Minnumz á hvat unni
öðlingr í píningu
árs, þá er orð slík heyrum,
oss deyjandi á krossi.
Leiðum hörð á hauðri
hjarta várs með tárum,
systkin mín, fyr sjónir
siðgætis meinlæti.
Minnumz á, þá er heyrum slík orð, hvat öðlingr árs, deyjandi á krossi, unni oss í píningu. Systkin mín, leiðum hörð meinlæti siðgætis á hauðri fyr várs hjarta sjónir með tárum.
Let us remember, when we hear such words, how the prince of the year’s abundance [= Christ], dying on the Cross, loved us in his Passion. My brothers and sisters, let us bring the hard torments of the faith-guardian [= God (= Christ)] on earth before our heart’s eyes with tears.
[5-8] leiðum ... fyr várs hjarta sjónir ... meinlæti ‘let us bring ... before our heart’s eyes ... the torments’: The idiom is leiða e-t augum ‘to lead something to the eyes, to make something the object of sight’ (see e.g. Hym 13/7-8 [NK 90] and Fritzner: leiða 7). This seems to be the only occurrence with fyr(ir) (but cf. setja fyr augu ‘set before the eyes’ 42/4); it may suggest not only bringing but holding the object before one in sustained contemplation. — [6-7] hjarta sjónir ‘heart’s eyes’: Sjón ‘sight, appearance’ > ‘faculty of sight’ > ‘eye’. Rydberg makes hjarta part of a kenning for God: várs hjarta siðgætis ‘virtue-guardian of our heart’. But hjarta sjónir translates the oculi cordis ‘eyes of the heart’ of Eph. I.18, which occurs also in the liturgy (Manz 1941, 330, no. 653).