Pedro de Escobar (Oporto, 1465- Évora, 1535
Himno para la Epifanía
Hostis Herodes, impie
Christum venire quid times?
Non eripit mortalia,
qui regna dat celestia.
Ibant Magi, quam viderant,
stellam sequentes praeviam:
Lumen requirunt lumine:
Deum fatentur munere.
Lavacra puri gurgitis
caelestis Agnus attigit:
peccata, quae non detulit,
nos abluendo sustulit.
Novum genus potentiae,
aquae rubescunt hydriae:
vinumque iussa fundere,
mutavit unda originem.
Iesu, tibi sit gloria,
qui apparuisti gentibus,
cum Patre et almo Spiritu,
in sempiterna saecula.
Hymn for Epiphany
Why, impious Herod, vainly fear
that Christ the Savior cometh here?
He takes no earthly realms away
Who gives the crown that lasts for aye.
To greet His birth the Wise Men went,
led by the star before them sent;
called on by light, towards Light they pressed,
and by their gifts their God confessed.
In holy Jordan’s purest wave
the heavenly Lamb vouchsafed to lave;
That He, to whom was sin unknown,
might cleanse His people from their own.
New miracle of power divine!
The water reddens into wine:
He spake the word: and poured the wave
in other streams than nature gave.
All glory, Lord, to Thee we pay
for Thine Epiphany today;
all glory as is ever meet,
to Father and to Paraclete.
Performers: QUODLIBET
Images: Renaissance and Baroque Spanish Art