Finzi: Dies Natalis, Op. 8: V. The Salutation. Aria

These little limbs, these eyes and hands
Which here I find
This panting heart wherewith my life begins
Where have ye been?
Behind what curtain were ye from me hid so long?
Where was, in what abyss, my new-made child?
When silent I so many thousand thousand years
Beneath the dust did in a chaos lie
How could I smiles or tears or lips or hands
Or eyes or ears perceive?
Welcome, ye treasures which I now receive!
From dust I rise
And out of nothing now awake
These brighter regions which salute mine eyes
A gift from God I take
The earth, the seas, the light, the lofty skies
The sun and stars are mine
If these I prize
The stranger here strange things doth meet
Strange glories see
Strange treasures lodged in this fair world appear
Strange all, and new to me!
But that they mine should be
Who nothing was
That strangest is of all
Yet brought to pass