Puer tympanista

[Raphaela]

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Puer tympanista

Veni, dicunt, pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
Ad natum Dominum, pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
Portamus munera, pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
Quae sunt regalia, pa-rum-pum-pum-pum, rum-pum-pum-pum, rum-pum-pum-pum
Adoratum sic, pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
Dominum.

Infans Jesu, pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
Sum pauper sicut tu, pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
Afferre nequeo, pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
Quod dignum domino, pa-rum-pum-pum-pum, rum-pum-pum-pum, rum-pum-pum-pum
Tibi pulsem vis, pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
Tympanum?

Virgo nutat, pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
Pedem supplodit bos, pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
Tum pulso tympanum, pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
Quam optime possum, pa-rum-pum-pum-pum, rum-pum-pum-pum, rum-pum-pum-pum
Ridet infans me, pa-rum-pum-pum-pum
Et tympanum.

I don't suppose I don't have to spell out what this carol was before I unleashed Latin on it! *grin*

That "adoratum" in the first verse is a supine of purpose which I think is legit in this construction. I was trying to keep the syllable count of each line identical to the original English, and this seemed the only way to do it without completely losing the connotation of purpose or doing serious violence to the rhythm of the Latin, or the line. It's quite tricky fitting polysyllabic words into a rhythm designed for a largely monosyllabic English text without doing serious violence to the accents in Latin

[Laura Gibbs]

This is awesome, Raphaela - I was reading through it and using your Latin to make me remember the English words (a good sign - I don't know the English words by heart but reading through your Latin I was able to remember just how the English goes). I was a little stumped by the adoratum; sic adoremus would work there, too, with more or less the same idea, just a different construction. I loved "Pedem supplodit bos"...!!! :-)

[Raphaela]

Thanks, Laura!

I totally failed to get my mind round the idea of the supine of purpose until I took myself back to basics and read my way through Oerberg's Familia Romana, but when I did that it became suddenly, blindingly obvious. I did toy with the idea of putting "Ut adoremus sic" in that line of the carol, but in the end was too tempted to preserve the exact rhythm and syllable count of the original lines and also too pleased for a chance to use the supine, so that's why it became "Adoratum sic". Unless I discover that this is actually grammatically wrong, I'll keep it that way. :)