Dear Language Enthusiast,
Welcome to the Latin Monthly, the
Internet newsletter from Transparent Language. Those
of you who have been asking for medieval Latin will be
happy to know that we have heeded your call. In this
issue, we explore the topic of entertainment by
looking at two medieval Latin songs-- a love song and
a drinking song-- taken from the Carmina Burana.
The Carmina Burana is a collection of songs composed
by itinerant scholar-poets ("goliards") in the region
of Germany and France, between the 10th and 13th
centuries A.D. The manuscript that preserves them was
discovered in 1803 at the Benedictine monastery in
Benediktbeuern, Bavaria. It is one of our most
important sources for secular medieval Latin poetry.
Many of you will be familiar with these songs from the
brilliant musical setting provided by Carl Orff's 1937
cantata.
Sincerely,
Transparent Language
www.transparent.com
latinae:
I. [fragmentum]
Bibit hera, bibit herus,
bibit miles, bibit clerus,
bibit ille, bibit illa,
bibit servus cum ancilla,
bibit velox, bibit piger,
bibit albus, bibit niger,
bibit constans, bibit vagus,
bibit rudis, bibit magnus.
Bibit pauper et egrotus,
bibit exul et ignotus,
bibit puer, bibit canus,
bibit presul et decanus,
bibit soror, bibit frater,
bibit anus, bibit mater,
bibit ista, bibit ille,
bibunt centum, bibunt mille.
II. [fragmentum]
Ama me fideliter
fidem meam nota:
de corde totaliter
et ex mente tota
sum presentialiter
absens in remota,
quisquis amat taliter,
volvitur in rota.
In English:
1. [Excerpt]
The lady drinks, the master drinks,
the soldier drinks, the cleric drinks,
that man drinks and that woman drinks,
the servant boy drinks with the maid;
the quick man drinks, the sluggard drinks,
the white man drinks, the black man drinks,
the settler drinks, the wanderer drinks,
the clodhopper drinks, and the magnifico.
The pauper drinks and the sick man, too,
the exile and the stranger;
the young boy drinks, the old man drinks,
the bishop and the deacon;
the sister drinks, the brother drinks,
the granny drinks, the mother drinks,
that woman drinks and also that man,
a hundred are drinking, and a thousand more.
2. [Excerpt]
Love me ever faithfully,
seeing my good constancy:
with all my heart, entirely,
and all my mind and soul,
I am with you utterly
No matter where I go.
Whoever loves to this degree
is turning on a wheel.
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