HERB - "Hortulus" - "Lily"

[RAISYA@aol.com]

Jadwiga Zajaczkowa,

I'm glad the "Gourd" poem was so useful to you!

Sorry I didn't get back to this sooner, but I lost use of the computer for a
day and a half.  Here's the next one, and in case anyone's interested, the
lily Strabo describes is supposed to be the Madonna lily (lilium candidum L.)

Raisya

	"Now the lily, and ah! what lines can my simple Muse,
Lean and meagre as she is, find to praise
The shining lily?  Its white is the white of glistening snow,
Its scent the scent of sweetest frankincense.
Not Parian marble in whiteness, not spikenard in fragrance
Surpass our lily,
				 If a snake, treacherous and wily
As it is by nature, plants with deadly tongue its parcel
Of venom in you, sending grim death through the unseen wound
To the inmost vaults of the heart - then crush lilies with a weighty
Pestle and drink the juice in wine.  Now place the pulp
On the top of the livid spot where the snake's tongue jabbed;
Then indeed you will learn for yourself the wonderful power
This antidote has.  Nor is that all:  this same pulp
Of crushed lily is good for limbs that are twisted awry."


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