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.