Dirige

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Dīrige, Domine, in conspectū tuō viam meam. Intrōībō in domum tuam: adōrābō ad templum sanctum tuum in timōre tuō. Domine, dēdūc mē in jūstitiā tuā : propter inimīcōs meōs dīrige in conspectū tuō viam meam. Glōria Patrī et Fīliō et Spīrituī Sanctō: sīcut erat in prīncipiō et nunc et semper et in saecula saeculōrum. Dīrige, Domine, in conspectū tuō viam meam.

O Lord, make your way straight before me. I will enter your house: I will bow down toward your holy temple in awe of you. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me. Glory [be] to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. O Lord, make your way straight before me.

The Dirige is an antiphon that opened the Matins service in the Office of the Dead. It has its source in the Psalm 5 as translated in the Vulgate. It is probably the origin of the English noun dirge (source: Online Etymological Dictionary).

Tolkien included this text together with the Gloria Patri at the end of his poem The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's son, and this is the text we give here. Note that Tolkien used a slightly abbreviated version; the fuller antiphon has Dirige, Domine, Deus meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam.

We have supplemented the text with macrons to mark long vowels.

The translation given here is made after the translation of the Psalm 5 in the New Revised Standard Version (1989), supplemented by the rendering adopted for the Gloria Patri.

References

The Unbound Bible. Hosted by: Biola University, La Mirada (Calif.). URL: http://www.unboundbible.org/

Harper, Douglas. Online Etymological Dictionary. URL: http://www.etymonline.com/