Carmina Burana - O Fortün (O Fortuna)

[EM Vürinalt]

One of, what I believe to be, the greatest poems and operas of all time. Written by Carl Orff in the 1930s "Carmina Burana" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmina_Burana_%28Orff%29) is an opreaic interpretation of the Carmina Burana manuscripts (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmina_burana).

Things I had trouble on are in quotes and italicised.

Oh Fortün
From movement one-Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi

Oh Fortün,
Come la luna
Tu oscillás,
Imré creschind
Eda descreschind;
Vida pierös
Pirmeis opreßa
Es nhoi glhedna
Come splaceainça preinda ça;
Cumixhança
Pevarh
Ça multa lor sa schi giatza.

Zestzinà monströs
Es videu,
Tu vertixhinind rint,
Tu isch malevolént,
Benestarh isch vagn,
Es imré fada à niþil,
Umbrada (new verb=to shadow: umbrar)
Es cunvelada
Tu eneca me trò;
Nun trans la xhù
Eu apoartéu va rüc nü
À tu viglhanavál. (villainy)

Zestzinà isch erga mhe
In santéu
Es virtù,
Driveva pa
Es defecteva,
Imré eschanciglheva.
Sa à'cest temp
Sanc zemora
Tuva els fricells vibratinds;
Deschind Zestzin
Cünsüta el läxhir
Voi plöretz cün mhe!

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Latin

O Fortuna
velut luna
statu variabilis,
semper crescis
aut decrescis;
vita detestabilis
nunc obdurat
et tunc curat
ludo mentis aciem,
egestatem,
potestatem
dissolvit ut glaciem.

Sors immanis
et inanis,
rota tu volubilis,
status malus,
vana salus
semper dissolubilis,
obumbrata
et velata
michi quoque niteris;
nunc per ludum
dorsum nudum
fero tui sceleris.

Sors salutis
et virtutis
michi nunc contraria,
est affectus
et defectus
semper in angaria.
Hac in hora
sine mora
corde pulsum tangite;
quod per sortem
sternit fortem,
mecum omnes plangite!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

English
O Fortune,
like the moon
you are changeable,
ever waxing
and waning;
hateful life
first oppresses
and then soothes
as fancy takes it;
poverty
and power
it melts them like ice.

Fate - monstrous
and empty,
you whirling wheel,
you are malevolent,
well-being is vain
and always fades to nothing,
oshadowed
and veiled
you plague me too;
now through the game
bring my bare back
to your villainy.

Fate is against me
in health
and virtue,
driven on
and weighted down,
always enslaved.
So at this hour
without delay
pluck the vibrating strings;
since Fate
strikes down the string man,
everyone weep with me!

Edit:
---Change verb umbrarh from irregular form to regular umbrar.
---Grammer corrections.
---Changed text "Imré creschind / Imré descreschind" to "Imré creschind / Eda descreschind"
---Changed text "Tu oscilla" to "Tu oscillás"
---Changed text "Vürfricell" to "läxhir"[/i]

[Xhorxh Asmour]

Wow! S:reu Vürinalt is the man! ;D

[King John]

Hey, good stuff. A few quick first-glance fixes:

"Tu oscillás", not "oscilla".

It would be better to say "Imré creschind eda descreschind", like the Latin — "Always growing OR shrinking".

Your English has a typo "string man" for "strong man". The Talossan should just be "el läxhir".

More to follow.

— John R

[Sir C. M. Siervicül]

Great choice!

[EM Vürinalt]

john said:

Hey, good stuff. A few quick first-glance fixes:

"Tu oscillás", not "oscilla".

It would be better to say "Imré creschind eda descreschind", like the Latin — "Always growing OR shrinking".

Your English has a typo "string man" for "strong man". The Talossan should just be "el läxhir".

More to follow.

— John R

The "string man" is actually not a typo, unless in Latin it translates to something else, all the English lyrics I have seen have consistently said "string man."

Thanks for the corrections!

~Vürinalt~

[Dréu Gavárþic'h]

The latin says "Fortem" which means strong, definately not string.

EDIT: incidentally, fortem also means "brave" and is more used that way then "strong"

[Capt. Sir Mick Preston]

www.tylatin.org/extras/cb1.html

www-astro.physics.ox.ac.uk/~rejs/carmlyr.html#track1

www.classical.net/~music/comp.lst/works/orff-cb/carmlyr.html


Seems like "string man" is the most common interpretation


But there is this offering for "strong" :

www.mcchorus.org/prognt22.htm

[Dréu Gavárþic'h]

I don't understand why... fortem in an accusative substantive adjective meaning "strong man"... that's sorta weird.

[EM Vürinalt]

mick said:

www.tylatin.org/extras/cb1.html

www-astro.physics.ox.ac.uk/~rejs/carmlyr.html#track1

www.classical.net/~music/comp.lst/works/orff-cb/carmlyr.html


Seems like "string man" is the most common interpretation


But there is this offering for "strong" :

www.mcchorus.org/prognt22.htm

Yes, the copyrighted lyrics from Schott Musik International even say "string man."

[King John]

mbenzschawel said:

Yes, the copyrighted lyrics from Schott Musik International even say "string man."

Well, I can't help that. Schott Musik is wrong. "Fortis" (of which "fortem" is the accusative case) means something or someone who is strong or brave. (And I have no clue what a "string man" would be, except maybe a violinist?) Think "force", "fort", "fortitude", "effort".

It's easy to see what happened here. Somebody mistyped or miscopied a translation from the Latin, and the mistake got copied and recopied from place to place.

It's as if you saw "Anno Domini" translated "In the Year of the Lard", or "Pro Bono Publico" as "For the Public Food" — you'd know what had happened.

— John R

[Dréu Gavárþic'h]

King John! Next thing you'll be telling us it's not "E pluribus unim" "out of many: ale"

[EM Vürinalt]

john said:

mbenzschawel said:

Yes, the copyrighted lyrics from Schott Musik International even say "string man."

Well, I can't help that. Schott Musik is wrong. "Fortis" (of which "fortem" is the accusative case) means something or someone who is strong or brave. (And I have no clue what a "string man" would be, except maybe a violinist?) Think "force", "fort", "fortitude", "effort".

It's easy to see what happened here. Somebody mistyped or miscopied a translation from the Latin, and the mistake got copied and recopied from place to place.

It's as if you saw "Anno Domini" translated "In the Year of the Lard", or "Pro Bono Publico" as "For the Public Food" — you'd know what had happened.

— John R

Don't worry, I trust your Latin much more than that of translations.

I've made the correction.

Thanks for the constructive criticism!

~Vürinalt~

[Sir Alexandreu Davinescu]

alexandreu said:

King John! Next thing you'll be telling us it's not "E pluribus unim" "out of many: ale"

This SHOULD be true.

[Hooligan]

Wait a minute, you mean Anno Domini is not the Year of Our Lard???

[Owen Edwards]

In the Year of Our Lard 2008, Manus Hand came to a worrying realization...