Hymns In Translation: III

In this feature, I am presenting varying translations of the same Welsh hymn, to show how one language realises the piety as well as the poetry of another:

1.The source of my joy and my rapture

Has sprung from the bright throne above;

For there my Lord Jesus ascended;

And there intercedes through His love;

The blood that stern justice demanded,

Was shed upon God's throne on high,

A pledge of divine grace and mercy,

That we, the condemned, shall not die.

....

2. Away from the earth's wild valley

To paradise we shall ascend;

Our faint, weary soul in God's bosom

Shall sweetly repose in the end.

While safe in our refuge eternal

From sin and from sorrow and pain,

We'll feast upon love without ending,

The love of the Lamb that was slain.

....

3. One day from the fair hills of Salem

The long desert way we shall view;

The trials and turns of the journey

Sweet memories there will renew;

We'll gaze upon terror and tempest,

On death and the grave, from above,

While safe from their reach we are soaring

Enraptured with peace and with love.

David Charles; Trans. Miss Jane Owen