Staurostichon: A Poem on the Mysteries of the Lord's Cross

Poetry is the religion of bards
Hear what the sacred bards, unheard by the profane
But invisible to the wicked, have recently let fall.

From the birth, i.e., from the nativity of Christ, who is the sunrise of justice.

By the Lord, often requested by many?.

While Phoebus [the] Sun [moved through] the oblique zodiac [in] twelve 12 parts degrees [of the] orb

Above, after 1500, which counts from the birth of the Lord, describing the year 1503.

Above fifteen hundred [years] having been counted from the birth

that is, of Jesus Christ that is, in the year 1503
Of the virgin birth, the first that is, after 1500 year of the trieteris [three-year period]

Trieteris: a space of three years.

rolling the last mystical things in the sky
Rolling the last, mystical things glide down from heaven

known to me propitious breathe on may favor be with you
The thing is known to me, breathe upon me, [O Muses,] as I sing.

H. region of the peoples?

The region of Europe lies beneath the frozen North Star

north pole which region, the fields and those seven stars...
Warlike peoples dwell [there], whom the Roman youth

Justin. m:? 3:

barely scarcely subdues
Scarcely tamed, although [it] had begun to dominate the whole world,

Armenia, a region which [holds] vast kingdoms.

And the Latin [land] was already fearing the Araxes [River]

Araxes, a river of Armenia which [is] famous.

Armenian [The] Armenian [River] pushed back the Tiber, [and] the Egyptian Pharian [River] and tamed Anubis that is, the dog.

The Italian nurse of Romulus and Remus.

[The] Italian [she-wolf] nourished the exposed brothers, what a beast!

The she-wolf, nurse to Romulus and Remus.

From there that is, from the Alps [it] rolled huge strength that is, from the rivers in many shallows.

rolls high flows in
And the Inn [River] glides beneath the airy Alps

Aenus, the river which is called Inn by the Rhaetians.

Inn River coming from the Alps
[The] Inn [River] is about to lead burning wood into the Caesar's hearths, while the Sbocian people, in a vast cavern,

Sbocian people.

comes pure brings forth
Bring forth excavated silver for various uses.

water flows down
Here the Rhine rolls down the wave of its liquid river

Rhine, the river separating Germany from Gaul, which crosses the Helvetians and separates the Germans.

separates Gallic [lands] from the Germans by a river
Which separates the Gallic fields from the Colonists [people of Cologne].

cloths often
[It] which, having so often experienced the arms of the Roman soldier,

great other river admits waters
Endured to place huge waters beneath the small Tiber,

And to carry the Latin ship through the seas

in waves dividing itself in a vortex raging through
Striking the waves of the Ocean with a bifid vortex.

from that place Danube river
Hence also the Danube carries away not great waves

from mountains Arbona river
Scarcely poured from the mountains of Arbona, not yet many [waters].