In Better Manner He Will Turn the Use of the Five Senses

Poem by Théodore Agrippa D'Aubigné Period 16th century

In better manner he will turn the use of the five senses.
Does he want sweet odor? He breathes the incense
That Jesus offered on the cross, who in giving his life
Was the priest, the altar, the temple, and the host.
Are sounds needed? The Greek who once boasted
Of having heard the heavens, climbing Olympus,
Would be enraptured higher when heavens, spheres, and poles
Serve the voices of the saints with lutes and viols.
For the pleasure of seeing, the eyes have nowhere else
Seen such beauties or such vivid colors.
The taste, which made one seek strange meats,
At the wedding of the Lamb finds the taste of angels,
Our delicious dishes always ready without preparation,
The water from the rock of Horeb and the Manna always fresh:
Our taste, which is so often contrary to itself,
Will not taste bitter sweet nor sweetness bitter.
And what touch can be esteemed in this world
At the price of the sweet kisses of this well-beloved Son?
Thus within the immortal and second life
We will indeed have the senses we had in the world,
But, being of pure acts, they will be of action
And cannot suffer infirm passion:
Pure in very pure subjects, in God they will go to take
The seeing, the odor, the taste, the touch, and the hearing.
On the face of God will be our holy pleasures,
In the bosom of Abraham our desires will flower,
Desires, perfect loves, high desires without absence,
For the fruits and the flowers there make but one birth.

Wretched, I can no longer bring near my eye
The eye of heaven; I cannot bear the sun.
Still all dazzled, in reasons I ground myself
To see from my soul the great soul of the world,
To know what one does not know and cannot know,
What the ear has not heard and the eye could not see;
My senses have no sense, the spirit flies from me,
The ravished heart is silent, my mouth is without speech:
All dies, the soul flees, and resuming its place
Ecstatic swoons in the bosom of its God.

Théodore Agrippa d’Aubigné

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-in-better-manner-he-will-turn-the-use-of-the-five-senses-theodore-agrippa-d-aubigne/