Poems (Hooper)/Pergolese

by Lucy Hamilton Hooper

PERGOLESE.

Endlich ist das Werk vollendet,
Und der fromme Meister sendet.

Now at last his work he endeth,
And the pious Master sendeth
 Up his thanks to Heaven's throne:
Through the arched cathedral swelling,
In majestic billows welling,
 Flow now song and organ tone:

 Stabat mater dolorosa
 Juxta crucem lachrymosa,
  Dum pendebat filius,
 Cujus animam gementem
 Contristatem ac dolentem
  Pertransivit gladius.

And the Virgin's sorrows holy
Fill each heart with- melancholy,
 While the organ deeper swells;
Yet the melodies of heaven
Make the very pang forgiven
 That in tears of sorrow wells.

 Quis est homo, qui non fleret
 Christi matrem si videret
  In tanto supplicio?
 Quis non posso contristari
 Piam matrem contemplari
  Dolentem cum filio?

Pious awe and holy rapture
Hold the Master's soul in capture,
 Death foreboding, earnest, mild;
Trustfully his eyes he raiseth,
And upon the altar gazeth,
 On the Virgin and the Child.

 Virgo virginum praclara,
 Mihi jam non sis amara,
  Fac me tecum plangere,
 Fac ut portem Christi mortem
 Passionis ego sortem
  Et plagas recolere.

Hark! The Seraph voices ringing,
In the choir of heaven singing,
 Fill the ear with awed delight;
Holy spirits, earth-descending,
Heavenward bear the Master, wending,
 Upward, upward to the light.

 Fac me cruce custodiri,
 Morte Christi preemuniri,
  Confoveri gratia;
 Quando corpus morietur,
 Fac ut anima donetur
  Paradist gloria.
Geibel.