Hail, nobly born, hail, honoured and inviolate,
you Maiden are the piercing gaze of chastity,
you the material of holiness—
the one who pleasèd God.
For heaven’s flood poured into you
as heaven’s Word was clothed in flesh in you.
You are the lily, gleaming white, upon which God
has fixed his gaze before all else created.
O beautiful, O sweet!
How deep is that delight that God received in you,
when ‘round you he enwrapped his warm embrace,
so that his Son was suckled at your breast.
Your womb rejoiced
as from you sounded forth the whole celestial symphony.
For as a virgin you have borne the Son of God—
in God your chastity shone bright.
Your flesh rejoiced
just as a blade of grass on which the dew has fall’n,
viridity within it to infuse—just so it happened unto you,
O mother of all joy!
So now in joy gleams all the Church like dawn,
resounds in symphony
because of you, the Virgin sweet
and worthy of all praise, Maria,
God’s mother. Amen.
Saint Hildegard of Bingen (1098 – 1179) Germany
Translated by Nathaniel M. Campbell
Source: International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Studies
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