How's this for nerdy...? I'm avoiding reading boring things for another class and wasting time I really don't have to waste by translating medieval Latin songs. It's kinda hard...
I've only gotten as far as the first stanza of two different songs. The rest of the stanzas have holes in the translation because we haven't learned the words and I can't find the words in either of the online Latin-to-English dictionaries that I use. The translations might not be correct because I guessed at some of the words... but I tried... (The Latin below doesn't always look correct to me, but this is exactly how it's printed in the CD's lyric booklet.)
"Return of the Birds"
by the Mediaeval Baebes
Laetabundus rediit
Joyous, returned
avium concentus,
the bird concert.
ver iocundum prodiit,
Spring, merry, proceeded.
gaudeat iuventus,
The youth rejoices
nova ferens gaudia;
for the new wild delights.
"Musa Venit Carmine"
by the Mediaeval Baebes
Musa venit carmine,
The Muse comes for our song,
dulci modulamine:
sweet, keeping time:
pariter cantemus,
we sing in like manner,
ecce virent omnia,
behold, everything is green,
prata, rus et nemus.
the meadows, the countryside and the grove.
Ah, well... on to boring medieval economic history...
~Rachael
posted by Ex Pluribus Unum @ 7:22 PM
6 Comments:
Hi Rachel
This isn't exactly a comment. Actually, I was just wondering how you post to the blog instead of just leaving comments??
Illia
You have to go to htt://www.blogger.com and then sign in using the username and the password on our class syllabus. If you've lost your copy of the syllabus, I think there's a copy available on the class BlackBoard page.
I see that now, thanks a lot
nova ferens gaudia;
bringing new delights.
Musa venit carmine,
The Muse comes with our song,
dulci modulamine:
with a sweet keeping time (rythm):
pariter cantemus,
let us sing in like manner,
ecce virent omnia,
behold, everything is green,
prata, rus et nemus.
the meadows, the countryside and the grove.
Rachael---I only made tiny editions to this text. Your translation is very good! and it doesn't matter what you translate, sometimes what you might consider a waste of time is actually an excellent exercise...the reason why some words in medieval Latin don' appear in Classical Latin dictionaries is because they were added later to the language, under the influence of local dialacts (french etc.). There are special Medieval dictionaries for that Latin, and you can invest in one to have for grad school.
Rachael, your nerdiness makes me respect you more. :)
Olivia
That's very cool, Prof. M. Thank you for the adjustments you made to the translation.
I really wasn't sure about the "musa venit carmine" part because the group who sings the song has put a modern New Age pagan spin on the translation ("The goddess inspires our song") and I knew that wasn't correct... They also fudge other lines, which is why I started trying to translate it in the first place. "Carmine" is in the ablative there and carries the implication of the preposition, yes?
I couldn't find "ferens" in the dictionaries I was using... Words meaning "feral" and "wild" were the closest that were listed. I see it now in our textbook though... I should have looked there first! And I couldn't find "modulamine" at all, but it looks similar to modulation, so I took a wild guess.
I'm definitely going to get my hands on a good medieval Latin dictionary asap!
Oh, Olivia, you're too funny! ;D
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