Iesu, Rex Admirabilis

I was fifteen or sixteen years old when, thanks to a fervent Trappist laybrother at Saint Joseph’s Abbey, I discovered a lovely English translation of Dulcis Iesu Memoria in a small black-covered volume called The Cistercian Day Hours. The laybrother in question encouraged me to pray the hymns of The Cistercian Day Hours as he did, savouring them and learning them by heart. I no longer have a copy of The Cistercian Days Hours at hand, and suspect that it is long out of print. The second section of the Iubilus Rithmicus de Amore Iesu was assigned to Matins. The translation here is Father Caswall’s.

O Jesu, King most wonderful!
Thou conqueror renowned!
Thou sweetness most ineffable!
In whom all joys are found!

Stay with us, Lord, and with thy light
Illume the soul’s abyss;
Scatter the darkness of ournight,
And fill the world with bliss!

Jesu, thy mercies are untold,
Through each returning day;
Thy love exceeds a thousandfold
Whatever we can say.

May every heart confess thy name,
And ever thee adore;
And seeking thee, itself inflame,
To seek thee more and more!

Thou who hast loved me from the womb,
Pure source of all my bliss!
My only hope of life to come!
My happiness in this!

And. O my Jesu, pardon me!
Unfit to speak thy praise;
Yet daring thus, for love of thee,
My trembling hymn to raise.

Jesu, the soul hath in thy love
A food that never cloys;
A sacred foretaste from above
Of Paradisal joys.

Celestial sweetness unalloyed!
Who eat thee, hunger still;
Who drink of thee, yet feel a void,
Which thou alone canst fill.

Thrice happy he, who loving thee
Doth thy true sweetness know;
All else becomes but vanity
Thenceforth to him below.