Page:Writings of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.djvu/128

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Writings of Patrick.

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    (compare Isaiah xxx. 18, Malachi ii. 17, Deus judicii). Compare his saying: 'I cannot judge, but God will judge.' (Rolls Tripartite, p. 288.) Another expression, 'My God's doom!' or 'judgment' (mo debrod, mo debroth), was constantly in his mouth. (See the Rolls Tripartite, pp. 132, 138, 142, 168, 174, &c.) It is explained in the extraft from Cormac's Glossary, p. 571. The thoughts of the saint, on his way to Tara, must necessarily have dwelt much on the judgment and doom of idolaters in 'the day of vengeance of our God' (Isa. lxi. 2). The Irish for the 'judgment of doom' in the last line of the second stanza of the Hymn is brethemnas bratha. Hence we have used a different English word in these places to express the difference in the original Irish

  1. Dr. Whitley Stokes has throughout 'virtue' in place of 'power.'
  2. The original is grad hiruphin, which is thus rendered by Dr. Whitley Stokes. The former translation was 'the love of seraphim.'
  3. This line is not in the Trinity College Liber Hymnorum. It is taken from the Bodleian copy.
  4. Dr. Todd renders 'in the prayers of the noble fathers.' Hennessy and Dr. Whitley Stokes, 'patriarchs.'
  5. The original has 'in the preachings' of apostles and 'in the faiths of confessors' in the plural, instead of 'preaching' and 'faith.'
  6. So the Bodleian copy. The Trinity College MS. has etrochta snechtai, i.e., 'whiteness of snow.'
  7. The line was formerly translated 'the force of tire, the flashing of lightning.
  8. Dr. Whitley Stokes would render 'firmness' or 'steadiness of rock.'
  9. So Dr. Whitley Stokes. The former translation was 'to give me speech.' Comp. 1 Peter iv. 11.
  10. So Dr. Whitley Stokes. The former version was 'to prevent me.'
  11. The translation of the word 'the lusts' is uncertain, and consequently there is a blank left here in Dr. Whitley Stokes' version.
  12. So Dr. Whitley Stokes. The former translation was 'with few or with many,' which gives almost the same sense.
  13. Dr. Whitley Stokes has 'I summon to-day all these virtues between me [and these evils].' Dr. Todd's translation is 'I have set around me.'
  14. So Dr. Whitley Stokes, as the Irish is heretecda. There