Monday, 21 December 2009

Latin Christmas Carols Redux!: O Antiphons

I'm gonna give the Latin translating another shot by translating the remainder of the "O Antiphons." The O Antiphons are prayers said by western catholic Christians in the days running up to Christmas. One antiphon is said or sung each day starting from the seventh day before Christmas Eve and each begins with the interjection "O" (hence the name). If you take the first letter of the word following "O" and line them up in reverse order you get the Latin acrostic "ero cras," meaning "I will come tomorrow." Here is what it would look like:

Dec. 17: O Sapientia
Dec. 18: O Adonai
Dec. 19: O Radix
Dec. 20: O Clavis
Dec. 21: O Oriens
Dec. 22: O Rex
Dec. 23: O Emmanuel

Obviously, I'm a bit behind. I'll do two today and three tomorrow to catch up:

O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti,
attingens a fine usque ad finem,
fortiter suaviterque disponens omnia:
veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.

O Wisdom, You who procede out of the mouth of the Most High
Stretching all the way from boundary to boundary,
Mightily and sweetly ordering all things:
Come to teach us the way of wisdom.

O Adonai, et Dux domus Israel,
qui Moysi in igne flammae rubi apparuisti,
et ei in Sina legem dedisti:
veni ad redimendum nos in brachio extento.

O Adonai, and leader of the house of Israel,
You who appeared to Moses in the fire of burning bush,
and You who gave the law to him on Sinai,
Come to redeem us through an outstretched arm.

...wow these are super easy. That took like 3 minutes and I didn't even need a dictionary. Yay for Latin class paying off!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Just thought I'd stop by and say hello, because it creeps me out to think of people reading my blog when I don't know. Merry Christmas season and all that, and good luck with the new term!

-Alice