1 Mit Fried und Freud fahr ich dahin
in Gottes Wille;
getrost ist mir mein Herz und Sinn,
sanft und stille;
wie Gott mir verheißen hat,
der Tod ist mein Schlaf worden.
2 Das macht Christus, wahr Gottes Sohn,
der treue Heiland,
den du mich, Herr, hast sehen lan,
und machst bekannt,
daß er sei das Leben und Heil
in Noth und Sterben.
3 Den hast du allen vorgestellt
mit großen Gnaden;
zu seinem Reich die ganze Welt
heißen laden
durch dein theuer heilsam Wort,
an allem Ort erschollen.
4 Er ist das Heil und selig Licht
für die Heiden,
zu 'rleuchten, die dich kennen nicht,
und zu weiden.
Er ist dein's Volks Israel
der Preis, Ehr, Freud und Wonne.
Source: Evang.-Lutherisches Gesangbuch #679
First Line: | Mit Fried' und Freud' fahr' ich dahin |
Author: | Martin Luther |
Language: | German |
Copyright: | Public Domain |
Suggested tune: MIT FRIED UND FREUD
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Mit Pried und Freud ich fahr dahin. M. Luther. [Nunc Dimittis.] This free rendering of the Song of Simeon (St. Luke ii. 29-32) was first published in the Geystliche gesangh Buchleyn, Wittenberg, 1524, and was included by Luther in 1542 as one of the six funeral hymns in Christliche Geseng... zum Begrebniss. In Wackernagel, iii. p. 17, in 4 stanzas of 6lines; in Schircks's edition of Luther's Geistliche Lieder, 1854, p. 88; and in the Berlin Geistliche Leider, ed. 1863.
This noble swan-song, as Bunsen calls it, has comforted many, princes and pious Christians, in their last hours. Lauxmann, in Koch, viii. 580, gives various instances of its consoling effects, stating, e.g., that Prince Charles of Anhalt, during his last illness in 1561, comforted himself with it, and if with trembling voice, yet with joyful heart, sung the whole hymn a quarter of an hour before his death.
The translation in common use is:—
In peace and joy I now depart, According to. A full and good translation by Miss Winkworth, in her Chorale Book for England, 1863, No. 81, and her Christian Singers, 1869, p. 114. Considerably altered by Dr. Bacon, 1884, p. 41.
Other translations are :—(l) “With peace and with joyfull gladnasse," by Bishop Coverdale, 1539 (Remains, 1846, p. 566). (2) "Lord, let Thy servand now depart," in the Gude and Godly Ballates, ed. 1567-68, folio 30 (1868, p. 51). (3) "According to Thy will I part," in the British Magazine, March 1838, p. 269. (4) "With peace and joy from earth I go," by Miss Fry, 1845, p. 152. (5) "God's will be done! with joy of heart," by J. Anderson, 1846, p. 80. In his ed. 1847, p. 92, altered to "Thy will be done. With joyful heart." (6) "Gladly from earth and time I cease," by Dr. J. Hunt, 1853, p. 153. (7) "In peace and joy I now depart, It is," by R. Massie, 1854, p. 83. (8) " In peace and joy away I go," by Dr. G. Macdonald, in the Sunday Magazine, 1867, p. 840. In his Exotics, 1876, p. 109, beginning "In peace and joy I now depart, As." (9) "In joy and peace I onward fare," by N. L. Frothingham, 1870, p. 234. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)