Deedee, thank you, very much appreciated!


Contemplando tu amor

Contemplando tu amor,
Tu tristeza, tu dolor,
Tu constancia en la oración,
En vencer la tentación:
Sólo en ti vencer podré.
Salvador, aýudame.

Por tu gran fidelidad
A la eterna voluntad,
Por la sangre y el sudor
De tu noche de dolor:
Sólo en ti vencer podré.
Salvador, aýudame.

Por tu muerte, ¡oh Jesús!
En la vergonzosa cruz,
Y por tu resurrección,
Y gloriosa ascensión:
Sólo en ti vencer podré.
Salvador, aýudame.

@lagunaredbob, I have in my library over 20 Spanish-language hymnals. I have several more in PDF format. I did not discover a translation of "Go to Dark Gethsemane" in any of them.

At the turn of the 20th century, when this hymn text was at the height of its popularity in Protestant hymnals, there were three outstanding churchmen producing translations of English-language hymnody for use in Spanish-speaking Protestant churches: Tomás M. Westrup (1837-1909), Juan Bautista Cabrera (1837-1916), and Federico Fleidner (1845-1901). That none of them translated "Go to Dark Gethsemane," so popular at the time, may indicate that they thought the task too daunting, or even impossible.

Below is “Go to Dark Jerusalem,” by James Montgomery, 1771-1854, in a slightly updated version of his 1825 text, as published in the 2006 Lutheran Service Book:

1 Go to dark Gethsemane,
All who feel the tempter's pow'r;
Your Redeemer's conflict see;
Watch with Him one bitter hour;
Turn not from His griefs away;
Learn from Jesus Christ to pray.

2 Follow to the judgment hall,
View the Lord of life arraigned;
Oh, the wormwood and the gall!
Oh, the pangs His soul sustained!
Shun not suff'ring, shame, or loss;
Learn from Him to bear the cross.

3 Calv'ry's mournful mountain climb;
There, adoring at His feet,
Mark the miracle of time,
God's own sacrifice complete.
"It is finished!" Hear the cry;
Learn from Jesus Christ to die.

4 Early hasten to the tomb
Where they laid his breathless clay;
All is solitude and gloom.
Who has taken Him away?
Christ is ris'n! He meets our eyes.
Savior, teach us so to rise.

Now contrast that text to this literal translation of “Contemplando tu amor,” which you posted:

Contemplating your love,
Your sadness, your pain,
Your constancy in prayer,
(Your) overcoming temptation:
Only in you will I be able to triumph.
Savior, help me.

In your unfailing loyalty
To the eternal will,
By the blood and sweat
Of your night of pain:
Only in you will I be able to triumph.
Savior, help me.

By your death, O Jesus,
On the shameful cross,
And by your resurrection
And glorious ascension:
Only in you will I be able to triumph.
Savior, help me.

Immediately apparent is the fact that "Contemplando" is not a translation of "Go to Dark Gethsemane."

I'll say no more about whether I think this hymn is appropriate for Catholic worship.

A penny for your thoughts...

Only if you show me yours first.

Pennies ... from heaven?

It is not a liturgy where we sing various forms of "Were You There" hymns and feel sorry for Jesus.

I don't think liturgists are going to have much luck preventing these emotions at the veneration of the cross. For which I'm pretty thankful. The reproaches aren't exactly stolid themselves.

Thanks for the correction, Chuck. It's been fixed.

And, yes, "Were You There" and "O Sacred Head" (and, God forbid, "Lord, Let Me Walk" and even worse) will probably get more play on Good Friday than The Reproaches or the Crux Fidelis. It's not a question of liturgists being ignored; rather, the liturgy of Good Friday is being ignored when some turn the Passion proclamation into a Passion Play, when sentimentality replaces profound and ancient musical texts, when the homily is skipped because "you poor people have just had to stand through that long and boring reading."

... whereas "Were You There?" makes me feel sorry for the congregation.

Kathy: The reproaches are likely to make people feel

disgust for myself.