Morales: Parce mihi domine

Exquisite.



 This piece comes from Morales' Officium Defunctorum (i.e, the Office for the Dead).   It's called "The First Reading" in that work; the text orginally comes from the original monastic/ecclesial Office for the Dead, and is indeed the first reading used at the First Nocturne, said on Monday and Thursday.

The citation is from Job:

Parce mihi, Domine, nihil enim sunt dies mei.
Quid est homo, quia magnificas eum? Aut quid apponis erga eum cor tuum?
Visitas eum diluculo et subito probas illum.
Usquequo non parcis mihi, nec dimittis me, ut glutiam salivam meam?
Peccavi, quid faciam tibi, o custos hominum? Quare posuisti me contrarium tibi, et factus sum mihimet issi gravis?
Cur non tolles peccatum meum, et quare non auferes iniquitatem meam? Ecce, nunc in pulvere dormiam, et si mane me quaesieris, non subsistam.

Let me alone; for my days are vanity.
What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?
And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment?
How long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?
I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? why hast thou set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself?
And why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.

HT RSM.