O ignee Spiritus /Hymn to the Holy
Spirit
English version by Barbara Newman Original Language Latin
Spirit of fire!
to you who sound the
timbrel
and the lyre.
Your music sets our
minds
ablaze! The strength
of our souls
awaits your coming
in the tent of
meeting.
There the mounting
will
gives the soul its
savor
and desire is its
lantern.
Insight invokes you
in a cry
full of sweetness,
while reason
builds you temples
as she labors
at her golden
crafts.
But sword
in hand you stand
poised
to prune shoots of
the poisoned
apple --
scions of the
darkest
murder --
when mist
overshadows the will.
Adrift in desires
the soul is spinning
everywhere. But the
mind
is a bond
to bind will and
desire.
When the heart
yearns to look
the Evil One in the
eye,
to stare down the
jaws of
iniquity, swiftly
you burn it in
consuming
fire. Such is your
wish.
And when reason
doing ill
falls from her
place, you
restrain and
constrain her as you will
in the flow of
experience until
she obeys you.
And when the Evil
One brandishes
his sword against
you,
you break it in his
own
heart. For so you
did
to the first lost
angel,
tumbling the tower
of his
arrogance to hell.
And there you built
a second
tower -- traitors
and sinners
its stones. In
repentance
they confessed all
their crafts.
So all beings that
live by you
praise your
outpouring
like a priceless
salve upon festering
sores, upon
fractured
limbs. You convert
them
into priceless gems!
Now gather us all to
yourself
and in your mercy
guide us
into the paths of
justice.
Symphonia: A Critical Edition of
the Symphonia armonie celstium revelationum,
by Hildegard of Bingen / Translated by Barbara Newman
by Hildegard of Bingen / Translated by Barbara Newman
