I heard this very early on when I started Latin and I loved it. At first, I didn’t have a clue what it meant and so it became a bit of a target: to be able to understand it all, and it took a lot of time. So, don’t concern yourself about knowing all of it.
Below are some lines from
the Disney song “Frozen” in Latin. I really like this because the performer
pronounces the words in Classical Latin; listen out for /v/ pronounced clearly
as /w/. Sure, she has to change the stresses on a few words to fit the rhythm
of the song, but it’s still a very nice way of picking up pronunciation.
I don’t know who translated
this but, comparing it with the original English version, he did a pretty good
job. As always, some of the youtube comments contain remarks from the Latin
grammar police who think that a certain expression could have been put in a
different way blah blah. I hope you just enjoy listening to it and picking up
some more vocabulary in context.
I’m not translating all of
it here, but I’ve picked out the phrases where the song refers to weather.
gelātus, -a, -um: frozen
Hāc nocte nix in monte splendet │ On this night the snow glitters on the mountain
splendeō, splendēre [2]:
shine; glitter
Hic ventus fremit ut interna tempestās │ This wind howls like an inward storm
fremō, fremere [3]: howl
Pergat tempestās │ Let the storm continue
Nam numquam vexāvit hoc frīgus mē │ For this cold has never bothered me …
frīgus, frīgoris [3/n]:
cold
Tunc ventus caelumque fīō │ Then I become the wind and the sky
Note: fiō;
this is an important verb in general and means ‘become’
An interesting point to note
for those who want to get into Latin poetry:
Me’anim’ascendit = me[a a]nim[a a]scendit:
my soul rises … If a Roman poet had written this, he would have kept all the
vowels in but the first of each pair of vowels would not be
pronounced; this is called elision. So, what the translator has
done is merely indicated that elision by using an apostrophe.
In the original lyrics, the
line is: my soul is spiraling. The translator writes: “like a coil [spīra] /
something twirling in the air”
ut spīra in āer’
ergō
āēr, āeris [3m/f]: air
Hic surgam ut oriēns sōl │ I shall arise here like the rising sun.
oriēns: rising
Et sub ¦ diēī ¦ luce │ And at the light ¦ of the day … [= as day dawns]
If you want a bit of
practice of those Latin long vowels, listen to her as she sings:
Iam hōra est explōrandī [that
long ō in explōrandī isn’t marked in the transcript, but she pronounces it] Now
it is time for exploring ...
Et terminōs sīc temptandī │ and for testing the limits in this way.
Ab rēgulīs mē līberō. │ I free myself from the rules.
Surgō! │ I rise up!
And also:
Firmē stō │ I’m standing firmly
Mansūra hīc │ intending to remain here
The pronunciation of long
/ō/ in haud redībō [I shall not return] couldn’t be
more emphatic!
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