Dec 28 2006
The Virgin’s Cradle-Hymn
We have a special someone in our house who turned 15 today! The past few days, I’ve been wondering what the Blessed Virgin may have sung while she rocked the Baby Jesus to sleep. Although we’ll probably never know that, I did find this one, “The Virgin’s Cradle-Hymn”. It is a Latin hymn originally found on a print of the Virgin Mary in Germany, and translated by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (better known for such poems as “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and “Kubla Khan“). It was published in 1817, in “Sibylline Leaves”.
Sleep, sweet babe! my cares beguiling:
Mother sits beside thee smiling;
Sleep, my darling, tenderly!
If thou sleep not, mother mourneth,
Singing as her wheel she turneth:
Come, soft slumber, balmily! 
Dormi, Jesu! Mater ridet
Quae tam dulcem somnum videt,
Dormi, Jesu! blandule!
Si non dormis, Mater plorat,
Inter fila cantans orat,
Blande, veni, somnule.
You may listen to the hymn in Latin Here, performed by the Dale Warland Singers.
