rj_anderson: (Christmas - Lamppost)
rj_anderson ([personal profile] rj_anderson) wrote2008-12-25 05:11 pm
Entry tags:

"Esprits Divins"* (Claude Goudimel, d. 1572)

Esprits divins, chantons de la nuit sainte !
C’est cette nuit que la pucelle enceinte
Nous a produit le Verbe précieux.
C’est cette nuit que l’on a vu les cieux
Tout découverts et bien cinq cent mille anges
Chanter à Dieu d’éternelles louanges.

C’est donc la nuit, la nuit la plus heureuse,
La nuit qui donne à voir parfois son Créateur,
La nuit qui donne à l’œil du corps cet heur,
Voir et toucher son Dieu en ce bas monde
Né de la Vierge à nulle autre seconde.

Heureuse nuit, devant le jour première,
Nuit, non pas nuit mais parfaite lumière
Qui toujours luit et toujours reluira
Oh, malheureusement celui qui te dira
Dorénavant obscure, noire et sombre
Quand ton beau clair se fait maître de l’ombre.

O holy spirits: let us sing of the holy night.
On that night the virgin with child
delivered for us the precious Word;
on that night the heavens were seen
all opened, and half a million angels
were heard singing eternal praise to God.

That night is the happiest of all nights,
the night that gives every loving soul
the joy to see sometimes its Creator,
the night that gives the eye the joy
to see and to touch its God in this base world,
born of the virgin and none other.

O happy night, first night before the day,
night that is no night but perfect radiance,
night that still shines and shall forever shine:
Oh, unhappy are those who shall call you
henceforth dark, black, dim,
when your clear beauty masters the shadow.
With best wishes for a peaceful, happy and safe holiday season to all my online friends.

--
*As performed by the Boston Camerata on the album A Renaissance Christmas. Listen to a sample here.

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