Dies natalis, Op. 8: 5. The Salutation (Aria) [1990 Remaster] (1990 Remaster)

5. The Salutation (Aria) (1990 Remaster) - Wilfred Brown/English Chamber Orchestra/Christopher Finzi

These little limbs these eyes and hands which here I find

This panting heart where with my life begins

Where have ye been behind what curtain

Were ye from me hid so long

Where was in what abyss my new-made tongue

When silent I so many thousand thousand years

Beneath the dust did in a chaos lie

How could I smiles or tears

Or lips or hands or eyes or ears perceive

Welcome ye treasures which I now receive

From dust I rise and out of nothing now awake

These brighter regions which salute my eyes

A gift from God I take the earth

The seas the light the lofty skies

The sun and stars are mine if these I prize

A stranger here strange things doth meet strange glory see

Strange treasures lodged in this fair world appear

Strange all and new to me

But that they mine should be who nothing was

That strangest is of all yet brought to pass