And consider this next bit of hymn ... it was composed, I think, for the Second Sunday in October, Feast of the Maternity of the Theotokos ... and it actually ascribes locational preference to the Almighty:
"Caelo Redemptor praetulit/ Felicis alvum Virginis ... "
Would Dom Anselmo Lentini, or his grim Bugninioid Masters, ever have allowed that to pass? But ...
... just in case erudite readers are wondering: this 'Victorian' proper was indeed reactivated (almost unchanged) by Pius XI in the the 1930s, not least so as to take a hefty and very well-deserved swipe at the Lambeth Conference. I am not sure that its force might not also apply to some aspects of the current Bergoglianicistical complex of errors. History shows that some of these nastinesses sometimes come round a second time.
And, before we forget entirely about Hymn Writers and Translators: I wonder how Lentini ... and also Caswall and Neale ... might have translated into a vernacular these words from the self-same hymn:
" ... ligustra et alba lilia;/ Candor sed horum vincitur/ candore casti pectoris ..."
1 comment:
The best I can come up with for an English versified rendering of that Latin hymn snippet is:
As lilly flowers of purest white,
Japonica with blooms so bright
Are yet eclipsed in purity
By hearts kept pure through chastity.
I chose "Japonica" rather than "privet" as I think it sounds more elegant and floral. Perhaps "breasts" is truer to the Latin than "hearts", but I think the latter conveys the same meaning and avoids distraction in unchaste modern minds!
Post a Comment