Monday, April 12, 2010

Deeds of the Franks, Book One, Section One

The following is my own translation of the text from Latin Library:
When now that time approached, for which the Lord Jesus had daily shown his own acts of faiths, especially by evangelizing saying, "If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny disagreement and let him take up his own cross and follow me", there had been thereafter a strong movement throughout the entire regions of the Gauls. If anyone would desire to follow God zealously with a pure heart and mind, and he wished to bear his own cross faithfully, let him not be lazy to quickly take the road of the Sacred Sepulcher. The apostle of the Roman seat set out the sooner the better over the mountainous parts and, with his archbishops, overseers, Abbots and priests, he began plainly to lecture and foretell, saying that if any man wished to save his own soul, he should not be in doubt to humbly begin on the way of the Lord, and, if he lacked an abundance of money, he would give enough in excellent mercy. For the lord apostle said , "Brothers, it is proper for you to endure many things in the name of the Annointed One, clearly poverty, exposure, persecution, want, sickness, hunger, thirst and other wretchedness of this kind just as the Lord said to his disciples:'It is proper to you to endure much on behalf of my name', and 'Do not be ashamed to speak before the faces of men; I will give to you the voice and eloquence to speak the truth.', and after this 'Abundance will follow you in repayment'." And, when this sermon began to gain strength little by little across all the regions and homelands of the Gauls, the Franks, hearing this, on the spot stitched together such a cross on their right shoulder, saying unanimously they would follow the footsteps of the Annointed One, by whom personally the infernal regions had been redeemed. At this time now, the Gauls are far from their homes.

2 comments:

Tracy said...

How long did it take you to translate? Was it reasonably straightforward in the end?

The Red Witch said...

@ Oh what a piece of religious propaganda

Well yeah but it is a piece of history too. If you look at my other posts, you will note that I also have Anna Comnena's Alexiad. Someday I might have a look at it from a third point of view. Only so many hours to read.

@How long did it take you to translate? Was it reasonably straightforward in the end?

Not long. Maybe half an hour. It is reasonably straightforward so far.