Good Friday 2007: War Requiem

From the libretto; poetry by Wilfred Owen:

Sanctus

Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus
Dominus Deus Sabaoth
Pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua,
Hosanna in excelsis.
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini
Hosanna in excelsis

After the blast of lighting from the East,
The flourish of loud clouds, the Chariot Throne;
After the drums of Time have rolled and ceased,
And by the bronze west long retreat is blown,
Shall life renew these bodies? Of a truth
All death will He annul, all tears assuage?—
Fill the void veins of Life again with youth,

And wash, with an immortal water, Age?
When I do ask white Age he saith not so:

"My head hangs weighed with snow"
And when I hearken to the Earth, she saith:
"My fiery heart shrinks, aching. It is death.
Mine ancient scars shall not be glorified,
Nor my titanic tears, the sea, be dried."


Agnus Dei

One ever hangs where shelled roads part.

In this war He too lost a limb,

But His disciples hide apart;
And now the Soldiers bear with Him.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi,
dona eis requiem.

Near Golgotha strolls many a priest,
And in their faces there is pride
That they were flesh-marked by the Beast
By whom the gentle Christ's denied.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi,
dona eis requiem.

The scribes on all the people shove
and bawl allegiance to the state,

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi. . . .

But they who love the greater love
Lay down their life, they do not hate.

. . . Dona eis requiem sempiternam
Dona nobis pacem.