Potatores exquisiti! You students, join the party and get drunk!

When looking through the book Mediaeval Latin by K.P. Harrington, published in 1950, I saw this poem, listed as Carmina Burana 179.  Strange enough it does not correspond with my edition of the Carmina Burana, a bilingual Latin-German edition. However, poem 202 in this edition is very much the same, but with more strophes and some textual variations, for instance the first line `O potores exquisiti’. Strange, are there two different editions? Anyway, this song is one of the many songs sung by students and scholars going from university to university all over Europe. They were called vagabundi  `the roamers’ form Latin vago. And wherever there are students, there are parties, where sometimes a little bit more is consumed than the WHO would advise.

This lighthearted song takes up that theme:

Potatores exquisiti,

licet sitis sine siti,

et bibatis expediti

et scyphorum inobliti,

scyphi crebro repetiti

non dormiant,

et sermones inauditi

prosiliant.

Potatores exquisiti: vocative

potator: drinker,  toper, boozer

exquisitus:  excellent, exquisite

sitis: thirst

bibo (3): to drink

expeditus: free, unimpeded (Latin can use an adjective where English requires an adverb)

scyphus: cup

inoblitus + gen: not forgetting

crebro (adv): repetedly, often

repeto (3) : to demand anew, retake

inauditus: unheard of. i.e. talks which are not heard when people are sober

prosilio: to spring up, break forth

Qui potare non potestis

ite procul ab his festis,

non est locus hic modestis

Inter letos mos agrestis

modestie

et est sue certus testis

ignavie.

procul (adv): far away

modestis: substantized adjective

laetus: gay

mos agrestis modestie: agrestis is predicate to mos: `the way of modesty is’ or in better English: `modest behavior  is’.

agrestis: litt: `pertaining to the land’. In the Lewis and Short dictionary you will find `wild, coarse, boorish, clownish’ etc.. Classical Latin was the Latin of the urbane upper class…  here `clownish, ridiculous, stupid’ fits the context.

ignavia: laziness, worthlessness

Si quis latitat hic forte,

qui non curat vinum forte

ostendantur illi porte,

exeat ab hac cohorte:

plus est nobis gravis morte,

si maneat,

si recedat a consorte,

tunc pereat.

latito  (1): to hide (frequentative of lateo.  A frequentative is a verb that denotes that an action often takes place)

forte is used twice, but in with a different meaning and actually from different  roots. The first is an adverb from fors (gen. fortis) `chance’ (cf. fortuna), so `by chance, perhaps’, the second forte is from fortis `strong’ and goes with vinum.

curo: to take care for

ostendo (1): to show.  ostendantur  the plural is general: who ever… they are shown the way out!

cohors, -ortis: company

plus est nobis gravis morte = (ille) est nobis plus gravis morte. (plus gravis morte = gravior quam mors)

recedo (3): to go away

consors,  -ortis: company, group (meant is the company of potatores exquisiti)

pereo = per-eo: to go down, perish

Cum contingat te prestare,

ita bibas absque pare,

ut non possis pede stare,

neque recta verba dare,

sed sit tibi salutare

potissimum

semper vas evacuare

quam maximum.

contingo (3): to happen

praesto (1): to stay

absque pare: and without `the mate’ (of wine: i.e. water)

verba do = dico, loquor

sit tibi salutare potissimum semper vas evacuare: may it be to you to greet always the biggest cup for emptying

quam maximum:   `as deep as possible’,  `to the bottom’.

Dea deo ne iungatur,

deam deus aspernatur,

nam qui Liber appellatur

libertate gloriatur,

virtus eius adnullatur

in poculis,

et vinum debilitatur

in copulis.

dea is pure water,  deus is wine

iungo (3): to join together, unite, marry

aspernor: to dispise

Normally wine was mixed with water, but this was something not done amongst vagabonds.

Liber: Roman god equated with Bacchus/Dionysus, the god of wine, but also a pun on liber `free’ as the next line shows.

virtus eius: the virtue of the goddess

adnullo (1): (Eccl. Latin) to cancel, annihilate

debilito (1): to crush

in copulis i.e. in the wedding of wine and water

Cum regina sit in mari,

dea potest appellari,

sed indigna tanto pari,

quem presumat osculari,

nunquam Bacchus adaquari

se voluit,

nec se Liber baptizari

sustinuit.

cum: as long as

indigna tanto pari: not worthy for such a match (Liber)

praesumo (3): to expect, presume (subject: dea)

osculor (1): to kiss

adaquor (1): to fetch water

sustineo (2): to endure

Here is a (rather free) translation by HelenWaddell from her Mediaeval Latin Lyrics, published in 1929:

To you, consummate drinkers,

Though little be your drought,

Good speed be to your tankards,

And send the wine about.

Let not the full decanter

Sleep on its round,

And may unheard of banter

In wit abound.

If any cannot carry

His liquor as he should,

Let him no longer tarry,

No place here for the prude.

No room among the happy

For modesty.

A fashion only fit for clowns,

Sobriety.

If such by chance are lurking

Let them be shown the door;

He who good wine is shirking,

Is one of us no more.

A death's head is his face to us,

If he abide.

Who cannot keep the pace with us,

As well he died.

Should any take upon him

To drink without a peer,

Although his legs go from him,

His speech no longer clear,

Still for his reputation

Let him drink on,

And swig for his salvation

The bumper down.

But between god and goddess,

Let there no marriage be,

For he whose name is Liber

Exults in liberty.

Let none his single virtue

Adulterate,

Wine that is wed with water is

Emasculate.

Queen of the sea we grant her,

Goddess without demur,

But to be bride to Bacchus

Is not for such as her.

For Bacchus drinking water

Hath no man seen;

Nor ever hath his godship

Baptized been.