Tuesday 18 September 2012

“No me mueve mi Dios, para quererte”

Christ Crucified


I am not moved to love Thee, 0 my Lord,
    By any longing for Thy Promised Land;
    Nor by the fear of hell am I unmanned
To cease from my transgressing deed or word.
Tis Thou Thyself dost move me,—Thy blood poured
    Upon the cross from nailed foot and hand;
    And all the wounds that did Thy body brand;
And all Thy shame and bitter death's award.

Yea, to Thy heart am I so deeply stirred
    That I would love Thee were no heaven on high,—
That I would fear, were hell a tale absurd!
Such my desire, all questioning grows vain;
    Though hope deny me hope I still should sigh,
And as ray love is now, it should remain.

Catalan poem  Soneto a Cristo crucificado author anonymous, trans Thomas Walsh

2 comments:

  1. Thank you! Is this also the source of the hymn "My God I love thee not because..."?

    See http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/m/y/mygodilt.htm

    More connections!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ah, that's the one. Thanks! It was used as a lead in to a Julian meeting this afternoon; several of us knew it reminded us of a familiar hymn, just couldn't pin point which one at the time!

    ReplyDelete

Welcome to my blog. I always love receiving comments; do feel free. If you're visiting from the A-Z challenge (or even if you're not!) could I thank you for your patience in using the dreaded captcha verification thingy. It's a pain, I know, but I've had problems with spam in the past and would rather keep Greenpatches as a junk-free zone.