Ave Maria

Recently as I have been walking around downtown I've had the song Ave Maria in my head and on my lips. I wander around with my own personal radio in my head complete with a full symphony orchestra and I am surprised at how well I know every lilt and tremble, and every soaring moment of this song despite the fact that I don't know the words. I suppose I must look like one of the crazy people, drifting through the crowd in my long black coat singing Ave Maria. But thats OK, it is a beautiful song to have stuck in my head. I'd like to keep it for a while.

Did you know that Ave Maria - which we all know as a German or Italian song, was originally a translation from an English poem? It was Sir Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake which Schubert translated to the version that we are familiar with. It was then covered by people like Beethovan (my favourite version) and Pavarotti (also lovely!) Pavarotti sings the Latin version which as far as I can tell is just the Hail Mary Full of Grace prayer, not a translation of the Lady of the Lake like the German. The original words are something else... if I can memorize them I might sing them instead of the lalalala that I belt out now.


Walter Scott's Original
from "The Lady of the Lake"

Ave Maria! maiden mild!
Listen to a maiden's prayer!
Thou canst hear though from the wild,
Thou canst save amid despair.
Safe may we sleep beneath thy care,
Though banish'd, outcast and reviled -
Maiden! hear a maiden's prayer;
Mother, hear a suppliant child!
Ave Maria!

Ave Maria! undefiled!
The flinty couch we now must share
Shall seem this down of eider piled,
If thy protection hover there.
The murky cavern's heavy air
Shall breathe of balm if thou hast smiled;
Then, Maiden! hear a maiden's prayer;
Mother, list a suppliant child!
Ave Maria!

Ave Maria! stainless styled!
Foul demons of the earth and air,
From this their wonted haunt exiled,
Shall flee before thy presence fair.
We bow us to our lot of care,
Beneath thy guidance reconciled;
Hear for a maid a maiden's prayer,
And for a father hear a child!
Ave Maria!

Mon, March 17, 2008 - 12:07 AM