celu l’ài formate clarite et pretiose et belle.
Laudato si’, mi’ Signore, per frate Vento
e per aere et nubilo e sereno et onne tempo,
per lo quale a le tue creature dai sustentamento.
15
Laudato si’, mi’ Signore, per sor’Aqua,
la quale è multo utile et humile et pretiosa et casta.
Laudato si’, mi’ Signore, per frate Focu,
per lo quale ennallumini la notte,
et ello è bello et iocundo e robustoso e forte.
20
Laudato si’, mi’ Signore, per sora nostra matre Terra,
la quale ne sustenta e governa,
e produce diversi fructi con coloriti flori et herba.
Laudato si’, mi’ Signore, per quelli ke perdonano per lo tuo amore
e sostengo infirmitate et tribulatione.
25
Beati quelli ke ‘l sosterrano in pace, ka
da te, Altissimo, sirano incoronati.
Laudato si’ mi’ Signore per sora nostra Morte corporale,
da la quale nullu homo vivente pò skappare:
guai a quelli ke morrano ne le peccata mortali;
beati quelli ke trovarà ne le tue santissime voluntati,
ka la morte secunda no ‘l farrà male.
30
Laudate et benedicete mi’ Signore’ e ringratiate
e serviateli cum grande humilitate.
Most high, almighty, good Lord,
Praise, glory, and honor, and all blessings are yours.
To you alone, most high, do they belong,
And no man is worthy is to speak your name.
5
Praise be to you, my Lord, and to all your creation,
Especially Sir Brother Sun,
Who is our day, and you give us light through him.
And he is beautiful, shining with great splendor.
From you, most high, he takes his meaning.
10
Praise be to you, my Lord, from Sister Moon and the stars:
In the heavens you have formed them, shining and precious and beautiful.
Praise be to you, my Lord, from Brother Wind,
And from the air and cloud and calm and all weathers,
Through which you give your creatures nourishment.
15
Praise be to you, my Lord, from Sister Water,
Who is so useful and humble and precious and chaste.
Praise be to you, my Lord, from Brother Fire,
Through whom you lighten our night:
And he is handsome and merry and vigorous and strong.
20
Praise be to you, my Lord, from our sister Mother Earth,
Who nourishes and sustains us,
And brings forth her various fruits, with many-colored flowers and grasses.
Praise be to you, my Lord, from those who forgive for love of you,
Bearing illness and tribulation.
25
Blessed are those who bear them in peace,
For by you, most high, will they be crowned.
Praise be to you, my Lord, from our Sister bodily Death,
From which no living man can escape:
Woe to those who die in mortal sin:
Blessed are those whom she shall find doing your most holy will,
For the second death shall not harm them.
30
Praise and bless my Lord, and give him thanks
And may you serve him with great humility.
The central debate over the meaning of the poem—a debate that reaches back to the Middle Ages—is how to interpret the Italian per first found in line 10: “Laudato si, mi signore, per sora luna e le stelle.” The issue is that the term per can be translated as either “for” or “by,” depending on whether one reads the term as closer to the Latin propter or the French par.13 So, one could read this line as either commanding that God be praised for his creations, Sister Moon and the stars or, more controversially, by duly anthropomorphized celestial bodies. One could also see per as meaning through. There are pros and cons to each translation, and it is fully possible that Francis may have intended the passage to be somewhat ambiguous. After all, his use of the Umbrian dialect rather than Latin is quite deliberate. Though Francis’s works are few and usually brief, only one other piece, a Canticle composed for the Poor Clares the same year (1225), is in Italian, or, more properly speaking, the Umbrian dialect. The rest of his writings are in Latin.14
The issue of how to translate per bears on more than just linguistics. It lends weight to various interpretive arguments. If we take what I would consider to be the narrow reading of per as “for,” then the theme of the Canticle is rather simple—a praise to God for creation. This more conservative reading has been favored to varying degrees by Thomas Nairn, O.F.M, Andre Vauchez, and Augustine Thompson, O.P.15 These scholars emphasize this reading as fitting the Middle Ages and as an important corrective to earlier scholarly claims that Francis expressed a kind of pantheism in the poem. Written while Francis was dying and nearly blind, the poem stresses the goodness of creation and humankind’s duty to praise God for such a gift.16 Michael Blastic likens the poem, appropriately, I think, to a sermon, and Vauchez has called it a Mass for the world.17 The argument in favor of this conservative translation is that the Canticle’s simplicity should be considered not a slight to Francis’s work, but rather a sign of its depth and power.
Other readers have favored, however, reading per as “by,”
