Gerard Manley Hopkins' Godhead Here in Hiding
poetic translation of St. Thomas Aquinas' Adoro Te Devote
- Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore,
- Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
- See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart
- Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.
- Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived:
- How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed;
- What God’s Son has told me, take for truth I do;
- Truth himself speaks truly or there’s nothing true.
- On the cross thy godhead made no sign to men,
- Here thy very manhood steals from human ken:
- Both are my confession, both are my belief,
- And I pray the prayer of the dying thief.
- I am not like Thomas, wounds I cannot see,
- But can plainly call thee Lord and God as he;
- Let me to a deeper faith daily nearer move,
- Daily make me harder hope and dearer love.
- O thou our reminder of Christ crucified,
- Living Bread, the life of us for whom he died,
- Lend this life to me then: feed and feast my mind,
- There be thou the sweetness man was meant to find.
- Bring the tender tale true of the Pelican;
- Bathe me, Jesu Lord, in what thy bosom ran—
- Blood whereof a single drop has power to win
- All the world forgiveness of its world of sin.
- Jesu, whom I look at shrouded here below,
- I beseech thee send me what I thirst for so,
- Some day to gaze on thee face to face in light
- And be blest for ever with thy glory’s sight. Amen.
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