The Sad Years/Herod

by Dora Sigerson Shorter

HEROD

The Virgin speaks:

Draw back the starry curtains of the night,
O Cherubim, and Seraphim!
Pull back the purple curtains of the night,
For I would look once more upon the world,
That ere my sorrows made some young delight
In bird and bee and each earth-flower uncurled.

Cherubim: “Sancta Virgo Virginum.”

Let me behold a garden rich with fruit,
The pomegranate in shade of cypress trees,
Vines and wild honey, and the small bees' lute,
Where aromatic spices fill the breeze.

Seraphim: “Virgo fidelis.”

Let me behold again all unafraid,
Fair Bethlehem and grey Egyptian sands,
Let me but see the spreading cedar's shade
Where once I hid in half-forgotten lands.

Cherubim: “Mater amabilis.”

Let me but watch the little goats that leap
On the rough rocks that circle Galilee,
And I would hear the swelling waves that creep
To strike strong music from the changing sea.

Seraphim: “Mater admirabilis.”

Draw back the purple curtain. I would find
A people, then unborn, yet for whose sake
I was most blessèd amongst womankind,
And bore God's son their heavy sins to take
Upon himself, so He in anguish died,
To teach them all to love and live in peace.
Draw now the starry curtains well aside,
And all the lights of Heaven swift release.

Cherubim: “Mater Christi.”

What comes to me from far-off broken years?
A voice in Rama, mourning her sad lot !
Great lamentations, women's cries and tears,
A Rachel mourns her children who were not.

Seraphim: “Consolatrix afflictorum.”

I hear again from out the singing spheres
A mother's scream, and all her whispered prayer
Stabbed by her anguish, faint beneath her fears,
I hide once more upon that far earth there.

Cherubim: “Regina Martyrum.”

Draw close the starry curtains of the night
Lest Heaven fade and I forget to pray;
Here God is love, we hate nor suffer fight,
What Herod lives upon the earth to-day?

Cherubim:

“Da pacem, Domine, sustinentibus te, ut Prophetae tui fideles inveniantur.”

Seraphim:

“Pacem relinquo vobis, pacem meam do vobis, dicit Dominus.”

Cherubim and Seraphim: Alleluia.