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lutheranhymns) wrote2021-04-19 10:52 pm
lutheranhymns) wrote2021-04-19 10:52 pm
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#499: O Lord, We Praise You
The second and third verses are by Martin Luther--translation by committee. I'm not sure I've mentioned this (I think I have, who knows), but once I saw a more "accurate" set of translations, basically making the point that Luther's German hymns were actually pretty bad as poetry, in terms of rhyme/meter/scansion. He was mostly trying to get his message across in a memorable, vernacular way, not make high art. So most of the familiar translations we know probably make Luther sound like a better lyricist than he actually was!
That said, I'm not really sure what's going on in verse 3. We pray that we may live together, "nor repent this blest communion." Okay, so there isn't a "neither," but "nor" probably means something like "and also, that we may not"...disown/wish we hadn't had communion? Keep us in the faith? "Repent" feels like a weird word to use there, you want to repent (of) your sins, not the good things.
This is also one of those where it's written with no sharps or flats in the key signature (C major/A minor) and ends on the fifth note of the scale (G mixolydian?) but there are so many F-sharps that you could arguably just as well have put it in G major with occasional F-naturals.
That said, I'm not really sure what's going on in verse 3. We pray that we may live together, "nor repent this blest communion." Okay, so there isn't a "neither," but "nor" probably means something like "and also, that we may not"...disown/wish we hadn't had communion? Keep us in the faith? "Repent" feels like a weird word to use there, you want to repent (of) your sins, not the good things.
This is also one of those where it's written with no sharps or flats in the key signature (C major/A minor) and ends on the fifth note of the scale (G mixolydian?) but there are so many F-sharps that you could arguably just as well have put it in G major with occasional F-naturals.