Legends, Tales and Poems

VI (2)

AllÍ estaban los santos profetas que habrÉis visto groseramente esculpidos en las portadas de piedra de nuestras catedrales; allÍ las vÍrgenes luminosas,[1] que intenta en vano copiar de sus sueÑos el pintor en los vidrios de colores de las ojivas; allÍ los querubines,[2] con sus largas y flotantes vestidura? y sus nimbos de oro, como los de las tablas de los altares; allÍ, en fin, coronada de estrellas, vestida de luz, rodeada de todas las jerarquÍas celestes, y hermosa sobre toda ponderaciÓn, Nuestra SeÑora de Monserrat,[3] la Madre de Dios, la Reina de los arcÁngeles, el amparo de los pecadores y el consuelo de los afligidos.[4]

[Footnote 1: las vÍrgenes luminosas. Virgin is "one of the titles and grades given by the church, by which are distinguished the choirs of sainted women who have preserved their integrity and purity." Diccionario EnciclopÉdico Hispano-Americano. Compare—

... de humildes y penitentes confesores, y de aquel coro-mÁs blanco que la
nieve, de vÍrgenes purÍsimas.

Rivadeneira.

... los estados de los mÁrtires, confesores y vÍrgenes cantaron unos los
triunfos de los otros.

P. MartÍn de Roa.

By luminosas is suggested the halo of light that surrounds them, proceeding from their own sanctity and represented in the stained-glass windows.]

[Footnote 2: querubines. Read Dante's description of the heavenly hierarchy in canto XXVIII of the Paradiso. See also p. 47, note 1.]

[Footnote 3: Nuestra SeÑora de Monserrat = 'Our Lady of Montserrat,' the Virgin as venerated in the famous monastery of this name. "The monastery owes its foundation to the miraculous image of the Virgin, the handiwork of Luke the Apostle, which was brought to Barcelona in the year of our Lord 50, by St. Peter himself. At the time of the Moorish invasion, in 717, the Goths hid it in the hill, where it remained until 880, when Some shepherds were attracted to the spot by heavenly lightd, etc., whereupon Gondemar Bishop of Vique (guided also by a sweet smell) found the image in a cave. Accompanied by his clergy, the good bishop set out on his return to Manresa carrying the holy image with him, but on reaching a certain spot the Virgin obstinately refused to proceed farther; thereupon a small chapel was built over her, where she remained 160 years. The spot where the image first refused to move is still marked by a cross with an appropriate inscription.... A chapel where the image now rests was founded in 1592, and later opened by Philip II in person." Ford, Handbook for Travellers in Spain. The monastery is one of the most picturesquely situated in all Christendom. It stands high up upon the jagged mountain Mons Serratus, or Montserrat, which gives to the monastery its name. See p. 54, note 2.]

[Footnote 4: Compare—

And at that center, with their wings expanded,
More than a thousand jubilant Angels saw I,
Each differing in effolgence and in kind.

I saw there at their sports and at their songs
A Beauty[*] smiling, which the gladness was
Within the eyes of all the other saints;

And if I had in speaking as much wealth
As in imagining, I should not dare
To attempt the smallest part of its delight.

[Footnote *:
The Virgin]

Dante's Paradiso, canto XXXI, Longfellow's Translation.]

Mas allÁ el paraÍso de los justos, mÁs allÁ el trono donde se asienta la Virgen Maria.[1] El Ánimo de Teobaldo se sobrecogiÓ temeroso, y un hondo pavor se apoderÓ de su alma. La eterna soledad, el eterno silencio viven en aquellas regiones, que conducen al misterioso santuario del SeÑor. De cuando en cuando azotaba su frente una rÁfaga de aire, frÍo como la hoja de un puÑal, que crispaba sus cabellos de horror y penetraba hasta la mÉdula de sus huesos; rÁfagas semejantes a las que anunciaban Á los profetas la aproximaciÓn del espÍritu divino.[2] Al fin llegÓ Á un punto donde creyÓ percibir un rumor sordo, que pudiera compararse al zumbido lejano de un enjambre de abejas, cuando, en las tardes del otoÑo, revolotean en derredor de las Últimas flores.

[Footnote 1: Is there confusion here between the Virgin Mary and the Virgin of Montserrat, or is the throne her ementioned vacant?]

[Footnote 2: Compare "And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave." I Kings, xix, part of verses 11–13. "And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire.... And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake." Ezekiel, i. 4 and 28.]

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