A Monastic Cell

Pedro Ruiz de Moros (1515-1571)
‘De cella monastica’

Ut patet ampla mihi data cella monastica! Si quis  
   Tendat utramque manum, tanget utrumque latus.
Lectulus et mensa est parvumque sedile. Supellex
   Cui satis haec, nimis hunc quis neget esse sophum?

'On a Monastic Cell'

A spacious monastic cell opens up to me! If one  
   Extends either hand here, it will touch a wall.
There is a couch and table and small seat. For whom  
   These possessions are plenty, who would deny he is wise?

Pedro Ruiz de Moros, Petri Royzii Maurei Alcagnicensis Carmina, ed. by Bronisław Kruczkiewicz, 2 vols (Kraków: Sumptibus Academiae Litterarum Cracoviensis, 1903), I, p. 277. My translation.

Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot - Moine blanc, assis, lisant (c. 1850-55)