LIVA LYRICS

1. Omnis Mundi Creatura

Any worldly creature
Is like a book, a painting,
To serve as a mirror,
Faithful representation
Of our life, of our death,
Of our state, of our lot.

Our condition is painted by the rose,
Of our state, a great gloss and
A lesson from our existence:
In full bloom in the early morning,
Flourishing flower falling out of blossom
In the oldness of the night.

2. Rosa Marcet Oriens

The flower expires by breathing,
It raves by fading,
Starts to die at birth.
Both ancient and new,
Both elderly and damsel,
The rose fades at birth.

So the spring of our age,
In the very morning of youth,
Flourishes for a brief moment,
But this morning is soon excluded
By nightfall while the twilight years
Conclude.

3. Sic Mors Bitam

By ending its beauty,
Age or the course of time sweep it away,
Soon deflowers its splendour.
Flower turns into fruit, gem into mud,
Man turns to dust, and to death
Paying his tribute here below.

For his life, for his being are
Sorrow, pain, necessity
To end in death.
So death shuts life, mourning shuts laughter,
Shadow shuts daylight, the tide shuts the sea
And night shuts morning.

4. Mortis Est Conclusio

The first strike comes to us
From a dead-face sorrow,
From an ordeal mimicking death;
Subjecting us to sorrow,
Transforming us into grievous beings,
And death concludes it all.

5. Luge Penam

Thus enclosed under this law,
Man, decipher your condition,
Look closely at who you are,
What you were before your birth,
What you are, what you will be,
Deepen this vision.

Weep in sorrow, lament your offence,
Suppress your impulses, break your pomp,
Cast off your pride;
Leader and coach driver of your soul,
Lead it and direct its course
Not to veer to evil.

6. Regula Mundi

Daughter of God and mother of all,
Link of the world and its firm tie,
Beauty of the earth, mirror of what runs past,
Torch of the globe;

Peace, love, virtue, government, power,
Order, law, term, road, guide, origins,
Life, light, brightness, shape, face,
Rule of the world;

You, who submit your reins to the pace of the world,
Tie in a harmonious bind all that you consolidate
Into being,
And, through the concrete peace unite
Sky and earth;

You, who apply the pure ideas of the Word
To the touch of every sort of being,
Adorn matter into form, and shape with

7. Lucido Lunae

You, who are favoured by the heavens of which air is the servant,
Who are honoured by the earth and revered by the waters;
To you, as to the ruler of the world,
Every element is paying tribute;

You, who chain up days and nights in their alternation,
Dispense the day from the candle of the sun,
And bring to sleep the clouds of the night
Under the clear mirror of the moon;

You, who gild the pole with various stars,
Make serene again the sphere of our ether;
Fill up the heavens with the stars’ gems
And a colourful army;

8. Terra Superbit

You, who modify the face of the heavens into Proteus
Where you create new arrangements,
Populating our air with birds and
Gripping everything under your rule;

Under whose sign the world rejuvenates,
And the forest’s hair curls with leaves
And, the earth boasts,
Wrapped in our cloak of flowers;

You, who appease and enhance the threats of the waves,
Cutting the marine fury short,
Fearing that the anger of the waves
Might bury the surface of the continents;

9. Lingua Fidelis

Expose the motive of your journey to me;
Why are you gaining the earth, celestial traveller?
Why are you offering our world the gift of your
Divinity?

Why are tears streaming down your face?
What are the tears on your visage foretelling?
Tears are faithful interpreters
Of an inner pain.

10. Postludium

LIVA LYRICS