In keeping with both the season and today’s feast of the Immaculate Conception, here is Mateo Flecha el Viejo’s “Riu, Riu, Chiu,” performed by the Oxford Camerata. (The first and sixth verses are particularly relevant, if this version has the complete sequence. My Spanish is a bit rusty. Which means I don’t know any.)
Translation:
The furious wolf tried to bite her,
but Almighty God protected her well:
He made her in such a way that she could know no sin,
A virgin unstained by our first father’s fault.This newborn Child is a mighty monarch,
The patriarchal Christ clothed in flesh;
He redeemed us by making Himself tiny;
He who was infinite became finite.Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
Sign up to get Crisis articles delivered to your inbox daily
Many prophecies foretold His coming,
And now in our time we have seen them fulfilled.
God became man, we see Him on earth
And we see man in heaven because He loved him.I saw a thousand young men singing as they flew,
Making a thousand sounds, chanting to Basques:
“Glory be in the heavens,
and peace on earth, now Jesus is born!”He comes to give life to the dead
and to atone for man’s fall:
This very Babe is the Light of Day,
The Lamb of whom St. John spoke.Look to it! it concerns you all:
God made her a mere mother;
He who was her father was born of her today;
And He who created her calls himself her Son.Now we have gained what we desired
Let us go together to present to Him our gifts;
Let each resign his will to the God who was willing
To come down to earth to become man’s equal.