Most of our hymns to the Mother of God are supplications – requests for her aid and protection. This song, on the other hand, is an extended praise of Mary the Theotokos in her heavenly glory; it is most frequently sung in connection with the feast of her Dormition on August 15.
Here is the version in the Marian Hymnal (1984):
And here is the Slavonic.
Discussion
The refrain, of course, IS a supplication, but even there it names her “heaven’s Queen.”
Thoughts or suggestions?
Please leave a comment!
Of course, in the last two lines of the English version, “Mary” rhymed with “thee” in the original, but decidedly does not rhyme with “you”. Apparently somebody thought that we’re not smart enough to understand that “thee” is a somewhat old-fashioned singular form of the object “you”. I would restore “thee”.
If the hymn were only a few years old, I would agree with you. But at this point, changing it would likely mean that people were singing both words, every time.
The situation is a little different in the Paschal hymn, Christ is risen, where the first was changed long ago to rhymne with “Christ is risen” instead of “Christos voskres”, but the remaining verses were left alone. There I changed the refrain for verses 2-4 back to “Christos voskres” – since the congregation, having sung it once in English, is now clued in to what the Slavonic means even if it is the first time they have come to our church.