The Vanity of the World (Miranda Vanitas) - Bernard of Clairvaux

O the wondrous vanity 

That the heart bewitches! 

Bitter poison 'tis to be 

All absorbed in riches. 

Thoughtless man, oh tell me why 

This unholy yearning 

For the wealth that passeth by 

Swift as flax in burning? 

Think, O miserable man, 

Sure is death's dark hour; 

Who, since first the world began, 

Has escaped its power? 

When we are to pass away — 

None that truth may borrow, — 

This we know, — the quick today 

May be dead to-morrow. 

While on death thus musing, I 

Feel a grief unbidden;— 

True it is that I must die, 

And my time is hidden; 

But when I shall pass away, — 

From the world be riven, 

Give me, Lord, a place, I pray, 

With thy saints in Heaven.

---

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) France

Translated by Daniel Joseph Donahoe

Source: Early Christian hymns, Series II: translations of the verses of the early and middle ages

by Daniel Joseph Donahoe, Donahoe pub. co, 1911