This past Sunday marked the Feast of the Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Our Lord, when Simeon spoke the words that we now know as the Nunc dimittis (Luke 2:29-32). Below is a belated poem for the occasion, based on Juvencus, Evangeliorum libri quattuor 1.202-7.
Juvencus was a writer of Latin biblical epic in the fourth century, during the reign of Constantine. You can read his surviving poem in Scott McGill, Juvencus’ Four Books of the Gospels (Routledge, 2016).[1]
“Nunc dimittis”
After Juvencus
Now, now the Lord from body’s bonds
Constricting me, his servant, frees.
Yes, now when life almost absconds,
In grace he grants an end in peace,
According to his Word.
Behold—
Your blazing light engulfs my eyes;
Your radiance fires my antique cold.
I notice, with a wild surmise,
This Sun from Israel’s elder stock
Draws all the nations to their Rock.
