I have a weak spot for
mediaeval Latin, actually for the Middle Ages as a whole. The centre of the
town I live is dominated by two late mediaeval churches and almost every town
or hamlet in my province has a church from at least 1400. The physical nearness
of such buildings serves as a kind of bridge overlapping ages. I have read with
reading club Das Nibelungenlied, Dante’s Inferno and a mediaeval chronicle written
in a monastery nearby. So now and then I read texts in Middle English and
Middle Dutch and I am now trying to decipher Beowulf. Maybe I am a
reincarnation of some vagans scholasticus:
reading, writing, pubs and good company.
The following poem is from
the Carmina Burana. A lover declares his unconditional love for a girl and any
tongue saying otherwise is lying! Our ardent lover swears by all pagan gods
that he will love her and only when a reversal of the natural order shall
appear, he will stop loving her. But wait: this poem was written by a Christian
author, so calling upon pagan gods with no existence outside literature is
misleading! I guess he vowed to these gods with every new love.
This poem hardly needs a
vocabulary and commentary, but in case someone likes to use it for teaching purposes,
feel free to use it.
Carmina Burana 117
1.
Lingua mendax et dolosa, false ; deceitful (full of dolus `deceit’)
lingua procax, venenosa, bold, insolent ; venomous
lingua digna detruncari to be cut off
et in igne concremari, to be burnt
2.
Que me dicit deceptorem que = quae ; deciever
et non fidum amatorem,
quam amabam, dimisisse to have sent away
et ad alteram transisse! alteram (puellam) :
to have gone to
3.
Sciat deus, sciant dei:
non sum reus huius rei! guilty of
sciant dei, sciat deus:
huius rei non sum reus!
4.
Unde iuro Musas novem, therefore ; to vow, swear; nine
quod et maius est, per Iovem, greater
qui pro Dane sumpsit auri, Dane = Danae ; took the form of
in Europa formam tauri; in
Europa = pro Europa
Jupiter went after Danae
in the form of golden rain and after Europa as a bull.
Danae is a Greek name (Δανάη)
and hence has no ablative. Note that the ae
in Danae is dissyllabic (Danaë), but this pronunciation was not recognized in
Mediaeval Latin.
5.
Iuro Phebum, iuro Martem, Phebum = Apollo
qui amoris sciant artem; Mars had an affair with Venus.
Apollo had a lot.
iuro quoque te, Cupido,
arcum cuius reformido; bow; to fear
6.
Arcum iuro cum sagittis, arrows
quas frequenter in me
mittis:
sine fraude, sine dolo
fedus hoc servare volo! fedus = foedus
7.
Volo fedus observare!
et ad hec dicemus, quare: hec =
haec ; why
inter choros puellarum
nichil vidi tam preclarum. nichil
= nihil; such a beautiful thing (neuter!)
The re in quare is long in in
Classical Latin, but not Mediaeval Latin.
8.
Inter quas appares ita
ut in auro margarita. pearl
humeri, pectus et venter shoulders (umeri) ; breast ; belly
sunt formata tam decenter;
9.
Frons et gula, labra,
mentum forehead ; neck ;
lips ; chin
dant amoris alimentum; amoris `to my love’(gen. ob.) ; nourishment
crines eius adamavi, hair
quoniam fuere flavi. because ; fuere = fuerunt ; blond
10.
Ergo dum nox erit dies, until
et dum labor erit quies,
et dum aqua erit ignis,
et dum silva sine lignis, forrest ;
wood
11.
Et dum mare sine velis, sails
et dum Parthus sine telis, missiles,
arrows
cara michi semper eris: michi
= mihi
nisi fallar, non falleris! I
will be cheated
The Parthi (Persians) were
famous for their bows. Of course this topos
is taken from classical literature.
No comments:
Post a Comment