Sunday 3 May 2009

Sunday Lyric

Steadfast Cross, inmong all other,
Thou art a tree mikel of price;
In branch and flower such another
I ne wot in wood nor ris.
Sweet be the nails, and sweet be the tree,
And sweeter be the burden that hangs upon thee.

I ne wot.... - I do not know in wood or thicket

This is a fourteenth-century translation (in modernised spelling) of the Crux Fidelis, a verse of the hymn Pange Lingua which is sung on Good Friday. In Latin:

Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis:
nulla silva talem profert,
fronde, flore, germine.
Dulce lignum, dulces clavos,
dulce pondus sustinet.