CARMINA

BURANA
A resource for singers
and listeners

Wit, sarcasm, romance,

and raciness--it's all
there in the lyrics.

Debi Simons
Also by Deborah Simons:

Intentional Happiness: Choosing Your Emotional Life

CARMINA BURANA: A resource for singers and
listeners. Wit, sarcasm, romance, and raciness--it's all
there in the lyrics.

© 2017 by Debi Simons

Published by Behind-the-Music.com, 1150 W Ridge Road,
Littleton, CO 80120

All rights reserved. No part of this document may be

reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or
otherwise, without prior written permission of Debi
Simons.

The copyright for the text, translation, and music of Carl

Orff's Carmina Burana is held by the Schott Music
Corporation. While the lyrics themselves are all several
hundred years old and therefore in the public domain,
the composer arranged them in the order that we have
today, and I have followed that order for ease of use by
the reader. There is a standard translation of the lyrics
that is often used in programs and commentaries; this
material is also under copyright to Schott. I have
referred to that material and consulted several other
available translations as the basis for my own adapted
version.

Cover illustration: Jongleurs and troubadours

performing for the German emperor, manuscript
illumination from the Manessa Codex, c. 1300, public
domain.
Contents
INTRODUCTION TO CARMINA BURANA 7
O FORTUNA/OH FORTUNE 13
FORTUNE PLANGO VULNERA/ I BEMOAN THE WOUNDS OF FORTUNE 17
VERIS LETA FACIES/THE MERRY FACE OF SPRING 21
OMNIA SOL TEMPERAT/ ALL THINGS ARE TEMPERED BY THE SUN 25
ECCE GRATUM/BEHOLD THE PLEASANT 29
TANZ & FLORET SILVA/ DANCE & THE WOODS ARE BURGEONING 33
CHRAMER, GIP DIE VARWE MIR/ SHOPKEEPER, GIVE ME FACE PAINT 37
REIE & SWAZ HIE GAT UMBE/ ROUND DANCE & THOSE WHO HERE GO AROUND
41
WERE DIU WERLT ALLE MIN/ WERE THE WHOLE WORLD MINE 43
ESTUANS INTERIUS IRA/ BURNING INSIDE WITH VEHEMENT ANGER 47
OLIM LACUS COLUERAM/ ONCE I SWAM ON LAKES 51
EGO SUM ABBAS/I AM THE ABBOT 55
IN TABERNA/IN THE TAVERN 59
AMOR VOLAT UNDIQUE/LOVE FLIES EVERYWHERE 65
DIES, NOX ET OMNIA/ DAY, NIGHT AND EVERYTHING 67
STETIT PUELLA/A GIRL STOOD 69
CIRCA MEA PECTORA/IN MY HEART 73
SIE PUER CUM PUELLULA/IF A BOY WITH A GIRL 77
VENI, VENI, VENIAS/COME, COME, O COME 81
IN TRUTINA/IN THE BALANCE 85
TEMPUS EST IOCUNDUM/ NOW IS THE JOYFUL TIME 89
AVE FORMOSISSIMA/HAIL, MOST FAIR ONE 93
O FORTUNA/OH FORTUNE 95
 Introduction to Carmina Burana

Carl Orff. Image by Jens Ruschs

So you’ve never sung Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, you say?

Never attended a performance? And yet when you hear the
opening notes of that first section, “O Fortuna,” it sounds
strangely familiar. Maybe it conjures up an image of a car, or
aftershave, or a movie about the Greek gods. I will go out on a
limb here and say that those opening notes are outdone in
familiarity only by the ones of Beethoven’s Fifth. It’s a shame,
in a way, because it’s hard to hear the transcendence of the
music itself when it’s inextricably linked in your software to

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 CARMINA BURANA

something else. Hey, maybe there should be a permanent ban

on all use of public domain music for any commercial use
whatsoever! That ruling would at least give some up-and-
coming composers of today a fighting chance at employment.

But that isn’t going to happen. We’re stuck with the world as it
is. So I would encourage you to do your best to revel in the
music itself, and especially to give all of the sections an equal
chance. Most of them are very unfamiliar and therefore don’t
have the pop culture baggage of the first (and last) one. They
cover a huge range of emotions and situations, from the first
blush of love in the spring to the plight of gamblers who’ve lost
everything to the cries of a roast swan. You’re in for a real
treat! (Even though you don’t get to eat the swan.) I’m going to
discuss the origin of the text and then move on to a little
information about the composer of the music, Carl Orff. Each
section of Carmina will then get its own separate commentary.
I hope that, whether you’re singing or listening, you’ll be better
primed to appreciate the music itself after you’ve read this
material.

So on to the texts. What does the title mean? “Carmina” simply

means “songs.” “Burana” means “of Beuern” or (if you want
the whole big German word) “of Benediktbeuern,” a monastery
in Bavaria. So, “songs of a monastery.” Doesn’t sound too
exciting, does it? Are we going to be listening to a bunch of
Gregorian chants? (Very beautiful in their way, but . . . )
Actually, a common description of Carmina is something along
the lines of “a bunch of partying, profane monks sing about
love, lust and gambling.” Part of the scandalous reputation of
Carmina (which I would say is pretty much undeserved) comes
from that very disconnect, or supposed disconnect, between the
subject matter and the authors. I find it rather ridiculous that
these pieces have been branded as extremely licentious; even

8
 INTRODUCTION

the leading conductor Marin Alsop said in a 2006 interview:

“When things are in Latin, the X-rated element almost gets
elevated to a new level.” (Read or listen to the entire interview
at “The Lasting Appeal of Orff’s Carmina Burana.”) Folks, I
hate to burst your bubble here, but there aren’t any X-rated
elements at all. What on earth is she talking about? Beats me.
I’ll be pointing out various and sundry references to various
and sundry strong emotions, shall we say, but I can promise
you that there’s nothing in Carmina that you wouldn’t find in a
Shakespearean play.

To add insult to injury, or something like that, the monks didn’t

write these texts in the first place. The manuscript was
discovered at the Beuren monastery in the mid-1800’s, but
scholars now think that the songs themselves were written
elsewhere, probably by a wide variety of people. Some of the
pieces (out of over 250 in all) are 1,000 years old. Interestingly,
Orff actually wrote Carmina as one of three cantatas with the
overall title of Trionfi, but the other two works have not been
anywhere near as popular. I’ve tracked down some
performances on YouTube and found them to be charming. It
would be quite an evening to have all of them performed, but
perhaps a bit long. And I’m afraid that the other two on their
own might not be much of a draw. So we’ll just be content with
the popular one.

Now on to Carl Orff himself. He was born in 1895 in Munich

and showed his musical prowess early, learning to play several
different instruments while still a child. At some point he
decided that he’d rather compose his own music than play that
of others; while he was a teenager he started writing songs.
Since he’d had no formal training in composition his mother
helped him write down the music properly, and he eventually
learned to write music on his own by studying classical works.

9
 CARMINA BURANA

He was also quite interested in the teaching of the arts to

children, and until the success of Carmina he was primarily
known for his efforts in that field. Up until 1937, the year of
Carmina’s premier, he had worked in opera houses, taught in a
music school (where he stayed on the faculty until his death),
written works of striking originality but little commercial
success, and edited some seventeenth-century operas. None of
these ventures made him much money. I have the picture of a
man trying very hard to get ahead in life, going this way and
that, hoping for success but not finding it.

In 1934 Orff came across the 1847 edition of the 250-plus

poems that had been found at the monastery. He was apparently
friends at the time with a young lawyer, Michael Hofman, who
is described as a “Latin and Greek enthusiast.” Did they live
across the street from each other? Did they meet in the library
and did Hofman notice Carmina in Orff’s stack of checkouts?
Or was Hofman the one who introduced Orff to the collection?
Who knows? It would be so fascinating to find out, wouldn’t
it? But unless a diary comes to light somewhere with all this
information we’ll just have to be content with what we know.
However it happened, Hofman helped Orff pick out 24 of the
poems and organize them into a whole. Orff of course wrote
the music, and he had additional ideas about how the text and
music should be performed. He wanted there to be a visual as
well as a musical component, with dancing and other staging
used, and would probably be somewhat disappointed with most
modern performances, in which the piece is performed
basically as a cantata. In order to give it the full Orff treatment
Carmina has to be performed as an opera, and there would be
very few organizations other than actual opera companies with
the ability to pull that off. Right now, even with the limited
way Carmina is usually performed, there needs to be an

10
 INTRODUCTION

orchestra, a big chorus, some extraordinarily-gifted soloists,

and a boys’ choir. That’s a pretty major set of requirements
even without all the frills Orff wanted. But he did get to do it
his way at the premiere, which took place at the Frankfurt
Opera House in 1937 and had professionally-designed staging,
sets and costumes. It was such a huge success that Orff
famously wrote to his publisher afterward:

“Everything I have written to date, and which you have,

unfortunately, printed, can be destroyed. With Carmina
Burana, my collected works begin.“

There’s one more aspect of the man Orff that needs to be at

least touched on here since it comes up in any serious
discussion about him, and that is his association with the Nazi
regime, which came to power in 1933. The Nazi party felt that
they had to make some kind of statement about this incredibly
popular piece of German music. The basic idea seems to be that
there was some “nervousness” in the party about the erotic
nature of some of the poems (the X factor, again). It may seem
strange to us that a regime known for its monstrous crimes
would concern itself with any kind of morality, but we have to
remember how the Nazis branded themselves in their climb to
power. They were the ones who would restore Germany to its
greatness, to its roots. Their propaganda posters showed
beautiful, happy families in idyllic surroundings. The first
review of Carmina by a Nazi-party musicologist was a stinging
critique which included the words “primitive” and “foreign.”
But Orff had some contacts within the party; he had ingratiated
himself by writing some music for school use that was very
much in line with the Hitler Youth philosophy. So this
connection, along with the music’s immense popularity,
swayed party opinion over to a more favorable position.
Indeed, Carmina came to be seen as exhibiting “the

11
 CARMINA BURANA

indestructible and always re-emerging power of the ways of the

common people.” It’s a fascinating instance of projecting
modern ideas backwards onto literature. In this particular case
the projection is particularly ironic, as the overall theme of
Carmina has to do with the unpredictable turning of Fortune’s
wheel. Within eight years of the premiere Hitler had been
defeated, and Orff successfully managed to disassociate
himself from the Nazi regime. In the years after the war he
pushed the idea that Carmina was covertly anti-Nazi.

In actuality, of course, the piece stands on its own. It’s helpful

to know that some of the selections have satirical elements,
mostly against the Roman Catholic Church, and there are
cultural and historical references that help clarify some places.
I will be pointing out these ideas as we go along. For each
section I will include the original text and translation. I am
often tickled and/or intrigued by Latin words and how their
original meanings are echoed in modern English words that
have Latin roots. I’ll try, however, to rein myself in and not go
on at too much length about such issues. For some of the pieces
I include the original “teaser” questions that I used as
introductions in my posts written for the Cherry Creek Chorale
in Denver, CO. In the end, if you switch over from singing or
listening just to syllables and start to discover and delight in the
actual meaning of the words, I will consider myself to have
succeeded.

12
 O Fortuna/Oh Fortune

Image from the Burana Codex, public domain

Note the words at the four points around the wheel, starting on
the left side:
"Regnabo, Regno, Regnavi, Sum sine regno" (I shall reign, I
reign, I have reigned, I am without a realm)

Part I: “Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi”—”Fortune, Empress of

the World”

13
 CARMINA BURANA

Carl Orff begins his masterpiece with two pieces that center on
the idea of Fate, or “Fortune.” Both complain about this force,
which is addressed as a woman.

O Fortuna, velut luna statu O Fate, you are changeable

variabilis like the moon,
semper crescis, aut decrescis; Always waxing and waning.
vita detestabilis Life is hateful,
nunc obdurat, et tunc curat Now hard, then caring, as your
ludo mentis aciem, mind plays pointed, sharp
games
Egestatem, potestatem, Whether it’s poverty or power,
dissolvit ut glaciem. you melt both like ice.
Sors immanis, et inanis, rota tu You are savage, brutal and
volubilis, meaningless, a twisting wheel.
Status malus,vana salus, Whether one’s state is evil or
semper dissolubilis, good, it is vain and always
changing.
Obumbratam, et velatam, You operate in the shadows
michi quoque niteris; and are veiled, so even when I
am in a good state
Nunc per ludum, dorsum Now by chance I will have to
nudum, fero tui sceleris. lay bare my back to your
ferocious calamity!
Sors salutis, et virtutis, michi Fate, even in health and virtue,
nunc contraria, is against me.
Est affectus, et defectus, I’m driven, weighted down,
semper in angaria. always enslaved by her.
Hac in hora, sine mora, corde So, everyone, play sad music
pulsum tangite; and weep with me,
Quod per sortem, sternit Since Fate strikes down even
fortem, mecum omnes the strong!
plangite!

14
 O FORTUNA/OH FORTUNE

(full chorus, Latin)

Here’s the first “teaser” question from my original posts, with

some additional notes:

What TV show’s title is referenced in “O Fortuna”?

And the answer is, “Wheel of Fortune.” Whether the producers

of that show realized it or not, they named it after a very
popular idea from ancient times.

Our first Carmina selection is addressed to a mythical person

named “Fortuna.” Today we’d use the word “fate.” If you
know your Latin grammar you will notice that Fortuna is the
feminine form of the word. Ever heard of “Lady Luck”? That’s
who this is, giving out both the good and the bad. The author of
our selection seems to think that this lady has treated him pretty
badly. Boy! Kind of depressing, isn’t it? The words and music
go hand in hand, as it’s very ominous and written in a minor
key.

Let’s take a further look at the character of Fortuna. She’s often

portrayed as holding a wheel, because it turns. The Romans
popularized this image, and if you think about it, it makes
perfect sense: as the wheel turns, the top part rotates down and
the bottom rotates up. So whoever’s on the top of Fortune’s
wheel had better watch out. The line “rota tu volubilis” literally
means “the wheel (towards) you is changeable, rolling,
revolving.” You may have looked at the word “volubilis” and
thought of the word “voluble,” meaning talkative or
loquacious, and you would have been correct in doing so. To
say that someone is voluble is to say that the words roll easily
and fluently from him. The word also means “having a fluid or

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 CARMINA BURANA

undulating motion” or “twisting and turning like a vine.” Take

a look at the clever wording that comes right before the “rota”
phrase: “immanis, et inanis.” We use the word “immanent” to
mean “about to happen,” as in “the hurricane is immanent,” but
the Latin root word also means “monstrous, inhuman, savage,”
which clearly applies here. And we use the word “inane” to
mean exactly what our translation says” “empty.” Immanent
and inane—that’s Fate. I can’t resist also pointing out “tangite”
and “plangite,” the rhyming words at the ends of the last two
lines. Tangite means “touch, pluck,” and plangite means
“bewail, mourn.” Can you see our modern words “tangible”
and “plaintive”?

If you go even further back in history, you will find an earlier

form of the revolving character of Fate, this time from the signs
of the zodiac. The ancient Babylonians were the first to
recognize that some of the stars seemed to form patterns and
that they moved across the sky with the seasons of the year;
they called this rotation the “wheel of fortune.” Then, at some
point, the metaphor shifted to actual physical wheels. It’s a
very rich image, as the goddess Fortuna, perhaps blindfolded,
spins the wheel at random and shifts everyone around. The
whole process is random and meaningless, as our speaker
laments. Even in the midst of a run of good luck he’s always
“weighted down” by the thought of coming misfortune. All
good fortune is vain and always goes away. If he’s having a
bad time, that’s horrible, and if he’s having a good time it’s not
going to last—so that’s horrible too!

16
 Fortune Plango Vulnera/
I Bemoan the Wounds of Fortune

Woodcut of Hecuba by Guillaume Rouillé, 1553, public domain,

Fortune plango vulnera, I bewail the wounds of Fate,

stillantibus ocellis, my eyes dripping (with tears)
Quod sua michi munera, Who has given me munificent
subtrahit rebellis. gifts but now rebels and takes
them away.
Verum est, quod legitur, fronte It has been truly written that
capillata, while having a hairy forehead
Sed plerumque sequitur, For the most part it is logical
to say that
occasio calvata. Opportunity is bald behind.

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 CARMINA BURANA

In Fortune solio sederam I was lifted up, seated on

elatus, Fortune’s throne,
Prosperitatis vario, flore Crowned with the variable
coronatus; flower of prosperity,
Quicquid enim florui, felix et But although I flourished,
beatus, happy and blessed,
Nunc a summo corrui, gloria Now I have fallen from the
privatus. summit, deprived of glory.
Fortune rota volvitur: The wheel of Fortune rotates
descendo minoratus; and I descend, diminished,
Alter in altum tollitur; nimis While another is raised up,
exaltatus, exalted on high.
Rex sedet in vertice - caveat Let the king raised up to the
ruinam! heights beware of ruin!
Nam sub axe legimus Hecubam For underneath the axis (of
reginam. Fortune’s wheel)is written the
name of Hecuba
(full chorus, Latin)

Orff continues with his theme of Fortune’s unpredictability in

this selection. Here’s a teaser question about two of its striking
images:

How do hair and Hecuba tie in with the wounds of

Fortune?

Selection #2 continues the theme of Fortune’s fitfulness and

capriciousness. In selection #1 the speaker talked about his
“bare back” (“dorsum nudum”) being exposed to Fortune’s
villainy, implying that Fortune has whipped or flogged him...
This selection begins with a mention of the “wounds” of
Fortune, thus echoing that idea. (I will just remind you here that
Orff picked out and arranged these poems, so these two

18
 FORTUNE PLANGO VULNERA/I BEMOAN THE WOUNDS OF FORTUNE

selections were probably not written by the same person and

might also be widely separated in time. We don’t have
authorship and dates for the vast majority of the original
poems.) Note that the Latin for “wounds” is “vulnera,” and that
today we use the world “vulnerable” to mean able to be
wounded, not to refer to the wounds themselves. And “plango”
is used today in our word “plangent,” which means plaintive or
melancholy. We use the word as an adjective, not a verb: we
don’t say, “He planged about his misfortune.”

Now the speaker shifts to another image: Fortune has a

forehead (”fronte”) that is hairy (”capillata”), but it generally
follows that Occasion or Opportunity (”Occasio”) is bald.
Huh? The statement makes more sense when you know that the
poet is somewhat mingling two figures: Fortune and her son or
lover (depending on the story), Occasio, the personification of
opportunity, luck, and favorable moments. Occasio is usually
shown as having only one lock of hair falling over his forehead.
So, if the right opportunity comes your way, you have to grab
onto that hair right away, because if you miss your chance then
there’s nothing to hang onto, as the back of Occasio’s head is
bald. Have you even heard the saying “Take time by the
forelock”? Same idea here. (I can’t resist quoting here from
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Amy, the youngest of the
four girls featured in the novel, is always trying to be
impressive with her use of big words but often gets them
wrong. So she says, “In future I will try to take time by the
fetlock.” A fetlock is the ankle of a horse. Just so you know!)
Some translations convey the meaning of this image as “he
who has the most hair goes bald the soonest,” another version
of “the bigger they are, the hard they fall,” which makes sense
in the context of the passage but isn’t the actual meaning.

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 CARMINA BURANA

The poet used to be seated on Fortune’s throne, crowned with

flowers and lifted up, happy and blessed, but now the wheel of
fortune has turned and another is raised up while he is
demeaned. Yet let that king at the summit beware! His fall is
coming. And as a reminder of that coming fall, the author says,
“Under the axis (axle) is written Queen Hecuba.” So, who’s
Hecuba?

She’s a fascinating figure from mythical history, Queen

(”reginam”) Hecuba of Troy. When her son, Paris, kidnapped
Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, he set off the
Trojan War—because Helen was, somewhat inconveniently,
already married, and to a king of Greece at that. So Hecuba the
Queen’s name is found written underneath the axle of Fortune’s
wheel (”sub axe legimus”) because she’s such a perfect
example of the changes brought about by its turning, starting
out as a queen and ending up as a slave, her family killed and
her city destroyed. At the end of the Greek play The Trojan
Women, Hecuba and the few women who have survived the
battle are being led off to the Greek ships to begin their tragic
new lives. She laments her fate, “Forth to where the new long
day dawneth to slavery!”

20
Veris leta facies/The Merry Face of Spring

Flora, Roman Goddess of Spring,

from a fresco in the National Museum of Naples.

Part II: “Primo Vere”—”In Spring”

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 CARMINA BURANA

With selection #3 we move into the second section of Carmina

(#3-#5) celebrating the joys of spring.

Veris leta facies mundo Spring’s happy face offers a

propinatur, pledge to the world.
Hiemalis acies victa iam Sharp winter is evicted and
fugatur, flees.
In vestitu vario Flora The goddess Flora, in her
principatur, variegated robes, rules
Nemorum dulcisono que cantu As the woods sweetly
celebratur. celebrate her in song.
Flore fusus gremio Phoebus Spread out in the lap of Flora,
novo more risum dat, Phoebus smiles once again,
Hoc vario iam stipate flore. Where many-colored flowers
are heaped upon him.
Zephyrus nectareo spirans in Zephyr breathes out sweet-
odore; smelling nectars.
Certatim pro bravio curramus Let us hasten to wrestle for
in amore. love’s prize,
Cytharizat cantico dulcis Like a lute sings the sweet
Philomena, nightingale,
Flore rident vario prata iam Smiling with flowers are the
serena, serene meadows,
Salit cetus avium silve per Flocks of birds rise up through
amena, the forest,
Chorus promit virginum iam And the chorus of maidens
gaudia millena. Ah! promises a thousand joys. Ah!
(small choir, Latin)

I myself am a gardener, and one of the events I look forward to

every year here in Colorado is the emergence of my perennials.
All winter they’ve slept beneath the ground and the snow, but
when those first shoots start appearing it’s very joyful. I love

22
 VERIS LETA FACIES/THE MERRY FACE OF SPRING

walking around the yard and peering at the ground. ‘Look!’ I

think. ‘That one made it through the winter!’ Gradually the
weather becomes consistently warm; that pile of dirty snow on
the sidewalk finally disappears. Even city dwellers with no
patch of earth at all to call their own respond to the appearance
of spring. Suddenly you don’t have to wear that heavy coat any
more; there’s no longer a huge drop in temperature as you step
outdoors. The air feels totally different.

Many cultures have personified the seasons, and medieval

Germany was no exception. First we see spring with her
“happy face.” As she turns that face to the world “sharp winter”
flees, vanquished; winter is often portrayed in mythology as an
old man. As the poem moves on, spring’s various personas are
mentioned:

Flora, the Roman goddess of spring, rules over the entire scene.
She is decked out in various colors, or variegated garments (”in
vestitu vario”), and all the sweet harmony of the woods praises
her in song.

Phoebus, who is lying In Flora’s lap, is actually Apollo; he’s

often called by both names at once. Apollo is a very
complicated pagan deity, but “Phoebus” refers directly to his
position as the god of the sun. So the strengthening sunlight is
“spread out in the lap of Flora” (”Flora fusus gremio”),
covered with flowers. Meanwhile, the soft, scented breeze
blows. Oh wait! “Zephyr” is also a god, the personification of
the west wind. (I got a little sidetracked here when I was
writing this. Is the “west wind” blowing in a westerly direction,
so actually coming from the east, or is it from the west, and
therefore blowing east? And why is the west wind seen as soft
and gentle, whatever direction it may have come from? Ever

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 CARMINA BURANA

wondered about that? That’s what you get in these

commentaries, answers to questions you’d never think to ask.
After a dive into Wikipedia I can say that the four winds are
named for the direction they come from, so the west wind
would have been blowing over the warm Mediterranean Sea.)

Spring is seen as the season of love and delight. The birds are
singing, the meadows are happy, the forests are pleasant. So, in
the midst of all this beauty, all this warmth and comfort after
the blasts of winter, the speaker says, “Let us rush to compete
for love’s prize.” The “chorus of maidens” already promises a
thousand joys. All he can do is sigh: “Ah”

In C. S. Lewis’s novel That Hideous Strength there is a scene

very reminiscent of our poem here, in which the goddess Flora
appears in a vision to the central female character, Jane. She is
wearing a flame-colored robe and carrying a torch:

Jane noticed that what was curling up from everything the

torch had touched was not flame after all, but vegetation. Ivy
and honeysuckle were growing up the legs of the bed; red roses
were sprouting from the caps of the little men, and from every
direction huge lilies rose to her knees and waist, shooting out
their yellow tongues at her.

And so Jane goes into the house to reunite with her husband
Mark. That’s where the book ends. And, fittingly, where this
poem ends, with the joys of love promised.

24
 Omnia Sol temperat/
All Things Are Tempered by the Sun

“The Present,” oil painting by Thomas Cole, 1838,

in the Mead Art Museum, Amherst, MA, public domain,

Omnia Sol temperat purus et The sun, pure and gentle,

subtilis, tempers everything,
Novo mundo reserat facies And the face of April is newly
Aprilis, revealed to the world.
Ad Amorem properat animus Towards love the soul, its heir,
herilis, et iocundis imperat is propelled, and over its joys
deus puerilis. rules the boy-god.
Rerum tanta novitas in solemni In this rebirth and the
vere et veris auctoritas iubet solemnities of spring, we are
nos gaudere; all ordered to rejoice!
Vias prebet solitas, et in tuo Solitary ways appear; in your
vere fides est et probitas tuum springtime it is true and right
retinere. to keep your own.

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 CARMINA BURANA

Ama me fideliter! fidem meam Love me faithfully! See how I

nota: de corde totaliter et ex am faithful with all my heart
mente tota sum and mind,
presentialiter absens in remota. I am present with you even
quisquis amat taliter, volvitur when absent. Whoever loves
in rota. like this turns on the wheel.
(baritone, Latin)

Selection #4 continues the spring theme. The sun is gentle, not

hot, and reveals the face of April. That month’s name goes
back to the ancient Roman calendar and is taken from a word
that means “to open”—”aperio.” It makes sense that the name
for the month of spring would reference this idea. As a listing
of Roman festivals said: "fruits and flowers and animals and
seas and lands do open.”

Once again Spring is seen as the season of romance: “Toward

love the soul is propelled.” And who is in control? It is “the
boy-god.” At first I thought this was another reference to
Apollo, who is usually portrayed as a handsome young man. I
was being kind of dense, though. Who else could this be but
Cupid? (Note the Latin here: “puerilis.” Today we use the word
“puerile” is a negative sense, to mean childish, silly and trivial.
Obviously that’s not the meaning here, and indeed the word in
Latin simply means “child” or “boy.”)

The poem now turns specifically to human love. Man’s soul is

propelled (”properat”) toward love, which is his inheritance.
Indeed, there is an order given to rejoice. But then there’s a
puzzling phrase. Most translations don’t render the literal
meaning of the line “vias prebet solitas.” It’s often given as
something along the lines of: “It [Spring] shows us paths we
know well.” But the words actually mean “way or road,” “is

26
 OMNIA SOL TEMPERAT/ALL THINGS ARE TEMPERED BY THE SUN

offered,” and “solitude.” So, in the midst of all this rejoicing,

there’s a mention of being alone, in solitude. How does that
idea fit in? The next lines give the answer: The speaker is
staying faithful to his one true love, with all his heart and soul,
even if he is far away from her. The poem has taken a darker
turn, as the speaker doesn’t seem at all sure that his loved one
will stay true to him, even though he is true to her. He begs her
to love him faithfully, thus implying that maybe he’s afraid she
isn’t going to do that. He is “present with her” even when he is
far away. But what is the result? Among all this joy, all this
merriment, our speaker, as one who “loves like this” is right
back on the wheel. Only this time, I would guess, it’s not so
much the wheel of fortune as the wheel of execution, a horrible
device that was used in classical times up until at least the
1700’s. (I’ll spare you the details.) The pains of possibly
unrequited love and loneliness are felt even more deeply when
all around the sufferer there is rejoicing. I would guess that
Orff was intrigued by how this poem ends with the wheel
image once again and that was at least in part why he picked it.
Without the dark turn in the middle, this poem would be pretty
saccharine. But now we have been reminded that even the joys
of love are fleeting and unpredictable.

27
 Ecce Gratum/Behold the Pleasant

“Venus and Cupid with Flower Garlands”

by Gaspar Peeter Verbruggen the Younger, 1730, public domain

Ecce gratum et optatum Ver Behold the pleasant and

reducit gaudia, gracious Spring that brings
back joys.
Purpuratum floret pratum, Sol With purple-flowered
serenat omnia, meadows, the Sun serenely
shining on all.
Iamiam cedant tristia! Let everyone flee sadness!
Estas redit, nunc recedit Summer returns, and now
Hyemis sevitia. Winter recedes.
Iam liquescit et decrescit Now is melted and disappears
grando, nix et cetera, snow, ice, et cetera.
Bruma fugit, et iam sugit, Ver Winter cold flees, and now

29
 CARMINA BURANA

Estatis ubera; Spring sucks at Summer’s

breast;
Illi mens est misera, qui nec A man is truly miserable who
vivit, nec lascivit sub Estatis does not lust under Summer’s
dextera. decrees.
Gloriantur et letantur in melle They glory and rejoice in
dulcedinis qui conantur, ut honeyed sweetness who strive
utantur premio Cupidinis; for Cupid’s prize,
Simus jussu Cypridis gloriantes Under the rule of Venus they
et letantes pares esse Paridis. may have the same glory and
joy as Paris.
(full chorus, Latin)

Yet a third selection about spring, but don’t worry. There are
new ideas to be found in this one. We start out with the same
image as before, with the ending of winter and the coming of
longed-for spring and bright sunshine. Purple flowers fill the
meadows. I took some time tracking down possible symbolism
of specifically purple flowers. For what it’s worth, violets,
which appear early in spring, are associated with the Greek
myth of Venus and Adonis (and an even earlier, Near Eastern
myth). Venus, the goddess of love, falls in love with a
handsome young man named Adonis. (Have you ever heard
anyone described as “a real Adonis”? Well, maybe that
expression isn’t used much any more.) He ends up getting
gored by a boar and dying, and where his blood falls to the
ground violets spring up. Later, in Christian symbolism, violets
stood for the virtue of humility. (Thus the phrase “shrinking
violet.”) Hyacinths are another purple, spring-blooming flower,
also associated with the death of a young man, this time . . .
Hyacinthus. He’s a companion or lover of Apollo, and one day
they’re passing the time by throwing the discus. In one version
of the story Hyacinthus is trying to impress Apollo and, in

30
 ECCE GRATUM/BEHOLD THE PLEASANT

running after the flying, heavy platter, is struck by it on the

head and dies. In another version the discus is directed by
Zephyr, the west wind (remember him from selection #4?),
who is jealous of the love between the god and the young man.
Either way, Hyacinthus’ blood soaks into the ground and up
springs the purple hyacinth, although there is some confusion
about just exactly which flower the myth refers to. (The
adjective “hyacinthine” is sometimes used to refer to
someone’s hair; in that case it means “reddish gold.” Don’t ask
me why!)

Having said all that, I will have to admit that the purple color of
the flowers in this selection may not have a thing to do with the
above but instead may have been used simply because of the
sound of the word. This selection is fun to sing because of its
music and also because of its wordplay, one aspect of which is
the rhyming of four words ending with “um”—”gratum”
(pleasing), “optatum” (wished for, desired), “purpuratum”
(which actually means “clothed in purple,” as in high office),
and “pratum” (meadow).

Not only spring but also summer is mentioned this time.

Specific rigors of winter are withdrawing: ice, snow, and the
rest. The progression of the seasons is symbolized by the image
of Spring “sucking at” (”sugit”) Summer, with the word
“ubera” referring to the breasts of Summer or, more
metaphorically, the richness and fruitfulness of Summer.

Back to the humans. He is a wretched soul who doesn’t

participate in all this lusty enjoyment of summer’s bounty and
of the joys of love, which are described as “honeyed
sweetness.” The use of “honey” as a description of a loved one
has a long history; in the Old Testament book “The Song of

31
 CARMINA BURANA

Solomon” the man says of his bride: “Your lips drop sweetness
as the honeycomb” (4:11 NIV) . “Lips sweeter than honey” is a
common phrase in country-western music, and of course, what
is a popular nickname for a loved one? “Honey.”

As the selection closes there are three characters mentioned by

name:

Cupidinis—the little god of love with his arrows shows up

again, this time by name. He is the one who gives the prize of
love.

Cypridis—Venus, goddess of love. She's being referred to as

“the one from Cyprus” because according to mythology that
island was said to be her birthplace. The famous painting by
Botticelli, “The Birth of Venus,” portrays this legend, showing
Venus on a seashell, clad only in her hair, wafting ashore. It is
at her command that mankind should glory and rejoice in being
the equal of . . .

Paridis—You may have thought, as I did at first, that this word

refers to Paradise, but it doesn't. Instead, this is Paris, not the
city but the young man mentioned in selection #2’s
commentary as the kidnapper of Helen. So we're not being told
that we'll go to some kind of heaven if we follow Venus but
that we'll be equal to Paris, who (at least for awhile) was
blessed with love.

32
 Tanz & Floret Silva/
Dance & The Woods Are Burgeoning

“Michaelmas Daisies” by Helen Allingham, 1846-1926,

public domain

33
 CARMINA BURANA

Part III: “Uf dem Anger”/”On the Green”

Floret silva nobilis floribus et

The noble woods are
foliis. burgeoning, with flowers and
leaves,
Ubi est antiquus meus amicus? Where is my lover of the past?
Ah! Ah!
hinc equitavit, eia, quis me He has ridden off on his horse,
amabit? and now who will love me?
Floret silva undique, nah mime The woods are flowering all
gesellen ist mir wê. over, but I am pining for my
lover who is not here.
Gruonet der walt allenthalben, The woods are turning green,
wâ ist min geselle alse lange? but why is he away so long?
Der ist geriten hinnen, owî, He has ridden away, and who
wer soll mich minnen? will love me now?
(full chorus/Latin-Middle High German)

Selection #6 is a dance tune, usually just played by the

orchestra without any staging. (Orff’s original production
would have had dancers performing here.) As noted above, this
piece marks the start of a new section of Carmina which goes
through selection #10. For some strange reason, though, the
name of this section is sometimes translated as “In the Forest,”
which isn’t what “anger” means. Most of the songs concern
activities that would take place in a village, thus the “green,”
or, more accurately, the “village green.”

Selection #7 is titled “The Woods Are Burgeoning,” but the

action doesn’t necessarily take place in the woods. The speaker
in the poem is probably a woman, and as she looks at the
beautiful spring forest with its flowers and leaves her words

34
 TANZ & FLORET SILVA/DANCE & THE WOODS ARE BURGEONING

show the contrast between what is in nature and what is in her

heart. She says that her lover has ridden off, leaving her bereft.
“Who will love me?” she asks. “I am pining for my lover. Why
is he away so long?” The woods in winter would match her
mood better than what she sees all around her. But instead they
are “burgeoning,” the translation given for the word “floret,”
and there’s a definite connotation of fertility and abundance.
Everything else is flourishing, abounding, even frothing, with
joy, delight, and fruitfulness. Only she is left alone, and the
contrast makes her situation all the more painful. Again Orff
has chosen a poem that describes the pangs and sadness of love
even in the midst of the lushness of spring.

Interesting note on the use of language in this selection: it’s

actually starting to veer away from Latin and into German,
showing that it was perhaps written later than the poems in
more classical Latin. The word “gesellen,” for example, is
German for “companion.” But other words are clearly Latin:
“antiquus” (of old, former) and “equitavit” (horseman). It’s
quite a mixture, and it shows what a mixture the Carmina
poems are as a whole.

35
 Chramer, gip die varwe mir/
Shopkeeper, give me face paint

“Lady at her Toilet,” Anonymous, from the Luttrell Psalter,

1325-1335, public domain,

Chramer, gip die varwe mir, Shopkeeper, give me face

die min wengel roete, paint so that I can make my
cheeks red.
Damit ich die jungen man an ir So that I can make the young
dank der minnenliebe noete. men love me in spite of
hardships.

37
 CARMINA BURANA

Seht mich an, jungen man! lat Look at me, young men! Let
mich iu gevallen! me please you!
Minnet, tugentliche man, Good men, love women
minnecliche frouwen! worthy of love!
Minne tuot iu hoch gemuot Love ennobles your spirit and
unde lat iuch in hohen eren gives you honor.
schouwen.
Seht mich an… Look at me . . .
Wol dir werlt, das du bist also Hail to you, world! You are a
freudenriche! rich source of joy!
Ich will dir sin undertan durch I will follow your rules
din liebe immer sicherliche. because of the pleasures you
afford
Seht mich an… Look at me . . .
(small and large chorus/Middle High German)

What item of makeup is being purchased at the beginning of

Selection #8, “Chramer, gip die varwe mir”?

The item is rouge, “varwe.” It actually means “color” or

“paint.” “Chramer” means “shopkeeper” or “merchant.” So the
woman or women are saying, “I want to buy some rouge to
make my cheeks red (roete) so that I can make the young men
love me.” Wording varies depending on which translation you
follow, but the overall idea is that, on the one hand, the speaker
“must” make the young men notice her, and on the other hand,
she will force them to notice her “against their will.” You’ll
note above that I’ve used the word “hardships” in my version
above, which seems to be the literal meaning of “noete.” One
translation says, “Do not my eyes, my lips attract, all your
minds and thoughts distract—to me?” (from David Parlett’s
version) Doesn’t this sound like a very young teenager who is
just discovering that she can attract the opposite sex? She keeps
saying, “Look at me, young men!” There doesn’t seem to be

38
 CHRAMER, GIP DIE VARWE MIR/SHOPKEEPER, GIVE ME FACE PAINT

any one in particular whom she wants; it’s all the same to her.
As is true with the rest of the Carmina texts, we don’t have a
date for it, but that doesn’t really matter. Some things never
change.

The second stanza has our speaker giving a slightly more

dignified appeal to the young men around her. Now she says
that love is an honorable prize to be won and that only a few
attain it. Good men should love women who are worthy of it.
It’s interesting that the speaker uses this reasoning, since
there’s a long tradition of branding women who use makeup as
“fast.” (As I was browsing the web today about something
entirely different I ran across an article saying that the singer
Alicia Keys has started a no-makeup movement; that she is
going to quit “covering up.” So it would be interesting to hear
her reaction to these lyrics.) Our speaker is trying to have it
both ways, it seems she wants to attract men with her
attractiveness, artificial or not, but also be valued for herself.

The third verse puts love into the larger context of the world as
a whole, a source of pleasure and delight. I find the wording
interesting here: “Hail, World! I will follow your rules because
of the pleasures you afford.” So the speaker is saying she will
play the game of love so that she’ll win the prize because there
is so much pleasure to be had from it. If that means being a
little deceptive with her rouged cheeks, so be it! But always,
always she comes back to the chorus: “Look at me, young men!
Let me please you!” Or, in another translation, “Don’t you find
me charming?”

When I was writing this material I was suddenly reminded of a

scene from Gone With the Wind. Scarlet O’Hara, the main
female character of the book/movie, is struggling to keep Tara,

39
 CARMINA BURANA

the family’s plantation, afloat, both during and after the Civil
War. She’s managed to keep everyone fed, has repaired some
of the damages from the Yankee occupation, and is hopeful that
Tara can again become a profitable enterprise. Suddenly she
finds out that she’s going to have to pay property taxes, and all
her efforts to improve Tara are now going to result in a higher
assessment. So, in one of the most famous scenes, she makes
herself a new dress from some green velvet curtains hanging in
the parlor and goes to town to get herself a husband, finally
settling on her sister’s fiancé. But she realizes that she looks
wan and haggard after her struggles. She asks Mammy, the
freed slave who is still part of Tara’s household, to go get her
some rouge. “What’s that?” Mammy asks, suspiciously. “Never
you mind!” says Scarlett. But Mammy refuses to agree to buy
something if she doesn’t know what it is. So Scarlett finally
tells her, “Well, it’s paint, if you’re so curious! Face paint.
Don’t stand there and swell up like a toad! Go on.” And
Scarlett’s pink cheeks and cobbled-together dress do indeed net
her a husband and, more importantly, the $300 for the taxes.

Did the speaker of the poem ever attract a lover? We don’t

know. All we have is her longing to be loved, to be noticed.

40
 Reie & Swaz hie gat umbe/
Round Dance & Those who here go around

Photograph of first performance of Carmina Burana, June 8, 1937,

Frankfurt Opera House. No attribution available.

Swaz hie gat umbe, daz sint Those who go around and
allez megede, around are all maidens,
Die wellent an man alle disen They will go without a man
sumer gan. all summer long.
Chume, chum, geselle min, ih Come, come, my love, my
enbite harte din. heart longs for you.
Suzer rosenvarwer munt, chum With your sweet rose-red
unde mache mich gesunt. mouth, come and make me
better.
(full and small chorus/Middle High German)

41
 CARMINA BURANA

There is an orchestral section and a sung one within this piece.

(Wouldn’t it be great if there were a video of that original
performance? The best I’ve been able to come up with is the
above photograph which is from the original 1937 performance
in Frankfurt, Germany. I would love to be able to say which
part they’re doing, but I have no information on that. You can
see, though, that the staging is very elaborate.)

Within the sung lyrics there are two very different emotions
expressed, leading me to wonder if Orff put two original texts
together. I haven’t actually visited the monastery in Germany
and seen the original manuscript, as you may be surprised to
hear. My reading on the website of David Parlett, a CB fan who
actually has seen it, has not given me any clues. I’d love to
know whether Orff put these contrasting lines together himself
or they were in the same poem to begin with. Anyway, the two
lines that begin and end the selection say that there are young
maidens dancing in a circle who have decided that they will go
without men all summer long. Life is simpler without romantic
entanglements, isn’t it? The music is boisterous and joyful.

Then there’s a complete shift in tone and meaning, as the words

and music become plaintive and pleading, speaking of love’s
longing. Interestingly, the whole chorus sings both parts. It
would make more sense, logically, for the women to sing the
section about the maidens and the men to sing about their
longing for love from said maidens, but Orff didn’t do it that
way. So everyone sings about the standoffish maidens, and
everyone sings about the longing lover. Perhaps an attempt to
make the poem(s) apply to everyone. Sometimes you just don’t
want to get involved in a relationship, and sometimes you do.
That’s life!

42
 Were diu werlt alle min/
Were the Whole World Mine

“The Accolade” by Edmund Blair Leighton, 1901, public domain

(We can safely assume that Leighton had no idea what Eleanor of
Aquitaine actually looked like.)

43
 CARMINA BURANA

Were diu werlt alle min von Were the whole world mine
dem mere unze an den Rin, from the sea to the Rhine,
Des wolt ih mih darben, daz I would gladly be deprived of
diu chünegin von Engellant it all if I could have the Queen
lege an minen armen. of England lie in my arms.
Hei! Hail!
(full chorus/Middle High German)

This very short selection has the speaker saying that even if all
the world were his, “From the sea to the Rhine,” he would give
it all up to have the Queen of England lie in his arms. So, one
has to ask, why her specifically? Why not the Queen of
Bavaria, for example, or some other place in Europe, since
that’s where these poems were written? I had a hunch that I
knew the answer and it turned out that I was correct: these
words almost certainly refer to Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was
Queen of England in the 1100’s and known for her beauty and
her scandalous life. (But she was born in Aquitaine, a part of
modern-day France.) She was fabulously wealthy, founded the
French cult of courtly love which the troubadours sang about,
and divorced one husband (the rather dull Louis VII of France)
to marry another, younger man (Henry, Duke of Normandy).
She became Queen of England when her husband became King
Henry II. Her later life showed her at the bottom of Fortune’s
wheel: she was imprisoned by Henry for 16 years because she
supported a revolt against him. She wasn’t released until
Henry’s death and then, nothing daunted, became Queen
Regent while her son, Richard the Lion-Hearted, went off on
the Crusades. She even lived into the reign of the notorious
King John, he who was forced to sign the Magna Carta, and
outlived all of her eight children by Henry except for the two
youngest. No one should outlive her children, so the saying

44
 WERE DIU WERLT ALLE MIN/WERE THE WHOLE WORLD MINE

goes, but she did that in spades. So it’s fair to say that she went
through several revolutions of the wheel.

This selection is more of a proverb or saying than it is an actual

poem. I can almost imagine it as being a motto embroidered on
a knight’s cloak as he rode out into a tournament. Eleanor did,
after all, found the cult of courtly love, in which nobles swore
undying love to highborn women whom they might never even
touch. We’ll hope that all this adoration comforted Eleanor as
she sat in her prison!

Note: I am puzzled as to why this piece is included here, at the

end of the “On the Green” section, instead of in the “Courts of
Love” section, which will follow the upcoming “In the Tavern”
section. Eleanor, as mentioned above, actually came up with
the whole idea of courtly love. I wonder if, at some point, this
piece got moved by mistake.

45
 Estuans interius ira/
Burning Inside with Vehement Anger

Albrecht Dürer, “Melancholia”

[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Part IV: “In Taberna”/”In the Tavern”

47
 CARMINA BURANA

With this selection Orff moves into four pieces that deal with
drinking, gambling and feasting, along with their sometimes-
deleterious effects.

Estuans interius ira vehementi Burning inside with vehement

in amaritudine loquor mee anger, in bitterness I speak my
menti: mind,
factus de materia, cinis Made of matter, ashes of
elementi similis sum folio, de elements, like a leaf played
quo ludunt venti. with by the wind.
Cum sit enim proprium viro Since it is true that a wise man
sapienti supra petram ponere builds his foundations on
sedem fundamenti, stone,
Stultus ego comparor fluvio A foolish one in comparison is
labenti, sub eodem tramite flowing like a river, never
nunquam permanenti. making anything permanent.
Feror ego veluti sine nauta I am carried along like a ship
navis, ut per vias aeris vaga without a steersman, and in the
fertur avis; paths of the air like a light,
hovering bird;
Non me tenent vincula, non me Chains cannot hold me, keys
tenet clavis, cannot imprison me,
Quero mihi similes et adiungor I look for people like me and
pravis. join the wretches.
Mihi cordis gravitas res The heaviness of my heart
videtur gravis; seems a burden to me;
Iocus est amabilis dulciorque It is pleasant to joke and
favis; sweeter than honeycomb;
Quicquid Venus imperat, labor Whatever Venus commands is
est suavis, a sweet duty,
que nunquam in cordibus She never dwells in a lazy
habitat ignavis. heart.

48
 ESTUANS INTERIUS IRA/BURNING INSIDE WITH VEHEMENT ANGER

Via lata gradior more I travel the broad path as is the

iuventutis, way of youth,
Inplicor et vitiis immemor I give myself to vice,
virtutis, voluptatis unmindful of virtue,
avidus magis quam salutis, I am eager for the pleasures of
the flesh more than for
salvation.
Mortuus in anima curam gero My soul is dead, so I shall look
cutis. after the flesh.
(baritone/Latin)

Not a terribly happy selection to start out the celebration of

tavern life, is it? Yet another interesting mis-translation tends to
occur in it, as the usual meaning given to the line “stultus ego
comparor fluvia labenti, sub eodem tramite nunquam
permanenti” is something along the lines of “then I am a fool,
like a flowing stream, which in its course never changes.” Huh?
That makes no sense at all. The contrast is supposed to be
between the stable, wise person who builds on stone and the
changeable one who is like a river. So the meaning must be
something along the lines of my version above. It’s not that the
river never changes; it’s that it’s never permanent.

Anyway, let’s get down to business. Who is speaking in this

poem? It’s sung by a baritone soloist, but there are no clues in
the words themselves as to who he is or what position he holds.
Because of Carmina’s reputation as being produced by
sacrilegious monks, the assumption would be that this is a
closet atheist, as it were, perhaps sneaking out of the monastery
to go partying after the last prayer bell. But we know that
probably no monks were involved in the writing of these
poems, don’t we? If this were a poem of the 19th century
perhaps we’d label it as rather nihilistic and Nietzschean, and

49
 CARMINA BURANA

actually that’s exactly what it is. If there were ever a

description of the inner landscape of a person who has forsaken
any idea of spirituality or morals and dedicated his life purely
to pleasure, this is it. And he’s perfectly clear about his
wretchedness. At some point he’s decided that there’s no hope
for him spiritually, so at least he can try to lose himself in
fleshly pleasures. But he doesn’t sound too happy about that
prospect, does he? While Venus’s commands are a “sweet
duty,” they’re still a duty. I catch a note of desperation in the
statement, “I am eager for the pleasures of the flesh more than
for salvation.” And don’t miss the despair of the phrase, “My
soul is dead.”

50
 Olim lacus colueram/
Once I Swam on Lakes

(Image source: British Library medieval manuscript illumination)

Olim lacus colueram, olim Once I lived on lakes, once I

pulcher extiteram, dum cignus looked beautiful when I was a
ego fueram. swan.
Miser, miser! modo niger et Misery me! Now black and
ustus fortiter! roasting fiercely!
Girat, regirat garcifer; me I am turning on the spit; I am
rogus urit fortiter: burning fiercely on the pyre;

51
 CARMINA BURANA

Propinat me nunc dapifer, And now the steward serves

me up.
Miser, miser! modo niger et Misery me! Now black and
ustus fortiter! roasting fiercely!
Nunc in scutella iaceo, et Now I lie on a plate, and
volitare nequeo, dentes cannot fly anymore, I see
frendentes video: bared teeth:
Miser, miser! modo niger et Misery me! Now black and
ustus fortiter! roasting fiercely!
(tenor and male choir, Latin)

Why on earth are they eating a swan in this selection?

I once wrote a paper in graduate school on depictions of

feasting in medieval literature, so I find this song to be quite
interesting. Swans and peacocks were prized as feast items not
because they were all that good to eat (apparently their meat is
very dry and tough) but because they were beautiful and
expensive. There was a tradition of carefully skinning the swan
to keep the skin and feathers intact, roasting the bird, and then
re-assembling it so that the swan looked alive as it was carried
in on a platter. This presentation would only have lasted as long
as it took to begin carving the bird, of course, at which point
the skin would have had to be taken back off. Before you make
too much fun of such a weird practice, remember that most
Americans roast a turkey on Thanksgiving and make a point of
bringing the whole bird to the table so that everyone can see it
in all its glory before it gets hacked up. (Carl Orff is the one
who put this poem in the “In Taberna” section; in reality, a
swan would only have been served at noble or royal banquets.)

52
 OLIM LACUS COLUERAM/ONCE I SWAM ON LAKES

The author of the poem has anthropomorphized the bird,

having it speak even as it’s being roasted. Was the author an
animal rights activist of the Middle Ages? Perhaps someone
who loathed the excesses of the rich and their use of the
beautiful bird as a display of their wealth? Or did he just have a
very active imagination? Who knows? Perhaps all three.

Watch the very entertaining performance of the conductor of

the Cherry Creek Chorale in Denver, Colorado (the group for
which these posts were originally written), Brian Patrick
Leatherman, as he puts down his baton and becomes a soloist
for this selection:

https://youtu.be/iSOTjbr2qSw

53
 Ego sum Abbas/I Am the Abbot

Illumination from a copy of Li livres dou santé

by Aldobrandino of Siena.

Ego sum abbas Cucaniensis et I am the abbot of Cockaigne

consilium meum est cum and my assembly is one of
drinkers,
Et in secta Decii voluntas mea And I wish to be in the order
est, of Decius.

55
 CARMINA BURANA

Et qui mane me bibulis, Whoever searches me out at

quesierit in taberna, the tavern in the morning.
Post vesperam nudus After Vespers he will leave
egredietur, et sic denudatus naked, and thus stripped he
veste clamabit will call out:
Wafna, wafna! quid fecisti sors Woe! Woe! what have you
turpissima? done, vilest Fate?
Nostre vite gaudia abstulisti The joys of my life you have
omnia! taken all away!
Haha! Haha!
(baritone and male choir, Latin)

First, a few definitions:

Cucaniensis is “an imaginary place of extreme luxury and ease

where physical comforts and pleasures are always immediately
at hand and where the harshness of medieval peasant life does
not exist.” (Wikipedia) So this poem doesn’t reference an
actual abbot at all; instead, the speaker is saying that he rules
over a land of plenty; he is a follower of pleasure, not of any
literal place.

Decius is the name of the god of dice, an invented name used to

fit into this and other poems celebrating gambling and drinking.
(Decius was also the name of a Roman emperor. Was he
known for his gambling? Hard to know.) An ”order,” by the
way, refers to a specific type of monastic rule, such as the
“Benedictine order,” so that’s another small joke at the expense
of the Church.

Vespers (Vesperam) is one of the canonical hours of a

monastery, occurring around 6:00 PM. Since most people
didn’t have clocks at the time these poems were written, and

56
 EGO SUM ABBAS/I AM THE ABBOT

since the monastery/church bells were rung to mark the hours,

lay people would also commonly use these names.

In my usual way of research, that is to say, bopping around

aimlessly on the Web, I ran into a Wikipedia article explaining
that this piece is actually something associated with a “Drinkers
Mass” or a “Gamblers Mass,” both of these being parodies of
an actual church Mass. The poem is referenced as being the
first known example of this genre. The so-called abbot holds
court in the tavern, ruling over an assembly of drunkards, and if
anyone comes and seeks him out in the morning to gamble with
him, by evening that person will have lost everything and be
stripped naked. And what is the abbot’s reaction? A heartless
“Haha!”

The accompaniment to this selection is very striking, consisting

solely of percussion and brass.

57
 In Taberna/In the Tavern

“In the Tavern” by David Teniers the Younger, 1610-1690,

from The National Gallery of Art, public domain

In taberna quando sumus, non When we are in the tavern, we

curamus quid sit humus, do not care that we are but
dust.
Sed ad ludum properamus, cui But we hurry to our gambling,
semper insudamus. which always makes us sweat.
Quid agatur in taberna, ubi What takes place in the tavern,
nummus est pincerna, where money is lost,
Hoc est opus ut queratur, sic Here is the question to be
quid loquar, audiatur. asked, so then I will talk and
you can listen.
Quidam ludunt, quidam bibunt, Some gamble, some drink,
quidam indiscrete vivunt. some behave indiscreetly.

59
 CARMINA BURANA

Sed in ludo qui morantur, ex But of those who linger in

his quidam denudantur, their gambling, they may
come out of it naked.
Quidam ibi vestiuntur, quidam One comes out well clothed,
saccis induuntur. one wrapped in sackcloth.
Ibi nullus timet mortem, sed No one is afraid of death, but
pro Baccho mittunt sortem: throws the dice in Bacchus’
name.
Primo pro nummata vini ex hac First it is to the wine sellers
bibunt libertini: that the libertines drink,
Semel bibunt pro captivis, post Then they drink to the captive,
hec bibunt ter pro vivis, then they drink to the living,
Quater pro Christianis cunctis, Fourth to the Christians, fifth
quinquies pro fidelibus to the faithful dead,
defunctis
Sexies pro sororibus vanis, Sixth to the loose sisters,
septies pro militibus silvanis. seventh to the soldiers in the
woods.
Octies pro fratribus perversis, Eighth to the perverse
nonies pro monachis dispersis, brethren, ninth for the
dispersed monks,
Decies pro navigantibus, Tenth for the sailors, eleventh
undecies pro discordantibus, for the discordant ones,
Duodecies pro penitentibus, Twelfth for the penitents,
tredecies pro iter angentibus. thirteenth for the wanderers.
Tam pro papa quam pro rege As for the Pope, so for the
bibunt omnes sine lege. king, everyone drinks without
limit.
Bibit hera, bibit herus The mistress drinks, the
master drinks,
bibit miles, bibit clerus, the soldier drinks, the priest
drinks,
Bibit ille, bibit illa, This one drinks, that one

60
 IN TABERNA/IN THE TAVERN

drinks,
bibit servus cum ancilla, the servant drinks with the
maid.
Bibit velox, bibit piger, The swift man drinks, the lazy
man drinks,
bibit albus, bibit niger, The white man drinks, the
black man drinks.
Bibit constans, bibit vagus, The constant man drinks, the
vague man drinks,
bibit rudis, bibit magus. The stupid man drinks, the
wise man drinks.
Bibit pauper et egrotus, The poor man drinks, the sick
man drinks
bibit exul et ignotus, The exile drinks, the unknown
drinks,
Bibit puer, bibit canus, The young man drinks, the old
man drinks,
bibit presul et decanus, the priest and the deacon
drink,
Bibit soror, bibit frater, the sister drinks, the brother
drinks,
bibit anus, bibit mater, the old lady drinks, the mother
drinks.
Bibit iste, bibit ille, This one drinks, that one
drinks,
bibunt centum, bibunt mille. A hundred drink, a thousand
drink.
Parum sexcente nummate Six hundred pieces of money
durant cum immoderate bibunt will hardly suffice if everyone
omnes sine meta, drinks immoderately without
measure,
Quamvis bibant mente leta, All who drink with a merry
mind.

61
 CARMINA BURANA

Qui nos rodunt confundantur et Those who condemn us should

cum iustis non scribantur. not be written in the book of
justice.
Io, io, io! … Heigh-ho!
(male choir, Latin)

This selection is a favorite with the audience but perhaps not so

much with the chorus, as it should be sung with lightning speed
and is full of tongue-twisting Latin puns and rhymes.
Following are a couple of the “teaser” questions that were
included in the original posts about this selection, and then
some additional ideas.

What gardening term is used at the beginning of Selection

#14?
“Humus,” the word we use today to denote rich, black earth
with lots of decayed organic matter. This word is typically
translated as “dust” for this song, so that the line reads, “When
we are in the tavern, we do not care that we are but dust,”
referring to the Biblical idea that God made man out of the dust
of the ground: “For dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return.”
Since we tend to think of dust as dry and powdery, we don’t get
the actual image that’s being used. Looking at the individual
words in the text will often show clever meanings that don’t
show up in a translation. The men in the tavern forget when
they are drinking that one day they will have to die, and that
their bodies will decay, not to put too fine of a point on it.

What betting game are they playing in Selection #14 that

would be instantly recognizable to modern gamblers?
And the answer is: strip poker. Well, sort of. We are told, “But
of those who linger in their gambling, they may come out of it
bare. One comes out well clothed, one wrapped in sackcloth.”

62
 IN TABERNA/IN THE TAVERN

Betting on clothing items almost certainly didn’t have the same

sexual overtones as it would today, though. Cloth was very
expensive since it was all handwoven, and clothing was often
passed down in wills. So these guys are gambling with their
clothes because that’s all they have. They’ve probably lost all
their money but still want to play. We still use this type of
imagery when we say that someone “lost his shirt” in a
business venture.

There are two sections in this piece that use enumeration for
effect. First, the numbers one through thirteen are used to name
groups that the drinkers can drink to. There are varying
interpretations/translations of these different group names, but
in general they seem to go back and forth between respectable
and disreputable. You can imagine a rowdy group in the bar
saying, “And now let’s drink to the lusty nuns!” (One way of
translating “sororibus vanis.”) And everyone chimes in, “Yeah,
the lusty nuns!” and tilts his mug. The list goes on, with
everyone getting progressively drunker. (But it’s pretty hard to
get a high-grade choral group to sound very drunk and still stay
in tune and on time.) Second, there’s a list of pairs who drink;
depending on how you count the items, you can say that this
list also totals thirteen. Some of the pairs are contrasting: old
vs. young, swift vs. lazy; others are typically joined: master and
mistress, priest and deacon, sister and brother. The conclusion?
Everyone without exception drinks, and if you don’t like it,
well, may your name be erased from the book of the just!

63
Amor volat undique/Love Flies Everywhere

“Cupid with Wheel of Fortune” by Titian,

National Gallery of Art, public domain *

Part V: “Cour d’Amours”/“The Courts of Love”

Selections on this theme make up the rest of Carmina except

for the reprise at the end of “O Fortuna.”

65
 CARMINA BURANA

Boys’ chorus:
Amor volat undique, captus est Cupid flies everywhere,
libidine. capturing the lustful,
Iuvenes, iuvencule young men and young women
coniunguntur merito. are conjoined, and rightly so.
Soprano:
Siqua sine socio, caret omni She who is without a partner
gaudio, has lost all joy,
tenet noctis infima sub intimo Holding lowest night in
cordis in custodia: custody within her most
intimate heart.
Boys’ chorus:
fit res amarissima. It is a bitter thing!
(boys’ choir & soprano solo/Latin)

Interesting question: Why did Orff voice this selection as he

did, with young boys and a soprano? I can’t say for sure, of
course, but perhaps he found it to be a provocative choice to
have pre-pubescent boys sing of the power of sexual love,
something they haven’t yet experienced. But just right up the
age ladder, to the male and female juveniles, it is “merito” for
them to be conjoined. Then the soprano joins in, and she
laments what it’s like not to be conjoined. Such a one has no
joy and her heart is full of darkness. The boys echo her: “It is a
bitter thing!” This short selection covers a range of emotions
and styles and is truly charming.

*I chose this image for the selection because, even though

Cupid isn’t flying in the picture, he’s linked with the Wheel of
Fortune, the image that weaves its way through Carmina and is
particularly relevant here.

66
 Dies, nox et omnia/
Day, Night and Everything

“Dante Weeping for Beatrice,”

Marcel Rieder, Musée de Mulhous, public domain

Dies, nox et omnia michi sunt Day, night and everything are
contraria, against me,
Virginum colloquia me fay The chattering of maidens
planszer, makes me weep,
Oy suvenz suspirer, plu me fayAnd makes me sigh, and even
temer. makes me afraid.
O sodales, ludite, vos qui scitis
O friends, you jest at me in
dicite, sport when you should tell me
what you know.
Michi mesto parcite, grand ey Spare my drooping spirits, so
dolur, greatly sad,

67
 CARMINA BURANA

Attamen consulite per voster And instead give me your

honur. honorable counsel.
Tua pulchra facies, me fey Your beautiful face gives me a
planszer milies, thousand pleasures.
Pectus habens glacies, [But] your heart is of ice.
A remender statim vivus fierem To remedy my state, bring me
per un baser. back to life with a kiss.
(baritone soloist/ Latin & Old French)

The meaning of the lyrics is pretty self-evident, familiar to

anyone who has ever attended junior high. The male speaker is
terribly afflicted by unrequited love. Everything in the world is
against him. Even hearing girls chatter is a curse to him; I
wonder if they make him afraid because he thinks they’re
laughing at him? Certainly his friends are making fun of him;
can’t you just hear the chant of “So-and-so’s got a crush on So-
and-so!” He pleads with his friends to give him some advice to
help him out. But then the lyrics switch to the real focus of the
song: the beloved. She’s beautiful, but her heart is hard and
cold, like ice. And so the song ends with a plea: Just give me a
kiss!

68
Stetit puella/A Girl Stood

Photo credit: SlavMedievalShop on Etsy,

used by permission from the owner.

69
 CARMINA BURANA

Stetit puella rufa tunica; A girl stood in a red dress,

Si quis eam tetigit, tunica And whoever touched her, the
crepuit. tunic rustled.
Eia. Oh!
Stetit puella, tamquam rosula; A girl stood, like a rose,
Facie splenduit, os eius floruit. With radiant face and a
blooming mouth.
Eia. Oh!
(soprano soloist/Latin)

For some reason Orff included only the initial verse of this
poem, which is sung in Carmina by a soprano. The “eia” is
repeated several times in the actual performance and makes up
at least half of the total performance time of the piece.
According to one source, this syllable can express “awestruck
admiration.” Today it might be rendered “Wow!”

I thought it would be helpful in the understanding of this piece

to include the rest of the lyrics that Orff left out. You’ll notice
how very Germanic these last lines are; it’s almost as if they
were added later. I don’t have access to the originals, alas.
These additional verses were garnered from the website of the
Carmina enthusiast David Parlett, who has seen the originals.
He includes no commentary on the shift in language, though.

Stetit puella bi einem boume A girl stood by a tree

Scripsit amorem an eime loube. And wrote her love’s name on
a leaf.
Da chom Uenus also fram Right away Venus came by.
caritatem magnam, Great charity
Hohe minne bot si ir manne. And high courtly love are
what she gave to her man.

70
 STETIT PUELLA/A GIRL STOOD

These additional lines include a combination of ideas on love

that are not usual, as “charity,” the Christian virtue of
selflessness, and “high courtly love,” the formalized rituals of
which were not tied in any way to daily life and especially not
to marriage, were seen as opposites. Indeed, in most Christian
teaching of the time erotic love, symbolized by Venus, was
seen as evil. But “her man” can also be translated as “her
husband.” The poet wanted to bring together all the different
kinds of love that scholars would say had to be kept separate.
(from Forms and Imaginings: From Antiquity to the Fifteenth
Century, Peter Dronke.)

Since Orff didn’t include the final lines, however, that deeper
meaning is lost. Instead, we are left with just the striking image
of the girl in the red dress with the red mouth. That must have
been all he wanted in this short but beautiful piece.

71
 Circa mea pectora/In my Heart

Master of La Manta, Three women from the “Male and Female

Worthies” fresco, public domain

Baritone solo:
Circa mea pectora multa sunt In my heart there are many
suspiria de tua pulchritudine, sighs because of your beauty.
que me ledunt misere. Ah! So that I am miserable. Ah!
Women’s chorus:
Manda liet, manda liet, Say the word, say the word,
min geselle chumet niet. my lover is not coming.
Baritone:
Tui lucent oculi sicut solis radii, Your eyes shine like the rays
of the sun,
sicut splendor fulguris with the splendor of lightning,
lucem donat tenebris. Ah! Giving light to the darkness.
Ah!

73
 CARMINA BURANA

Women’s chorus:
Mandaliet, etc. Say the word, etc.
Baritone:
Vellet deus, vellent dii, quod May the one God, may the
mente proposui: many gods, give me what I
have in mind,
ut eius virginea reserassem That I may unlock the chains
vincula. Ah! of her virginity.
Women’s Chorus:
Mandaliet, etc Say the word, etc.
(baritone soloist & women’s choir/Latin & High Middle German)

I find this section of Carmina to be rather puzzling. We have a

back and forth between the baritone (who needs a powerful set
of lungs to hold out that “ah!” over the women’s chorus singing
underneath) proclaiming his unrequited love and a group of
women lamenting the loss of a lover. Again, as I’ve said before
in these notes, I don’t have access to the original manuscript
and might not gain any insight if I did, as the real issue is
probably the question of what was going on in Carl Orff’s mind
as he pieced together words and music. So I’m going to tell you
what makes the most sense to me.

It’s not the words themselves but their combination that’s

unclear. Do the women represent the beautiful one for whom
the baritone pines? But if so, why do they keep saying that “my
lover is not coming”? He’s perfectly eager to meet up with her
if she’d just say the word. Oh, and speaking of “say the word,”
which is the best translation I can come up with for “manda
liet”—usually these two words aren’t translated at all. They just
show up as “manda liet” in the English as well as the Latin, as
if we’re supposed to know what that means! By dint of great
effort I was able to come up with this translation, which makes

74
 CIRCA MEA PECTORA/IN MY HEART

at least a certain amount of sense. In other words, “Let it be

known, I am telling everyone that my lover has deserted me.”

At one point I wondered if the women were simply echoing the

man’s sentiments and thus represented his attitude, but
“gesellen” is definitely male. So . . . is there some colossal
mixup going on, with the man pining for the woman but
thinking that she’s cold towards him and the woman thinking
that he’s not interested in her? Well, maybe I’m overthinking
the whole thing. But we do know what this kind of situation
happens all the time. The more I’ve thought about it, the more
sense it makes. In fact, there may be a verbal joke going on
here. You could, for instance, read the final male/female
exchange this way:

Him: “May I unlock the chains of her virginity.” Her: “Say the
word!”

Whaddaya think?

75
Sie Puer cum Puellula/If a Boy with a Girl

Abaelardus and Heloise Surprised By Master Fulbert,”

by Jean Vignaud (1819), public domain

Sie puer cum puellula If a boy with a girl lingers in a

moraretur in cellula, little room,
felix coniunctio. How happy is their meeting!
Amore sucrescente, pariter e Their passions rise, and
medio propulso procul tedio, between them modesty is
banished.
fit ludus ineffabilis membris, In the ineffable game of
lacertis, labiis. limbs, arms, and lips.
(small men’s choir)

This selection is extremely demanding both musically and

verbally. Here are a couple of teaser questions about it:

77
 CARMINA BURANA

What clever wordplay is found in Selection #19, “Si puer

cum puellula”?

“Si puer cum puellula moraretur in cellula”—“puer” means

“boy” and “puellula” means “girl,” but the “puellula” gets
paired with “cellula,” which means “little cell.” Our
translations, again, often give the overall sense of the text
without necessarily conveying the flavor of the words
themselves. The poet could have used “iuvene” for the young
man and “virgine” for the young woman, and maybe “camera”
or “cubiculum” for the room, but then the internal rhyme would
have been lost. Maybe a way to express this wordplay in
English would be something like “if a lad and a lass linger in a
little lair.” Then again,
maybe not!

What cat’s name and what grammatical term are included

in Selection #19?

The cat’s name is, of course, “Felix.” (You do remember Felix

the Cat cartoons, don’t you? “Felix the cat, the wonderful,
wonderful cat. Whenever he gets in a fix, he reaches into his
bag of tricks.”) Felix used to be a much more common given
name for humans than it is now, though. Its actual meaning in
Latin is “happy,” and the word even shows up in the
theological term “felix culpa” usually translated as “fortunate
Fall,” an idea conceived by a number of ancient and medieval
theologians, among them Augustine, saying that the Fall of
Man was ultimately a good thing since it gave God an
opportunity to bring salvation to man. In the Christian New
Testament there is a Felix who is the governor of Judea. His
name doesn’t seem to have been his destiny, as he was known
for his cruelty, sexual immorality, and susceptibility to bribes.

78
 SIE PUER CUM PUELLULA/IF A BOY WITH A GIRL

The Apostle Paul appears before him in the book of Acts, and
Felix leaves him in prison even though he knows that Paul has
done nothing deserving of punishment. However, “at the same
time he was hoping that Paul would offer him a bribe, so he
sent for him frequently and talked with him.” All very
interesting! But here, of course, we can let go of all those
associations and just concentrate on the literal meaning of the
word.

The grammatical term is “coniunctio”—conjunction. Its

meaning in Latin also encompasses “combination” and
“association.” So “felix coniunctio” means “happy union or
meeting.”

79
 Veni, veni, venias/Come, Come, O Come

“Tristan and Isolde” by John Duncan, 1912, public domain

Veni, veni, venias, ne me mori Come, come, o come, do not

facias, let me die.
Hyrca, hyrce, nazaza, Nanny goat, Billy goat, with
trillirivos! braided manes, trillirivos!
Pulchra tibi facies, oculorum Beautiful is your face, piercing
acies, are your eyes,

81
 CARMINA BURANA

Capillorum series, o quam Your ordered hair, oh what a

clara species! bright creature!
Rosa rubicundior, lilio Redder than a rose, fairer than
candidior, a lily,
Omnibus formosior, semper in More beautiful than
te glorior! everything, I will always glory
in you!
(double choir/Latin)

With the exception discussed below, this is a pretty standard

love song. Many are the lovesick pleas from man or woman
swearing that if the beloved will not give in that he/she will die.
The uniqueness of this selection comes from the musical
arrangement itself, from the ecstatic wording, and from the
insertion of the second line which contains some very puzzling
words, leading to this teaser:

What’s with these weird nonsense words in Selection #20,

“Veni, veni, venias”?

When I first worked on the translation for this lyric I became

mildly obsessed with finding meanings for the words
hyrca/hyrce, nazaza and trillirivos, but there didn’t seem to be
any actual definitions. Every source I consulted said that these
were simply exclamations of emotion. Have you ever
exclaimed, “Oh, nazaza!” when you’ve stubbed your toe? Me
neither. As I thought about this type of language, though, I was
reminded of a number of words in English lyrics that can’t be
translated and are also expressions of emotion. I defy you to
come up with definitions for these:

82
 VENI, VENI, VENIAS/COME, COME, O COME

“Ta-ra-ra-Boom-de-ay”
“Too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra, Too-ra-loo-ra-li”
“Heidi-heidi-heidi-ho”
“Heigh ho!”
“Hey nonny nonny”

And, for you golden oldies fans, or those of us who remember

The Mamas and the Papas when they weren’t golden oldies,
“La la la la la la.”

Also, in about a million rock songs, old and new, “Na na na na

na na na na na na na na na na na.”

So I figured that was that. My husband, however, managed to

find a meaning for “hyrca, hyrce”—apparently it’s referring to
male and female goats, perhaps a reference to goats’
supposedly amorous natures. “Hyrca” can also mean “pretty,”
but there’s no corresponding translation for “hyrce.” Although
there was some idea that the “nazaza” might be the goats’
bleating (and we were told to sing it through our noses by our
conductor), in the end Google translate said that it means
“braided.” Since “capillorum series” is sometimes translated
“braided hair,” I guess that would fit into the general idea. I
never did find anything on “trillirivos.” If you split the word up
into syllables you can find definitions for the syllables, but not
for the word as a whole. One website states flatly, “No human
translation has been found.”

83
 CARMINA BURANA

In the end, I think we’re going to have to accept that there’s

some joke or double entendre embedded in these words that is
no longer accessible to us. Just enjoy it as it is!

84
 In trutina/In the Balance

“Love or Duty” by Gabriele Castagnola, 1873, public domain

85
 CARMINA BURANA

In trutina mentis dubia In the balance, my doubtful

mind
fluctuant contraria Fluctuates contrarily between
lascivus amor et pudicitia. Lascivious love and prudery.
Sed eligo quod video, And I choose what I see,
collum iugo prebeo; I offer my neck
ad iugum tamen suave And at last pass over to the
transeo. sweet yoke.
(soprano solo/Latin)

This lovely, brief piece, sung by a soprano, is typically seen as

a description of a young woman’s decision to reject the idea of
chastity and embrace love, entering into the “sweet yoke”
(”iugum . . . suave”).

So simple, right? And this meaning would fit in with the

overall theme of this section of Carmina. I figured that was
that, and it may well be. However, never willing to let well
enough alone, I did my usual googling of some of the main
phrases and found that there is at least a little disagreement
over what decision the speaker in the poem finally makes. The
ambiguous line is “Sed eligo quod video,” translated above as
“I choose what I see” but which could also be “I choose now
that I see,” or indeed other wordings, depending on how the
very versatile Latin word “quod” is translated. The question is,
What does she see? What does “what” refer to?

The “sweet yoke” wording was often used to mean marriage in

medieval times, so it would seem that she chooses to marry.
But—you know there was a “but”—nuns went through a
marriage ceremony in which they were veiled like a bride,
received a wedding ring, and were considered to be “married”
to Christ. Indeed, the Christian New Testament often refers to

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 IN TRUTINA/IN THE BALANCE

the Church as a whole (that is, all followers of Christ) as the

“Bride of Christ.” So maybe she decides to become a nun. It’s
left (watch for it) in the balance.

I used the strongest words above: “lascivious” and “prudery,”

instead of other, less polarizing ones: “Venus vs. chastity” is
one such. But it’s fair to point out that the original Latin words
didn’t necessarily have the same connotations that the English
translations have today. “Lasciviousness” has the same basic
meaning as “lust,” but that word can just mean “desire.” And I
don’t know that anyone went around in the Middle Ages
saying, “Don’t be such a prude!”

Well, the speaker probably chose love and marriage. I will say,
however, that one of the most gorgeous pieces of music ever
written, the “Meditation” from the French opera Thais, occurs
when the courtesan Thais decides to reject earthly love and
convert to Christianity. So who knows? This is a pretty
gorgeous piece, too.

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 Tempus est iocundum/
Now Is the Joyful Time

Illustration from the “Roman de la Rose,” by The Master of the

Prayer Books, ca. 1500, British Library, public domain

Tempus est iocundum,o Now the time is joyful, oh

virgines, maidens,
modo congaudete vos iuvenes. Rejoice with them, oh young

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men!
Oh, oh, oh! totus floreo, Oh, oh, oh! Everything is
bursting into flower!
iam amore virginali totus My first love is making me
ardeo! totally ardent!
novus, novus novus amor est, This new, new, new love is
quo pereo! making me perish!
Mea me confortat promissio, Your promises comfort me,
mea me deportant negatio. Your refusals cast me down.
Oh, oh, oh! etc. Oh, oh, oh! etc.
Tempore brumali vir patiens, In the time of winter, man is
patient.
animo vernali lasciviens. The breath of spring makes
him lust.
Oh, oh, oh! Etc. Oh, oh, oh! Etc.
Mea mecum ludit virginitas, My virginity makes me
sportive,
mea me detrudit simplicitas. My ignorance makes me shy.
Oh, oh, oh! etc. Oh, oh, oh! etc.
Veni domicella, cum gaudio, Come, lady, come with joy!
veni, veni, pulchra, iam pereo. Come, beautiful one, you are
making me perish with love!
Oh, oh, oh! etc. Oh, oh, oh! etc.
Dulcissime, Ah! totam tibi Oh sweetest one! I give myself
subdo me! totally to you!
(baritone and soprano soloists, boys’ choir/Latin)

Love, love, love this selection! In fact, if someone asked me

which piece in Carmina exemplifies its spirit, I think I’d pick
this one, just because it’s so joyous, so innocently sexy, so full
of life. Also, it’s so funny that Carl Orff had a boys’ choir for
part of it. (See the commentary on “Love Flies Everywhere,” in
which he also uses young boys to sing about love.)

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 TEMPUS EST IOCUNDUM/NOW IS THE JOYFUL TIME

Because of all the repetition of syllables, it’s a good idea to

read the lyrics carefully so you can follow the train of thought--
if it can be called that. I have gone ahead and included
Selection #23 with this, because it’s so short and because it
seems to be an answer to the ardent young man in #22. I guess
he didn’t perish after all!

Here’s a teaser I wrote about one of the words in this selection:

What word in Selection #22 now has a negative connotation

that it didn’t have at the time the song was written?

The word is “gaudio,” which is obviously related to the word

“gaudy,” a term we use today to mean “bright, showy, tasteless,
vulgar.” Its original Latin meaning, though, is “joy or delight,”
emotions much more worthwhile than we might think as
modern readers. So the text “veni domicella cum gaudio”
means “Come, lady, come with joy.”

(The greatest novel of the 20th century IMHO, Gaudy Night by

Dorothy Sayers, refers to yet another meaning of the word. In
that book, a “gaudy” is a special celebration or feast held at
some British universities, referring to an obsolete meaning of
the word as “merry and festive.” So Harriet Vane comes back
to her old college at Oxford to celebrate a gaudy and gets
drawn into an investigation of mischief and mayhem occurring
there. She also finally accepts Lord Peter Wimsey’s marriage
proposal, so that’s at least a tenuous connection to our
selection. But perhaps that’s TMI! If you don’t think so, be sure
to read the book.)

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 Ave formosissima/Hail, Most Fair One

“Two Elegant Ladies Holding Fans”

y Raimundo de Madrazo y Garretta, 1841-1920, public domain

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 CARMINA BURANA

Ave formosissima, gemma Hail, most fair one! Precious

pretiosa, jewel!
Ave decus virginum, virgo Hail, bright maiden! Glorious
gloriosa, young woman!
Ave mundi luminar, ave mundi Hail, light of the world! Hail,
rosa, rose of the world!
Blanziflor et Helena, Venus White Flower and Helena,
generosa! kind and noble Venus!
(choir/Latin)

Who are Blanziflor and Helena?

This sounds as if it should be a couple, doesn't it? “The great

love story of Blanziflor and Helena.” But actually these are
simply two names for beautiful women. Helena is of course
Helen of Troy, whom we've met before in this music.
Blanziflor means "white flower," and there are several women
of that name (also spelled "Blanchefleur"") in medieval
romances. This selection is structured like a hymn to the Virgin
Mary, with references that would fit her as well: "gemma
pretiosa" or "precious gem," "mundi rosa" or "rose of the
world," and "virgo gloriosa" or "virgin (or young woman) most
glorious or transcendent." But instead of ending with the most
revered woman in Christian theology, this hymn ends with a
glorification of Venus, the goddess of love. Small wonder that
the Roman Catholic Church did finally crack down on this type
of verse and those who wrote it.

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 O Fortuna/Oh Fortune

“Blindfolded Lady Fortune Turning Her Wheel,”

1502 Manuscript, Bibliotheque Nationale de France.

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 CARMINA BURANA

Carmina Burana ends where it began, with the great chorus “O

Fortuna.” So, as a parting gift, here are a couple of final
thoughts:

What astronomical and gambling terms show up in "O

Fortuna"?

"Velut luna statu variabilis" refers to the moon with its waxing
and waning. "Ludo mentis aciem" refers to Fortune's playing
with mankind. One translation has it as "shifts us like pawns in
its play." However, the word "ludo" specifically refers to
gambling. "Ludomania" is a psychological term used for those
with a gambling addiction, and "ludo" was used in medieval
times to mean any game of chance. There's a board game you
can play today called "Ludo" which is closely related to
Parcheesi and which is played with dice.

Fortune rolls the dice, and man pays the price. And that’s
where Carl Orff decided to leave us.

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