Carmina Burana

JDS

From another thread:

Interesting ... never heard of this.

It's also name of a trilogy of Carl Orff, in the domain of music. The "Carmina Burano" belongs to it.

This is interesting if you have not seen it yet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP_CSQgBPpQ


Carmina Burana - Carl Orff
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0298787/

O Fortuna

O how Fortune,
inopportune,
apes the moon's inconstancy:
waxing, waning,
losing, gaining,
life treats us detestably:
first oppressing
then caressing
shifts us like pawns in her play:
destitution,
restitution,
mixes and melts them away.

Fate, as vicious
as capricious,
whirling your merry-go-round:
evil doings,
worthless wooings,
crumble away to the ground:
darkly stealing,
unrevealing,
working against me you go:
for your measure
of foul pleasure
I bare my back to your blow.

Noble actions,
true transactions,
no longer fall to my lot:
powers to make me
then to break me
all play their part in your plot:
now seize your time -
waste no more time,
pluck these poor strings and let go:
since the strongest
fall the longest
let the world share in my woe.


Fortune plango vulnera

I cry the cruel cuts of Fate
with eyes worn red from weeping,
whose fickle favours travel straight
back into her keeping:
as ye read, so shall ye find -
luck comes curly-headed
from the front, but round behind
not a hair is threaded!

Dame Fortune once invited me
to enjoy her blessing:
to riches' throne exalted me,
caring and caressing:
but from maximum renown,
garlanded and fêted,
Fate stepped up and threw me down -
glory dissipated!

Fortune's wheel goes round and round,
down go all my talents;
others rising from the ground
fly too high to balance:
so beware Fate's old routine,
kings and lords and ladies -
for beneath her throne lies Queen
Hecuba in Hades.

- CARMINA BURANA (PENGUIN CLASSICS)

Also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmina_Burana

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmina_Burana_(Orff)

Lots of Tarot imagery.

Excuse me if this has been covered already, I'm new.
 

Rhinemaiden

great thread, JDS...

Carmina Burana has long been a favorite... and I own several recordings. For more information on the background of the work, including a fascinating graphic of a wheel of fortune that looks oh-so-familiar ( ;)), go here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmina_Burana
 

DoctorArcanus

VIII. La Justice

In trutina mentis dubia
Fluctuant contraria
Lascivus amor et pudicitia

Sed eligo quod video
Collum iugo prebeo
Ad iugum tamen suave transeo


In my own wavering balance
Desire fluctuates with modesty
But I choose what I see

I bow my neck to the yoke
For the burden is sweeter after all
And so I take it upon me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7XDyOkjuvg
 

DoctorArcanus

XIII or maybe 0

Aestuans interius
ira vehementi
in amaritudine
loquor meae menti;
factus de materia,
cinis elementi,
similis sum folio,
de quo ludunt venti.

Cum sit enim proprium
viro sapienti
supra petram ponere
sedem fundamenti,
stultus ego comparor
fluvio labenti
sub eodem tramite
numquam permanenti.

Feror ego veluti
sine nauta navis,
ut per vias aeris
vaga fertur avis;
non me tenent vincula,
non me tenet clavis;
quaero mihi similes,
et adiungor pravis.

Mihi cordis gravitas
res videtur gravis;
iocus est amabilis
dulciorque favis;
quicquid Venus imperat,
labor est suavis,
quae numquam in cordibus
habitat ignavis.

Via lata gradior
more iuventutis,
implicor et vitiis
immemor virtutis,
voluptatis avidus
magis quam salutis,
mortuus in anima
curam gero cutis.


Burning inwardly with strong anger,
in my bitterness I speak to my soul;
created out of matter, ashes of the earth,
I am like a leaf with which the winds play.

Whereas it is proper for a wise man
to place his foundations on rock,
I, in my folly, am like a flowing river,
never staying on the same course.

I am borne along like a ship without a sailor,
just as a wandering bird is carried along paths of air;
chains do not keep me nor does a key;
I seek men like myself, and I am joined with rogues.

For me a serious heart is too serious a matter;
a joke is pleasant and sweeter than honeycombs;
whatever Venus orders is pleasant toil;
she never dwells in faint hearts.

I go on the broad way after the manner of youth;
and I entangle myself in vice, forgetful of virtue;
greedy for pleasure more than for salvation,
I, dead in my soul, attend to the needs of my flesh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xhU3sZrpiU