Interlinear English-Latin hymnals?
  • Geremia
    Posts: 261
    Are there "interlinear" Latin-English hymnals? Angelus Press's 2nd ed. hymnal contains very literal interlinear English translations for many hymns, but are there hymnals with "slavishly literal" translations of hymns like Te Ioseph, etc.?


    What prompted this question was another: Why is Te Ioseph Celebrent's Latin so "dense"? As a newcomer to Latin, it is one of the harder-to-understand texts for me, probably because of the rarer vocabulary and word order. Does anyone else have this problem? It reminds me of the Latin of the St. Michael prayer, which was more difficult for me to memorize when I first learned it.
    1. Te, Joseph, celebrent agmina caelitum Te cuncti resonent christiadum chori Qui clarus meritis junctus et inclytae Casto foedere Virgini. 2. Almo cum tumidam germine conjugem admirans dubio tangeris anxius, afflatu superi flaminis angelus conceptum puerum docet. 3. Tu natum Dominum stringis ad dexteras, Aegipti profugum tu sequeris plagas: amissum Solymis qaeris et invenis, miscens gaudia fletibus. 4. Post mortem reliquos sors pia consecrat, Palmanque emeritos gloria suscipit: Tu vivens, superis par, frueris Deo Mira sorte beatior. 5. Nobis Summa Trias parce precantibus: da Joseph meritis sidera scandere, ut tandem liceat nos tibi perpetim, gratum promere canticum. 1. Let the hosts of heaven celebrate you, Joseph, Let all the choirs of Christendom resound you who, famous for your merits, was joined to the glorious Virgin in chaste wedlock. 2. When your betrothed became great with precious seed, amazement and doubt made you anxious. It is by the breath of the divine Spirit, an Angel tells you, that the son has been conceived. 3. You did embrace the new-born Lord, and to the furthest Egypt coasts you followed Him in exile, Lost in Jerusalem, you sought and found Him, mixing joy with tears. 4. After death most are blest by a loving destiny and, when they have won the palm, they are welcomed into glory. But you, while you lived, like the saints above, were with God, blest more than others by this wondrous lot. 5. Spare us, highest Trinity, as we pray, Grant that through Joseph's merits we may rise to heaven, So that at last we may offer perpetually our grateful songs.
  • Geremia
    Posts: 261
    Eὕρηκα! This is exactly what I'm looking for:
    Te Ioseph Celebrent on pp. 151-52:
    image
    image
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen ServiamScores
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 1,945
    The answer to your question is because that hymn dates to the late seventeenth century in Spain [or, according to another answer that I've found, a cardinal who was an official of the Congregation of Rites, but in any case, he died in 1700, so the period is correct], not to the most prolific period of the corpus of hymns or even to the lifetime of Aquinas or Bonaventure… the opening line of the St Michael prayer is the Alleluia of the Mass for September 29, but I believe that Leo XIII composed the rest, which would also explain its text…
  • Geremia
    Posts: 261
    The Latin that Pope St. Pius X used in his letters, for example, is quite dense and prolix (very long sentences).
    I figured Te Ioseph might have been from a later era; poetry is quite dense/concise anyways.
  • ServiamScores
    Posts: 2,721
    I forgot all about "chants of the church". I have a copy, although my edition is different and things are transcribed into modern notation... I'd like to acquire the same square note version as that pdf...
Add a Comment