I think this week’s selection for my series, Then Sings My Soul: The Hymns of My Youth may come off a little strangely, in no small part for the manner in which it dates me. So no, the image I’ve added to this post is not a mistake, and we’ll come to the reason why. (But if you ant to purchase the album for some reason I won’t fully comprehend, go ahead and click on it.) Back to our hymn. “In My Heart There Rings A Melody” was written by Elton M. Roth (1891-1951) in 1924, so as hymns tend to go, it’s one of the younger ones, and as a qualifier for entry into this series, I remember singing it in the church of my youth. It’s supposed to go like this:
In My Heart There Rings A Melody
I have a song that Jesus gave me,
It was sent from heaven above;
There never was a sweeter melody,
‘Tis a melody of love.In my heart there rings a melody,
There rings a melody with heaven’s harmony;
In my heart there rings a melody;
There rings a melody of love!I love the Christ who died on Calv’ry,
For He washed my sins away;
He put within my heart a melody,
And I know it’s there to stay.Chorus
‘Twill be my endless theme in glory,
With the angels I will sing;
‘Twill be a song with glorious harmony,
When the courts of heaven ring.Chorus
Here comes the strange part: I’ve never been able to sing it. Not that there’s anything overly wrong with the music or lyrics or anything like that… it’s just that I can only get partway through it before Bobby Vinton takes over and the lyrics to “Melody of Love” break into the mix. Yes, I’m referring to the impossible-to-sing chorus:
Oh, oh moja droga jacie kocham
Means that I love you so
Moja droga jacie kocham
More than you’ll ever know
Kocham ciebie calem serce
Love you with all my heart
Return to me and always be
My melody of love
Somehow it’s just too hard to flip between these two songs and keep them straight, so in order to preserve my sanity, I’ve had to write them both off. Not that I particularly cared for either one, but Bobby Vinton was certainly popular for a while there. And I’m sure that not only have I just dated myself, I’ve also just ruined this hymn for somebody who would be similarly dated.
Hey….Don’t you go messing with the King of Poles (not that we ever actually had a king from our own people…they were always from other countries, Poles couldn’t trust their own people)…go figure. Thanks, now the Polish song is stuck in my head.
P.S. Useless English language trivia: “polish” is the only word in the English language in which the pronounciation changes when you capitalize it. That was for free.
There is nothing wrong with the lyrics of the song, except that your heart needs to grown to know the difference of misician and godliness. As you grow through the trials of life you will understand the content of the lyrics.
If Polish is your mother tongue, this song originally has not been written in Polish. So don’t mess with it because of your limited understanding of its content. If you can’t sing it now, beware, it may be the only song that may make sense when, as it may become, that Muslim chants will be heard all over the U. S. and believers may not be as free to sing as they are now. So keep this in your hymn mind, and sing it with the rest in order to know it well when you need it most.
Greetings: E. Petrona
this is really cool.