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Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen - this Christmas song is told be sung at every German regional meeting of the European meetings. And I really don't like it. One day we started singing it in church, in French of course, and some of us were a bit irritated by the word "frais" because we associated it immediately with strawberries. Since we could not find anything about strawberries in the English or German text we started doubting if these translations are really correct. Ultimately we came up with our own translation - but we must confess we encountered some theological problems...
This is the original French text:
D'un arbre séculaire,
du vieux tronc d'Isaie,
durant l'hiver austère
un frais rameau jaillit.
Et sur le sol durci,
dans la nuit calme et claire,
une rose a fleuri.
Par la bouche fervente,
de pieux serviteurs,
Dieu, de sa voix clémente,
promettait un Sauveur.
Il, suprême honeur,
chez une humble servante,
toute à son pur bonheur.
Il vient sans apparence;
des pauvres il est roi;
il connaît leur souffrance,
les guérit par la foi.
La mort n'a plus d'effroi:
il me rend l'espérance,
en se donnant pour moi.
We came to the following translation:
1.
A thin secularized Arab
that sees a trunk in Isreal
You borrowed an Austrian book about
a strawberry branch in a prison bed
And for sure on the hard floor
In the calm night came
Clara and Rose, the florists
2.
Speaking to the vabana bush
the hairy servants of God
went already with a key
Because they promised mint tea to the savior
He went to the supreme court
Where these poor servants told
about their spn in his good times
3.
He comes without appearing
or contacting the poor king
He made fire
under the french gorilla
He died because it was too cold
He was out rented hope,
a gift for the Queen
Some annotations:
1.
d’un -> à dun (dutch) = thin
vieux -> voir = to see
tronc -> trunk
du-rant -> you (-> germ. "du") rent -> you borrow
l’hiver -> livre = book
un frais rameau -> a strawberry branch
jail-lit -> prison-bed
sur -> sure
2.
la bouche fervente -> verveine -> verbana bush
voix --> je vais, tu vas… -> “they went”
clé-mente -> key / mint tea
suprême honeur -> supreme court
toute -> told
son -> the son
bon-heur -> “good-hour” -> good times
3.
connaît -> contact
souf-france -> under [the] French [gorilla]
guérit -> gorilla
la foi -> le feu = the fire
ef-froi -> cold
rend -> rented
donnant -> donner -> give, the gift…
roi, moi… -> king, queen…
Je veux rendre grâce à Sonja et Marjolijne pour cette idée!!
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