{"id":59487,"date":"2022-03-17T01:15:39","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T06:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=59487"},"modified":"2022-03-22T13:55:13","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T18:55:13","slug":"and-if-you-seek-my-sin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/17\/and-if-you-seek-my-sin\/","title":{"rendered":"And If You Seek My Sin"},"content":{"rendered":"

In May 2021, I presented a Sunday hymn from the German hymnal Gotteslob<\/em> in its 2013 edition for Pray Tell<\/em><\/a>. The Gotteslob<\/em> also provides interesting new material for Lent. In my eyes, the hymn Und suchst du meine S\u00fcnde<\/em> is one of the most inspiring pieces in this area. This three-stanza song is based on a poem by Schalom Ben-Chorin (1913\u20141999), one of the most important figures in the Christian-Jewish dialogue in Germany after the Shoah.<\/span><\/p>\n

The text is highly philosophical-theological-poetic, very condensed, elliptic, almost enigmatic, with a fine rhythm of long and short, stressed and unstressed German syllables. Hence a translation is not easy without losing too much of the original, but at least I want to try to translate the general meaning of the sentences into English:<\/span><\/p>\n

Und suchst du meine S\u00fcnde,
\n<\/em>flieh ich von dir zu dir,
\n<\/em>Ursprung, in den ich m\u00fcnde,
\n<\/em>du fern und nah bei mir.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Wie ich mich wend und drehe,<\/em>
\ngeh ich von dir zu dir,<\/em>
\ndie Ferne und die N\u00e4he<\/em>
\nsind aufgel\u00f6set hier.<\/em><\/p>\n

Von dir zu dir mein Schreiten,<\/em>
\nmein Weg und meine Ruh,<\/em>
\nGericht und Gnad, die beiden,<\/em>
\nbist du und immer du.<\/em><\/p>\n

And if you seek my sin,
\nI flee from you to you,
\nsource into which I flow,
\nyou far and near to me.<\/p>\n

How I twist and turn,
\nI go from you to you,
\nthe distance and the near
\nare here resolved.<\/p>\n

From you to you my step,
\nmy path and my rest,
\nboth judgment and grace
\nare you and always you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Christian Dostal, church musician from Regensburg, composed the melody with clearly recognizable allusions to typical keys of Jewish music. The Protestant (Lutheran) Evangelisches Gesangbuch<\/em> had introduced the same hymn in 1993 with a different melody by Kurt Bossler. The Dostal version is probably the most complex melody in the entire Gotteslob,<\/em> and that might be one of the reasons why I have never yet heard Und suchst du meine S\u00fcnde<\/em> sung in a Catholic parish liturgy. I can hardly imagine normal parishioners singing it a cappella, for even skilled singers have issues sight-reading. Introducing this hymn will only succeed with an experience organist or other instrumentalists and leading singers. But it would be worth it!<\/p>\n

Several musicians have uploaded versions of this hymn on YouTube, and it is interesting to see how different the hymn comes across depending on the interpretation. Here are some examples, some of which are very short and only contain one stanza:<\/p>\n