| Lyrics | Poetic Translation | |
|---|---|---|
| Ut queant laxis | Uttering praises, | |
| resonare fibris | Raising songs of your feats, | |
| mira gestorum | Meekly your servants | |
| famuli tuorum, | Falter in our errors. | |
| solve polluti | Souls that are filthy | |
| labiis reatum, | Launder of offenses, | |
| sancte Joannes. | Saint John the Baptist. | |
| Nuntius celso | You were not born yet | |
| veniens Olympo, | When there came an angel | |
| te patri magnum | To tell your father | |
| fore nasciturum, | Tidings of your greatness. | |
| nomen, et vitae | What he must name you | |
| seriem gerendae, | And your way of living: | |
| ordine promit. | All were predestined. | |
| Ille promissi | Your skeptic father, | |
| dubius superni | Doubting Heaven's promise, | |
| perdidit promptae | Promptly and fully | |
| modulos loquelae; | Lost all voice and language; | |
| sed reformasti | But what was taken, | |
| genitus peremptae | Ruined past all healing: | |
| organa vocis. | Your birth restored it. | |
| Ventris obstrus | Deep in your mother, | |
| recubans cubili, | From her womb you sensed it; | |
| senseras Regem | It was the presence | |
| thalamo manentem: | Of the unborn Savior. | |
| hinc parens, nati, | Thus to your parents, | |
| meritis, uterque, | You, before delivery, | |
| abdita pandit. | Revealed the hidden. | |
| Sit decus Patri, | We praise the Father | |
| genitaeque proli | And the Son begotten; | |
| et tibi, compare | We praise the Spirit, | |
| utriusque virtus, | Who has equal power. | |
| Spiritus semper, | One God and holy | |
| Deus unus, omni | For all times and seasons, | |
| Temporis aevo. | All generations. | |
| Amen. | Amen. | |
| Paulus Diaconus | Carol Anne Perry Lagemann |
See translation at Choral Public Domain Library.
This piece is the source of the syllables used in the Guidonian hexachord: ut, re, mi, fa, sol, and la (the first syllable of the first six lines).