Here is love, vast as the ocean

Here is love, vast as the ocean. William Rees* (1802-1883), translated by William Edwards (1848-1929) and Howell Elvet Lewis* (1860-1953).  This is Rees’s best known and finest hymn, dating from some time in the 1840s. In the manner of earlier Moravian and Methodist hymns, there is an intense focus on the shedding of Christ’s blood, which Rees explores through a series of water-inspired metaphors in the second stanza. Though Edwards’ translation is somewhat free, he faithfully preserves this powerful feature of the original Welsh: Dyma gariad fel y moroedd,                                       Here is love, vast as the ocean,Tosturiaethau fel y lli:...