What he did was to leave out the strongest parts of the original altogether, and to give a weakened rendering of the rest.[1] The original, which belongs to the ninth century, and is therefore earlier and stronger than the Golden Sequence, has five stanzas (not counting the original Doxology) to Cosin's three. Let us set Cosin side by side with the very fine and very
- ↑ The original is as follows (scholars now attribute it to
Rabanus Maurus, who died in 856) :
Veni, creator Spiritus,
mentes tuorum visita:
imple superna gratia
quae tu creasti pectora.
Qui Paraclitus diceris,
donum Dei altissimi:
fons vivus, ignis, charitas,
et spiritalis unctio.
Tu septiformis munere,
dextrae Dei tu digitus:
tu rite promisso Patris,
sermone ditas guttura.
Accende lumen sensibus,
infunde amorem cordibus:
infirma nostri corporis
virtute firmans perpeti.
Hostem repellas longius,
pacemque dones protinus:
ductore sic te praevio,
vitemus omne noxium.
Per te sciamus da Patrem,
noscamus atque Filium:
te utriusque Spiritum
credamus omni tempore.
