For thee, O dear, dear country

For thee, O dear, dear Country. Bernard of Cluny* (12th century), translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866). This is the second part of the translation by John Mason Neale of the poem, De Contemptu Mundi, by Bernard of Cluny or Morlaix (see ‘Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt, vigilemus’*; for Neale’s comments on the poem and its metre, see ‘Brief life is here our portion’*). The Latin text began ‘O bona patria, lumina sobria te speculantur’. The translation is from Neale’s Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences (1851). As with the first part, in this hymn the First Edition of A&M breaks up Neale’s continuous lines into 4-line stanzas. The first three stanzas are identical with Neale’s lines...