Adest sponsus, conductus (Anonymous, Provençal)

Adest sponsus is the processional song that begins Sponsus - the oldest liturgical drama with texts in the vernacular to have come down to us. Like other dramas of its type, this play, which is fro the Limoges region of central France, treats a sacred subject (the wise and foolish virgins) in a manner designed to dramatize a Christian mystery for a largely illiterate congregation.

Adest sponsus, qui est Christus
– vigilate, virgins! - 
pro adventu cuius gaudent 
et gaudebunt homines.
Venit enim liberare 
gentium origins,
quas per primam sibi matrem 
subiugarunt demones.
Hic est Adam qui secundus 
per propheta dicitur,
per quem
scelus primi Ade 
a nobis diluitur.
Hic pependit ut celesti 
patrie nos redderet,
ac de parte inimici 
liberos nos traheret.
Venit sponsus qui nostrorum 
scelerum piacula
morte lavit atque crucis 
sustulit patibula.

Arriving is the Bridegroom who is the Christ
– be vigilant, maidens!-
For His advent they rejoice, 
and rejoice will all men.
He comes in fact 
to liberate our ancestors,
whom because 
of our first mother the de
vils conquered.
In here is ‘the second Adam’, 
called so by the prophet,
through whom the sin 
of the first Adam to us was abrogated.
He hangs so that our heavenly home 
may be restored to us,
and that from our enemies 
He may set us free.
Come the Bridegro
om who, as the propitiation 
for our sins
death suffered, 
and on the cross bore our burdens.