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Anonym (XIV c.)
Anonym - O Mary, Spotless Virgin
O MARY, SPOTLESS VIRGIN
O Mary, spotless virgin,
Allow us to see the face of God,
Of the heavenly Lord.
Spotless, you conceived Jesus,
Carried and brought Him to birth,
You were the first to pray to Him.
Through your most holy fruit,
Dear Virgin, deign to support us,
Strengthen our body, our soul.
You see that we are constrained
By great diseases,
Therefore pray for us.
We trust that you will be heard
By Him who moves the entire world,
All creation listens to Him.
When you, most holy, are praying,
All the saints are praying too,
When you are silent, so are they.
May we at this sermon
Come to knowledge of God,
After this prayer to Mary,
Which was given to all good people
And specially those pious ones.
Let each of us greet her
With this greeting. That's how the angel
Greeted the most holy,
Saying: "Hail Mary".
Translated by Michael J. Mikoś
Note
The song (
Maryja, czysta dziewice...
) is known from two texts. The older, located in a manuscript at the Public Library in Petersburg (Lat. I. Fol. 49), which originated from the Benedictine monastery in Sieciechów, is now lost. The text of the song was written on the front-paper of the binding. The second has been preserved in a manuscript at the library (archives) in the monastery of the Paulite Fathers at Jasna Góra (call number II.18. a), containing a collection of Latin sermons from the middle of the fifteenth century. The poem could have been written at the end of the fourteenth century or at the beginning of the fifteenth century. It is called a "preambular song", inviting the faithful to the recitation of
Hail Mary
before a sermon. We quote the transcription of the text from Częstochowa based on the edition by Henryk Kowalewicz and Władysław Kuraszkiewicz,
Staropolska pieśń maryjna na nowo odczytana
, "Archiwum Literackie" 16 (Miscellanea Staropolskie 4), Wrocław, 1972, pp. 9-17.