Odetta Holmes - O Jerusalem

O Jerusalem, golden city,
Robed in royal purple;
O edifice of highest excellence,
You are a light never darkened.

You are adorned in the dawn
And in the heat of the sun.
O blessed childhood
Which gleams in the dawn,
And fair youth,
Aflame in the sun.

For you, O noble Rupert,
Glitter in these like a gem.
You cannot be hidden
By human foolishness,
Just as a mountain
Cannot be hidden by a valley.

Your windows, Jerusalem,
Are carefully decorated
With topaz and sapphire.

In these windows you blaze, O Rupert,
And cannot be hidden by tepid mortals;
Just as a mountain cannot be hidden;
But instead crowned with roses,
Lilies and purple, in a true revelation.

O tender flower of the field,
O sweet juiciness of the apples,
O burden without weight,
Let none bend a head to their breast in guilt.

O noble vessel
Which was not polluted nor drained
In the ancient ceremony of the cave
And is not weakened
By wounds from the ancient destroyer.

In you sings the Holy Spirit,
With whom the angelic choir unites,
And through whom you are adorned
In the Son of God,
Having no stain upon you.

O Rupert, what a beautiful chalice you are,
For in your childhood and youth
You sighed after God in awe of God;
And in the tender embrace of Love,
You lived in the sweetest aroma of good deeds.

O Jerusalem, your foundation is laid
With burning stones,
Which are the tax-gatherers and sinners
Who were lost sheep,
But discovered by the Son of God
They ran to you, and were placed in you.

Thus your walls blaze with living stones,
Who with great efforts of good will
Have flown like clouds into the sky.

And so your towers, O Jerusalem,
Glitter and gleam with dawn,
And with sacred incandescence,
And with all the finery of God
Which you do not lack, O Jerusalem.

Therefore, O you adorned and crowned ones
Who live in Jerusalem,
And you, O Rupert,
Who are their companion in that dwelling,
Help us, who are serving and laboring in exile.