Searching for Latin Translation of Oh Fortuna

[Melfina]

I have looked over the web searching for a translation from latin of Oh Fortuna - Carl Orff...I know this might be a bat out of hell, but I hope i get someone has run across it

[AbsoluteDestiny]

It was in the cd inlay I used to have of it but it got lost at Uni, unfortunately.

I think I've only seen one amv to it that knowingly follows the themes in the song.

[Melfina]

^^ all knowing and powerful, but somehow not helpful hehe thanks for trying, I just wonder what putting subs to the song that goes with the amv...it might give it a different effect

[AbsoluteDestiny]

googling "fortuna orff translation" came up with this:

http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst ... rmlyr.html

it also come up with this which is quite funny:

I hate to say it, but I've always personally secretly harboured a strong suspicion that O Fortuna was actually written to sonically embody the process of masturbation - good masturbation, that is. It's like the soundtrack to a really good wank. I wouldn't be surprised to find, when I die and all knowledge becomes fluid, instant access, non temporal, and as one with the event horizon of the planiverse, that Carl Orff really did compose it along a profile such as that (of course never admitting it whilst alive).
Rods Tiger, Jun 25 2001

[Melfina]

I am so lost.... can someone translate the gibberish to english?

[Melfina]

semper crescis ever waxing
oh ya thats a perfect translation

[AbsoluteDestiny]

um...

It is a poetic translation. I guess instead of waxing and waning it could be rising and falling but the moon doesnt rise and fall, it waxes and wanes.

"crescis" and "decrescis" - as in the english "increases" and "decreases". It is an accurate translation.

[paizuri]

um...

It is a poetic translation. I guess instead of waxing and waning it could be rising and falling but the moon doesnt rise and fall, it waxes and wanes.

"crescis" and "decrescis" - as in the english "increases" and "decreases". It is an accurate translation.

HA! Next you're gonna say "semper" means "always" or "forever" or some such nonsense!

The "Oh Fortuna" song really has a typo in it. See, the original title was "Oh For Tuna" and it's a song about a man's intense need for a tuna salad sandwich one day, but his utter failure in acquiring one. Quite poignant.

[outlawed]

The subject (we need edit on this board ^_^) was a little confusing (make sure to word those carefully....it's how a lot of us determine what to bother reading). Anyway, I see you need an English translation. No problem. I remembered a post I made on the AMV ML a couple years ago so I'm pasting it here. Formatting is not going to look so great (it's eating the spaces between my text columns!!!). I cleaned it up a little but you should check out the link below if your on the AML ML.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/amv/message/2788


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From: [Edited per request - #4423] <outlawed@p...>
Date: Tue Mar 14, 2000 3:52 pm
Subject: [amv] Re: Music Genres? (non english lang)

>In a message dated 3/15/0 12:05:53 AM, ???... writes:
>>I hope not... since the song is about gambling ne?
At 3/14/2000 07:45 PM -0500, ?? wrote:
>I think that's one of the later ones. The basic gist of O Fortuna is that
>life's a bitch and then you die.

Succinct. ^_^ The basic gist if that life and our emotions are controlled by fate. This is the recurring theme of Carmina Burana the music although there is more to it as well.

O Fortuna is the opening and the ending (a reprise of the opening) of Carmina Burana composed by Carl Orff and completed in 1937. Although in the style of Medieval period music and based on Medieval poems and songs it is important to note that this was basically composed in the 20th century (he began it early on and it took him awhile to finish ... don't remember when he started it). Some background on the songs and what they really mean
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During 1803 in Europe a scroll of 200 Medieval poems and songs were found in the library of the Abbey of Benediktbeuern in Upper Bavaria. The poems were by
monks and wandering scholars and were written in Medieval Latin, vernacular German, and Frankish as well. A Bavarian scholar editied this collection in 1847 under the name "Carmina Burana". Carl Orff, who was descended from a
Munich family of scholars and soldiers was exposed to the material at some point probably early in his life. From it he arranged the poems into "Cantiones profanae cnatoribus et choris cantandae comitantibus instrumentis atque imaginibus magicis" (secular songs for soloists and choruses accompanied by insturments and magic images). You can almost think of it as a cantata except one that is suited for the stage almost as if a play. Carmina Buran is bound together by an image of the wheel of fortune which brings good luch and bad luck (this being expressed in "O Fortuna"). "O Fortuna, velut luna" is basically an address to the godess of luck. In begins the secular songs and ends them. It's important to note that although these sound like monk chants; they are anything but.

There are three main parts to Carmina Burana:
1)Man meets Nature (springtime "veris leta facies")
Green fields where girls are dancing and people are singing.

2)Man's encounter with the gifts of nature (ending with the gift of wine "In taberna")
Drinking scenes. A roast swan is basically a foretaste of paradies to the monks. Wandering scholars extol the virtues and fun of youth.

A juicy bit from this part
"I am the Abbot of Cucany, and my assoicates are drinkers, adn my adherence is to the sect of Decius, and whoever meets me in the tavern over dice in the morning will go out naked by the end of the evening, and, stripped of his
clothes, will cry. Wafna Wafna! What have you done, evil fate? You have stolen away all the joys of my life"

3)The encounter with Love ("Amor volat undique")
A Cour d'amours (the classic chivalric form of service to ladies and to love).

A juicy bit from this part
"Your eyes shine like the rays of the sun, as the brilliance of lightning give light to the dark night. May the gods approve my resolve to undo the bonds of her virginity"

A Translation of O Fortuna
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Latin English

O Fortuna O Fortune
velut luna changeable
statu variabilis as the moon
semper crescis you are always either improving
aut decrescis; or deteriorating.
vita detestabilis Detestable life
nunc obdurat at one moment thwarts
et tunc curat and at another
ludo mentis aciem, mockingly indulges the mind's desire,
egestatem melting away
potestatem both poverty and power
dissolvit ut glaciem. like ice.

Sors immanis Vain
et inanis, monstrous fate
rota tu volubilis, you turning wheel
status malus, you can, when you will,
vana salus destroy bad circumstances
semper dissolubilis and delusive success alike.
obumbratam Veiled
et velatam and shadowy,
mihi quoque niteris, you attack me too;
nunc per ludum now at your whim
dorsum nudum I bare my back
fero tui sceleris under your assault.

Sors salutis You, Fate, who dispose
et virtutis health and strength
mihi nunc contraria are now against me;
est affectus my desires
et defectus and my weakness
semper in angaria are in constant slavery
hac in hora At this hour
sine mora without delay
cordis pulsum tangite, let all pluck the string;
quod per sortem let all lament with me
sternit fortem how the brave man
mecum omnes plangite is crushed by Fate.


The translations are not mine. The are a professional's. I have placed them here in hopes that this will convince some others who are not familiar with this particular work of Orff's to check it out.

Till' the next...
- [Edited per request - #4423]
Email: outlawed@p...
The Outlaw's Sanctuary has currently been ransacked but it should return to the world of uniform resource locators soon.
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