prudent omissions," would scarcely give a fair idea of the liberties which have in reality been taken with it.
From that cento I translated the larger part, in the first edition of the present book, following the arrangement of Dean Trench, not of Bernard. The great popularity which my translation, however inferior to the original, attained, is evinced by the very numerous hymns compiled from it, which have found their way into modern collections; so that, in some shape or other, the Cluniac's verses have become, as it were, naturalized among us. This led me to think that a fuller extract from the Latin, and a further translation into English, might not be unacceptable to the lovers of sacred poetry.
It was published separately, and, by the kind leave of the publisher, is now reprinted here.
I have here deviated from my ordinary rule of adopting the measure of the original:—because our language, if it could be tortured to any distant resemblance of its rhythm, would utterly fail to give any idea of the majestic sweetness which invests it in Latin. Its difficulty in that language is such that Bernard, in a preface, expresses his belief that nothing but the special inspiration of the Spirit of God could have enabled him to employ it through so long a poem. It is a dactylic hexameter, divided into three parts, between which a cæsura is inadmissible. The hexameter has a tailed rhyme, and feminine leonine rhyme between the two first clauses, thus:
Tunc nova gloria ‖ pectora sobria ‖ clarificabit:
Solvit enigmata ‖ veraque sabbata ‖ continuabit.
Patria luminis ‖ inscia turbinis, ‖ insda litis
Cive replebitur, ‖ amplificabitur ‖ Israelitis.
