Please turn to number 85 and join with the clarinets in, “Ah, Holy Jesus”.
Number: 85
First Line: Ah, Holy Jesus
Name: HERBSTLIEBSTER JESU.
Meter: 11 11 11, 5.
Tempo: Slowly and solemnly
Music: Johann Cruger, 1598-1662
Text: Johann Heerman, 1585-1647
Tr. Robert Bridges, 1844-1930
Text from The Yattendon Hymnal, edited by Robert Bridges
It appears that Robert Bridges was a rather well known English poet in the early part of the 20th Century.
Robert Seymour Bridges, OM (23 October 1844 – 21 April 1930) was Britain’s poet laureate from 1913 to 1930. A doctor by training, he achieved literary fame only late in life. His poems reflect a deep Christian faith, and he is the author of many well-known hymns. It was through Bridges’ efforts that Gerard Manley Hopkins achieved posthumous fame.
Bridges made an important contribution to hymnody with the publication in 1899 of his Yattendon Hymnal, which he created specifically for musical reasons. This collection of hymns, although not a financial success, became a bridge between the Victorian hymnody of the last half of the 19th century and the modern hymnody of the early 20th century.
His translation of the hymn is a bit Masochistic. I suppose that is very English, as well.
Ah, holy Jesus, how has thou offended,
That man to judge thee hath in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by thine own rejected,
O most afflicted.Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon thee?
That man to treason, Jesus, hath undone thee.
‘Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied thee:
I crucified thee.Lo, the good Shepherd for the sheep is offered;
The slave has sinned, and the Son has suffered;
For man’s atonement, while he nothing heedeth,
God intercedeth.For me, kind Jesus, was thine Incarnation,
Thy mortal sorrow, and they life’s oblation;
Thy death of anguish and thy bitter Passion,
For my salvation.Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay thee,
I do adore thee, and will every pray thee,
Think on they pity and thy love unswerving,
Not my deserving. Amen.
