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Spiritual songs > Hymns of the Great Fast>

Do not forsake us

Current version

Here is the version Father Levkulic's Hymns for Great Lent:

This translation of Ne opuskaj nas is by Father William Levkulic. See this article for the Slavonic.

Discussion

This hymn is less well-known than others in our Lenten repertoire, but it may be more suitable to a season of repentence than some of the hymns specifically for the Passion of Christ.

In the refrain, "Lord" is actually "Bože" (God) in the original hymn, and I am inclined to change to "God" here as well.

As written, the hymn is in fairly strict 3/2 meter, but it might be better re-organized into measures of varying length.

Cantor Joseph Ferenchick provided a copy of the hymn as sung in Minersville, PA by Professor Paul Konkus, which follows more closely the melody in Andrew Sokol's Plain Chant (where this song is placed in a section of hymns to the Sacred Heart of Jesus). I think the original English verse 1 in Levkulic flows a bit better, but I did adopt the musical phrasing from Sokol. Here it is in Slavonic:

and in English:

It is still an open question whether "Bozhe" in the refrain should be "Lord"- USUALLY when we simply say "God" in English, without a qualified, we mean either God the Father, or the Holy Trinity. Since the verse here is directed to Christ, "Lord" may be the best choice.

Thoughts or suggestions?

Please leave a comment on this blog entry: Songs for the Great Fast.