Liber parabolarum

Day struggles against night, clear sky against cloud,

Light against darkness, thriving life against death.

This is our labor, for spirit and flesh forever

Fight; and we die if the flesh should win.

The horse bears burdens, the ox plows the earth,

The sheep gives up its wool, the dog guards the fold.

All things indeed pay what their nature owes,

Except the one who has more reason than they.

The heavenly motion moves all the stars except

One; but that one remains always the same.

So the constant and faithful man will hold without end

This manner in love, which he once took up:

Phoebus is swept back from his setting to his rising,

Whom the turning machine first bore hither and thither.

So in friendship the world stands, burns and grows cold,

Falls and rises, loves what it hated more.

Safer is the place on the ground than in high towers;

He who lies on the earth has no place from which to fall.

Storms and winds, thunder and lightning overturn

Towers with their blasts, but let low things stand.

Death and life cannot dwell together at once,

Being opposites; this stands far apart from that.

So there are two things that cannot dwell in one heart:

Love of this world, and love of God.

The prone man does not fall further, just as the horse,

Bent at the knee, is thrown by the heavy load it bears.

So the man weighed down by a great mass of vices

Cannot lift himself unless the mass is set aside.

Not where the sailor wishes, but where the wind carries,

Is the ship borne, when the swollen sea's wave comes.

Not where intention points, but where fate leads,

Must everyone go; all should follow that guide.

A phantom appears to men; but again by them

It turns to nothing, having been nothing before.

So the glory of the fleeting world is present and absent;

It does not arrive before it departs, like a dream.

While it is warm, and the day is fair, the ant labors,

Lest it perish from hunger when the deep snow comes.

So the young man, while he has time fit for toil,

Should seek what weary old age may enjoy.

Not so high does the light wing lift the bird,

That it does not return again, seeking the fields it left.

Not so does the rising wheel lift those carried up on high,

That it does not, tipping, bear them down again to the depths.

The drunk man drinks before he grows sick, licks before

He vomits, before, steady on his feet, he can walk.

Not so with us; this order is not kept among us,

That we enjoy teaching before we have learned.

A thing bought under the laws of the marketplace is not bought dear;

Seller and buyer there are equal in the deal.

But there is nothing bought more dearly under heaven

Than what is bought by long, humbling prayers.

The ox chews again with worn teeth the grass,

So that, having been chewed so often, it becomes his nourishment.

So if you wish to retain your teacher's lessons,

You should recall often what you have once heard.

The wicked smith stirs up the enclosed winds

With his bellows, while the fire itself softens hard iron.

So does fury, once roused, drive the heart of the fool within,

While it renders soft strength in the contest of strife.

By the voice of hounds wild asses are kept from their hiding places,

And the boar too comes out to be tamed by the dog's tooth.

So too priests ought to seek out the sinful,

And, unless they repent, strike them with God's sword.

Wretched and rich was once King Midas, rich

In gold, but wretched in the condition of his life.

So lives every miser, the keeper of wealth,

Possessing nothing and much of what is good, at once.

The evening star shows itself first in the evening,

And makes the light by which it shines immense.

So he does not show it late, but quickly, to those in need,

Who holds the bright light of twin love.

Aeolus tempers the mighty rages of the winds,

And Neptune often tames the sea with his trident.

So must a lord make himself feared by his fierceness,

Who desires to hold the rule of a great people.

The bull whose horns are lacking stirs up wars more quickly

Than one who can strike with a horned brow.

More often in the street we see boys fighting

Than strong men, who usually have restraint.

If an impatient-minded ox is yoked to the plow,

It cuts a crooked path in plowing, not a straight one.

So there are those who often draw back those walking forward,

When they see them taking the road of light.

We see goats turn away from snow, from rain, from hail,

And sheep straining to face them head on.

Deceit, wrath, wickedness, injustice carry off the unjust,

But the just man resists them with his whole heart.

A skiff cannot lightly cross the sea

Unless there is one who forces it to run by oars.

A runner cannot bring his course to the finish line

Unless hope and foot both assist him.

He sees further who looks with many eyes

Than the man to whom only a single eye gives sight.

That is why Jove's bride Juno gave the cow to Argus

To guard, not to you, Polyphemus.

A fire that is spread widely exerts less force

Than one to which gathered torches have lent their strength.

He attacks the enemy more forcefully who gathers his strength

Than one who assails him with scattered forces.

The worst enemy is the one who, when you have done well by him,

Rises up more fiercely, waging war on you.

So, if you wish war to be waged upon you, make the flesh

Willing for it; if you wish peace, tame its neck with hunger.