"Sunt radiantia jaspide moenia clara pyropo."
"With jaspers glow thy bulwarks,
Thy streets with emeralds blaze,
The sardius and the topaz
Unite in thee their rays;
Thine ageless walls are bonded
With amethyst unpriced;
The saints build up its fabric,
And the corner·stone is Christ.
* * * * *
Thou hast no shore, fair ocean!
Thou hast no time, bright day!
Dear fountain of refreshment.
To pilgrims far away.
* * * * *
They stand, those halls of Sion,
Conjubilant with song,
And bright with many an angel
And all the martyr throng;
The Prince is ever in them,
Their daylight is serene;
The pastures of the blessed
Are decked in glorious sheen.
There is the throne of David,
And there, from care released,
The song of them that triumph,
The shout of them that feast;
And they who, with their leader,
Have conquered in the fight,
For ever and for ever
Are clad in robes of white."
But we must pause, for to give all the beauties of this poem would be to transcribe the whole. Another St. Bernard, the well-known abbot of Clairvaux, was a contemporary with him of Clugny. He was one of the most influential men of his age, a man far in advance of it; the adviser of popes and the confidant of kings. Many hymns are attributed to him, one of the most beautiful being that known as Jesu Dulcis Memoria. In Trench's Sacred Latin Poetry there is a selection of fifteen verses, but the original consists of forty-eight verses. [Footnote 237] It is a fine specimen of the ardent loving poetry so characteristic of the period. A very beautiful version, or rather imitation of this poem, is extant in the Harleian MSS., written in the reign of Edward I., and as it is a very good specimen of the English of the period, and represents the spirit of the original, we venture to quote a verse or two. [Footnote 238]
[Footnote 237: Sti. Bernardi Clarae Vallensis Opp: Benedictine edition, vol. ii., p. 895.]
[Footnote 238: Printed also in the Percy Society's Publications, vol. iv., p. 68.]
I.
"Jesu, suete is the love of thee,
Nothing so suete may be;
Al that may with eyen se
Haveth no suetnesse ageynes the.
XIV.
"Jhesu, when ich thenke on the,
And loke upon the rode tre;
Thi suete body to-toren se,
Hit maketh heorte to smerte me.
XVIII.
"Jhesu, my saule drah the to,
Min heorte opene ant wyde undo;
This hure of love to drynke so,
That fleysshliche lust be al for-do.
XLV.
"Jesut thin help at myn endyng,
Ant ine that dredful out-wendyng
Send mi soule god weryying,
That y ne drede non eovel thing."
We can only notice one other grand hymn, selected also from a long poem of Bernard, addressed to the different portions of the body of Christ on the cross. This is from the Ad Faciem, and commences— [Footnote 239]
[Footnote 239: For the Latin, see Trench's Sacred Latin Poetry, p. 139.]
"Salve caput cruentatum
Totum spinis coronatum."
As it is one of the finest mediaeval hymns, and has been translated into nearly all European languages, we give the translation:—
"Hail! thou head so bruised and wounded,
With the crown of thorns surrounded;
Smitten with the mocking reed,
Wounds which may not cease to bleed,
Trickling faint and slow.
Hail! from whose most blessed brow
None can wipe the blood drops now.
All the flower of life has fled;
Mortal paleness there instead.
Thou, before whose presence dread,
Angels trembling bow.
"All thy vigor and thy life
Fading in this bitter strife;
Death his stamp on thee has set,
Hollow and emaciate,
Faint and drooping there.
Thou, this agony and scorn,
Hast for me a sinner borne;
Me, unworthy—all for me,
With those signs of love on thee.
Glorious face appear!
"Yet in this thine agony,
Faithful shepherd, think of me;
From whose lips of love divine
Sweetest draughts of life are mine,
Purest honey flows,
All unworthy of thy thought,
Guilty, yet reject me not;
Unto me thy head incline.
Let that dying head of thine
In mine arms repose.
"Let me true communion know
With thee in thy sacred woe,
Counting all beside but dross,
Dying with thee on the cross;
'Neath it will I die.
Thanks to thee with every breath.
Jesus, for thy bitter death;
Grant thy guilty one this prayer—
When my dying hour is near, t
Gracious God, be nigh.
[{823}]
"When my dying hour must be,
Be not absent then from me;
In that dreadful hour I pray
Jesus come without delay,
See and set me free.
When thou biddest me depart,
Whom I cleave to with my heart,
Lover of my soul be near,
With thy saving cross appear;
Show thyself to me," [Footnote 240]
[Footnote 240: Quoted in Christian Life in Song.]