1. Stabat mater dolorosa
Iuxta crucem lacrimosa,
Dum pendebat filius,
Cuius animam gementem,
Contristantem et dolentem
Pertransivit gladius.
1. By the Cross her vigil keeping
Stands the Queen of sorrows weeping,
While her son in torment hangs;
Now she feels—O heart afflicted
By the sword of old predicted!—
More than all a mother’s pangs.
2. O quam tristis et afflicta
Fuit illa benedicta
Mater unigeniti,
Quae maerebat et dolebat
Et tremebat, dum videbat
Nati poenas inclyti.
2. Sad and heavy stands beside him
She who once had magnified him
One—begotten, only—born;
While she sees that rich atoning,
Long the moaning, deep the groaning
Of her mother—heart forlorn.
3. Quis est homo, qui non fleret,
Matrem Christi si videret,
In tanto supplicio?
Quis non posset contristari,
Piam matrem contemplari
Dolentem cum filio?
3. Who Christ’s Mother contemplating
In such bitter anguish waiting,
Has no human tears to shed?
Who would leave Christ’s Mother, sharing
All the pain her Son is bearing,
By those tears uncomforted?
4. Pro peccatis suae gentis
Vidit Iesum in tormentis
Et flagellis subditum;
Vidit suum dulcem natum
Morientem, desolatum,
Dum emisit spiritum.
4. Victim-priest of Jewry’s nation,
There he hangs in expiation;
Scourge and nail have had their will;
Earth and heaven his cause forsaking,
Now his noble heart is breaking,
Now the labouring breath is still.
5. Eia mater, fons amoris,
Me sentire vim doloris
Fac, ut tecum lugeam;
Fac, ut ardeat cor meum
In amando Christum Deum,
Ut sibi complaceam.
5. Mother, fount whence love flows truest,
Let me know the pain thou knewest,
Let me weep as thou hast wept;
Love divine within me burning,
That diviner love returning,
May thy Son this heart accept.
6. Sancta mater, istud agas,
Crucifixi fige plagas
Cordi meo valide;
Tui nati vulnerati,
Tam dignati pro me pati,
Poenas mecum divide.
6. Mother, if my prayer be granted,
Those five wounds of his implanted
In my breast I fain would see;
Love exceeding hangs there bleeding,
My cause pleading, my love needing—
Bid him share his cross with me.
7. Fac me vere tecum flere,
Crucifixo condolere,
Donec ego vixero;
Iuxta crucem tecum stare,
Te libenter sociare
In planctu desidero.
7. Till life fails, I would not fail him,
Still remember, still bewail him,
Born thy Son, and crucified;
By the cross my vigil keeping
I would spend those hours of weeping,
Queen of sorrows, at thy side.
8. Virgo virginum praeclara,
Mihi iam non sis amara,
Fac me tecum plangere;
Fac, ut portem Christi mortem,
Passionis fac consortem
Et plagas recolere.
8. Virgin, boast of all creation,
Heed my tears, nor consolation
In thy bitterness repel;
At thy side his livery wearing,
His cross bearing, his death sharing,
Of these wounds the beads I’ll tell.
9. Fac me plagis vulnerari,
Cruce hac inebriari,
Et cruore filii;
Inflammatus et accensus,
Per te, virgo, sim defensus
In die iudicii.
9. Wounds of Christ, in spirit bruise me,
Chalice of his blood, bemuse me,
Cross of Christ, be thou my stay!
Lest I burn in fires unending,
Sinless Maid, my cause befriending,
Shield me at the judgement day!
10. Fac me cruce custodiri,
Morte Christi praemuniri,
Confoveri gratia.
Quando corpus morietur,
Fac, ut animae donetur
Paradisi gloria.
10. Jesus, when earth’s shadows leave me,
Through thy Mother’s prayers receive me
With the palm of victory;
When my body lies forsaken
Let my ransomed soul awaken
Safe, in Paradise, with thee.
Tr. Ronald A. Knox (_Westminster Hymnal_, Burns, Oates & Washbourne,
London, 1940, no. 37. Quoted by permission of publishers.)
XVII. _Salve, festa dies_
(Sarum Processional)
1. Salve, festa dies, toto venerabilis aevo,
Qua Deus infernum vicit et astra tenet.
1. Hail thee, Festival Day! blest day that art hallowed forever;
Day wherein Christ arose, breaking the kingdom of death.
2. Ecce, renascentis testatur gratia mundi
omnia cum Domino dona redisse suo.
2. Lo, the fair beauty of earth, from the death of winter arising,
Every good gift of the year now with its Master returns.
3. Qui crucifixus erat, Deus ecce per omnia regnat,
Dantque creatori cuncta creata precem.
3. He who was nailed to the cross is God and the ruler of all things;
All things created on earth worship the maker of all.
4. Pollicitam sed redde diem, precor, alma potestas,
Tertia lux rediit; surge, sepulte Deus.
4. God of all pity and power, let thy word be assured to the doubting;
Light on the third day returns: rise, Son of God, from the tomb!
5. Non decet ut humili tumulo tua membra tegantur,
Neu pretium mundi vilia saxa premant.
5. Ill doth it seem that thy limbs should linger in lowly dishonor,
Ransom and price of the world, veiled from the vision of men.
6. Indignum est cuius clauduntur cuncta pugillo,
Ut tegat inclusum rupe vetante lapis.
6. Ill it beseemeth that thou by whose hand all things are
encompassed,
Captive and bound shouldst remain, deep in the gloom of the rock.
7. Lintea tolle, precor, sudaria linque sepulchro,
Tu satis es nobis, et sine te nihil est.
7. Rise now, O Lord, from the grave and cast off the shroud that
enwrapped thee;
Thou art sufficient for us: nothing without thee exists.
8. Funeris exsequias pateris vitae auctor et orbis,
Intras mortis iter dando salutis opem.
8. Mourning they laid thee to rest, who art author of life and
creation;
Treading the pathway of death, life thou bestowedst on man.
9. Redde tuam faciem, videant ut saecula lumen,
Redde diem, qui nos te moriente fugit.
9. Show us thy face once more, that the ages may joy in thy
brightness;
Give us the light of day, darkened on earth at thy death.
10. Eripis innumerum populum de carcere mortis,
Et sequitur liber, quo suus auctor adit.
10. Out of the prison of death thou art rescuing numberless captives;
Freely they tread in the way whither their maker has gone.
11. Tristia cesserunt infernae vincula legis,
Expavitque chaos luminis ore premi.
11. Jesus has harrowed hell; he has led captivity captive:
Darkness and chaos and death flee from the face of the light.
Tr. Maurice F. Bell, from _The English Hymnal_ by permission of the
Oxford University Press.