"Via Dolorosa"

Toyohiko Kagawa (1888 -1960)


With sorrowful heart,

Yet for the joy of atonement,

You went, 0 Christ, to Calvary.

o Christ,

That a thousand and a thousand years

Have passed since Golgotha you braved;

And still men gasp with fear

And grasp with greed-and suffer:

Let us swing into the orbit of your love.

If the stars ceased to twinkle

And the sun forgot to shine,

The ever-increasing rays of God's love

Would find an earthward passage

Through you.

Hasten the day

When we can forget the borders of countries.

The hues of the skin;

When we-all of us together-

Can praise in harmony your love.

0, let us see more vividly

Your blood of love from Calvary,

Streaming like ever-increasing rays...

Earthward.

.