Nisi Dominus
Nisi Dominus ædificaverit domum,
in vanum laboraverunt qui ædificant eam.
Nisi Dominus custodierit civitatem,
frustra vigilat qui custodit eam.
Vanum est vobis ante lucem surgere:
surgite postquam sederitis,
qui manducatis panem doloris.
Cum dederit dilectis suis somnum,
ecce hæreditas Domini,
filii, merces, fructus ventris.
Sicut sagittæ in manu potentis,
ita filii excussorum.
Beatus vir qui implevit desiderium suum ex ipsis:
non confundetur cum loquetur inimicis suis in porta.
Gloria patri et filio
et spiritui sancto.
Sicut erat in principio
et nunc et semper
in secula seculorum
Amen
- Collection
- Vespro della Beata Vergine
- Author
-
Monteverdi, Claudio
Cremona, 1567 - Venezia, 1643
Period: Baroque - Genre
- Mottetto
- Voices and instruments
- a cinque voci SATQB, per doppio coro
- Area
- Sacred
- Language
- Latino
- Translation
-
Unless the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it. Unless the Lord keep the city, he watcheth in vain that keepeth it. It is vain for you to rise before light, rise ye after you have sitten, you that eat the bread of sorrow. When he shall give sleep to his beloved, behold the inheritance of the Lord are children: the reward, the fruit of the womb. As arrows in the hand of the mighty, so the children of them that have been shaken. Blessed is the man that hath filled the desire with them; he shall not be confounded when he shall speak to his enemies in the gate. Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, As it was in the beginning, and now and always, and to ages of ages. Amen.