It is only left for us to lay the Salve regina side by side with the Veni Sancte. A man who wrote upon metre ought to possess some excellence in the art of which he wrote, and these pieces placed together display a graceful and ingenious versification which is not at all usual in that century. It is not claimed that either Robert or Hermann wrote other hymns in the identical stanza form of the Veni Sancte. Therefore nothing is available for direct comparison. But as to the spirit of each there can be no debate. Robert never composed anything else like the Veni Sancte, and it certainly seems as if Hermann did compose a sequence which bears a passing resemblance; and which I have endeavored to translate with its occasional rhymes and assonances:
Salve regina, mater misericordiae
Vita, dulcedo et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus exules filii Hevae.
Ad te suspiramus gementes et flentes in hac lacrimarum valle.
Eia ergo advocata nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte
Et Jesum benedictum fructum ventris tui nobis post hoc exilium ostende,
O clemens, O pia, O dulcis virgo Maria.
Hail O queen, mother of pitifulness!
Life and delight and our confidence, hail!