# Poem on Genesis, to Pope Leo

- Author: [Hilary of Arles](https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/authors/hilary-of-arles/)
- Latin title: *Metrum in Genesim, ad Leonem papam*
- Date: ca. 440-449 (disputed)
- Source: J.-P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae cursus completus, series Latina, vol. 50 (Paris, 1846), digital text of the printed volume; column numbers as the digital text gives them (Latin text: Migne, Patrologia Latina, digitized by Open Greek and Latin (patrologia_latina-dev, University of Leipzig), CC BY-SA 4.0)

- Translation: Claude, from the original text, unless a passage says otherwise; each passage below gives the translator
- Work page: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hilary-arles-metrum-genesim/
- Passages: 7

## Poem on Genesis 1–30

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hilary-arles-metrum-genesim/1/#p-1
- Source: PL 50
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23

Summary: The poem opens with thanks to God the Father, eternal and uncreated, who before the creation was at work within the formless chaos.

### Latin text

Paruimus monitis, tua dulcia jussa secuti, / Antistes Christi. quæ dabas ore pio. / An ego non canerem tanti præconia Patris, / Munus opusque Dei, dum mihi lingua foret? / Rauca quidem, stridens, et nullis digna coronis, / Ingeniumque jacens, sed libet alta loqui. / Dignum opus et justum est semper tibi dicere grates, / Omnipotens mundi genitor, quo principe cuncta / Natalem sumpsere diem, atque exorta repente / Post tenebras stupido spectarunt lumina coelo. / Gens hominum, pecudesque, feræ, milleque vo­ / lucres. / Et quæ per liquidos discurrunt agmina campos. / Omnia per temet, ex te, qui maxima condis, / Ex te, nati Pater; nec jam patris est poter alter. / Tu capitis primique caput, tu fontis origo, / Primus apex rerum, primus sator, omnia condens: / Nec tamen ex alio ducis genus, ipse perennis / Spiritus, antiquo vivens per sæcula motu, / Semper eris, quia semper eras, non mortis egenus, / Qui natalis inops, nec finem noveris ævi. / Ex se principium, cui contigit, haud manet / alter / Auctorem casus, nascentia terminus urget. / Omnia cum tegeret nigrum chaos, altaque moles / Desuper urgeret informis corpora mundi / Et caliganti premeret serotina nocte, / Nec species, nec forma foret; Deus intus agebas, / Corporibus tectis mixtus, secreta atestas. / jam tum disponens nascentia mœnia mundi,

### English translation (Claude)

We have obeyed your counsels, following your sweet commands,
bishop of Christ, which you gave with loving mouth.
Should I not sing the praises of so great a Father,
the gift and work of God, while I have a tongue?
Hoarse indeed, grating, and worthy of no crowns,
and my wit lies low; yet I delight to speak of lofty things.
It is a worthy and right work always to give you thanks,
almighty Begetter of the world, under whose rule all things
took their day of birth, and, suddenly risen
after the darkness, beheld the lights in the astonished sky:
the race of men, cattle, wild beasts, and a thousand birds,
and the throngs that run through the liquid plains.
All things are through you, from you, who found the greatest things,
from you, Father of the Son; nor is there any other power as father.
You are the head of the head and of the first, you the source of the spring,
the first summit of things, the first sower, founding all things;
nor do you draw your race from another; you yourself, the everlasting
Spirit, living through the ages in ancient motion,
will always be, since you always were, not subject to death,
who, having no birth, will know no end of time.
Beginning from yourself, whom nothing befalls; no other remains:
things that fall by chance need an author; an end presses on things born.
When black chaos covered all things, and the lofty mass
pressed down from above on the shapeless bodies of the world
and weighed them down with dark, late night,
and there was neither appearance nor form, you, God, were at work within,
mingled with the hidden bodies, stirring their secret depths,
already then arranging the walls of the world to be born,

### Scripture references

- Gen 1:1: allusion, high confidence
- Gen 1:2: allusion, high confidence
- Rom 11:36: echo, medium confidence

### Translation notes

- A hexameter paraphrase of Genesis, addressed to a bishop; attributed to Hilary of Arles, but the attribution is disputed. Several lines are garbled in the digital text and translated by sense.
- Gen 1:1–2; Rom 11:36 ('through you, from you').

### Citation (SBL)

Hilary of Arles, Metr. Gen. 1 (PL 50; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/hilary-arles-metrum-genesim/1).

## Poem on Genesis 31–60

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hilary-arles-metrum-genesim/1/#p-31
- Source: PL 50
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23

Summary: God rouses the sluggish matter, sets heaven above and earth below, gathers the seas, and creates light, day, and night.

### Latin text

Et varias rerum facies animasque futuras, / Utque caput victa prompsit caligine noctis / Sublimem attollens vultum, sensere tenebræ. / Mox Dominus rerum somnos discussit inertes, / Pigraque materiestrepidavit numine pulsa / Commotaque simul matura, conscia partus, / Scinditur ingentis cumuli per plurima corpus / Membra, locusque simul metantur semina jussu, / Et confusa sin'ut simul descendunt viscera moles, / Sectaque per partes, formas spectantia frusta, / Jam color intus alit, et blando suscitat igni. Ac primum cœ pausus liber omnia mundi / Complectens spatia, celso suspenditur orbe. / Terra gravis pigro descendit pondere ad imum, / Ac semet defi salo fundata resedit, / Essetque ut spatium vacuae regionis apertæ, / Qua tener incedens mortalia pasceret æther, / Quoque exire patris possent tot munera rerum, / Ortique ferrentur nullo per inane labore. / Diffusæ coguntur aquæ; mox limite certo / Liquuntur maria, nec finem transilit unda. / Tunc oritur lux alma, dies quæ jussa vocari. / Nascentem tenero perfudit lumine mundum. / Munus opusque tuum prodens, tua maxima dona. / Condere quæ genitor patria pietate parabat, / Utque hominum solers posset clarescere vita / Artibus æthereis quæ totas ducere luces. / Gaudet, et ingenium diversa laude fatigat. Insequitur nox atra diem densæque tenebrae, / Corporibus somnos quæ ferrent otia fessis, / Et cunctis unam faciem similemque figuram. / Namque dies varia rerum discriminat ora,

### English translation (Claude)

and the varied faces of things, and the souls to come;
and as it put forth its head, the darkness of night defeated,
lifting up a lofty face, the shadows felt it.
Soon the Lord of things shook off the sluggish sleep,
and the idle matter trembled, struck by the divine power,
and, stirred at once and ripe, aware of the birth,
the body of the huge heap is split into very many members,
and at the command places and seeds are measured out together,
and the confused mass, and at once the inner parts sink down,
and, cut into parts, the pieces look toward their forms;
now heat nourishes them within and rouses them with gentle fire.
And first heaven, free, embracing all the spaces of the world,
is hung on high in its lofty circle.
The heavy earth sinks with sluggish weight to the bottom,
and, founded on the sea, settled itself down;
and, that there might be a space of empty open region,
where the tender air, moving in, might feed mortal things,
and by which so many gifts of the Father's works might go forth
and, once risen, be carried through the void without labour,
the scattered waters are gathered; soon, within a fixed limit,
the seas flow, and the wave does not leap its bound.
Then the kindly light arises, which was bidden to be called day,
and flooded the newborn world with tender light,
revealing your gift and work, your greatest gifts,
which the Begetter, with fatherly love, was preparing to found,
and so that the skilful life of men might grow bright
with heavenly arts, which it delights to spend whole days upon;
it rejoices, and tires its wit with varied praise.
Black night follows the day, and thick darkness,
to bring sleep as rest to weary bodies,
and to give all things one face and a like figure.
For the day distinguishes the varied faces of things,

### Scripture references

- Gen 1:3: allusion, high confidence
- Gen 1:5: allusion, high confidence
- Gen 1:6: allusion, high confidence
- Gen 1:9: allusion, high confidence
- Job 38:11: echo, low confidence

### Translation notes

- Gen 1:3–10; Job 38:8–11 (the sea's bound). Several lines are garbled in the digital text and translated by sense.

### Citation (SBL)

Hilary of Arles, Metr. Gen. 31 (PL 50; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/hilary-arles-metrum-genesim/31).

## Poem on Genesis 61–90

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hilary-arles-metrum-genesim/1/#p-61
- Source: PL 50:1289
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23

Summary: God sets the sun, moon, and stars in heaven, whose courses give order and knowledge to farmers and sailors.

### Latin text

Et dat cuique suum disjecta nocte colorem, / Instigatque animos opere ad majora calentes, / Exacuens variis mortalia pectora curis: / Quo mage forma dies vitæ, nox mortis imago. Tunc condens Pater astra polo, ac lumine vivens, / Sidera distinguens, variis per lecta figuris / Lucifer exsurgit seus et fulgidus ore / Vesper, puniceo spargit aurora capillos / Anguis agit sudum, important pleiades imbres. / Sunt juga, sunt plaustra, gemmantes flore coronæ, / Signaque bissenis annum vulventia formis. / Multaque præterea celsæ domus ornamenta, / Queis sæclum fulcit signis, et regia summa / Pieta arens varia stellarum luce coruscat. / Sed soli lux major inest. quem munere largo / Excultum genitor pleno dignati. hoc ore. / Igneus ille jubar præcelso vertice tollit / Ora rubens patulo, cœli per mœnia fertur, / Astrorum ductor mundi viget, atque elementa. / Ecce aliud mirum, mirum decus, en nova cursum / Mutat luna suum, quos perdit colligit ignes, / Cornuaque exstinguens perturbat lumine frontem. / Mox tamen ardescit completo circulus orbe / Noctilucum lumen pascit sata sidera luce. / Nec tamen aeterno, quae machina volvitur æthre, / Non tantum pictura poli est, nec celsa voluntas; / Mens ratioque subest, et rebus utilis ordo. / Hinc doctrina venit terris, hinc denique cunctis / Consilium agricolis, et qui maria alta pererrant, / Ut se quaque ferant luces praedicere possint, / Venturos norint imbres. siccumque serenum,

### English translation (Claude)

and, the night dispersed, gives each its own colour,
and urges minds, warm with work, to greater things,
sharpening mortal hearts with various cares:
so that day is rather the form of life, night the image of death.
Then the Father, setting the stars in the pole and living light,
distinguishing the constellations, set out in their varied figures:
the morning star rises, and, gleaming of face,
the evening star; the dawn spreads her crimson hair;
the Serpent brings clear weather, the Pleiades bring rains;
there are the Yokes, the Wains, the crowns jewelled with flowers,
and the signs that turn the year in twelve forms,
and many other ornaments besides of the lofty house,
by whose signs the age is upheld, and the highest palace,
painted, glitters with the varied light of the stars.
But a greater light is in the sun, which the Begetter,
with generous gift and full mouth, deigned to adorn.
That fiery radiance lifts its glowing face, wide open,
from its lofty summit, and is carried through the walls of heaven,
leader of the stars, the strength of the world and the elements.
Behold another wonder, a wonderful beauty: the new moon
changes its course; the fires it loses it gathers again,
and, putting out its horns, it darkens its brow of light.
Yet soon its circle glows with its orb complete,
and the night-shining light feeds the stars set in their places with light.
Nor yet is the machine that turns in the eternal ether
only a painting of the pole, nor a lofty whim;
mind and reason lie beneath, and an order useful to things.
Hence knowledge comes to the earth, hence, finally, counsel for all
farmers, and for those who wander over the high seas,
so that they may foretell where the lights will carry themselves,
and may know the rains to come and the dry clear weather,

### Scripture references

- Gen 1:14: allusion, high confidence
- Gen 1:16: allusion, high confidence

### Translation notes

- Gen 1:14–18. The constellations named (Serpent, Pleiades, Yokes, Wains, Crown, zodiac) follow classical astronomy. Several lines are garbled in the digital text and translated by sense.

### Citation (SBL)

Hilary of Arles, Metr. Gen. 61 (PL 50:1289; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/hilary-arles-metrum-genesim/61).

## Poem on Genesis 91–120

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hilary-arles-metrum-genesim/1/#p-91
- Source: PL 50:1289
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23

Summary: God adorns the earth with plants, beasts, and birds, and then, speaking with his Son, makes man in his image and woman from his rib.

### Latin text

Tempore quo tauros campis inducat arator, / Et dubium tentet securus navita pontum. Instructos ignes coelo, Pater optime, terras / Excolere aggrederis, et munere donas opimo. / Regna hominum, pecudumque larem requiemque / volucrum / Planescunt campi, colles tumor arduus effert, / Subsidunt valles, florentia prata virescunt, / Saxaque durantur, pinguis se gleba resolvit, / Rumpuntur fontes, fluviis genus arduum unde est, / Herbarum varia consurgunt gramina campis. Jamque seges tenera fructum tundebat arista, / Cum juga nulla forent, nec vomer ullus aratri, / Mugiret nullus proscissis taurus in arvis, / Ecce etiam vitis madido jam plena racemo / Expers falcis adhuc, et duri nescia ferri, / Pampineas celsis texebat collibus umbras. / Diversa exoritur variarum forma ferarum, / Quadrupedes animae, nec non repentia terris. / Nascuntur pictis volucres per nubila pennis. His ubi perfectis Genitor, jam divite mundo / Cuncta videt magni curam deposcere regis, / Qui mare, qui terras, atque omnia nata gubernet, / Quique altum spectet cælum, laudetque potentis / Munera magna Dei, ne sint haec condita frustra. / Tunc faciamus, ais, hominem. Dic, optime, cum quo? / Nunc loqueris? clarum est: jam tum tibi Filius alto / Assidet in solio, et terras spectat amicas. / Sed faciamus, ais, hominem, cujus vultus imago / Noster erit, manibusque meis procedat in aevum. Inde opifex rerum, assumis mollia terrae / Atque virum formas, cujus de costa cupido / Fit mulier vultu, mulier de costa viri fit. / Quo mage chara viro et lateri sit conjugis apta. O felix anima, summi cui dextra Tonantis

### English translation (Claude)

the time when the ploughman should lead the bulls into the fields,
and the sailor, secure, try the doubtful sea.
Having furnished the fires in heaven, best Father, you set about
adorning the lands, and endow them with a rich gift:
the kingdoms of men, the home of cattle, and the resting place of birds.
Plains level out, a lofty swelling raises the hills,
valleys sink, flowering meadows grow green,
rocks harden, the rich clod loosens,
springs burst forth, whence the noble race of rivers comes,
and various grasses of herbs rise up in the fields.
And now the crop was beating out its fruit from the tender ear,
when there were no yokes, nor any ploughshare,
nor did any bull low in ploughed fields.
Behold, the vine too, already full of moist clusters,
still without the pruning hook and ignorant of hard iron,
wove shades of vine leaves on the high hills.
The varied form of different wild beasts arises,
four-footed creatures, and things that creep on the earth.
Birds are born, flying through the clouds on painted feathers.
When these were completed, the Begetter, the world now rich,
sees that all things call for the care of a great king,
to govern sea and lands and all things born,
and to look at high heaven and praise the great
gifts of mighty God, lest these things have been founded in vain.
Then 'Let us make,' you say, 'man.' Tell me, best one, with whom?
Do you speak now? It is clear: already then your Son sits beside you
on the high throne and looks on the friendly lands.
'But let us make,' you say, 'man, whose face shall be
our image, and let him go forth from my hands for ever.'
Then, Maker of things, you take up soft earth
and form the man, from whose rib, made desirable,
woman is made in face; woman is made from the rib of man,
so that she may be the dearer to the man and fit for her husband's side.
O happy soul, whose father is the right hand of the highest Thunderer!

### Scripture references

- Gen 1:11: allusion, high confidence
- Gen 1:24: allusion, high confidence
- Gen 1:20: allusion, high confidence
- Gen 1:26: quotation, high confidence
- Gen 2:7: allusion, high confidence
- Gen 2:22: allusion, high confidence

### Translation notes

- Gen 1:11–28; Gen 2:7, 21–22. The poet reads 'Let us make' (Gen 1:26) as the Father speaking to the Son; translated as written. 'Thunderer' (Tonans), a classical title, is used of God.

### Citation (SBL)

Hilary of Arles, Metr. Gen. 91 (PL 50:1289; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/hilary-arles-metrum-genesim/91).

## Poem on Genesis 121–150

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hilary-arles-metrum-genesim/1/#p-121
- Source: PL 50:1289
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23

Summary: The poet praises man's upright form, reason, and speech, the breath of God breathed into him, and his appointment as lord of creation.

### Latin text

Est pater! o felix nimium, qui ducis olympo / Et genus et formam! si te non noxia terrae / Decipiant vitia, nec blandus subruat error, / Numen eris, coeloque redux mirabere regna, / Quae promissa bonis fido Pater exhibet ore. / Nam tibi multa Deus nascenti contulit ultro, / Ætheream faciem primum, vultumque paternum, / Incessumque pedum rectum, sublimia colla, / Ne qua mora in coelum oculis spectantibus esset, / Tunc alacres promptasque manus, vitaeque ministras / Atque domum divae pectus rationis, et alti / Sedem consilii, fundendæ vocis honorem. Haec soli concessa homini: nam caetera mutum / Est pecus: obtinuit ventrem, praecordia, nervos, / Venarum rivos, et sparsum corpore sanguen, / It Juste, levique simul sensusque dolores. / Tu vero, Omnipotens, privato munere largus / Erga hominem, manibusque tuis operisque favore / Impendens patria pignus pietate colendo, / Ne quid divinis modo desit vultibus, ignem / Ætheris inspiras, et sacræ mentis opimam / Indulges partem, permixtus corpore toto, / Tunc meminisse licet veterum, praesentia nosse / Hinc datur, atque animae fas est ventura videre. / Hinc loquimur canimusque Deum, hinc sidera cuncta / Terrarumque viget cultus, pontusque movetur; / Hinc artes, nomenque pudor, prudentia, justum; / Hinc animae surgunt fortes, hinc pergit honestum, / Et via quae ducit castos ad limina coeli. Ergo hominem pleno perfectum munere terris / Praeponis, Genitor, et rerum tradis habenas: / Cuncta habeat subdatque sibi, fieretque

### English translation (Claude)

is father! O too happy, you who draw from Olympus
both race and form! If the harmful vices of earth
do not deceive you, nor beguiling error undermine you,
you will be divine, and, returning to heaven, you will marvel at the kingdoms
which the Father with faithful mouth shows as promised to the good.
For God freely conferred many things on you at your birth:
first a heavenly face and a fatherly countenance,
an upright gait, a lofty neck,
so that eyes looking up to heaven should meet no hindrance;
then quick and ready hands, the ministers of life,
and the breast, the home of divine reason, the seat
of lofty counsel, the honour of pouring out the voice.
These things were granted to man alone: for the rest is dumb
cattle; it received belly, inner parts, sinews,
streams of veins, and blood spread through the body,
and, along with them, light senses and pains.
But you, Almighty, generous with a special gift
toward man, by your hands and the favour of your work,
spending yourself in fatherly love on cultivating your pledge,
lest anything be lacking to the divine face, breathe into him
the fire of heaven, and grant him a rich portion of sacred mind,
mingled through his whole body.
From this it is possible to remember the past, to know the present
is given from this, and the soul may see things to come.
Hence we speak and sing of God; hence all the stars,
the cultivation of the lands flourishes, and the sea is moved;
hence the arts, and good name, modesty, prudence, justice;
hence brave souls rise up, hence honour goes forward,
and the way that leads the chaste to the thresholds of heaven.
So, Begetter, you set man, perfected with full gifts, over the lands,
and hand him the reins of things:
let him have all things and subject them to himself, and become

### Scripture references

- Gen 2:7: allusion, high confidence
- Gen 1:28: allusion, high confidence
- Gen 1:27: allusion, high confidence

### Translation notes

- Gen 1:26–28; Gen 2:7. 'You will be divine' (numen eris) is the poet's language for the destiny of the faithful; translated as written. 'Olympus' stands for heaven. One line is garbled in the digital text and translated by sense.

### Citation (SBL)

Hilary of Arles, Metr. Gen. 121 (PL 50:1289; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/hilary-arles-metrum-genesim/121).

## Poem on Genesis 151–180

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hilary-arles-metrum-genesim/1/#p-151
- Source: PL 50:1291
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23

Summary: Adam's sin brings shame, weakness, and a progeny ever worse in crime, until the flood washes the earth; Noah's ark prefigures baptism and the Church.

### Latin text

Telluris dominus, famulus tuus, omnia mundi / Possideat, tantum Domino tibi serviat uni. Postquam primus homo vetito se pascere ligno / Non timuit, captusque dolis se praebuit angui, / Stat reus, et nudus dejecto lumine vestem / Implorans, Dominumque fugit, vultumque recondit / Culpa comes sequitur, peccato obnoxia vita / Debilitat vires, coelo venientia dona. / Æthere demissus paulatim deficit ignis, / Frigore peccati torpentia corda rigescunt, / Cura cibi ventrisque subibat, cura tegendi / Corporis, et sacrum subeunt mortalia pectus. Nascitur hinc proles peccati, germinat inde / Deterior soboles multo, pejorque priori / Progenies sequitur gradibus ad crimina crescens: / Crimina quae stimulis acuunt dementia corda, / Teque, Pater, variis armant … Tum primum venit opere incumbere terris / Intempestivus descendere nubibus imber, / Fulmina tum primum coelo dejecta sereno; / Horrida tum grando turbatos verberat agros, / Et tonitru altisono infractus murmurat æther. / Nec tamen ista malos revocant; furor impius orbem / Obsidet, et laxis rabies defertur habenis. / Bella placent, caedesque simul, perjuria, fraudes, / Mentirique libet, rapere est amor, abdere furta. / Nulla fides populis, nulla est jam veritas usquam. / Diluvio abluitur terrarum crimen et undis, / Virque unus residet generis populique refector. / Arca tegit paucos castorum semina servans; / Jam tum venturi facies monstrata lavacri, / Atque unus multis, per quem data luce renati, / Susceptor fido servans Ecclesia partu. Postquam diluvii cecidit tumor, unda resedit,

### English translation (Claude)

lord of the earth, your servant; let him possess all things of the world,
and serve you alone, his one Lord.
After the first man did not fear to feed on the forbidden tree,
and, caught by deceit, gave himself over to the serpent,
he stands guilty and naked, with downcast eyes, begging
for clothing; he flees the Lord and hides his face.
Guilt follows as his companion; life, made liable to sin,
weakens his strength and the gifts that came from heaven.
The fire sent down from heaven gradually fails;
hearts numb with the cold of sin grow stiff;
care for food and belly came on, care for covering
the body, and mortal things enter the sacred breast.
Hence the offspring of sin is born; from it sprouts
a far worse brood, and a generation worse than the former
follows, growing by steps toward crimes:
crimes which sharpen mad hearts with goads,
and arm them against you, Father, with various …
Then for the first time unseasonable rain came down from the clouds
to press upon the work of the lands;
then for the first time thunderbolts were hurled from a clear sky;
then horrid hail lashes the troubled fields,
and the heaven, broken by high-sounding thunder, rumbles.
Yet these things do not call back the wicked; impious fury
besieges the world, and rage is carried on with loosened reins.
Wars please them, and slaughter too, perjuries, frauds;
they love to lie, to plunder, and to hide their thefts.
There is no faith among the peoples, no truth anywhere now.
The crime of the lands is washed away by the flood and its waves,
and one man remains, the restorer of the race and people.
The ark shelters a few, keeping the seed of the chaste;
already then the figure of the coming washing was shown,
and one ark for many, through which, brought to the light and reborn,
the Church receives them, keeping them in faithful birth.
After the swelling of the flood fell and the wave settled,

### Scripture references

- Gen 3:6: allusion, high confidence
- Gen 3:8: allusion, high confidence
- Gen 3:10: allusion, high confidence
- Gen 6:11: allusion, medium confidence
- Gen 7:23: allusion, high confidence
- 1 Pet 3:20: allusion, high confidence
- 1 Pet 3:21: allusion, high confidence

### Translation notes

- Gen 3:6–10; Gen 4–6; Gen 7; 1 Pet 3:20–21. A word is lost after 'various' (marked …). The ark as figure of baptism and the Church is a common patristic reading; translated as written.

### Citation (SBL)

Hilary of Arles, Metr. Gen. 151 (PL 50:1291; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/hilary-arles-metrum-genesim/151).

## Poem on Genesis 181–192

- URL: https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/hilary-arles-metrum-genesim/1/#p-181
- Source: PL 50:1291
- Translation: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-10-23

Summary: After the flood the dove brings the olive leaf, and a purer race arises, from which come priests, the three youths, Daniel, kings, and prophets; but a trace of the ancient poison remains for Christ to wash away.

### Latin text

Ales paciferæ folium portavit olivæ, / Jam siccis revolans pennis dedit omina pacis. Tum populus surgit melior et tum purior undis / Gens hominum magnos terris paritura nepotes. / Inde sacerdotis in cœlum dedita corda, / Hinc inter flammas pueri cantare parati, / Et puer impasti quem non tetigere leones, / Tum reges cecinere Deum, tum vera prophetis / Ora sonat cœli sobole sptendentia torris. / Quamvis cuncta Deo servirent crimine victo; / Attamen antiqui etiam nunc gutta veneni / Spargebat populos, et erant vestigia fraudis, / Quae bonus ablueret doctor melioribus undis.

### English translation (Claude)

the bird carried a leaf of the peace-bearing olive,
and, flying back on feathers now dry, gave the omens of peace.
Then a better people rises, and from the waves a purer
race of men, to bring forth great descendants on the earth.
From them came the hearts of priests given to heaven,
from them the boys ready to sing among the flames,
and the boy whom the unfed lions did not touch;
then kings sang of God, then the mouths of prophets sound
true things, shining with the offspring of heaven.
Although all things served God, with crime defeated,
yet even now a drop of the ancient poison
was sprinkling the peoples, and there were traces of deceit,
which the good teacher would wash away with better waters.

### Scripture references

- Gen 8:11: allusion, high confidence
- Dan 3:25: allusion, high confidence
- Dan 6:22: allusion, high confidence

### Extrabiblical texts

- Pr Azar (Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Young Men): allusion, medium confidence

### Translation notes

- Gen 8:11; Dan 3:23–25 (with the Greek song of the three youths); Dan 6:22. 'The good teacher' who washes with better waters is Christ, by baptism. One line is garbled in the digital text and translated by sense; the digital text ends here.

### Citation (SBL)

Hilary of Arles, Metr. Gen. 181 (PL 50:1291; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/hilary-arles-metrum-genesim/181).