Poem concerning the same most holy virgin
This poem does not appear in either Lokrantz and Facchini 2007 or Lokrantz 1964. In the latter she explains (Google Translate from the Italian):
I felt I had to exclude three poems that Gaetani or Migne included in the Damian collection, and which in Migne’s edition appear under nos. LXII, CXXX and CCXXVII: Quis est hic qui pulsat ad ostium, Edidit nomina eorum in mundo sortitos, and Audistis quiddam noviter.
The authenticity of the first poem has already been questioned by M. Hélin (A History of Medieval Latin Literature, p. 63, note 7), and by F. J. E. Raby (A History of Christian-Latin Poetry, p. 255, and A History of Secular Latin Poetry, I, p. 372, note 1). In fact, the poem, which is a reworking of verses 5.2-7 of the Song of Songs1, can be read in the fifth chapter of the Expositio in Cantica Canticorum attributed to St. Bruno, bishop of Segni (PL 164,1266 A ff.).
The poem is found, without context, in the Casinensis 111 (G) codex, where it follows Damiani’s n. 1. Perhaps Gaetani, if he knew the codex in question, was induced to attribute the paraphrase of the Song of Songs to Damiani in consideration of its position in the codex.
I (MDK) found the Latin text at p. 939 of the Patrologiae Latinae of J-P Migne Volume 145 (the second of two volumes devoted to Peter Damian), 1853.
Despite his misgivings about its authenticity, Raby2 remarks: “The sweetest, the strangest, and the most mystical of the compositions ascribed to Peter is a poetical commentary on part of the Song of Songs:” I (MDK) could not bring myself to omit it.
While we can each devise our own interpretation of this strange poem, Thomas Rendall3 has done an excellent job of looking at the poem through the eyes of 11th century clergy. In this view it is Christ who knocks at the door and appears to the unenlightened soul (or the Synagogue and pagan churches) whereupon conversion takes place. The newly converted, after a brief moment of clarity, are plunged into darkness until they are met by Christ’s disciples who strip them of their sins and give them the gift of grace in baptism. Rendall shows the problems with this interpretation, but has good arguments for accepting it.
1 Here are the lines from the Bible: From https://vulgate.org/ot/songofsolomon_5.htm
ego dormio et cor meum vigilat vox dilecti mei pulsantis aperi mihi soror mea amica mea columba mea inmaculata mea quia caput meum plenum est rore et cincinni mei guttis noctiumI sleep, and my heart watcheth: the voice of my beloved knocking: Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is full of dew, and my locks of the drops of the nights.
expoliavi me tunica mea quomodo induar illa lavi pedes meos quomodo inquinabo illos
I have put off my garment, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?
dilectus meus misit manum suam per foramen et venter meus intremuit ad tactum eius
My beloved put his hand through the key hole, and my bowels were moved at his touch.
surrexi ut aperirem dilecto meo manus meae stillaverunt murra digiti mei pleni murra probatissima
I arose up to open to my beloved: my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers were full of the choicest myrrh.
pessulum ostii aperui dilecto meo at ille declinaverat atque transierat anima mea liquefacta est ut locutus est quaesivi et non inveni illum vocavi et non respondit mihi
I opened the bolt of my door to my beloved: but he had turned aside, and was gone. My soul melted when he spoke: I sought him, and found him not: I called, and he did not answer me.
invenerunt me custodes qui circumeunt civitatem percusserunt me vulneraverunt me tulerunt pallium meum mihi custodes murorum
The keepers that go about the city found me: they struck me: and wounded me: the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.
2 F.J.E. Raby, A History of Christian-Latin Poetry from the Beginning to the Close of the Middle Ages, The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1927, p. 254.
3 Thomas Rendall, “Quis est hic qui pulsat ad ostium?“ : An Explication, Philological Quarterly, 49:1970, p. 145 ff.
Quis est hic qui pulsat ad ostium,
Noctis rumpens somnum?
Me vocal, o virginum pulcherrima,
Soror, conjux, gemma splendidissima!
Cito surgens aperi, dulcissima.
Who is this who knocks at the door,
Breaking night’s dream?
She calls me, o most lovely of virgins,
Sister, wife, most splendid gem!
Rising up quickly, open, sweetest one.
Ego sum summi Regis Filius,
Primus, ei novissimus;
Qui de coelis in has veni lenebras,
Liberare captivorum animas;
Passus mortem et multas injurias.
I am the son of the most high king,
The first, the last;
Who from heaven has come into these shadows,
To free the souls of captive men;
Having endured death and many injuries.
Mox ego dereliqui lectulum,
Cucurri ad pessulum:
Ut dilecto lola domus pateat,
Et mens mea plenissime videal,
Quem videre maxime desiderat.
Soon I got out of bed,
I ran to the locked door:
So that the whole house would be open to the loved one,
And so that my mind might see most fully,
What it has had the greatest desire to see.
At ille jam inde transierat.
Ostium reliquerat.
Quid ergo, miserrima, quid facerem?
Lacrymando sum secula juvenem,
Manus cujas plasmaverunt hominem.
But from there he now it has crossed.
He had left the door.
O wretched me, what might I do?
I followed in tears the young man,
Whose hands have fashioned man.
Vigiles urbis invenerunt me,
Exspoliaverunt me,
Abslulerunt el dederunt pallium,
Cantaverint mihi novum canticum,
Quo in Regis inducar palatium.
Amen.
The watchmen of the city found me,
They robbed me,
The carried me off and they gave me a cloak,
They sang to me a new song,
Where I may be led into the palace of the king.
Amen.
