I suspect that Verdi just manages to snatch the gold medal from Mozart on this one:
[i] Mozart: with Latin text (Chapelle Royale)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKJur8wpfYM
[ii] Verdi: with English subtitles (Metropolitan Opera)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6cogix3cwQ
Diēs īræ, diēs illa │ The day of wrath, that day,
Solvet sæclum in favīllā │ will dissolve the world in ashes
Teste Dāvīd cum Sibyllā │ by the testimony of David together with the Sibyl.
Quantus tremor est futūrus │ How great is the quaking going to be
Quandō iūdex est ventūrus │ when the Judge is about to come,
Cūncta strictē discussūrus │ intending to investigate all things strictly
Vocabulary
favilla, -ae [1/f]: (hot / glowing) ashes
Sybilla, -ae [1/f]: sybil; referring to a number of Mediterranean prophetesses and, in particular, to the Cumaean sybil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumaean_Sibyl
saeclum, -ī [2/n] = saeculum, -ī [2/n]: (here) the world; worldliness
testis, -is [3m/f]: witness
Grammar: future active participle
We’re focussing on the words in bold ending in: -ūrus
This is a future active participle, translating as something is about to or going to happen or somebody is intending to do something. Some translations will give a simple future tense but the future active participle usually implies near future which, of course, the diēs īrae itself dramatically conveys.
The future active participle has the same endings and agrees and declines in the same way as any other 1st / 2nd declension adjective: -ūrus, -ūra, -ūrum
It is formed from the 4th principal part of the verb i.e. either the perfect passive participle or the supine:
portō, portāre, portāvī, portātus
-ūr- is inserted before the -us (-a, -um) ending
> portāt¦ūr¦us, -a, -um: about to carry
discutiō, discutīre, discussī, discussus: (Late / Mediaeval meaning) examine
> discussūrus, -a, -um: about to examine
If a supine is listed (either because the verb has no perfect passive participle or the dictionary simply uses the supine as the standard way of indicating the 4th principal part), it makes no difference: change the -um to -us and insert -ūr- before the ending:
veniō, venīre, vēnī, (supine) ventum
> ventūrus, -a, -um: about to come
The verb sum, esse has neither a perfect passive participle, nor a supine, and so it is the future active participle that is listed as the 4th principal part:
sum, esse, fuī, (future active participle) futūrus, -a, -um: about to be (going to be / intending to be)
The ending -ūrus is very obvious when reading the language, and is easy to remember since it is in the English derivative future.
The future active participle is most commonly found with different tenses of sum, esse to state that somebody is, was or will be going to do something.
Quantus tremor est futūrus │ How great is the quaking going to be
Quandō iūdex est ventūrus │ when the Judge is about to come,
Cūncta strictē discussūrus │ (and is / who is) going to investigate all things strictly
Present: mansūrus sum: I am going to stay
Imperfect: mansūrus eram: I was going to stay
Future: mansūrus erō: I shall be going to stay; it can sound a little clumsy although, in spoken English, we would use it in a contracted form e.g. “I’ll be going to see him later”. However, when translating, we could equally convey the idea with a present progressive ‘I’m going to…’ since the English present progressive can convey both a present and a future concept.
In general, translations such as “I (was) intend(ing) to…”, “I (was) mean(ing) to …” and other similar phrases can convey the future active construction.
Periphrastic constructions
This construction with sum, esse is known as periphrastic, a term which does come up in grammar books and refers to a verb form which requires more than one word to express the idea.
Compare:
habitābam = English: I used to live; English requires more than one word to express that idea i.e. it is periphrastic. The Latin, however, is not periphrastic since it only uses a single word.
Similarly:
habitābō = English: I shall live; again, the English construction is periphrastic whereas the Latin is not.
You have already seen periphrastic constructions although they have not been defined as such:
laudātus sum / eram / erō: I was (have been) / had been / will have been praised; those passive constructions in Latin are periphrastic since they use two words to convey the idea.
Below are examples using the future active participle with different tenses of sum, esse. Most of them are from Cicero’s letters; I have indicated those that are not. I have translated some of them very literally in order for the precise meaning of the future active participle to be clear.
Present
Astūtē nihil sum āctūrus. │ I am not going to act cunningly
… praeter ūnum L. Sullam, quem imitātūrus nōn sum │ … apart from L. Sulla, whose example I do not intend to follow [= literally: whom I am not going to imitate]
Quid tū igitur sēnsūrus es? │ What then will your view be? [ = are you going to feel]
"Quid ergō," inquis, "factūrus es”?│”What, therefore,” you say “are you going to do?”
Tū, sī ūnō in locō es futūrus, crēbrās ā nōbīs litterās exspectā │ Expect frequent letters from me, if you are settled [ = if you are going to be in one place]
etiamsī reditūrus ille est │ even if he is going to return
Cōnsulēs praesidia omnia dēductūrī sunt aut in Siciliam itūrī. │ The consuls are going to bring in all their garrisons or (will) go into Sicily.
Lūdī enim Antī futūrī sunt │ For there are going to be games at Antium
Imperfect
epistula, quam dē nocte datūrus eram │ the letter which I was going to dispatch last night
nec rogātūrus eram │ nor was I going to ask
Sī domum tuam expugnātūrus, captā domō dominum interfectūrus eram … (Livy)
If I had been going to attack your house, and the house having been captured, (been going to) kill the owner …
persecūtūrus erat Gnaeum │ he meant to [was going to] pursue Pompey
Arma quae ad mē missūrī erātis │ The arms which you were going to send to me
Future
illō ipsō diē, quō ad Siccam ventūrus erō │ on the very day that I will be going to arrive at Sicca’s place [very literal: a neater English would, of course, be “on the very day that I’m going to arrive” but the Latin does show the future active participle with the future of sum]
Mergite mē, flūctūs, cum reditūrus erō. (Martial) │ Drown me, waves, when I’m returning home [ = literally: I shall be going to return]
… nē quem exercitum, quī cum populō Rōmānō sociīsve bellum gestūrus erit, rēx per fīnēs rēgnī suī eōrumve (Livy) │ … no army which shall purpose to wage war with the Roman people or its allies …
sī in urbem versus ventūrī erunt, mihi scrībēs (Trajan to Pliny) │ if they are going to return to Rome [ = literally: will be going to come …], you will write to me.
Latin tutorial (slightly edited)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgRkmrGPFmo
Image: dies irae, print by James Rosenberg after the Wall Street Crash, October 29th 1929
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