Littell's Living Age/Volume 137/Issue 1768/"Lead, Kindly Light"

by John Henry Newman

"LEAD, KINDLY LIGHT."^[1]

Duc alma Lux, circumstat umbra mundi,
Duc, alma Lux;
Est atra nox, mei jam vagabundi
Sis ergo dux:
Serva pedes, - non cupio longinqua
Videre; satis semita propinqua.

Non semper eram, ut nunc, doctus precari
Ductorem te, -
Magis me exploratorem gloriari:
Duc tamen me.
Præclara amabam, neque expers timorum
Regebam me: sis immemor actorum.

Tam diu præsens adfuit vocanti
Divina vox.
Sic erit vel per ima dubitanti
Dum fugit nox,
Et manè lucent nitidæ figuræ,
Notæ per annos, paullulum obscuræ.

Translated at sea, December, 1877.C. S. O.
Spectator.

1. This bold attempt to render Dr. Newman's hymn
   in rhymed Latin stanzas, of the same number and the
   same number of lines as in the English original, is sent
   home to the translator's friends as the recreation of
   nights at sea by an English scholar on his way to the
   antipodes. Any old Oxford friends who may recognize
   the initials will feel the point and pathos added by
   the fact that news of the unlooked-for loss of a truly
   "nitida figura, nota per annos," which has darkened
   his home since he left it, is following him round the
   world. - J. O.