This has always been one of my favorite hymns--even before I learned that it is the Hail Holy Queen, which we say at the end of the Rosary. I'm trying to teach it to my family so we can sing it at the end of our family Rosary. I sing it to Marian Ireland when she's crying and more often than not she stops crying and starts smiling. Who needs "Rockabye Baby" when you're Catholic?
With literal English translation:
Salve, Regina, mater misericordiae:
(Hail, Queen, mother merciful:)
Vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.
(Life, sweetness, and hope of ours, hail.)
Ad te clamamus, exsules, filii Hevae.
(To thee we cry, exiles, children of Eve.)
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
(To thee we sigh, morning and weeping)
in hac lacrimarum valle.
(in this tearful valley.)
Eia ergo, Advocata nostra,
(Quick then, Advocate of ours,)
illos tuos misericordes oculos
(those thy merciful eyes)
ad nos converte.
(to us turn.)
Et Iesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
(And Jesus, blessed fruit of womb thine,)
nobis, post hoc exsilium ostende.
(unto us, after this exile show)
O clemens: O pia: O dulcis
(O clement: O loving: O sweet)
Virgo Maria.
(Virgin Mary.)
