O Lady brighter than the sun,
glory of all mortals, heavenly light,
in whom devotion reaches its highest peak,
whose gaze observes the earthly lands,
knows of our heaviest prison of woe,
where sorrow and darkness oppress us!
The worse evil weighs down
and turns human life into torment,
when I am troubled by the yoke of foreign sins,
extend your hand to me,
I beg you, Queen of heaven, with this rosary.
(Fray Luis de León OSA /1527–1591/, introduction to the poem A Nuestra Señora
translated by Josef Hrdlička)
