Bernard of Cluny

Bernard of Cluny (or, of Morlaix or Morlay; fl. c. 1109 – c. 1140) was a twelfth-century French Benedictine monk, best known as the author of De contemptu mundi (On Contempt for the World), a long verse satire in Latin.

Richard Chenevix Trench (ed.) Sacred Latin Poetry, 2nd ed. (London and Cambridge: Macmillan and Co, 1864)

• Hic breve vivitur, hic breve plangitur, hic breve fletur:
  Non breve vivere, non breve plangere retribuetur.
  • Brief life is here our portion, brief sorrow, short-lived care:
    The Life that knows no ending, the tearless Life, is there.
    • ll. 1–2, Hic breve vivitur (tr. J. M. Neale, 1851, rev. 1858)

• Urbs Syon aurea, patria lactea, cive decora
  Omne cor obruis, omnibus obstruis et cor et ora
  Nescio, nescio, quae jubilatio, lux tibi quali
  Quam sociala gaudia, gloria quam specialis.
  • Jerusalem the golden! with milk and honey blest,
    Beneath thy contemplation sink heart and voice opprest:
    I know not, oh, I know not what social joys are there;
    What radiancy of glory, what light beyond compare.
    • ll. 45–48, Urbs Sion aurea (tr. J. M. Neale, 1851, rev. 1858)

• Encyclopedic article on Bernard of Cluny on Wikipedia