Here Is Joy For Every One

Here Is Joy For Every One

Ecce, novum gaudium

For Christmas

Latin words and melody from Piæ Cantiones, 1582.
English Translation by the Rev. Ronald Knox.
See: Ecce, novum gaudium

Source: Richard Runciman Terry, Two Hundred Folk Carols (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne Limited, 1933), Carol #163, pp. 8-9.

1. Here is joy for ev'ry one; Here is wondrous shewing;
Mary Mother bears a Son, no man ever knowing;
No man ever knowing like the wheat a-growing,
Like the reeds a-blowing, springs that lowly One;
See how nature quaketh and her laws unmaketh
When our flesh He taketh, God's own Holy One.

2. God, that saw us pitiful, Adam's ruined bower,
Bade that Rose most beautiful 'mid the thorns to flower;
'Mid the thorns to flower – she, whose queenly dower
Unto earth doth shower grace and benison;
See how nature quaketh, and her laws unmaketh,
When our flesh He taketh, God's own Holy One.

3. In no wise God's charity might be more commended;
Higher our humanity nowise have ascended;
Nowise have ascended – Man of God befriended,
With His Nature blended, in heaven's union;
See how nature quaketh, and her laws unmaketh,
When our flesh He taketh, God's own Holy One.

1. Ecce, novum gaudium, Ecce, novum mirum!
Virgo parit filium, quae non novit virum,
Quae non novit virum, sed ut pirus pirum,

Gleba fert papyrum, florens lilium.
Ecce, quod natura mutat sua iura!
Virgo parit pura Dei Filium.

2. Mundum Deus flebilem cernens in ruina,
Rosam delectabilem produxit de spina,
Produxit de spina natum de regina,
Qui est medicina, salus gentium.
Ecce, quod natura mutat sua iura,
Virgo parit pura Dei Filium.

3. Nequivit divinitas plus humiliari,
Nec nostra carnalitas magis exaltari,
Magis exaltari, Deo coæquari,
Caelo collocari, per coniugium.
Ecce, quod natura mutat sua iura,
Virgo parit pura Dei Filium.

Sheet Music from Richard Runciman Terry, Two Hundred Folk Carols (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne Limited, 1933), Carol #163, pp. 8-9.

Note from Rev. Terry:

This carol – in an abbreviated form, and “Englished” by Dr. Neale – has become popular throughout the English-speaking world. But Neale's verses, though beautiful as poetry, are inadequate as a translation, hence the present one which follows the original more closely.

Editor's Note:

The version by Rev. John Mason Neale is Here Is Joy For Every Age.

A single copy of Piæ Cantiones found its way into the hands of Rev. John Mason Neale and Rev. Thomas Helmore in 1853, and from this exceptionally rare volume an immense amount of music was saved from oblivion. For more information, see Piæ Cantiones.

The Latin given by Rev. Terry is the same as was found in Dreves & Blume, Ecce, novum gaudium.

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