Wach auf, mein Herz, und singe dem Schoepfer

Author: Paul Gerhardt

Wach auf, mein Herz! und singe. P. Gerhardt. [Morning.] Included in the 3rd edition, 1648, of Crüger's Praxis, as No. 1, in 10 stanzas of 4 lines. Thence in Wackernagel's edition of his Geistliche Leider, No. 99, and Bachmann's edition, No. 1. Repeated in the Crüger-Runge Gesang-Buch, 1653, No. 1, and recently in the Berlin Geistliche Lieder , ed. 1863, No. 1132. It is one of the finest and most popular of German morning hymns, and soon passed into universal use, st. viii. being a special favourite. Translated as:—
My Soul, awake and tender. In full, by J. C. Jacobi, in his Psalmodia Germanica, 1720, p. 33 (1722, p, 104), repeated as No. 477 in pt. i. of the Moravian Hymn Book, 1754. In the Moravian Hymn Book, 1789, No. 744 (1886, Nos. 1158, 1159), begins "My soul awake and render," stanzas i., ii., iv., v. being from i.; v. 11. 3, 4 ; vi. 11. 1,2; x.; viii.; while stanza iii. ("Bless me this day, Lord Jesus," 1886, No. 1159), is st. iii. of No. 189, in pt. i. of the 1754. From this 1789 text st. i., iii., 11. 1, 2 ; iv. 11. 3, 4, were given in Bickersteth's Christian Psalmody, 1833.
Other translations are: (1) "Thy Thanks, my Soul, be raising," by H. J. Buckoll, 1842, p. 28. (2) " Wake, my heart, and sing His praises," by E. Massie, 1867. (3) “Awake, my heart, be singing," by J. Kelly, 1867. (4) "Wake up, my heart, elater," by N. L. Frothingham, 1870. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Page Scans

Gesangbuch der Evangelischen Kirche: herausgegeben von der Deutschen Evangelischen Synode von Nord-Amerika (1908), p.419