382. The year is gone beyond recall
Latin
Tr. F. Pott, 1832-1909
From a Latin hymn, Lapsus est annus, found in a Breviary of Meaux, 1713 and 1734. It was used for compline after the first vespers of the Festival of the Circumcision, which is the last office sung on December 31. The original reads as follows:
Lapsus est annus: redit annus alter:
Vita sic mutis fugit acta pennis:
Tu, Deus, cursum moderaris, unus
Arbiter, aevi.
Gens tuis plaudit cumulata donis:
Te simul votis Dominum precatur,
Servet intactum fidei verendae
Patriae munus.
Supplices poscunt alimenta cives:
Finibus morbos patriis repellas:
Larga securae referas, benignus
Commoda pacis.
Postulant culpas venia relaxes:
Limites arctos vitiis reponas;
Past graves pugnas tua dat salubrem
Dextera palmam.
Noxiae vitae maculas perosi
Cor, Deus, nostrum tibi devovemus:
Da bonos annos, facilemque Patris
Indue vultum.
Dum dies currunt, redeunt et anni,
Et gradu certo sibi saecla cedunt,
Debitas laudes Triadi supremae
Concinat orbis.
Text from Daniel, H. A., Thesaurus hymnologicus, 5 vols.; Lipsiae: 1855-1856, IV, 319.
The translation was made by Francis Pott, M. A., Curate of Ticehurst, Sussex, and one of the editors of Hymns Ancient and Modern, London, 1861. The original form of Pott’s translation appeared first in a hymnal compiled by him, Hymns Fitted to the Order of Common Prayer, etc., London, 1864. It reads as follows:
The year is gone beyond recall;
’Tis gone—with all its hopes and fears,
With all its joys for those new born,
With all its troubled mourners’ tears.
We thank Thee, Lord, for countless gifts,
For dangers we have passed unscathed;
We thank Thee for Thy Church preserved;
Oh! seal to us her ancient Faith.
Again we ask Thy goodness, Lord;
The coming year in mercy bless;
Guard Thou our land from pestilence;
And give us grace and plenteousness.
Forgive this nation’s many sins;
Destroy the strength that sin has gained;
And give us grace with sin to strive;
And give us crowns through strife attained.
We hate the sins that stain the past;
We would henceforth from them be free;
O grant us peaceful years, good Lord;
And we will spend them all to Thee.
We would that our good Father’s eye
Should look on us—but not in wrath;
And we, Thy children, year by year,
A purer song of praise pour forth. Amen.
When the hymn was selected for Hymns Ancient and Modern, the translation was altered into its present form. The last stanza is omitted in the Hymnary. The English and Latin are published in Hymns, Ancient and Modern, Historical Edition, London, Clowes, 1909.
MUSIC. TALLIS, also called “Tallis’ Ordinal,” is from The Whole Psalter translated into English Metre, which contayneth an hundreth and fifty Psalmes, a work by Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, printed about 1561. At the end of the book are nine tunes in four parts by Thomas Tallis. This is the last of the nine and is set to the version of Veni Creator Spiritus, which appears in the English Prayer Book Ordinal. The tune was evidently derived by Tallis from a 15th-century English carol tune, “This endris Nyght”—for it is an adaptation to common time of the first two lines of this carol melody.
For comments on Thomas Tallis, see [Hymn 33].