Brief life is here our portion,
Brief sorrow, short-lived care:
The life that knows no ending,
The tearless life, is there
O happy retribution:
Short toil, eternal rest;
For mortals and for sinners
A mansion with the blest!

And now we fight the battle,
But then shall wear the crown
Of full and everlasting
And passionless renown.
And now we watch and struggle,
And now we live in hope,
And Sion in her anguish
With Babylon must cope.

But he whom now we trust in
Shall then be seen and known,
And they that know and see him
Shall have him for their own.
The morning shall awaken,
The shadows shall decay,
And each true-hearted servant
Shall shine as doth the day.

There God, our King and portion,
In fulness of his grace,
Shall we behold for ever,
And worship face to face.
Then all the halls of Sion
For ay shall be complete,
And in the Land of Beauty
All things of beauty meet.


Bernard of Cluny (12th Century)
tr. J. M. Neale (1818-66)