This selection is taken from a hymn in seven parts, each addressing some
member of Christ's body on the cross, the feet, the knees, etc. The
composition is more probably by some German poet than by Bernard, but
its supposed origin with the latter has become a subject of religious
legend. One ancient copy describes the hymn as 'a divine and most devout
prayer of the Abbot St. Bernard, which he made when an image of the
Saviour with outstretched arms embraced him from the cross.' Again we
read, 'The image on the cross bowed itself and embraced him with its
wounded arms as a sure token that to it this prayer was most pleasing.'
Julian refers to eight English metrical versions. One of the finest
forms in which it has come into the language (through P. Gerhardt's free
German version 'O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden') is _O sacred Head! now
wounded_.
3. Conquassatum: mangled. 7. Immutatus: 'His visage was so marred more
than any man.'--Isaiah 52. 14. 10. All heaven shudders. The curia is the
centre of government. 11. viror: Late Latin for viriditas, vigor; we
might freely render brightness. 14. Expressing the extremity of
weakness, hanging all in faintness. 19. intersigno: proof, Late Latin.
23-25. From whose mouth I have taken honey with the sweetness of milk,
beyond all delights. A figurative use of the story of Samson, who found
a honeycomb in the mouth of the carcass of the lion which he had slain,
Judges 14. 8, 9. Milk is religiously associated with honey because of
the description of Canaan in Deuteronomy 31. 20, terram lacte et melle
manantem. 28-30. Now that death is near Thee, lay here Thine head, rest
in my arms. 32. gauderem: I would rejoice, were I associated with Thy
holy passion; present contrary to fact condition. 40. absque: without,
ante- and post-classic preposition. 46. emigrare: depart from life. Cf.
qui e vita emigravit, Cicero, _De Legibus_, 2. 48. 49. Temetipsum: Thine
own self. An emphatic -met is suffixed to Te.
'JESUS, THE VERY THOUGHT OF THEE.'
The author is probably St. Bernard, the abbot of Clairvaux and the great
preacher of the Second Crusade. Few men in Christendom have ever
exercised a personal influence equal to his.
These quartrains are selected from a hymn composed of fifty such, and
familiar to English-speaking Christians from Caswall's translation,
_Jesus, the very Thought of Thee_, and Ray Palmer's _Jesus, Thou Joy of
Loving Hearts_. It was a favorite of Livingstone who quotes from it in
his _African Diary_. 'No other poem in any language,' says Julian, 'has
furnished to English and American hymn-books so many hymns of sterling
worth and well-deserved popularity.'
Subject, Jesus.
1-4. Iesu: vocative. We would expect das instead of dans and tui instead
of eius. Supply est with praesentia.
13-16.
Thou bliss of souls in bitter need,
Water to lip and light to eye,
All joy thou dost how far exceed,
All yearning more than satisfy.