Aldhelm Riddle 94: Ebulus
ALEXANDRAREIDER
Date: Thu 14 Apr 2022Sambucus, in silva putris dum fronde virescit,
Est mihi par foliis; nam glesco surculus arvis
Nigros bacarum portans in fronte corimbos.
Quem medici multum ruris per terga virentem,
Cum scabies morbi pulpas irrepserit aegras,
Lustrantes orbem crebro quaesisse feruntur:
Cladibus horrendae, dum vexat viscera tabo,
Ne virus serpat, possum succurrere, leprae,
Sic olidas hominum restaurans germine fibras.
The elder tree, when it grows, putrid, in the woods,
Is like me in its leaves; for I grow as a sprig in the fields,
Carrying black bunches of berries on my brow.
Doctors, when the roughness of disease creeps on to sick skin,
Are said frequently to have sought much of me,
Growing green, by roaming the world around the back country:
I am able to bring remedy so that the poison of leprosy, horrendous in its harm
When it irritates the insides with pestilence, does not progress,
Thus restoring fetid bowels with my sprout.
Notes:
This edition is based on Rudolf Ehwald, ed. Aldhelmi Opera Omnia. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi, 15. Berlin: Weidmann, 1919, pages 59-150. Available online here.
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