Of Earth You Were Made: Constructing the Bilingual Poem “Erþ” in British Library, MS Harley 913

The bilingual version of the mortality lyric “Erthe upon Erthe” preserved in the Kildare Manuscript (BL, Harley 913), edited and translated here, is the only known copy to alternate between Middle English and Latin stanzas. The article demonstrates that while each Latin stanza translates the preceding Middle English stanza, the translation also substitutes new poetic devices and alters the visual layout of the poem to emphasize different aspects of this multivalent poem. In addition to encouraging readers to meditate on these nuances, the bilingual poem also lent itself to being incorporated into sermons in both English and Latin.