Cat Stevens - O Caritas

My mind keeps going back in time only to find songs that feel as if written for today ~ the message still resonating - at least with me. Nothing much seems to have changed since my mother translated the Latin portion of Cat Stevens' O Caritas for me. The cover of the album Catch Bull At Four provides an English translation which - while not literal - still very much brings the message home:

I don't want to lose the harmony of the universe

I see all things... burning, I hear men... shouting.

Now is the light of the world and the stars going out

Now does the blame for the disaster fall upon men.

Grief is heavy with sadness and tears

Great is the noise from the earth and the seas

O love, O love be with us always.

We who will perish salute death. 

Life alone goes on.

O Caritas
Cat Stevens

Hunc ornatum mundi
Nolo perdere
Video flagrare
Omnia res
Audio clamare
Homines
Nunc extinguitur
Mundi et astrorum lumen
Nunc concipitur
Mali hominis crimen
Tristitate et lacrimis
Gravis est dolor
De terraque maribus
Magnus est clamor
O caritas, O caritas
Nobis semper sit amor
Nos perituri mortem salutamus
Sola resurgit vita

Ah, this world is burning fast
Oh, this world will never last
I don't want to lost it here in my time
Give me time forever here in my time.