Posted by Latin student on September 18, 2002 at 11:45:14:
In Reply to: Re: Nostradamus? posted by GC on September 18, 2002 at 08:01:31:
Please, if you're going to offer a translation, make sure it's an accurate one! The stanza (from the Dies Irae, a medieval 13th century, not biblical, creation. Think "Black Death".) is:
"Tuba mirum spargens sonum per sepulcra regionum coget omnes ante thronum"
Tuba - trumpet
mirum - strange, wonderful
spargens - (from spargo-) to scatter or sprinkle
sonum - sound
per - through, during, by
sepulcra - graves, tombs
regionum - area, region, country
coget - (from cogo-) collect, gather, round up
omnes - all, everyone
ante - before, in front of
thronum - throne
So, this translates (by my lights anyway) to something like:
The trumpet scatters its wondrous sound throughout the tombs of the land, [and] gathers all before the throne.
This does have musical and tuba content. How does one interpret a musical expression of a text like the Dies Irae if one doesn't know what the text means? Mozart, Berlioz and Verdi certainly could read and understand the Latin text without someone else's well-meaning poetic and doctrinal liberties being taken.
A decent more or less literal translation can be found in the following link. It's better than most "poetic" ones, at any rate: