THE HOLY EUCHARIST
by: Pedro Calderón
de la Barca (1600-1681)
 ONEY in
the lion's mouth,
- Emblem mystical, divine,
- How the sweet and strong combine;
- Cloven rock for Israel's drouth;
- Treasure-house of golden grain
- By our Joseph laid in store,
- In his brethren's famine sore
- Freely to dispense again;
- Dew on Gideon's snowy fleece;
- Well, from bitter turned to sweet;
- Shew-bread laid in order meet,
- Bread whose cost doth ne'er increase,
- Though no rain in April fall;
- Horeb's manna freely given
- Showered in white dew from heaven,
- Marvelous, angelical;
- Weightiest bunch of Canaan's vine;
- Cake to strengthen and sustain
- Through long days of desert pain;
- Salem's monarch's bread and wine;--
- Thou the antidote shalt be
- Of my sickness and my sin,
- Consolation, medicine,
- Life and Sacrament to me.
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This English translation by R.C.
Trench of Calderón's "The Holy Eucharist" is
reprinted from Hispanic Anthology: Poems Translated from the
Spanish by English and North American Poets. Ed. Thomas Walsh.
New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1920. |
MORE POEMS BY CALDERÓN |
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