Sator princepsque temporum / Creator, Lord of Time and Tide

Through the Year, Weeks 2 & 4, Tuesday Vespers
Translated 2005.

Sator princepsque temporum,
clarum diem laboribus
noctemque qui soporibus
fixo distinguis ordine.

Mentem tu castam dirige,
obscura ne silentia
ad dira cordis vulnera
telis patescant invidi.

Vacent ardore pectora,
faces nec ullas perferant,
quae nostro haerentes sensui
mentis vigorem saucient.

Praesta, Pater piissime,
Patrique compar Unice,
cum Spiritu Paraclito
regnans per omne saeculum. Amen.

Creator, Lord of time and tide,
The hours in order you divide:
For work, you give us daytime bright;
For rest, the quiet sleep of night.

The inner self keep pure from sin,
Lest silent darkness, deep within,
Expose the heart to wound and woe
From deadly arrows of the foe.

Let passion’s fire from us depart
Lest, burning hotly in the heart,
Its flames around our feelings bind,
And wound the vigor of the mind.

O grant it, Father, only Son,
And Holy Spirit with them one:
The God whom all things must obey,
Reigning in everlasting day. Amen.