Carmina Burana

Latin Learning Latin
1

I very much enjoy Carl Orff’s musical work Carmina Burana. Although mostly in medieval Latin, it has one of my favorite Latin phrases: Verum est quod legitur, fronte capillata sed plerumque sequitur occasio calvata. I can’t quite get a literal translation to make sense in English, but I understand it to mean the following: “It is true what is said: ‘Though opportunity has hair on its forehead (that can be grasped), it often shows a bald head in back as it goes by (with no more hair to grab onto).’”

As I understand it, the lyrics of Carmina Burana come from Latin poems written by disaffected university students and clerics of the late middle ages, found in a manuscript in Benediktbeuern, Germany. “Carmina Burana” means “Songs from (Benedikt) Beuern.” They present what seem to be four main themes: the fickleness of fate, the glory of springtime, gambling, and romantic love.

Unfortunately, I find many of the Latin lyrics as opaque as the phrase above and would like some help understanding them. Although the general tone is often clear, I often cannot quite understand what many of the phrases literally mean. My problem might be lack of familiarity with medieval Latin, but I think it’s just that I am not familiar enough with many of the idioms and Latin itself. I’ve looked at some online translations, but they seem to take too many liberties with some of the phrasing to help me understand the actual syntax and poetic imagery.

I am generally not an advocate of learning through “comprehensible input”; however, one of the reasons I actually enjoy Orff’s work is that I can understand most of the lyrics at the speed it is sung. I just need help with many of the things that remain obscure to me.

The work is much too long for me to ask all my questions all at once, but I thought I could start with asking about a few of the lines in the beginning, which are some of the ones that cause me the most trouble. Hopefully, someone will find the challenge interesting.

What exactly do the following mean? I have provided a somewhat literal rendering according to my guesses to show how I understand the syntax and the imagery being described.

  1. Vita destabilis nunc obdurat et tunc curat ludo mentis aciem
    The detestable life (you offer) now dulls/hardens and now cares for the mind’s keenness in gambling (?)

  2. Sors immanis et inanis, rota tu volubilis, status malus, vana salus, semper dissolubilis
    Monstrous and worthless (Goddess of) Fate, you whirling wheel, bad attitude, false salvation/deliverance, always liable to vanish away (?)

  3. Obumbrata et velata michi quoque niteris
    Shadowed and veiled, you also strive after me (?)

  4. Sors salutis et virtutis michi nunc contraria, est affectus et defectus semper in angaria
    You, Fate of well-being and virtue that is now against me, a man afflicted and deserted is always in thrall (?)

  5. Hac in hora sine mora corde pulsum tangite; quod per sortem sternit fortem, mecum omnes plangite!
    At this time without delay, pluck ye the beat of the string; everyone lament with me that which lays low the strong man through fate. (?)

Any help would be appreciated. I would also appreciated any personal thoughts people might have on the literary aspects or historical context of the lyrics or musical work.

2

As one might imagine, there has been a bit of work done on this. This site might be helpful:

http://tylatin.org/extras/cb1.html

The translation of the first poem (which appears to contain most of your citations) looks fair to me.

Medieval Latin in general can be a challenge, if for no other reason than the writer would often have a surprisingly limited corpus of Latin literature available to him, and learning it as a second language, he would have to use the corpus as the model for his own compositions. What if he wants to say something not modeled? Then he gets creative, and that creativity sometimes bears little resemblance to classical Latin, in some cases being literal renderings of idioms in the writer’s first language, in others just stretching semantic range or using constructions in ways a classical author would not have envisioned. For the reader this means paying special attention to context and using a bit of imagination himself.

The other thing I like about the C.B. is that it shows not much has changed in the concerns and pursuits of university students over the past millennium or so… :slight_smile:

3

If you look in Comenius’ Orbis Sensualium Pictus, you will find a picture of this peculiar gentleman.
Look at the chapter called ‘prudentia’

4

Thank you both for your replies.

As one might imagine, there has been a bit of work done on this. This site might be helpful:

http://tylatin.org/extras/cb1.html

Barry, I once had come across that site. It helped me with a few things, like what “angaria” meant, but I was unable to locate it again until you posted it.

Medieval Latin in general can be a challenge, if for no other reason than the writer would often have a surprisingly limited corpus of Latin literature available to him, and learning it as a second language, he would have to use the corpus as the model for his own compositions. What if he wants to say something not modeled? Then he gets creative, and that creativity sometimes bears little resemblance to classical Latin, in some cases being literal renderings of idioms in the writer’s first language, in others just stretching semantic range or using constructions in ways a classical author would not have envisioned. For the reader this means paying special attention to context and using a bit of imagination himself.

This seems quite logical, although it did seem to me that much of the poetry showed such a familiarity with Latin that it seemed that the authors had a high level of fluency.

In trying to figure out exactly what the Perseus Collection was about, I stumbled on a veritable trove of poetry similar to Carmina Burana. Perhaps in another life I could explore it.

Metrodorus, your post was interesting. I had never heard of Comenius or his book before. I found his presentation of the ABC’s quite surprising and never new Latin and so many words for animal noises. Can I ask why in particular you posted that reference and why exactly you called out that “peculiar gentleman”?