Dob-log

#twitterangelus in original κοινή/latina

2013-04-12T19:00:00.000+01:00

Detail of the Annunciation (Photo credit: Lawrence OP)

Just for fun, you understand.

♪ ♪ ♪ [Ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι] τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τοῦ υἱοῦ † καὶ τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος. #twitterangelus #grcla
Ἀμήν. #twitterangelus † #twitterangelus #grcla

● Angelus Domini nuntiavit Mariæ, #twitterangelus #grcla
et concepit de Spiritu Sancto. #twitterangelus #grcla
●¹ Χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ κύριος μετὰ σοῦ. #twitterangelus #grcla
●¹ Εὐλογημένη σὺ ἐν γυναιξίν, καὶ εὐλογημένος ὁ καρπὸς τῆς κοιλίας σου[, Ἰησοῦ]. #twitterangelus #grcla
¹ Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostræ. Amen. #twitterangelus #grcla

● Ἰδοὺ ἡ δούλη κυρίου· #twitterangelus #grcla
γένοιτό μοι κατὰ τὸ ῥῆμά σου. #twitterangelus #grcla
●² Χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ κύριος μετὰ σοῦ. #twitterangelus #grcla
●² Εὐλογημένη σὺ ἐν γυναιξίν, καὶ εὐλογημένος ὁ καρπὸς τῆς κοιλίας σου[, Ἰησοῦ]. #twitterangelus #grcla
² Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostræ. Amen. #twitterangelus #grcla

● Καὶ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο #inginocchio #twitterangelus #grcla
καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν. #twitterangelus #grcla
●³ Χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ κύριος μετὰ σοῦ. #twitterangelus #grcla
●³ Εὐλογημένη σὺ ἐν γυναιξίν, καὶ εὐλογημένος ὁ καρπὸς τῆς κοιλίας σου[, Ἰησοῦ]. #twitterangelus #grcla
³ Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostræ. Amen. #twitterangelus #grcla

I remembered, after my initial stab at this, that the trinitarian formula is biblical, so I put it in. However, when I looked at the Greek, I noticed that the preposition isn’t ἐν (in, inside, within, among), but ἐις (into). I’m still – definitely – learning Greek, so I wasn’t sure, but I reckoned I probably needed to modify it for liturgical use. In Matthew 28:19, baptising into the name might make sense – we are baptised into the body (1 Cor 12:13) and our baptism clothes us with Christ, making us sons of God (Gal 3:26–27) – but praying ‘into the name’ of the Trinity? Strikes me as pretty fishy.

I had a vague idea I’d heard about baptising “into the name” of the Trinity before, probably Fr. Barron, but to make sure I wasn’t barking up the wrong tree I had a look at various translations of Mt 28:19. Apparently it was the right tree after all, since some of the fruitier versions had baptising “into the name of”.

Somewhere among the many free reference materials you can get on the web these days I found a “word study” if I remember rightly, which told me that you could find “ἐν the name” in Acts 10:48 and that it did indeed have a different meaning/nuance/something. Consequently, I’ve whacked that in there, hoping I haven’t, in my ignorance, made a hash of things.

So there you are.

Related articles

Angelus: Adjectives + Imperative – Ave, o Maria…

2013-02-04T20:17:00.000Z

●¹ Ave, o Maria, piena di grazia, il Signore è con te. #twitterangelus #it
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) 31 gennaio 2013

@marktsoapm 1 Santa Maria, Madre di Dio, prega per noi peccatori, adesso e nell'ora della nostra morte. Amen. #twitterangelus #it
— Mark Lambert (@sitsio) 31 gennaio 2013

The (Twitter-friendly) text of the Angelus in Italian.
A (hasty) recording of the Angelus in Italian.

ave

Well, no mystery here: it's ave in much the same way as the Latin, "hail". I looked it up in Treccani just to be sure that it didn't have some kind of hidden significance, but apparently not: "used [...] as a form of greeting and well-wishing"

o

Again, nothing complicated here, except for the fact that it's a homograph for the Italian word for "or". The same as "O" before a name in English; an archaic way of signalling the vocative, O reader.

piena

These are the adjectives in the Angelus:

pieno - full
santo - holy (saint)
degno - worthy (dignity)
eterno - eternal
perpetuo - perpetual

(mio - my)
tuo - your
suo - his/her/its
nostro - our
(vostro - your [plural])
(loro - their)

benedetto - blessed (benediction)
fatto - done, made

I didn't write specifically on adjectives last time, but this mostly covers it. This time I added in the remaining possessive forms.

The last two adjectives are based on verbs, as with santificato here. From the Latin benedicere (bene 'well' + dicere 'say'), to bless, comes benedire in Italian. Dire remains the Italian verb meaning 'to say', and its irregular past participle is detto. The irregular past participle of fare (to do/make) is fatto.

Mnemosyne

2013-02-01T12:53:00.000Z

I suppose there’s an outside possibility that you won’t find this very interesting, but I’ve found some new spaced repetition software! Woo!

I was using MemoryLifter for a long time, and I like knowing the methodology involved, but the software had a couple of disadvantages: I could only use it at home (difficult with toddler), and there was no way of using it to learn various things together or apart e.g. you either lump Greek and Italian vocab together or manually switch between different ‘learning modules’ – way too clunky.

With Mnemosyne, on the other hand, you can install it on a USB stick and use it wherever the hell you want, and though you would put everything in one ‘module’, it lets you tag your subjects, so when I’m working I can use it only for work-related things, and on breaks or between jobs whatever I like.

Not sure how I feel about the algorithm, but I shall see how it goes. I feel another attempt at learning New Testament Greek coming on! I believe I shall also use the services of TypeGreek.com, which I wish I’d known existed before.

Things, you know, and stuff.

2013-01-24T09:40:00.000Z

It's about time I did a non-themed, what's-happening-in-my-life type, blog entry. Trouble is, every time I think about writing such a thing I start to feel a bit overwhelmed. I'm not even going to try to blog about Christmas. Life is very bitty right now.

Ho hum.

We need to organise our house; after Christmas we have toys for Noemi coming out of our ears and we really need furniture but without a car it's hard for us to get anything decent. Then Monica is having some health troubles; perhaps she's allergic to milk protein. This means tests. We've been quite lucky with the snow so far; let's hope that lasts! It came down for a few days but now the rain's washed pretty much all of it away.

Nice to be getting back into the swing of choir. Yesterday was a bit too much hard work though; lots of things the tenors (including) were having issues getting to grips with and irritated sopranos taking it upon themselves to intervene.

Work is somewhat slow. I'm sure it won't last, so I'm just trying to relax and enjoy it. It means that when translations do come in, there's a good chance of me doing them rather than reviewing them (yuk) and it's let me get back into trying to learn to touch type. I had a long break because my Outlook reminders stopped working and I don't have much of a memory. Also bad for my prayer life. Go Mark! Anyway, I'm still bloody slow at touch typing, but I suppose if I keep on practising I'll get to a point where I can switch at some point.

We had a big meeting at work recently. All our meetings are big because we have them once in a blue moon (every death of a Pope, they say in Italian). Anyway, it went on for ages and I had to interpret, which I'm crap at, for the English-speakers, so it really got me down, but on the plus side they're trying to address some of our more glaring problems and at least talking about dialogue.

I've decided that I'd like to get a Kobo, but we can't afford it. They're in cahoots with Mondadori, a major Italian publisher, which apparently means 30,000 free titles, but there must be a catch. Maybe if I get money for my birthday in May I can think about it then. Our library has joined this thing, which Lauren says you have in England as well, which sounds pretty handy. The most awesomest part of it as far as I'm concerned are the integrated monolingual and bilingual dictionaries and the possibility of reading those documents that you can get for free on the web but would rather gouge out your eyes than read on a monitor, like, in my case, copyright-expired book, encyclicals, political speeches etc.

Ok, ramble and out.

Angelus: Feminine Nouns + Pronouns – ed ella concepì per opera…

2013-01-17T12:24:00.000Z

@marktsoapm ed ella concepì per opera dello Spirito Santo. #twitterangelus #it
— Caral James (@Caral4Christ) Gennaio 11, 2013

The (Twitter-friendly) text of the Angelus in Italian.
A (hasty) recording of the Angelus in Italian.

ed

ed is a modified form of e, so it just means "and" again. It's called the 'd eufonica'; it's euphonic in that it avoids a cacophonic repetition of the vowel 'e' together with ella.

This can also happen with the preposition a–ad (to) or o–od (or).

ella

This is another case of literary/formal language. I conjugated essere with its subject pronouns last time (here). Now we can expand it a little with some literary forms, which I've put in green.

	essere	(to) be, being
io	sono	I am
tu	sei	you are
lui/egli, lei/ella, Lei	è	he/she/it is (+ you are)
noi	siamo	we are
voi	siete	you are (plural)
loro, essi, esse	sono	they are

Egli and ella are simple enough; they're direct literary equivalents for "he" and "she". The distinction for "they" is to do with gender and agreement, which I discussed here, but without touching on the relevant aspect. essi is the masculine form, and esse the feminine; this is simple enough since it corresponds to the normal endings of nouns, but with plurals it's a bit more complicated. What happens when you're dealing with a mix of masculine and feminine? The answer is simple, if arbitrary, you use the masculine form. In effect, you would only see esse when talking about a group comprising exclusively women. In the following, for example, the prayer is for all the dead, men and women:

splenda ad essi la Luce Perpetua
may-it-shine to them the Light Perpetual

Here we're talking about forms which you wouldn't tend to use every day, but the same rule applies in regular Italian:

sono benedetto – I am blessed (male speaker)
sono benedetta – I am blessed (female speaker)
sono benedetti – they are blessed (men or mixed group)
sono benedetti – they are blessed (women)

opera

These are the feminine nouns in the Angelus:

singular	plural	English
la grazia	le grazie	the grace(s)
la donna	le donne	the woman/women
la madre	le madri	the mother(s)
la morte	le morti	the death(s)	mortal
la serva	le serve	the female servant(s)
la parola	le parole	the word(s)
la carne	le carni	the flesh, meat	carnal
la promessa	le promesse	the promise(s)
la passione	le passioni	the passion(s)
la croce	le croci	the cross(es)	crucifix
la gloria	le glorie	the glory/glories
la risurrezione	le risurrezioni	the resurrection(s)
la luce	le luci	the light(s)	lucid
la pace	le paci	the peace(s)	pacifist
(la peccatrice)	(le peccatrici)	(the female sinner(s))	im-peccable

l'opera	le opere	the work, action, means	operation
l'ora	le ore	the hour(s)
l'incarnazione	le incarnazioni	the incarnation(s)

You can see what I wrote on nouns, both masculine and feminine, last time here. Take a look before carrying on. Here there are more things to take into account.

Again, there are feminine nouns that begin with a vowel: opera, ora and incarnazione. As with the masculine nouns, the normal article "la" becomes an "l" with apostrophe. The plural, however, remains "le" in all cases.

With many words, there is a masculine and a feminine version. This can be quite simple, as in the case of "servant" – il servo (male) and la serva (female) – or slightly more complicated. I added peccatrice, which isn't in the Angelus, by way of illustration. You may remember that I listed il peccatore as "sinner" among the masculine nouns.

prega per noi peccatori
pray for us sinners

Here, as I was saying above, the masculine form is used to cover both sexes, but if, in a fit of philogyny, I were to pray for women only, it would have been peccatrici.

The -trix suffix isn't widely used in English, but it reflects the pair of -tore and -trice in Italian:

executor - executrix
genitor - genitrix

Bible Tweets: 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time

2013-01-16T13:19:00.000Z

Ness1 ti chiamerà più Abbandonata, ma sarai chiamata Mia Gioia. Come gioisce lo sposo per la sposa, così il tuo Dio gioirà per te. Is 62,4–5

Cantate al Signore, uomini di tt la terra. Annunciate di giorno in giorno la sua salvezza, in mezzo alle genti la sua gloria Sal 96(95),1–3

Gioiscano i cieli, esulti la terra, risuoni il mare; sia in festa la campagna e gli alberi davanti al Signore che viene. Sal 96(95),11–13

1 solo è lo Spirito e 1 solo è Dio, che opera tutto in tutti. A ognuno è data 1 manifestazione dello Spirito × il bene comune. 1Cor 12,4.6–7

La madre di Gesù gli disse: "Non hanno vino": l'acqua che fece diventare vino fu l'inizio dei segni compiuti da Gesù. Gv 2,3.9.11

Angelus: Regular Verbs + Passato Remoto – L'angelo del Signore portò…

2013-01-11T11:27:00.000Z

● L'angelo del Signore portò l'annuncio a Maria, #twitterangelus #it
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Gennaio 8, 2013

ed ella concepì per opera dello Spirito Santo. #twitterangelus #it
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Gennaio 8, 2013

The (Twitter-friendly) text of the Angelus in Italian.
A (hasty) recording of the Angelus in Italian.

These two lines feature some regular verbs. I illustrated regular verbs here, and you should read this about the polite form.

Here's a recap using verbs from the Angelus instead:

-are	-ere	-ire
portare	infondere	concepire
bring, take	infuse, instil	conceive	bringing, infusing, conceiving
present indicative
porto	infondo	concepisco	I bring, infuse, conceive
porti	infondi	concepisci	you bring, infuse, conceive
porta	infonde	concepisce	he/she/it brings, infuses, conceives (you bring etc.)
portiamo	infondiamo	concepiamo	we bring, infuse, conceive
portate	infondete	concepite	you (plural) bring, infuse, conceive
portano	infondono	concepiscono	they bring, infuse, conceive
passato remoto (remote past, simple past)
portò	infuse	concepì	he brought, infused, conceived

In fact, not all these verbs are perfectly regular, but they are regular in the present indicative – that will do for us.

I’ve put the regular endings in bold. In fact, there are two regular forms for -ire verbs. Last time I put the version which was more similar to the -are and -ire forms, to make it simpler, but in fact, these endings are more common.

Now, I'm going through the Angelus in order, so I'm touching on a few things in an order that you wouldn't usually adopt in learning. The Padre Nostro doesn't use any kind of past tense. The Angelus, on the other hand uses a form of the past tense that you're unlikely to cover in a beginners' course. Shouldn't I just gloss over it then? Well, no, I don't think so. Not just because it's in the Angelus either. It's used extensively in written Italian: if you read any Italian, you're pretty much bound to find it. So it pays to recognise it when you see it.

But instead of hitting you with a complete verb conjugation, I've just added the third person at the bottom, since that's the form you're most likely to encounter (and the only form in the Angelus too). In -are and -ire you can see that they both end with an accented vowel, which should help you to spot it. This is only slightly confused by the fact that the future can end with an accented vowel too: but in that case there would be an r first (e.g. porterò, porterai, porterà).

I already said that infondere wasn't perfectly regular, so it has its own peculiar form as you can see. The really important one to remember in any case is -are, -ò since this conjugation accounts for the majority of Italian verbs. The regular endings (for some reason there are two) for -ere verbs would be -ette and -é, though many -ere verbs are irregular anyway.

Angelus: Prepositions with Articles – Nel nome del Padre…

2013-01-08T11:38:00.000Z

♪ ♪ ♪ Nel nome del Padre e del Figlio † e dello Spirito Santo. #twitterangelus #it
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Gennaio 7, 2013

nel, del, dello

To see what's going on in this first line, we also need to look at how prepositions combine with articles. What I wrote on this last time is here.

The Angelus is longer than the Padre Nostro. It also contains more prepositions. Have a look:

a - to
da - from
in - in
di - of
su - on
per - for, by means of
con - with
fra - between, among, from

Those are only the basic meanings; the functions of prepositions tend to vary wildly according to circumstance, so it would be a fool's errand to attempt to cover all the possibilities here. One to watch out for in the Angelus, however, is per, which can mean "by means of", as in:

per opera dello Spirito
by [the] work of-the Spirit

per la sua passione e la sua croce
through (the) his passion and (the) his cross

Whereas su doesn't actually appear in the Angleus; I added it so that the table I'm about to give you is complete. Last time, for the Padre Nostro, there were less prepositions, and we didn't have all the articles, so the table of prepositions combining with articles didn't need to be so big. This time you can see the whole thing:

	masculine					feminine
	singular			plural		singular		plural
	+ il	+ l'	+ lo	+ i	+ gli	+ la	+ l'	+ le
a	al	all'	allo	ai	agli	alla	all'	alle
da	dal	dall'	dallo	dai	dagli	dalla	dall'	dalle
in	nel	nell'	nello	nei	negli	nella	nell'	nelle
di	del	dell'	dello	dei	degli	della	dell'	delle
su	sul	sull'	sullo	sui	sugli	sulla	sull'	sulle

e

e means "and", of course, same as it did last time. And that's the first line covered already.

Angelus: Masculine Nouns – Nel nome del Padre…

2013-01-04T07:59:00.000Z

♪ ♪ ♪ Nel nome del Padre e del Figlio † e dello Spirito Santo. #twitterangelus #it
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Gennaio 3, 2013

Some time ago I took a look at the Lord's Prayer in Italian, from first principles. So when someone on Twitter was asking for “suggestions on how to learn a smattering of Italian” I thought I’d point them there.

Then I thought I might as well revisit it with the Angelus, since I actually tweet it pretty regularly and it might be more useful. I don’t feel the need to repeat everything that I already blogged, but I thought I could do it as a kind of, well, revision. There are probably a few things I might go into in further detail, but not so many. So here we go again.

These are the masculine nouns in the Angelus:

singular	plural	English
il nome	i nomi	the name(s)	nominate
il padre	i padri	the father(s)
il figlio	i figli	the son(s)	filial
il signore	i signori	the lord, Mr., man
il frutto	i frutti	the fruit(s)
il seno	i seni	the breast, womb
il dio	gli dei	the god(s)	deity
il peccatore	i peccatori	the sinner(s)	im-peccable
il verbo	i verbi	the word(s)	verbal
il principio	i principi	the beginning, principle
il secolo	i secoli	the century (pl. ages, years)
il riposo	i riposi	the rest(s)	repose

l'angelo	gli angeli	the angel(s)
l'annuncio	gli annunci	the announcement, notice

lo spirito	gli spiriti	the spirit(s)

You can see what I wrote on nouns, both masculine and feminine, last time here. Take a look before carrying on. Here there are more things to take into account.

Firstly there are some nouns which end in -io, figlio and principio. Instead of ending with a double "i", they sort of fuse into one. This isn't always the case, but I think I’m right in saying that it normally is, so let’s leave it at that.

Then there are the masculine nouns that begin with a vowel, angelo and annuncio. In a similar way to "a" and "an" in English, the "il" becomes an "l" with apostrophe. In the plural, this becomes "gli" instead of the normal "i".

The article for spirito is different too. Masculine nouns that begin in a certain way, especially z-, st- or sp-, have a third form of the article, "lo". In these cases too, the plural is "gli".

I think that’s enough to start with; there were more things that needed elaborating than I thought.

Bible Tweets: 1st Sunday of Advent

2012-11-28T08:01:00.002Z

Farò rimarginare la loro piaga, li curerò e li risanerò; si stupiranno e fremeranno x tutto il bene e la pace che concederò loro. Jer 33:6,9

Verranno giorni nei quali farò germogliare x Davide 1 germoglio giusto, ke eserciterà il giudizio e la giustizia sulla terra. Jer 33:15

Il Signore indicherà la via da scegliere. I miei occhi sn sempre rivolti a lui, è lui ke fa uscire dalla rete il mio piede. Ps 25:12,15

Il Signore vi faccia sovrabbondare nell'amore × rendere saldi i vs ♥ e irreprensibili nella santità alla venuta del Signor ns Gesù. 1 Thessalonians 3:12–13

Dio, che vi dona il suo santo Spirito, non ci ha chiamati all'impurità, ma alla santificazione. Questa infatti è volontà di Dio. 1 Thessalonians 4:7–8,3

Con la vostra perseveranza salverete la vostra vita. Risollevatevi e alzate il capo, perché la vostra liberazione è vicina. Lc 21,19.28
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Novembre 27, 2012

Lk 21:19,28

Saint John Chrysostom: Homilies on Saint Matthew's Gospel, no.46, 2

2012-10-30T08:48:00.003Z

Our Lord next puts forward the parable of the yeast. “Just as yeast communicates its invisible force to the whole lump of dough, so will the force of the Gospel transform the whole world by means of the apostles' ministry... Don't ask me: 'What can we twelve, miserable sinners do in face of the whole world?' This is precisely the vast difference between cause and effect, between a handful of men before a crowd, which will demonstrate the stunning effect of your strength. Isn't it by mixing the yeast into the dough, by 'hiding' it as the Gospel says, that it transforms the whole lump? In the same way, apostles of mine, it is by being mixed into the great mass of peoples that you will impregnate them with your spirit and win victory over your adversaries. Even as it disappears into the mass, yeast does not lose its strength. To the contrary, it changes the whole dough's nature. In the same way, your preaching will change all peoples. Therefore, be full of confidence”...

It is Christ who grants such great strength to this yeast... So don't blame him for the small number of his disciples: it is the strength of the message that is great... A spark is enough to change a few sticks of dry wood into a blaze that will afterwards set even all the green wood at the edge on fire.

Bible Tweets: 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time

2012-10-11T20:59:00.001+01:00

Hi!

Thought I'd do this again. Won't have much time for blogging/tweeting for a bit since my parents are popping down for a bit. They're heading to fair Verona first. That's what Shakespeare called it, so it's probably true.

Gustate e vedete com'è buono il Signore;I leoni sono miseri e affamati,ma a chi cerca il Signore non manca alcun bene. Sal 34,9.11
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Ottobre 8, 2012

Insieme alla sapienza mi sono venuti tutti i beni; mi conceda Dio di riflettere in modo degno dei doni ricevuti. Sap 7,11.15 (Wis 7:11,15)

In Cristo, il mistero di Dio, sono nascosti tutti i tesori della sapienza e della conoscenza. Col 2,2–3 (Col 2:2–3)

Prima ke il mondo fosse generato, da sempre e x sempre tu sei, o Dio; noi voliamo via. Sia su di noi la dolcezza del Signore. Sal 90,2.10.17 (Ps 90:2,10,17)

Viene la fine: ecco, viene! Getteranno l'argento per le strade e il loro oro si cambierà in immondizia. Ez 7,6.19 (Ezek 7:6,19)

Infatti la parola di Dio è viva, efficace e più tagliente di ogni spada a doppio taglio. Eb 4,12 (Heb 4:12)

Bene per me è la legge della tua bocca, più di mille pezzi d'oro e d'argento. Sal 119,72 (Ps 119:72)

.@hredux @bruvvereccles I guess so; I recall something about everyone getting golden crowns…
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Ottobre 11, 2012

Preghiera del Corista

2012-10-08T13:01:00.000+01:00

S. Geminiano

Pensavo di trovare questa prehiera da qualche parte sul web, ma invece no, per cui:

(di S. Ecc. Rev.ma Bartolomeo Santo Quadri)

Padre Santo, onnipotente e misericordioso, con Gesù e lo Spirito Santo, aiutaci a ben prepararci per fare del nostro canto una espressione sempre più bella e convinta, pura e gioisa del nostro amore per Te e per tutti i Tuoi figli e nostri fratelli che ci ascoltano. Te lo chiediamo per intercessione di Maria Santissima, Madre del Tuo figlio, di Santa Cecilia e di San Geminiano, meravigliosi cantoi del Tuo amore per l’umanità.

Adventures in Nature

2012-10-03T11:16:00.000+01:00

Hurrah! The Italian Co-Op is running another nature-based card-collecting thingamy, Avventure nella natura. Noemi liked the last one, with stickers, so we went so far as to buy the book to put them in this time. Trouble is that, unlike the last collection, which was a lot more international, this one is focused on Italy, so it’s harder to translate into English. Animals in other continents have names which are much easier to guess; you’d have to be a bit simple not to work out what a giraffa or an elefante is, but a picchio?

So, much to Monica’s despair, I set out to find the names for everything. It’s generally not difficult, what with wikipedia and all (you just have to keep an eye on the Latin taxonomy), but I found it quite interesting…

It’s satisfying when you can correct the dictionary; Hoepli calls a salamandra pezzata a spotted salamander, but it looks to me a lot more like a fire salamander, which is also a much more satisfying name! The libellula damigella still has me stumped though. You don’t find helpful hits for it in Google in Italian. Literally, you get “damsel/demoiselle dragonfly”. Does it just mean damselfly, generically? That’s different from a dragonfly. Anyway, there are specific ones called the beautiful demoiselle and the banded demoiselle. I can’t work it out.

I like the ones that you wouldn’t ever guess, and there are plenty of those: a colubro di riccioli is called Riccioli’s snake apparently, but also a southern smooth snake, which makes you wonder where all the rough snakes are hidden. North America and Australia, it would appear. Farnia is English oak (though oak is usually quercia) despite the fact that you can find it in most of Europe and it’s called French oak as well! Perhaps something to do with the Royal Oak. A ragno zebra should be a zebra spider, but you can see it isn’t. We reckon it looks more like a wasp. Speaking of spiders, I was surprised to learn that a water shrew in Italian is a toporagno d‘acqua, since toporagno is “spidermouse” (spidermouse, does whatever a spider… might espouse…). So why’s that then? They’ve only, “like many shrews”, got “venomous saliva, making it one of the few venomous mammals”! I never knew. Having followed the intriguing link, I shall never turn my back on a male platypus again! What goes by the name of saettone (“great big lightning bolt”) in Italian is a dignified “Aesculapian snake” in English. At some point I must work out how to pronounce that. Conversely, the humble newt (pace Gussie Fink-Nottle) is named for Triton in Italian (as are mermen) – tritone. An ofride verde–bruna (“green–brown ophrys”) is an early spider orchid round our way, because it looks like a spider. One who is early, presumably. A foca monaca mediterranea is obviously a Mediterranean monk seal, but shouldn’t it be a nun (monaca) seal? I think we should be told.

The Co-Op says there’s such a thing as a lupo appenninico, but apparently not everyone is so sure. I learnt another name for stick insects too: phasmid (and fasmidi in Italian). It’s from the Greek “φάσμα phasma, meaning an apparition or phantom”, which is a slightly more romantic notion than sticks. Putting the English name to a puma (yes, yes, I know) is harder than you might think; it has more than 40, which makes it a Guinness record-holder. I’d forgotten that there was a bird called a shag (tee hee!), but I didn’t realise that it was a kind of (crested?) cormorant (marangone [dal ciuffo]). I like cormorants. I like the fact that they stick their wings out heraldically to dry because their feathers aren’t waterproof so they can dive further into the sea. Wikipedia tells me that it was used as a symbol of the cross and reminds me (obviously I already knew – cough) that Milton’s Satan adopted the cormorant as a disguise. I also learnt of the rana pollo delle montagne: it’s a massive frog that the locals hunt for and call… a mountain chicken!

Satisfyingly, there is one – count them, one – animal with no translation. An Italian dog called a cirneco dell’etna. Voglio dire, mica si può tradurre tutto! There’s another dog in there called a pastore maremmano–abruzzese, but that’s a Maremma sheepdog; not sure what the abruzzesi make of that…

Monica reckons I enjoy this much more than Noemi. She might be right.

Coro

2012-10-01T16:10:00.000+01:00

A mio avviso, c’è un aspetto della musica sacra che è stato stranamente trascurato nella Chiesa in Inghilterra e Italia, nonostante delle ottime intenzioni: la piena e attiva partecipazione di tutto il popolo. Da convertito dal protestantesimo ho sempre trovato stranissimo la mancanza di voglia di cantare alla messa. Infatti, pur riconoscendone la verità dal mio passato altrove, non ho mai sperimentato il seguente in una chiesa cattolica:

“Non c’è niente di più solenne e festoso nelle sacre celebrazioni di una assemblea che, tutta, esprime con il canto la sua pietà e la sua fede.” (Musicam Sacram 16)
“A tale piena e attiva partecipazione di tutto il popolo va dedicata una specialissima cura.” (Sacrosanctum Concilium 14)

Per qualche motivo l'inglese è più forte; è “to be considered before all else” (MS (en) 16). In altri documenti ci sono riferimenti più specifici ai cori:

“Il «coro» o «cappella musicale» o «schola cantorum» […] deve infatti […] favorire la partecipazione attiva dei fedeli nel canto.” (Musicam Sacram 19)
“Tra i fedeli esercita un proprio ufficio liturgico la schola cantorum o coro, il cui compito è quello di […] promuovere la partecipazione attiva dei fedeli nel canto.” (Ordinamento Generale del Messale Romano 103)

A me pare che il metodo più diffuso per tentare di raggiungere questo obiettivo è quello di abbandonare la musica bella ma difficile per quella più accessibile. Non è ottimale, anche se è comprensibile. Comunque, siamo capaci di più:

“Con una adatta catechesi e con esercitazioni pratiche si conduca gradatamente il popolo ad una sempre più ampia, anzi fino alla piena partecipazione a tutto ciò che gli spetta.” (MS 16b)

Per me, un coro parrocchiale e tenuto a pensare all’assemblea, a condividere le proprie capacità con la gente, anche cercare di insegnare. Infatti, se non c’è un impegno dalla parte dei musicisti in questo senso, è difficile capire chi potrebbe farlo. È però importante riconoscere che si tratta di un equilibrio. Non si può semplicemente sacrificare la bellezza per la partecipazione o la partecipazione per la bellezza:

“La bellezza, pertanto, non è un fattore decorativo dell'azione liturgica; ne è piuttosto elemento costitutivo, in quanto è attributo di Dio stesso e della sua rivelazione.” (Sacramentum Caritatis 35)
“Ma non è da approvarsi l’uso di affidare per intero alla sola «schola cantorum» tutte le parti cantate del «Proprio» e dell’« Ordinario», escludendo completamente il popolo dalla partecipazione nel canto.” (MS 16c)

Per quello credo che sia importante trovare arrangiamenti di inni che sono noti, in modo che l’assemblea può entrare nel canto, oltre misure banali quale indicargli i canti. Ma credo anche che una bella iniziativa potrebbe essere definire e promuovere qualche prova aperta, per chi vorrebbe cantare meglio ma non ha voglia/tempo di far parte di un coro. Suggerirei arrangiamenti di inni o l’Ordinario della messa.

Teoricamente dovremmo anche trovare spazio per il latino e il canto gregoriano:

“Si abbia cura però che i fedeli sappiano recitare e cantare insieme, anche in lingua latina, le parti dell'ordinario della messa che spettano ad essi.” (SC 54)
“A parità condizioni, si dia la preferenza al canto gregoriano, in quanto proprio della Liturgia romana. Gli altri generi di musica sacra, specialmente la polifonia, non sono affatto da escludere, purché rispondano allo spirito dell’azione liturgica e favoriscano la partecipazione di tutti i fedeli”. (OGMR 41)

Io credo che esiste un modo semplice e bello di rispettare questo: la Missa De Angelis. Immagino che non piace a tutti ma per me è bello, e non è neanche difficile quanto può sembrare. Il mio coro in Inghilterra lo cantava ogni mese e un corista aveva un figlio di 2 anni che la canticchiava sempre… Un fatto positivo è che si potrebbe stampare su un foglio solo! Io faccio fatica a cantare senza una partitura, non immagino che sia facile per chi vorrebbe cantare a messa e non fa parte del coro.

Sono anche a favore di cantare i salmi, entro le nostre possibilità. Si fa presto a dire… Magari dovrei contattare il mio vecchio coro; il maestro aveva trovato delle belle melodie a 4 voci (canto anglicano) per le strofe. D’altra parte, ha lavorato tanto per allinearle con i testi, e non so come ha fatto con la risposta.

“Conviene che il salmo responsoriale si esegua con il canto, almeno per quanto riguarda la risposta del popolo.” (OGMR 61)

Wisdom, 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B

2012-09-21T09:23:00.000+01:00

Korsfæstelsen, ca. 1506-1520,
Lucas Cranach the Elder

It's an interesting first reading coming up, from the book of Wisdom (Wis 2:12,17–20) written during the 2nd or 1st century BC, deuterocanonical for Catholics and apocryphal as far as Protestants are concerned. It was in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament in circulation among Jews at the time of Christ. The notes in the CEI online say that it was was inspired by the fourth Servant Song (Is 52:13–53:12) and reference Psalm 22:8. I’d never read it before becoming Catholic, but it evokes the passion of Christ very powerfully. I quote from the Douay–Rheims for copyright reasons, adding some references of my own:

(12) Let us therefore lie in wait for the just,
because he is not for our turn,
and he is contrary to our doings,
and upbraideth us with transgressions of the law, (cf. Mk 7:9)
and divulgeth against us the sins of our way of life.

(13–16) He boasteth that he hath the knowledge of God, (cf. Mt 11:27)
and calleth himself the son of God. (cf. Mk 14:61–62)
He is become a censurer of our thoughts. (cf. Mt 5:21–22,27–28)
He is grievous unto us, even to behold: (cf. Is 53:3)
for his life is not like other men's, (cf. Jn 1:4, 8:23, 3:31)
and his ways are very different.

We are esteemed by him as triflers,
and he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness, (cf. Mt 23:27)
and he preferreth the latter end of the just, (cf. Mt 5:10–12)
and glorieth that he hath God for his father. (cf. Jn 10:34–38)

(17–20) Let us see then if his words be true, (cf. Mk 15:32)
and let us prove what shall happen to him,
and we shall know what his end shall be.
For if he be the true son of God, he will defend him, (cf. Ps 22:8, Mt 27:43)
and will deliver him from the hands of his enemies.

Let us examine him by outrages and tortures,
that we may know his meekness and try his patience. (cf. Is 53:7)
Let us condemn him to a most shameful death: (cf. Gal 3:13)
for there shall be respect had unto him by his words.

È re d'Israele; scenda dalla † e crederemo. Ha confidato in Dio, lo liberi lui se gli vuol bene: ha detto: "Sono Figlio di Dio"! Mt 27,42–3
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Settembre 17, 2012

Mt 27:42–43

"Riceviamo ciò ke abbiamo meritato; egli invece nn ha fatto 0 di male". "Gesù, ricòrdati di me quando entrerai nel tuo regno". Lc 23,41–2
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Settembre 17, 2012

Lk 23:41–42

Mi liberi dall'angoscia, mi circondi di ♫ di liberazione: “Ti farò saggio; con gli occhi su di te, ti darò consiglio.” Sal 32,7–8
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Settembre 18, 2012

Ps 32:7–8

La sapienza è 1 albero di vita x chi l'afferra, e chi ad essa si stringe è beato. Paragonata alla luce risulta + luminosa. Pr 3,18 Sap 7,29
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Settembre 20, 2012

Pr 3:18 & Wis 7:29

La sapienza, artefice di tutto, è effluvio della potenza di Dio e immagine della sua bontà. Dio ama chi vive con lei. Sap 7,21.25–26.28
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Settembre 20, 2012

Wis 7:22,25–26,28

«Il Messia vien consegnato nelle mani degli uomini e lo uccideranno». X la via i discepoli discussero tra loro ki fosse + grande. Mc 9,31.34
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Settembre 21, 2012

Mk 9:31,34

Bible Tweets: 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time

2012-09-14T16:06:00.000+01:00

Well, I didn't expect to be able to fit this in this first week back from holidays, but in an atypically relaxed Friday, it seems that I can. So, related to (but not actually from) the readings for the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time:

Ritorna, anima mia, alla tua pace, perché il Signore ti ha beneficato: mi ha liberato dalla morte, i miei piedi dalla caduta. Sal 116,7–8
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Settembre 14, 2012

Ps 116:7–8

Cristo ci ha liberati x la libertà; camminate 2° lo Spirito! In Cristo vale la fede ke si rende operosa attraverso la carità. Gal 5,1.16.6
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Settembre 14, 2012

Gal 5:1,16,6

Dio non ha forse dimostrato stolta la sapienza del mondo? Noi annunciamo Cristo crocifisso: potenza e sapienza di Dio. 1Cor 1,20.23–24
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Settembre 14, 2012

1 Cor 1:20,23–24

Ascoltate e vivrete: i miei pensieri sovrastano i vostri e la mia parola non mi ritornerà senza aver operato ciò che desidero. Is 55,3.9.11
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Settembre 14, 2012

Is 55:3,9,11

Sunday Mass & Other Bible Tweets

2012-08-30T11:05:00.000+01:00

I’ve been trying to make an effort to read the readings for the forthcoming Sunday Mass recently and I’ve been tweeting particular verses (in Italian) as well, in the hope that they might stay with me that way. To the same end, I thought I’d blog what I had so far.

Poiké qst ppl mi onora con le labbra, mntr il suo ♥ è lontano, oxerò prodigi: gli spiriti traviati apprenderanno la sapienza Is 29,13–14.24
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Agosto 31, 2012

Is 29:13–14,24

Colui che chiude gli occhi per nn essere attratto dal male: costui abiterà in alto, fortezze sulle rocce saranno il suo rifugio. Is 33:15–16
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Agosto 30, 2012

Is 33:15–16

Se il giusto cade sette volte, egli si rialza. La sua preghiera fervorosa per la guarigione è molto potente. Pr 24:16 & Jm 5:16
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Agosto 28, 2012

Pr 24:16 & Jm 5:16

O Dio, vieni a salvarmi, Signore, vieni presto in mio aiuto. Retrocedano, coperti d'infamia, quanti godono della mia rovina. Ps 70:2–3
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Agosto 27, 2012

Ps 70:1–2

Quale dio è come te, che toglie l'iniquità e perdona il peccato? Egli tornerà ad avere pietà di noi, calpesterà le nostre colpe. Mi 7:18–19
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Agosto 27, 2012

Mic 7:18–19

Meditate le meraviglie del Signore, ricercate smpr il suo volto. Gioisca il ♥ d ki lo cerca: forza&gioia sn nella sua dimora. Cr1 16:9–11.27
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Agosto 24, 2012

1 Chr 16:9–11, 1 Chr 16:27

MT @idfrabbi: Non gioire di me, o mia nemica! Se sono caduta, mi rialzerò; se siedo nelle tenebre, il Signore sarà la mia luce. מיכה Mi 7:8
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Agosto 23, 2012

Mic 7:8

Molti dei suoi discepoli dissero: “Questa parola è dura!” Gesù disse: “Le parole che io vi ho detto sono spirito e sono vita.” Jn 6:60.63
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Agosto 23, 2012

Jn 6:60,63

Vi diedi 1 terra ke nn avevate lavorato, abitate in città ke nn avete costruito e mangiate i frutti di vigne e oliveti ke nn avete piantato.
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Agosto 20, 2012

Joshua 24:13

Sal 34,6.19 Guardate al Signore e sarete raggianti: è vicino a chi ha il cuore spezzato e salva gli spiriti affranti.
— Mark Dobson (@MarkTSoaPM) Agosto 19, 2012

Ps 34:5,18

Onwards and Upwards: Words, Numbers & Mukia

2012-08-21T10:46:00.002+01:00

Pretty dashed quiet at work; must be time to blog.

Children are amazing: everyone who’s had had on knows this, and if I say that it’s incredible how quickly Noemi is developing and learning, well, it’s kind of a given really. But just now, she keeps on making all these unexpected leaps and taking us by surprise with a certain regularity. “How the hell did she pick that up? Did you tell her that?”

Yesterday she said “sorry” after she poked me in the chest a few times and I said “ow”. It rather took me aback; I know plenty of people who haven’t learned to say sorry as adults, so I couldn’t help but feel rather proud. We’ve been teaching her a bit of counting on staircases, up to about ten (and dieci) and she’s picking that up pretty quick. She’s known about 0–3 for a long time thanks to the lift. I‘ve been trying to teach her that she has two hands, feet, eyes etc. but she’s labouring under the delusion that she has “two” noses as well.

And she’s clearly been listening to everything, which again is something that everyone knows, but when she comes out spontaneously with all these things that we haven’t been trying to teach her it still takes us aback. She asks what things are now (“Z’at?”) and has – mercifully – taken some small steps into the world of appreciating a lie down despite her eyes being open: just like Mummy and Daddy!

I already said that she knows the words of songs before. She likes doing the ends of lines with Mummy. I was sort of surprised that she hadn’t started singing a bit – we’ve been singing to her for ages and she’s really talkative – but apparently now she’s started singing la-la-la in the shower. I guess it was because the idea of singing actual words was a bit daunting. She likes it when Daddy sings choir-style vocal warm-ups for the high notes. She’s always liked having music (“Mukia!”) on, and now she makes requests (unfortunately generally for the one song, I due liocorni, in which Noah gathers the animals together for the flood but somehow omits to rescue the unicorns); she’s generally happy with Abba (18 Hits), The Beatles (1) or Queen (Greatest Hits). In fact, the other day, as soon as she woke up she decided to list the Beatles at me (though poor George always gets left out).

Snake Dance

2012-08-09T21:27:00.000+01:00

Green whip snake, called a magnano in the area round Modena*

You may remember that a while back I translated an Italian nursery rhyme that I liked into English. About a chap called Tommaso who was having fly issues.

I found myself doing the same thing spontaneously the other day with a different song, so I thought I’d post it:

Questa è la danza del serpente
che viene giù dal monte,
per ritrovare la sua coda
ch’a perso un dì.

serpente
Ma dimmi un po', sei forse tu, quel pezzettin del mio codin? bambino
Sì!

This is the dance that the snake does;
he came down from the mountain,
hoping to come across the tail that
he lost one day.

snake
How do you do? Could it be you? Are you my missing piece of tail?

child
Yes!

So there you are, and here's an MP3! Noemi knows the words in Italian; Monica lets her finish the ends of the lines. I’ve only been listening to it (Noemi wants mummy to sing to her a lot these days, so it’s nursery rhymes by day and psalms at bedtime) but Monica tells me that the point is that you do a conga line adding children to the tail each time.

* And Patty says that magnani will actually whip you, but the last time she did, Luca took the piss out of her something chronic. I believe we may remain sceptical on this point.

African Dragons

2012-08-02T21:30:00.001+01:00

Ra slays Apep

African elephants, yeah. Even African rhinoceroses. But I didn't know about African dragons. Here the heatwaves have names, like hurricanes (am I inadvertently rapping?), and after Scipio, Minos, Charon and various other troublemakers, it's time for the drago africano to take a pop at us, a little breeze from Algeria.

Aaaaargh!

We are looking forward to the end of this...

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Palagano & Baby Boom

2012-07-30T14:08:00.000+01:00

Well, the relations departed Saturday, so the house suddenly feels very empty. Noemi’s been a bit strange; it probably has something to do with that, but the heat came back too. It’s taking another break now but is due to attack again on Thursday.

I was very glad to be able to go to Palagano: unfortunately it was a very difficult day and night for Monica, after Lorenzo had gone, so I didn’t get to enjoy myself guilt-free. Anyway, we get on very well at work, so swanning around with my colleagues was a welcome change. The landscape in Italy rather dictates a somewhat windy quality to their roads, especially if you go up into the hills, where Palagano is. We don’t have a car so I’m not used to being driven, and I get a bit carsick in general, so these excursions can be a bit strenuous, but it went fine. One of the villages on the way decided to have a competition making scarecrows (sparrows), so we had a look at those as well. They were pretty good and plentiful too considering that it was the first year they’d done it. Alessia’s favourite was a little old lady waiting for the bus.

We went, among other things, to eat ciacci (like borlenghi, but definitely different or they kick you out of the village). It’s a sort of health food; you fill them with flavoured lard. They set up the ciacci stand in the same piazza as the birreria, so I got to try a few beers of Germanic origin as well, in the most pub-like atmosphere I’ve experienced for some time. Despite having food and four drinks, I hardly paid for anything: I have generous colleagues, and I even had a beer on Alessia’s moroso (local term for boyfriend, not “morose”, oddly), Gianpi (not sure how you spell it), despite the fact that we’d never met and we didn’t speak a huge deal.

There’s been a whole lot of maternity going on at Omnia: three translators and one project manager are at various stages. I already mentioned Patty and her daugher Giulia. Lovely to see her and Giulia up there. At three months, she’s very small! It seems like an age ago that Noemi was that size. Very calm too. Not much eyelid batting going on there. This morning we heard that Manu had given birth on Saturday as well, to Viola. Everything tickety boo apparently. Alessandra has been at home a while now, and Linda a bit more recently. The saga continues.

Yesterday Monica was very good and made an attempt to watch Alien, even though she doesn’t do horror. Or sci-fi. But since I said that I really liked it (and Aliens; I picked them both up at our local bookshop the other week) she decided to give it a go. She’s not impressed so far (bored, doesn’t care about characters), but said she’ll give it another go because it’s due to kick off in another 5 mins, at least according to comentary by Ridley Scott.

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Generic Update

2012-07-25T13:00:00.001+01:00

You might have noticed that I’ve been fiddling with the comments system. This naturally led me to the reflection that no-one has anything to actually comment on, so I thought I’d better redress the issue, and I shall try to blog a bit more (heard that one before).

I understand you’ve all been inundated with rain; opposite problem here, weeks and weeks of tiring heat and humidity. The heatwave has decided to take a break, but it’ll be back to work at the weekend.

We have some visitors at the moment. There’s my sister-in-law Vane (Monica’s sister), my niece Bea(trice), who’s just learnt to call me “zio” and my mother-in-law Gabriella. There was my brother-in-law Lorenzo as well, but he’s just cleared off with the Protezione Civile to help in the area affected by the earthquakes. The house is a bit chaotic, but it’s nice to see everyone.

I’m taking the opportunity afforded by my relations to clear off into the hills with some people from work to see Patty, a colleague of mine who’s on maternity leave; I’ve never met Giulia, her daughter, so I’m looking forward to that as well. Hopefully I’ll be able to grab some good beer as well, since there’s some kind of festa going in in her village.

That, apparently, will have to do. Work calls. Funny how the really important translations are always the last to arrive…

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Salve Regina for Night Prayer

2012-07-02T22:17:00.000+01:00

Hi there.

I was labouring for some time under the delusion that Night Prayer includes the Lord’s Prayer, and was thinking about blogging a musical setting of that. Then I looked, and found that this was not the case. What do feature in Night Prayer are the Marian anthems, which I must admit I’ve never included, probably because you have to go to another page, and I find it always seems a bit late to turn to another page at that stage – I expect my canonisation is in the post.

Anyway, I can remedy that if I commit an anthem to memory, as I’m trying to do with the psalm tones, so I shall. There are four anthems, for various periods of the year, but I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew, so I was planning on learning the one which seems to correspond to the most “ordinary” liturgical period (first Vespers of Trinity Sunday until None of the Saturday before Advent!), the Salve Regina.

An mp3 (no. 545) is available courtesy of the Adoremus Hymnal site.

I intend to memorise some of the psalms in Italian, since my daughter is Italian (100% British, 100% Italian – a bit like the hypostatic union) and I shall have a go at learning this in the Latin original. In fact, loads of people here seem to know it off by heart already, and it might be the same for English Catholics for all I know. Well, I don’t know the words, what they mean, or the melody! Here’s the chant notation, with the Latin, and a literal translation that I lifted and modified:

Hail, Queen, merciful Mother,

[our] life, [our] sweetness, and our hope, hail.

To you we cry, exiles, children of Eve,

to you we sigh, mourning and weeping

in this vale of tears.

O, therefore, our advocate,

turn your merciful eyes toward us;

and Jesus, blessed fruit of your womb,

to us, after this exile, show.

O kind, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

Now, here's a thing I've done for my own benefit, a learning module for MemoryLifter. I like plugging MemoryLifter, since it helped me to learn a lot of Italian vocabulary despite my lousy memory. Anyway, my module has the text broken down as above: you try to remember the next line. I've also inlcluded the literal translation, audio and the notation above. With any luck it should all trickle into my brain together, and since I made it for myself I've put it here too.
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Praise In Summer

2012-06-28T08:01:00.000+01:00

I had a go at listening to Father Z's – ahem – podcazt the other day and was surprised, but pleased to find him reading poetry! Here is one that I liked so much I thought I’d blog it:

Ferdinand von Wright - Sommerlandschaft

"Praise In Summer" - Richard Wilbur

Obscurely yet most surely called to praise,
As sometimes summer calls us all, I said
The hills are heavens full of branching ways
Where star-nosed moles fly overhead the dead;
I said the trees are mines in air, I said
See how the sparrow burrows in the sky!
And then I wondered why this mad instead
Perverts our praise to uncreation, why
Such savour's in this wrenching things awry.
Does sense so stale that it must needs derange
The world to know it?  To a praiseful eye
Should it not be enough of fresh and strange
That trees grow green, and moles can course
     in clay,
And sparrows sweep the ceiling of our day?

Wonderful stuff; reminds me of Chesterton thematically, but then, he covered a lot of ground did G.K. I miss reading poetry; press releases from Italian car manufacturers don’t quite hit the same spot…

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Dob-log

#twitterangelus in original κοινή/latina

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