Sunday, June 29, 2025

"Herr Jesu, dir sei Preis" (#199)

German text in the Gesangbuch:
1 Herr Jesu, dir sei Preis und Dank
für diese Seelenspeis und Trank,
damit du uns begabet;
in Brod [sic] und Wein dein Leib und Blut
kommt uns wahrhaftig sehr zu gut
und unsre Herzen labet,
daß wir
baß dir
in dem allen
wohl gefallen,
heilig leben;
solches wollest du uns geben.

2 Ach Herr, laß uns doch nehmen nicht
dein werthes Nachtmahl zum Gericht!
Ein jeder recht bedenke,
daß wir mit diesem Lebensbrod
im Glauben stillen unsre Noth,
der Fels des Heils uns tränke,
züchtig,
tüchtig
dich dort oben
stets zu loben,
bis wir werden
zu dir kommen von der Erden.

3 O, daß wir solcher Seligkeit
erwarten möchten allezeit
in Hoffnung und Vertrauen
und folgends aus dem Jammerthal
gelangen in den Himmelssal,
da wir Gott werden schauen,
tröstlich,
köstlich
uns als Gäste
auf das beste
bei ihm laben
und ganz volle Gnüge haben.

Dr. Bernh. Derschau, +1639.
My prose translation:
1 Lord Jesus, to You be praise and thanks
For this food and drink of the soul
Which You have given us;
In the bread and wine, Your body and blood
Actually comes to us, very much for our good
And revives our hearts
So that we
Want to
Please You
Most of all
[And] to live holy;
Such do You want us to give.

2 O Lord, let us however take
Your worthy meal not merely as a meal!
Let everyone consider rightly
That we with this bread of life
In faith ease our distress,
The rock of salvation drunk for us,
Virtuous,
Efficient,
You there above
To praise constantly
Until we will
Come to You from the earth.

3 Oh, that we may always expect
Such blessedness
In hope and confidence
And following the vale of tears
Reach the hall of Heaven,
Where we will look upon God;
Comfortably,
Delightfully
As guests
On the best
Revive ourselves with Him
And be quite full of satisfaction.

Dr. Bernh. Derschau, +1639.
The phrase "Seelenspeis und Trank" in the first verse is really "food of the soul and drink," but I shuffled this around a bit to get "food and drink of the soul," which is obviously the intent.  I'm not very confident in my translation of "daß wir / baß dir / in dem allen / wohl gefallen" as "So that we / Want to / Please You / Most of all," and the frequent line breaks there didn't help any.  If I understand correctly, there's an ambiguity in the line "solches wollest du uns geben."  I translated it as "Such do You want us to give," but I think "Such do You want to give to us" is also a valid translation.  "Uns" could be either accusative (setting up an indirect statement with the infinitive "geben") or dative.

I made some changes to the lines "Ach Herr, laß uns doch nehmen nicht / dein werthes Nachtmahl zum Gericht!" at the beginning of the second verse to get closer to what I think the intent was.  As they stand, the lines mean something like "O Lord, let us however not take / Your worthy meal as a meal!"  I moved the adverb "not" (how the meal is to be taken is what should be negated, not the taking itself) and supplied "merely" for clarification, resulting in "O Lord, let us however take / Your worthy meal not merely as a meal!"

As far as I can tell, this hymn isn't in The Lutheran Hymnal, Lutheran Worship, or The Lutheran Service Book.  According to the Gesangbuch, the text is sung to the tune "Wie schön leuchtet der M[orgenstern]."  Here's the TLH arrangement:


And here's an arrangement from Telemann's Fast allgemeines Evangelisch-Musicalisches Lieder-Buch: