Wake up and let your strings be sounding
Vågn op og slå på dine strenge

A hymn by Thomas Kingo, 1674

Wake up and let your strings be sounding,
sing me a joyful morning song!
Dear soul, arise, from bed be bounding,
leap up to join the Heav’nly throng!
Now loudly knock on Heavens gate,
your worldly worries all can wait!

To Heaven I shall be ascending
far from my body’s earthly clay;
God is His realm to me extending,
and there I daily make my way;
laud, honour, praise, and thanks are due
a thousand fold, God, unto You!

The only thing that I can render
is gratitude of all my heart,
all other works I could engender
with much too many faults are marred;
but You do not disdain my sighs
nor tears that well up in my eyes.

I shall attend to my vocation
and presently my work begin;
God’s grace will be my life’s foundation
as it in all my time has been;
God holds me in His mighty hands,
His Spirit always with me stands.

I shall not on the world be building
however fortunate I’ll be;
but as each hour to hour is yielding
I tell my soul the certainty
that time does pass like running sand,
eternity is close at hand.

© Copyright 2001 by Mogens Lemvig Hansen.


You may make copies of this hymn for a single event provided

  1. you include a copyright notice (© Copyright 2001 by Mogens Lemvig Hansen) and source (http://yen-hansen.ca/hymns/mlh05.html), and
  2. you do not alter my translation except for the use of capital letters.
That means that you may include my translation on a song sheet to be used once, but you may not re-use the song sheet; you have to make another one - or ask me…

The canonical tune for this hymn is the Danish version of Dir, dir, Jehova: 47kb .pdf file. The metre is 98.98.88 iambic.

The midi sequence of the tune linked above was kindly provided by Svend Christiansen. Last revised September 22nd, 2006.

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