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Firstpublished:1584 in Libro primo de madrigali spirituali (Luca Marenzio), no. 6 Description: Marenzio perhaps got the text directly from the poet, because its first known print in Cesare Caporali's Le piacevoli Rime (Milan 1585) was published a year after Marenzio's book.
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Original text and translations
Italian text
Quasi vermiglia rosa
Humile, e in se nascosa,
Sedea la bella donna in atti schivi,
E in pensier casti e divi,
Quand’il ciel rise, e fu mirabil cosa:
Ch’io vidi nel bel seno
Lampeggiar un sereno,
Che Dio direste in esso; e ben fu Dio
Che scendendo nel grembo a lei s’unio.
German translation
Gleich einer roten Rose
demütig und in sich versunken,
saß die schöne Frau in demütiger Haltung
und in keuschen und frommen Gedanken,
als der Himmel zu lachen begann, und es war ein Wunder:
denn ich sah im schönen Leib
eine Klarheit leuchten,
dass man sagen könnte, Gott sei darin; und wohl war es Gott,
der hinabsteigend in den Schoß sich mit ihr vereint hat.
Like a red rose
humble, and closed in herself,
the beautiful woman sat there in coy demeanour
and in chaste and pious thoughts,
when the heaven smiled, and it was a wonder:
for I beheld in the beautiful belly
a serenity shining,
that on might say God was in it; and well it was God,
who descending into the womb united himself with her.