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Stanisław Ciołek (1382-1437)
STANISŁAW CIOŁEK - Praise of Cracow
PRAISE OF CRACOW
O, city of Cracow, the unity
Of your inhabitants abundantly
Serves as your adornment:
A multitude of clergy, dignity of men,
And matrons with a great many children;
Riches in profusion.
You are washed by clear springs,
Guarded by shade-giving hills.
The guilty will not escape retribution,
The innocent will receive benefaction,
Everyone will encounter compassion.
In your walls rest the holy remains
Of Stanistaw; the monks
Guard this relic like a treasure
In a magnificent shrine.
Here Jadwiga, mother of mothers,
Nearing her last moments of life
Takes great satisfaction.
The flower of knighthood, the scourge of enemies,
Shines with courage at your gates;
Chivalry rules everywhere.
When you hear a chant of singers
Sadness turns to soothing sweetness -
Without hostility, without wickedness
You will dance in innocence.
You rejoice in laws of peace,
Brought about by God's benevolence
And by King Władysław.
Praiseworthy models teach you
To scorn everything shameful,
To avoid deception.
You look at the queen's face,
At her beauty, with admiring gaze;
She does not know the vale of years,
Glowing in the glory of truthfulness
Like a spring that changes to summer;
She gives a foretaste of grandeur
And her purity shines in the world
Among the court's splendours.
And the chambers of the queen
Are filled with many a maiden;
If you worry in your heart,
One glance at the radiance
Of their beauty will suffice
To bring you delight.
The stars surround Phoebe1,
Two sons console her:
Both Władysław and Kazimierz,
New servants of their creator,
Commend to God their father
And lend splendor to their mother
In boundless elation.
Let the troubles, worries flee,
And the old plight with no progeny.
Let joy reign supreme at last,
That because of Władysław
We now have a successor,
A future national celebrity
Born in respectabilty.
You who preserve the whole world,
And lavish mercy on us all,
Being of beings, Creator,
And of the fallen, Reviver,
I, a sinner, beseech you humbly,
To uphold us in our necessity,
Give joy to our nation.
Alleluja.
Translated by Michael J. Mikoś
Notes
1
Mythological solar godness, daughter of Gaea.