The Mulier Fortis is spreading scandal. This is starting to get amusing… er um… really serious. o{]>:¬(
She posted this on her blog,
Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa… … Oh dear, what have I done? I may have led other traddy womyn astray! I wonder if that’s an excommunicable offence?
Ekurlowa must be seriously traddy… she not only understands Latin, she can blog in Latin too!
She wants to join me as a traddy womynpriest. To that end, she suggests sending the following petition to the Bishops. It’s in Latin verse, so we shall have to enlist the services of Fr. Z to find out what it means…
Sooo…. what did she read that has worried her?
Go over to Levabo oculos meos. Here it is, with my simple corrections of spelling:
Feminarum personant saepius clamores:
sumusne servitio sancto digniores?
Quaesumus te, optime antistites domne
te petentes feminas ordinare omnes.Ubi nunc invenies zelum animarum? –
matronarum cordibus atque puellarum!
Paenitentem audient, lacrimas abstergent,
statim pro consilio ad amicam pergent.Et quam pulchre possumus Missam celebrare,
pretiosis vestibus corpus adornare,
illa aureos capillos, ista habet nigros
vestimento virido atque rubro dignos.Introibit tenera ad altare Dei,
quaesumus, considera gravitatem rei:
quam libenter venient Missam audire
(et spectare, clara res) juvenes et viri!Ordinare feminas Anglicani solent,
feminae catholicae ordinari volunt:
Aut tu putaberis malus et obscurus
ignorans et rigidus, severus atque durus!
I think someone is going to give Timothy of Parodist a run for his money!
In the meantime, I would like to see if any of those silly wymyn of fake ordination notoriety could read any of that.
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line 3, antistites should be antistes
I don’t know if she is “traddy” or not, but Ekurlowa clearly speaks a Kyrillic
tongue and I couldn’t figure out how to leave a comment there, so:
I don’t which “melody” was the inspiration, but this couplet:
“quam libenter venient Missam audire
(et spectare, clara res) juvenes et viri!”
reminded me of Augustine and Gower!
Heheheheheh… I seriously doubt that any of the womyn who are stupid enough to believe they can be ordained just by declaring it to be so can actually read…
After all, which bit of “impossible” do they not understand…?
*incredibly* clever and witty Latin
John – I don’t think you are meant to take to ‘antistites’ as vocative singular but as accusative plural following the verb ‘ordinare’. So literally “Quaesumus te, optime antistites domne
te petentes feminas ordinare omnes.” translates as “We beseech you, O most excellent Lord, begging you to ordain all women as high priests”. I think “omnes” is a little bit ambiguous as it could be accusative or nominative. I think, contrary to what I have just written, it makes more sense as a nominative, but I’m just not sure as its proximity to ‘feminas’ suggests it to be an accusative.
Daniel,
The word order is dead against you. If antistites is predicative it has to go in the phrase beginning with “te”. She’s begging a bishop to
ordain a priest, not an unnamed cleric to consecrate a bishop.
Cheers!
John P
John, that is the only way I can make sense given that it is a plural. It makes no sense to have a vocative plural ‘antistites’ complemented by vocative singulars ‘optime’ and ‘domne’. I’m just trying to grapple with it in a way that assumes that the author hasn’t made a mistake! But I do agree the word order (paying no attention to inflexion) does suggest that she intended it to be a singular vocative address, but there is no technical reason why ‘antistites’ can’t be accusative plural (I’ve seen much more severe cases of hyperbaton!)
If you were to change it to ‘antistes’, you world have to also uncontract the nice mediaeval contraction ‘domne’ to ‘domine’ to maintain the 13 syllable lines.
Hmm… No translation for us missal users? Alas.
To what tune do we sing it? I suggest “In vernali tempore” (“Good King Wenceslas” for most of us anglophones.)
Or perhaps from the Carmina Burana, “Mihi est propositum in taberna mori”?
My Latin is rusty, but I swore when I first saw the title that it was “LAVABO oculos meos.” I thought maybe we were going to see some bad vestments. ;)
Thanks to all. I’m really Russian-speaking, and in the verse are “ruthenismi”
“Antistes” – was corrected (I mean a word 0:) )
Mujer que sabe latín, tiene mal fin. -Mexican proverb
Daniel,
I think she wrote “antistites” thinking it the nominative (vocative) singular.
I think her comment says as much. When it’s corrected, it does spoil the metre,
but this is not the correction of an orthographical error; besides, one can now expand
domne.
Salve!
John P
It doesn’t need to be spoilt; simply add something like “mi” (mihi): doesn’t change the meaning but adds to the tongue in cheek pleading
Quaesumus te, optime antistes mi domne
Ok. For us in the “baby” Latin course would someone translate because I know it must be hilarious!
For those who are dying to get a sense of these verses, here is a slavishly
literal, and prosaic, version to be used as a crib only:
Women’s cries are often heard:
are we then unworthy of the holy service?
Oh good Lord Bishop, we beseech thee,
Requesting you to ordain all women.
Where can you find zeal for souls these days?
In the hearts of women and girls!
They hear with repentant hearts, they cleanse with tears,
And then hustle off to a girl-friend to share their fears.
And, Oh how beauteously we can celebrate Mass,
Adorning our bodies with precious vestments,
Here a blonde, there brunettte,
Wearing color-coded garments, green or red.
She will enter tenderly unto the altar of God,
We pray, ponder the gravity of the matter:
How willingly men will come to hear Mass
(and to gawk, to be sure) young and old!
The Anglicans tend to ordain women,
Catholic women want to be ordained:
What, shall they tag you as evil and obscure
Ignorant and rigid, stern and flinty!
(Apologies to Ekurlova for this pre-emption!)
Bless you mpm, and thanks. It IS hilarious.
The part about inducing men to come to mass literally made my jaw drop! XD
I like! We must never forget the fifth mark of the Church.
http://orthometer.blogspot.com/2008/08/fifth-mark-of-church.html
“Catholic women want to be ordained”
Please, NOT ALL OF US. I am quite happy in my vocation of a married woman and mother, there is no higher calling for me.
Thank-you for the Latin lesson Fathers.
That is marvelous! Well done Ekurlowa! Thank you mpm!
This should be done into a skit…of course all in jest and fun! How funny!
mpm – thanks!