A solis ortus cardine

An abecedarius by 5th century poet Sedulius, Latin text here: http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/sedulius.solis.html
My translation below.  Merry Christmas.

From the turning of the sun's rise
all the way up to the limit of the earth,
We sing of the sovereign Christ
born from the virgin Mary.

The blessed author of the age

put on a servile body,
So that, freeing flesh from flesh,
he might not lose those whom he established.

He enters into enclosed viscera

for the sake of his celestial parent:
The womb of a girl carries the burden,
secrets which she had not known.

The home of her pure heart

suddenly becomes the temple of a god,
Untouched, not knowing a man,
she receives her son with a word.

Soon a mother has borne

he whom Gabriel had proclaimed,
whom, exulting from the womb of his own mother,
the enfolded John had perceived.

He suffered to lie down with the hay,

he abhorred not the stable,
And he was fed with a little milk,
through whom the bird does not hunger.

A chorus of celestial beings rejoices

and the angels sing to the god,
And openly in the presence of shepherds,
the creator of all things becomes a shepherd.

O impious enemy Herod,

why do you fear the Christ to come?
He who gives celestial kingdoms
does not snatch away mortal ones.

The mages were proceeding, following

a star going before them, which they had seen,
They seek light with a light,
they acknowledge the god with a gift.

A crowd of mothers cries out,

lamented the contended hostages,
Whose tyrant condemns thousands
as sacrificial victim with the Christ.

The lamb approaches the baths

of pure celestial water:
The sins, which he did not bestow,
he removes by cleansing us.

He gave faith with miracles,

having a god himself as a father.
Healing infirm bodies,
resuscitating corpses.

Urns of water redden,

a new kind of power,
And, ordered to pour out wine,
he changed its origin with a wave.

Bending at the knee, a centurion

pleads health for a young servant.
The flame of believing
extinguished the fires of fevers for many.

Peter, walking through the waves,

is lifted up by the right hand of the Christ:
By the nature which he had denied,
faith prepared a narrow way.

On the fourth day now the fetid

Lazarus received life,
And from all the chains he was made
for himself a free survivor.

The garment having been touched

obstructs the streams of horrid blood,
The wetting tears of the supplicant
may till the flows of blood.

Weakened all of body,

having been ordered suddenly to rise up,
By his steps, once again
the sick man was carrying his couch.

Then that scoundrel Judas

having dared to betray his master,
Was carrying peace with a kiss,
which he was not holding with his heart.

Truth is given with fallacies,

the impious flogs the pious,
And the innocent one fixed to a cross
is joined with brigands.

After the Sabbath, certain women

were conveying dry myrrh for the body:
whom the angel addressed,
the living one is not sheltered in the sepulchre.

O come, let us all sing

with sweet hymns to the Christ
having subdued Tartarus with a triumph,
he who, having been sold, redeemed us.

The only one of god trampled

the zeal of the hostile dragon
and the mouth of the evil lion,
and returned himself to the heavens.