Ah! Lord God, the World's Creator

Representative Text

1. Ah! Lord God, the world’s Creator,
King of all, great or small,
Earth’s Regenerator;
Art Thou cradled, art Thou crying,
Swathed and bound, on the ground,
In the stable lying?

2. Love of man hath brought Me hither,
Cords of love, from above,
To exalt him thither;
Dead in trespass, child, I sought thee;
Gone astray, from My way,
Life and pardon brought thee.

3. Empty be My scrip and coffer,
Yet ’tis wealth, plenty, health,
I am come to offer;
Haste I to enrich and dress thee;
Born to die, low I lie,
And would gladly bless thee.

4. Therefore thousand thousand praises
Are Thy due, Babe Jesu,
These my heart upraises;
Angels, mortals, furthest, nighest,
Sing in mirth, Peace on earth,
Glory in the highest.

Source: The Cyber Hymnal #82

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Author: Jean Mauburn

(no biographical information available about Jean Mauburn.) Go to person page >

Translator (from Latin): George Ratcliffe Woodward

Educated at Caius College in Cambridge, England, George R. Woodward (b. Birkenhead, Cheshire, England, 1848; d. Highgate, London, England, 1934) was ordained in the Church of England in 1874. He served in six parishes in London, Norfolk, and Suffolk. He was a gifted linguist and translator of a large number of hymns from Greek, Latin, and German. But Woodward's theory of translation was a rigid one–he held that the translation ought to reproduce the meter and rhyme scheme of the original as well as its contents. This practice did not always produce singable hymns; his translations are therefore used more often today as valuable resources than as congregational hymns. With Charles Wood he published three series of The Cowley Carol Book (19… Go to person page >

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Text Information

First Line: Ah! Lord God, the world's Creator
Title: Ah! Lord God, the World's Creator
Latin Title: Heu quid jaces stabulo
Author: Jean Mauburn (1494)
Translator (from Latin): George Ratcliffe Woodward (1904)
Meter: 8.3.3.6 D
Language: English
Notes: Rosetum Exercitiorum Spiritualium et Sacrarum Meditationum, 1494 (Eia mea anima, Bethlehem eamus). Translated from Latin to English in Songs of Syon, 1904
Copyright: Public Domain
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The Cyber Hymnal #82
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The Cyber Hymnal #82

The Cyber Hymnal #82
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