Ascribed to Bernard of Clairvaux, 1091-1153
Tr. Edward Caswall, 1814-78
“This may well be called the sweetest and most evangelical hymn of the Middle Ages.... It breathes the deepest love to Christ, as the fountain of all peace and comfort, and the sum of all that is pure and lovely.”—Philip Schaff.
It is from the famous medieval hymn “Jesu, dulcis memoria,” which David Livingstone used to repeat as he explored Africa: “That hymn of St. Bernard, on the name of Christ, although in what might be termed dog-Latin, pleases me so: it rings in my ears as I wander across the wide, wide wilderness.” Its beauty has charmed many others who are familiar with the Latin. The original poem has fifty quatrains, of which our hymn is a selection of the following five:
Iesus dulcis memoria,
Dans vera cordis gaudia;
Sed super mel et omnia
Dulcis eius praesentia.
Nil canitur suavius,
Auditur nil iucundius,