[9] The Latin runs as follows. I give the whole etymology from Jacobus to make the difference in the order of etymologies apparent. I have italicized the portion translated in the text:
Cecilia quasi celi lilia vel cecis via vel a celo et lya. Uel Cecilia quasi cecitate carens. Uel dicitur a celo et leos, quod est populus. Fuit enim celeste lilium per virginitatis pudorem. Uel dicitur lilium quia habuit candorem mundicie, uirorem consciencie, odorem bone fame. Fuit enim cecis via per exempli infomacionem, celum per iugem contemplacionem, lya per assiduam operacionem. Uel dicitur celum quia, sicut dicit Ysidorus, celum philosophi volubile, rotundum, et ardens esse dixerunt. Sic et ipsa fuit uolubilis per operacionem sollicitam, rotunda per perseueranciam, ardens per caritatem succensam. Fuit enim cecitate carens per sapiencie splendorem. Fuit et celum populi quia in ipsam tanquam in celum spirituale populus ad imitandum intuetur solem, lunam, et Stellas, id est sapiencie perspicacitatem, fide magnanimitatem, et uirtutum uarietatem.
(Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda Aurea, cited in Gerould, "Second Nun's Prologue and Tale," 671)
Cecilia comes from coeli lilia, lily of Heaven, or from caecis via, a way unto the blind, or from coelum, Heaven, and lya, one who works. Or again it is the same a caecitate carens, free from blindness, or comes from coelum and leos, people. For Cecilia was a heavenly lily by her virginity; or she is called a lily because of the whiteness of her purity, the freshness of her conscience, and the sweet odour of her good renown. She was a way unto the blind by her example, a heaven by her unwearying contemplation, a worker by her diligent labour. Or she is called a heaven because, as Isidore says, the heavens are revolving, round, and burning. Thus Cecilia was revolving in that she went around in her good works; she was round in perseverance, and burning with charity. She was also free from blindness by the splendour of her wisdom, and a heaven of the people, because in her, as in a spiritual heaven, the people had Heaven set before their eyes for their imitation; for they saw in her the sun, the moon, and the stars, namely the keenness of her wisdom, the magnanimity of her faith, and the variety of her virtues.
(Jacobus de Voragine, Golden Legend, 689–90)
The Latin primarily stresses a logical, intellectual structure enforced by parallel clauses, whereas Chaucer's English subordinates this structure (without altogether losing it) to the operation of modifiers that stress sensuous experience: "faire," "white," "swift and bisy," "round and hool" (as opposed to the more analytical parallelism of the Latin, "uolubilis per . . ., rotunda per . . ."), "ful brighte," etc. Generally speaking, the more apparent freedoms taken with the translation work to the same effect, as in those noted by Paul E. Beichner: "bath of flambes reed" for "flammis balnearibus" and "confus in thy nycetee" for "necessitate confusum." Beichner, "Confrontation."