Translating Mozart's "Ave Verum Corpus"
Erich Noll
our church choir is performing "Ave Verum Corpus" and I wanted to provide
the Latin translation but I'm having some trouble:
Ave, Ave verum corpus = Hail, hail truthful body
Natum de Maria virgine = Born of virgin Mary
Vere passum immolatum = He truly suffered sacrifice
In cruce pro homine = On the cross for mankind
Cujus latus perforatum = Whose side was cut
Fluxit aqua et sanguine = Blood and water flowed
Esto nobis praegustatum = ??? for us tastes?
Mortis in examine = Death in lifeless???
Mortis in examine
Any assistance would be appreciated. I assure this is not homework for
school.
Erich Noll
enoll1"atsign"earthlink.net
Edward Casey
"Erich Noll" <eno...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:erTxa.3689$rO.3...@newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
> Hello,
>
> our church choir is performing "Ave Verum Corpus" and I wanted to provide
> the Latin translation but I'm having some trouble:
>
> Natum de Maria virgine = Born of virgin Mary
sacrificed"]
> In cruce pro homine = On the cross for mankind
> Fluxit aqua et sanguine = [with] Blood and water flowed
> Esto nobis praegustatum = ??? for us tastes? [be thou (corpus) (by) us
tasted beforehand]
> Mortis in examine = Death in lifeless??? [in the trials of
(our) death]
> Mortis in examine
>
The final lines are obscure to me. They seem to mean something like "may we
recieve communion just before death" but I am not very sure of this
interpretation. Maybe someone who has time to research the text with Google
can come up with a more exact translation.
Eduardus
Johannes Patruus
"Edward Casey" <ej...@cpinternet.com> wrote in message
news:vcg4cdj...@corp.supernews.com...
"Be for us a foretaste of heaven, during our final trial.":
http://tinyurl.com/c3g9
(The literal interlinear translation is also interesting.)
"May we be granted to have a foretaste of you at the decisive moment of
death."
http://tinyurl.com/c3gp - last para.
The matter is not helped by variants in the text:
http://www.hottopos.com/mirand11/jean.htm
Those pesky variae lectiones get everywhere! - even in contemporary
inscriptions, such as those at Ur, where the graffitist has favoured "Semper
fe" over the established "Semper fi":
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,958469,00.html
Johannes
Gary Vellenzer
says...
>
> "Edward Casey" <ej...@cpinternet.com> wrote in message
> news:vcg4cdj...@corp.supernews.com...
> >
> > "Erich Noll" <eno...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
> > news:erTxa.3689$rO.3...@newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > our church choir is performing "Ave Verum Corpus" and I wanted to
> provide
> > > the Latin translation but I'm having some trouble:
> > >
This is an anthem in honor of the Eucharist, so the body is at the same
time the literal body of Christ, and the host in communion.
> > > Ave, Ave verum corpus = Hail, hail truthful [true] body
Hail, Hail, real/veritable body (body refers to the Host in the
Eucharist which is the "truly the body of Christ", but also to the
literal body of Christ)
> > > Natum de Maria virgine = Born of virgin Mary
Born of May the Virgin (as you said)
> > > Vere passum immolatum = He truly suffered sacrifice [or ",
Truly suffering (and truly) sacrificed (lit. truly having-suffered)
> > sacrificed"]
> > > In cruce pro homine = On the cross for mankind
on the cross for Man, (all the above is an extended invocation in the
vocative case. It continues with a relative clause dependent on the
vocative...)
> > > Cujus latus perforatum = Whose side was cut [pierced]
Whose pierced side
> > > Fluxit aqua et sanguine = [with] Blood and water flowed
Flowed with water and blood
> > > Esto nobis praegustatum = ??? for us tastes? [be thou (corpus) (by)
> us
Be for us a foretaste (of Paradise. OK, invocation is over, now be get
to the request. )
> > tasted beforehand]
> > > Mortis in examine = Death in lifeless??
Of death in the fear (exanimis, -e adj means dead, half-dead, terrified,
dismayed. It is used as a noun here, so can be translated as "terror" or
"fear")
Gary
Johannes Patruus
"Erich Noll" <eno...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:erTxa.3689$rO.3...@newsread1.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
Listen the Ave Verum Corpus sung in plainchant by the Schola of the Seminary
of Our Lady of Guadalupe of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter. The .au
file format is playable in RealPlayer (whether in other players, I don't
know) -
Johannes
Sebastian Hew
> > > > Esto nobis praegustatum = ??? for us tastes? [be thou
> > > > (corpus) (by)
> > us
>
> Be for us a foretaste (of Paradise. OK, invocation is over, now be
> get to the request. )
> > > tasted beforehand]
> > > > Mortis in examine = Death in lifeless??
>
> Of death in the fear (exanimis, -e adj means dead, half-dead,
> terrified, dismayed. It is used as a noun here, so can be translated
> as "terror" or "fear")
Hmm... I would have said, rather, 'of death in the judgement'.
Sebastian.
Johannes Patruus
"Johannes Patruus" <JPat...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:baalm8$qf8i9$1...@ID-156050.news.dfncis.de...
The plainchant score (in modern notation) is in this PDF:
http://chaloupsky.op.cz/1-pdf/g_aveverum.pdf
A haunting melody that banishes all thought of Mozart from the mind.
During my days as a church organist, however, I used to play Franz Liszt's
organ transcription of the Mozart setting.
Johannes
Johannes Patruus
"Sebastian Hew" <rada...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3ec8dd10$0$1025$afc3...@news.optusnet.com.au...
It seems to me that "examine" is derived from the noun "examen" (test,
examination, agony, struggle - Stelten's Dictionary), rather than from the
adjective "exanimis" (with "n" and "m" interchanged).
Johannes
Edward Casey
"Gary Vellenzer" <nyc...@seznam.cz> wrote in message
news:MPG.19328a9ef...@news.CIS.DFN.DE...
But is there a version with "exanime" instead of "examine?" If exanimis is
interpreted as a noun doesn't it mean "lifeless or terrified one" rather
than "terror?" All the versions I found through Google give "examine." This
looks like an example of methatesis.
Comment on another note in this thread about fresh graffiti in Ur: In view
of the outstanding, bang-up job the occupation forces did in protecting the
Bagdad antiquities museum, they should be tagging the walls with "semper
pfui."
Eduardus
Gary Vellenzer
says...
reverse the M and the N. "Examine" = judgment makes great sense, of
course.
Gary