Royal Chant of the Most Beautiful That Ever Was in the World

Poem by Catherine D'Amboise Period 16th century

Angels, Thrones, and Dominations,
Principalities, Archangels, Cherubim,
Bow down to the lower regions
With Virtues, Powers, Seraphim,
Fly across the crystalline heavens
To decorate the triumphant entry
And the most worthy adored birth,
The holy conception by mysteries most high
Of that Virgin, in whom all grace abounds,
Decreed by imperial words
The most beautiful that ever was in the world.

Make sermons and preachings,
Devout Carmelites, Franciscans, Augustinians;
Carry tidings of the holy conception,
Chaldeans, Hebrews, and Latins;
Romans, sing on the Palatine hills
That Joachim has met Saint Anne,
And that through them is administered to us
This Virgin without conjugal loves
Whom God created from fertile pleasure,
Without feeling any original vices,
The most beautiful that ever was in the world.

Her honest, beautiful receptions
Of soul and body in the fair inner places
Have transcended all conceptions
Personal, through divine mysteries.
For to nourish Jesus from her sweet breasts
God has always shown her without stain,
Declaring her by right and law beyond:
All beautiful for the all-beautiful of the beautiful,
All clear, pure, modest, and clean,
All pure above all vessels,
The most beautiful that ever was in the world.

Muses, come in jubilation
And transmigrate your crystalline streams,
Come, Aurora, through lucidations,
Precursing the beautiful morning days;
Come, Orpheus, sound harp and clarions,
Come, Amphion, from the beautiful country,
Come, Music, pleasantly adorned,
Come, Queen Esther, adorned with jewels,
Come, Judith, Rachel, and Florimonde,
Accompany with special honors
The most beautiful that ever was in the world.

Very sweet zephyrs, through whisperings
Sow everywhere roses and rosemary,
Nymphs, leave your inundations,
Stygian places and marine Charybdes;
Sound horns, viols, tambourines;
May my mistress, the honored Virgin,
Be adorned by each in all places.
Come, Apollo, play the pipes,
Sound, Pan, so loud that all resounds,
Praise all in general terms
The most beautiful that ever was in the world.

Devout spirits, faithful and loyal,
In paradise fair mansions and castles,
At God’s pleasure, the Virgin founds for us
Where you will see her in her royal palaces,
The most beautiful that ever was in the world.

Catherine d’Amboise

Translation generated by Poésies 123 with assistance from the deepseek-chat artificial-intelligence model.

Text published on Poésies 123: https://www.poesies123.com/en/poem-royal-chant-of-the-most-beautiful-that-ever-was-in-the-world-catherine-d-amboise/