Et præparavit Dominus piscem grandem ut deglutiret Jonam: et erat Jonas in ventre piscis tribus diebus et tribus noctibus.

Now the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonas: and Jonas was in the belly of a fish for three days and three nights.

And what of Jonas? At the Lord’s bidding, a great sea-beast had swallowed him up; and there, in the belly of it, three days spent he and three nights.

Et oravit Jonas ad Dominum Deum suum de ventre piscis,

And Jonas prayed to the Lord his God out of the belly of the fish.

This was the prayer which Jonas made to the Lord his God, there in the belly of the sea-beast:

et dixit: Clamavi de tribulatione mea ad Dominum, et exaudivit me; de ventre inferi clamavi, et exaudisti vocem meam.

And he said: I cried out of my affliction to the Lord, and he heard me: I cried out of the belly of hell, and thou hast heard my voice.

Call I on the Lord in my peril, redress he grants me; from the very womb of the grave call I, thou art listening to me!

Et projecisti me in profundum in corde maris, et flumen circumdedit me: omnes gurgites tui, et fluctus tui super me transierunt.

And thou hast cast me forth into the deep in the heart of the sea, and a flood hast compassed me: all thy billows, and thy waves have passed over me.

Here in the depths of the sea’s heart thou wouldst cast me away, with the flood all about me, eddy of thine, wave of thine, sweeping over me,

Et ego dixi: Abjectus sum a conspectu oculorum tuorum; verumtamen rursus videbo templum sanctum tuum.

And I said: I am cast away out of the sight of thy eyes: but yet I shall see thy holy temple again.

till it seemed as if I were shut out from thy regard: yet life thou grantest me; I shall gaze on thy holy temple once again.

Circumdederunt me aquæ usque ad animam: abyssus vallavit me, pelagus operuit caput meum.

The waters compassed me about even to the soul: the deep hath closed me round about, the sea hath covered my head.

Around me the deadly waters close, the depths engulf me, the weeds are wrapped about my head;

Ad extrema montium descendi; terræ vectes concluserunt me in æternum: et sublevabis de corruptione vitam meam, Domine Deus meus.

I went down to the lowest parts of the mountains: the bars of the earth have shut me up for ever: and thou wilt bring up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.

mountain caverns I must plumb, the very bars of earth my unrelenting prison; and still, O Lord my God, thou wilt raise me, living, from the tomb.

Cum angustiaretur in me anima mea, Domini recordatus sum: ut veniat ad te oratio mea, ad templum sanctum tuum.

When my soul was in distress within me, I remembered the Lord: that my prayer may come to thee, unto the holy temple.

Daunted this heart, yet still of the Lord I would bethink me; prayer of mine should reach him, far away in his holy temple!

Qui custodiunt vanitates frustra, misericordiam suam derelinquunt.

They that are vain observe vanities, forsake their own mercy.

Let fools that court false worship all hope of pardon forgo;

Ego autem in voce laudis immolabo tibi: quæcumque vovi, reddam pro salute Domino.

But I with the voice of praise will sacrifice to thee: I will pay whatsoever I have vowed for my salvation to the Lord.

mine to do sacrifice in thy honour, vows made and paid to the Lord, my deliverer!

Et dixit Dominus pisci, et evomuit Jonam in aridam.

And the Lord spoke to the fish: and it vomited out Jonas upon the dry land.

And now, at the Lord’s bidding, the sea-beast cast Jonas up again, high and dry on the beach.