A Poem by William Lamport.
Wexford man executed in Mexico City in 1659.
While imprisoned and brutalised at the hands of the Mexican Inquisition, Wexford native William Lamport composed 918 psalms in Latin, writing on his bedsheets using discarded chicken feathers as quills and ink made from ash and cacao. We have the Inquisition to thank for these poems surviving as the bedsheets were saved to be used as evidence against him in a trial that would result in his execution in 1659. I have a lot more to say and write about this individual (who was indirectly the inspiration for the popular Zorro character) and hope to do so sooner rather than later. But for now, I’ll leave you with one of his many psalms. My Latin is useless so I worked from a Spanish translation of Psalm 4 to create this, more a minimalist version than a translation. I left a lot out but hope I have managed to transmit something of the original, composed by a man beset by obsessive faith, a rigid moral code, an egomaniacal sense of grandeur and who was prone to outbursts of righteous mania.
PSALM FOUR by William Lamport preceded by nothing i am fragile & break like glass a miracle formed from the dank & pummeled earth of worms a concentrated clump of saliva clotted like menstrual blood polluted by sin until you save me i am criminal filth depraved
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