Jam Moesta Quiesce Querela

Jam Moesta Quiesce Querela is the beginning of the grand burial-hymn of Prudentius (q.v.). This hymn, which, as Trench says, is "the crowning glory of the poetry of Prudentius," brings before us the ancient worship in deserts and in catacombs, and of which Herder says that no one can read it without feeling his heart moved by its touching tones. The first stanza runs thus in the original:

"Jam moesta quiesce querela, Laerimas suspendite, matres, Nullus suma pignora plangat, Mors haec reparatio vitae est."

And in Caswall's translation:

"Cease, ye tearful mourners, Thus your hearts to rend, Death is life's beginning, Rather than its end."

A German translation is also found in Schaff's Deutsches Gesangbuch, No. 468. (B.P.)