Prayer to Earth

The second half of the same Prayer to Earth (tellus-001), and the half for whose sake it was copied. The first twenty-two lines are praise; here the business begins.

The argument is faultlessly built. Herbas, quascumque generat maiestas tua, salutis causa tribuis cunctis gentibus — whatever herbs your majesty brings forth, you grant to all peoples for the sake of health. That is: the general decision has already been taken and is in force. Hanc nunc mihi permittas medicinam tuam: allow me now this medicine of yours. What is asked is not a new favour but access to what has been granted to everyone already; to refuse would be to make an exception.

Quidque ex his fecero, habeat eventum bonum — and whatever I make of them, let it turn out well. An apothecary's clause: what is blessed is not the plant but the preparation. The prayer covers not the raw material but the work done on it — which shows plainly enough whom it served.

The seams […] mark lines 1-22 at the start and 30-32 at the end. Line 22 ("and I shall repay you, goddess, what you deserve, in good faith") is rendered neither on this card nor on tellus-001; the closing lines, on those to whom the herbs will be passed, are not carried over by the English.