it is truly Advent now* and fittingly enough, I have just learned that O Come, O Come, Emmanuel is a specific song for this season- for a long time though, I thought that it was one of many Christ Mass songs, but I was proven wrong (as I hope to do so for many others :)
A strange thing I have found though (well, maybe not so strange as this is a rather old hymn and all) is that there are so MANY different versions [translations really] of this song- and it has its basis in the Latin O Antiphons from the 8th century A.D.
Earlier, I had specifically sought out a line that is similar to this: "O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer Our spirits by Thine advent here" since I had heard that verse sung before in one of the radio-versions of this song [last year I believe] but when I looked for this verse in my Mom's Hymnal (she sings in the choir at Church♥) I found seven verses** to this song, but none that read as that line does.
Needless to say, I was quite perplexed- that is until I [hopped on Google] and [found something interesting] (actually, I read the first document that Google brought up which was a PDF- it explained a litte to me, and I became familiar with the concept of the Latin O Antiphons)
and so, I have learned a little of the history behind a song far more ancient than I
and happily so -yet, there is still so much for me to learn since this is still quite a mystery...
The seven verses as they are in the book I have at hand are as follows:
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Refrain: Re-joice! Re-joice! Emmanuel, shall come to thee, O Israel!
O come, Thou wisdom from on high,
Who ord'rest all~ things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.
(to refrain)
O come, O come, Thou Lord of might,
Who to thy tribes on Sinai's height
In ancient times didst give the law,
In cloud and majesty~ and awe.
(to refrain)
O come, Thou Rod of Jesse's stem,
From ev'ry foe deliver them
That trust thy mighty pow'r to save,
And give them vict'ry o'er the grave.
(to refrain)
O come, Thou Day-spring from on high
And cheer us by thy drawing nigh;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death's dark shadow put~ to flight.
(to refrain)
O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid thou our sad divisions cease,
And be thyself our Prince of Peace.
(to refrain)
(end)
*in it's second week of celebration as I posted this
**the hymnal which I used to look up the song is Choral Praise Comprehensive Second Edition from [OCP Publications] specifically, in the text it is found in the Advent section (right before Christ Mass :) on page 213 respectively.
and for now (as short as this is) is some of my meditations on Advent (I want to do more though, but it's time for dinner...)
-have a nice night all, and I'll see you later!~♥
****
EDIT: it took me long enough to post this! it's not even the same year that I intended to post this either, but I am glad that I did what I planned to do with this (although it is really laughable that it's so out of date, but I think that this will really be a boon to those who care to read blogs throughly and in chronological order too♥)
Anyway, this was finally posted here at 4:30pm+ Eastern Standard Time on Saturday- January 28th, 2006 though it was [already posted earlier somewhere else].
I'd laugh at myself, but I'm too hungry to do that now.
-Daiko~
(pray for me)
(please be well♥)