Turning Darkness into Light

Trinity College Library in Dublin, Ireland is home to the Book of Kells, a lavishly decorated version of the 4 Canonical Gospels in Latin, associated with St Collum Cille, 6th century founder of the Monastic Community of Iona, off the coast of Scotland. Scholars still disagree about exactly where and when this work was done, but place it roughly in the 8th century. The Book of Kells is displayed under dim preservative light, and is fairly darkened, given that the materials used is animal hide, calf vellum, and is more than 1200 years old. Many of the pages have been beautifully digitally preserved, and there's an App for that, and a cold URL link for you:

http://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/home/index.php?DRIS_ID=MS58_003v

Given my cosmovision of love and the transformative energy that flows through it, I was particularly struck with the title of the preliminary exhibit of the 4 texts on display, chosen from the last line of this Irish monk's poem during the same century, translated. Copying texts was a regular duty of Monastic communities, and not easy to do in Latin.

Pangur Ban

I and Pangur Bán, my cat
'Tis a like task we are at;
Hunting mice is his delight
Hunting words I sit all night.

Better far than praise of men
'Tis to sit with book and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill will,
He too plies his simple skill.

'Tis a merry thing to see
At our tasks how glad are we,
When at home we sit and find
Entertainment to our mind.

Oftentimes a mouse will stray
In the hero Pangur's way:
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.

'Gainst the wall he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
'Gainst the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.

When a mouse darts from its den,
O how glad is Pangur then!
O what gladness do I prove
When I solve the doubts I love!

So in peace our tasks we ply,
Pangur Bán, my cat, and I;
In our arts we find our bliss,
I have mine and he has his.

Practice every day has made
Pangur perfect in his trade;
I get wisdom day and night
Turning darkness into light.

Translated by Robin Flower