Jesu, Son of Mary

Jesu, Son of Mary. Edmund Stuart Palmer* (1856-1931). This moving funeral hymn was originally written in Swahili sometime before 1901, during Palmer’s first period in Africa. It was written for the Requiem of a colleague in the UMCA. According to Frost (1962, p. 381) it was included in the Mission’s Swahili Hymn Book, but it is not in Kitabu cha Sala za Kanuni ilivyo desturi ya kanisa la unguja (Swahili Zanzibar prayer and hymns) (SPCK, 1950). The Swahili text has ten four-line stanzas. The English version is in four eight-line stanzas, normally divided. Part 1 is a single stanza of adoration: ‘Jesus, Son of Mary/ Fount of life alone’. This is followed by Part 2, with three eight-line...