit potestate.

And afterwards he says elsewhere: This kind of living being - the hen with a brood of chicks - shows a great fondness towards her children, so that moved by their weakness she herself is weakening, and, a thing that you will find more hardly in other animals, protecting with her wings her children she fights against the kite: so also our mother the Wisdom of God taking the flesh has grown weak somehow, according to what the apostle says: What of God is weak is stronger than men, it - the wisdom - protects our weakness, and set itself against the devil so that he don’t abduct us. In this defense, what for love she undertakes against the kite, the latter by power gets it against the devil.

Item rursus[8] in haec verba: Nos ovum nostrum sub alis illius Gallinae ponamus, inquit, Evangelicae Gallinae, quae clamat Hierusalem Hierusalem illi falsae, et perditae, quoties volui congregare filios, tanquam Gallina pullos, et noluisti? Non nobis dicatur, quoties volui, et noluisti. Illa enim Gallina divina sapientia est, sed assumpsit carnem, ut pullis congrueret. Videte Gallinam hispidam plumis, demissis alis, voce fracta, et quassa, et lassa, et languida congruere [267] parvulis suis. Ovum ergo nostrum, id est, spem nostram sub alis illius Gallinae ponamus.

Likewise afterwards toward these words he says: We have to set our egg under the wings of that hen, of the evangelical hen, who cries Jerusalem Jerusalem to that false and corrupt, how many times have I wanted to gather your children, as the hen does with chicks, and you have not whished it? It must not be said to us how often I wished and you did not wish it. For that hen is divine Wisdom, but It assumed the flesh for to be suitable to chicks. You look at the hen with ruffled feathers, lowered wings, tired voice, weak, worn-out, exhausted, adapting to her babies. Then let us place our egg, that is our hope, under the wings of that hen.