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#869: We Have Seen the Lord
May. 12th, 2021 10:41 pmThis is a follow-the-leader song--not even "leader or all," just "leader" doing the call and "assembly" doing the response. In the original Swahili, there's only one repeated chant for the leader part, but the English translation goes on to list various descriptions: "God is mighty/powerful/etc."
By the way, Swahili verb forms are a trip and a half. I think what's going on here is that we're in the perfect tense ("have seen," not "saw,") and there's a third-person object involved ("we have seen him"). And/or maybe a more literal translation would be "I have seen the Lord" (Mary Magdalene's line) but it's paraphrased to be a group song? Either way, please enjoy staring at that verb chart.
By the way, Swahili verb forms are a trip and a half. I think what's going on here is that we're in the perfect tense ("have seen," not "saw,") and there's a third-person object involved ("we have seen him"). And/or maybe a more literal translation would be "I have seen the Lord" (Mary Magdalene's line) but it's paraphrased to be a group song? Either way, please enjoy staring at that verb chart.
