As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
Psalm 103:15–16
Words: John of Damascus (675–749) (Ποία τοῦ βίού τρυϕὴ διαμένει λύπης ἀμέτοχος). Translated from Greek to English by J. Athelstan Riley in The English Hymnal (London: Oxford University Press, 1906), number 361.
Music: Christus, der ist mein Leben Melchior Vulpius, 1609 (🔊 pdf nwc).
What sweet of life endureth
Unmixed with bitter pain?
’Midst earthly change and chances
What glory doth remain?
All is a feeble shadow,
A dream that will not stay;
Death cometh in a moment,
And taketh all away.
O Christ, a light transcendent
Shines in Thy countenance,
And none can tell the sweetness,
The beauty of Thy glance.
In this may Thy poor servant
His joy eternal find;
Thou calledst him, O rest him,
Thou lover of mankind!