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by St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1091 - 1153)
Translation by Edward Caswall (1814 - 1878)

Jesus, the very thought of Thee
Language: English  after the Latin 
Jesus, the very thought of Thee,
With sweetness fills my breast;
But sweeter far Thy Face to see
And in Thy presence rest.

Nor voice can sing, nor heart can frame,
Nor can the memory find
A sweeter sound than Thy blest Name,
O Saviour of mankind!

O Hope of every contrite heart,
O joy of all the meek,
To those who fall, how kind Thou art,
How good to those who seek.

My tongue and words cannot express,
Their usefulness is low
But having felt is to believe,
sweet Jesus' love to know.

Jesus, our only joy be Thou,
As Thou our prize wilt be;
O Jesus, be our glory now
And through eternity. Amen.

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

  • by Edward Caswall (1814 - 1878), written 1849 [an adaptation] [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Based on:

  • a text in Latin by St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1091 - 1153)
    • Go to the text page.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

    [ None yet in the database ]


Researcher for this page: Lau Kanen [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2007-05-13
Line count: 20
Word count: 116

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