Retinenda—Latin for Lutherans

I spent a good amount of time this Lent meditating on the Hebrew of Psalm 130, the last of the penitential psalms. I also pondered how to fit it to Latin elegiac verse, an activity highly praised by our Lutheran fathers (more on that to come). Below is my rendition of the Psalm, followed by a more skilled one by Helius Eobanus Hessus, one of the greatest Latin poets of the Lutheran Reformation.

Satis temporis in legendo Psalmum CXXX (Hebraice) hac quadrigesima comsumpsi, qui ultimus Psalmorum Paenitentiae positus est. cogitaui quoque quomodo hic psalmus carmine elegiaco reddi posset, quam exercitationem patres nostri Lutherani magni momenti aestimauerunt (de quibus breui dicam). ecce Psalmus CXXX a me Latine redditus, sub quo uersio adest Helii Eobani Hessi, poetae clarissimi tempore Reformationis.

PSALMI CXXX IMITATIO (revised)

Clamo ex infernis tibi maestus; nonne libenter
       audis? ausculta! te ueniamque peto.
si nigra seruares delicta et crimina nostra,
       iram quis posset iudiciumue pati?
at tibi delicti uenia atque remissio grata;
       quare reddendus cultus honorque tibi.
expecto Dominum; psyche manet anxia curis.
       in sermone Dei uota fidemque loco.
opperitur psyche Dominum; studiosius ardet
       quam uigil auroram nocte uidere cupens.
uos, o Israel, Domino confidite semper!
       namque in perpetuum permanet eius amor.
est fauor uber eum penes atque redemptio larga.
       ipse suos redimet; diluet omne nefas.
Gloria sit Patri; redimit qui Filius omnes,
        illi sint laudes; Spirituique Deo.

Helius Eobanus Hessus, Psalterium Davidis, loc. cit.:

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For your Reformation celebration, here is a Latin translation of Luther’s great hymn, Ein feste Burg (“A Mighty Fortress”). Translated by Buttmann, a German philologist, it can be sung to the same tune as Luther’s original. According to this source the Latin version was first published in 1830 to commemorate the Augsburg Confession (1530).

Arx firma Deus noster est,
Is telum, quo nitamur;
Is explicat ex omnibus
Queis malis implicamur.
Nam cui semper mos,
Iam ter terret nos:
Per astum, per vim,
Saevam levat sitim;
Nil par in terris illi.

In nobis nihil situm est,
Quo minus pereamus:
Quem Deus ducem posuit,
Is facit ut vivamus.
Scin quis hoc potest?
Iesus Christus est,
Qui, dux caelitum,
Non habet aemulum:
Is vicerit profecto.

Sit mundus plenus daemonum,
Nos cupiant uorare;
Non timor est; uictoria
Nil potest nos frustrare.
Hem dux saeculi!
Inuitus abi!
In nos nil potes,
Iam iudicatus es;
Vel uocula te sternat.

Hoc uerbum non pessumdabunt,
Nec gratiam merebunt;
In nobis Christi Spiritus
Et munera uigebunt:
Tollant corpus, rem,
Mundique omnem spem:
Tollant! iubilent!
Non lucrum hinc ferent;
Manebit regnum nobis.

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FYI, there is another app for the iPhone that gives access to Lewis and Short. It’s called Lexidium. I’m actually using it now because it’s faster and has more features. It does require you to use v/j etc., but as Verba (Latin Dictionary) is not being updated, it may well be worth the $2.

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It’s important to pray in Latin. It’s Lutheran to pray in Latin. Of these two propositions I am thoroughly convinced.

There are many reasons why I think it important to pray in Latin, but primarily I will speak now about its didactic function. You see, language, if it is to be truly language, must be used. Maybe we’ll never be able to use Latin like we do English, or German when in Germany, but we can still use it. If we don’t use a language, it becomes more like math than language. Consider how most of us (myself included) are with Hebrew. We know the rules of Hebrew, and so we tackle a verse of Hebrew as if it were sudoku: find the three letter root, look for the preformative, what’s that schwa doing there?, etc. I am not saying that this method is invalid, or even bad, but it really treats language more like math or sudoku than language.

With Latin, however, things don’t have to be this way. We can teach and learn Latin in a way that encourages its use: to translate Latin into English is one thing, not to need English at all while reading Latin and just actually read (not translate) Latin directly is quite another. This was the way of our forefathers.

My thesis is that if you want Latin to be more language and less sudoku you have to use it yourself. You have to force your brain to move into a different way of operating. Your mind must store Latin not as tools to translate a code into English so that you can understand it, but it must store Latin as something that can be immediately understood. I believe that one way to achieve this is audio, hence the recordings on this site.

Still another way to accomplish this is to write it and speak it. Get a composition book and work through it. Get a couple friends together and try to speak Latin to each other. It really can be done; I promise.

Still, there is definitely one person who understands Latin better than any of us: Jesus. He hears prayers in Latin. Prayer is a fantastic way to use Latin. Use a Latin collect (get them here), understand it, then make the words your own in prayer. I believe that you will be surprised at how effective this is over a long period of time. But you can go further. You can actually pray an office or two in Latin (or part in Latin, part in English). In my next post I will list necessary Lutheran resources for doing so.

Finally, I think that my second proposition, that praying in Latin is Lutheran, needs little defending. Of course I am not saying that to be Lutheran you must pray in Latin, only that to use Latin and pray in Latin is something not foreign to Lutheranism but rather quite congenial to it, as our own confessions say. Praying in any foreign language reminds us that we are not alone. The catholic Church always prays with us, in all her various tongues.

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Sed non dubium est praecipuam causam [cur Deus Musicen fecerit] esse, ut doctrina de Deo carminibus comprehensa propagari latius possit et diutius conseruari…Nec profecto quidquam dulcius est homini non monstroso, quam doctrina uerbis recte illustrata, quae bonis harmoniis ad aures atque animos profertur…Haec cum ita sint, laudanda est uoluntas artificum, qui tales Melodias utiles docendis et flectendis animis edunt, et conseruari ac transmitti ad posteros curant. Sit autem delectus tum in ueteribus tum nouis, ut tales cantilenas discat iuuentus, quae ueram et salutarem doctrinam continent. Cum igitur prudenter et pie ex ueteribus cantilenis puras et incontaminatas superstitiosis sententiis elegeris, laborem tuum utilem fore spero ad inuitandum iuuentutem simul ad Musices amorem, et ad exercitiam pietatis atque inuocationis (Melanchthon, Preface to Lucas Lossius’ Psalmodia, 1550).

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