Evry tenth Cantiga in the Cantigas de Santa Maria of Alfonso the Wise is a song in Praise of Mary. This is the first, Cantiga X, This is my first attempt at a singable version (it's not really a translation, see the notes at the bottom). It's not really finished, but there are a few good reasons for posting it now rather than waiting. This formed part of my big project for a Lady Chapel of Winchester Cathedral.
Rosas das rosas
Rose of Roses
Esta é de loor de Santa Maria, c om' é fremosa e bõa e á gran poder.
This is in praise of Holy Mary, how She is beautiful, good and powerful
Rose of all Roses, Flower of all flowers
Mother of Mothers, the Lady of Hours
Rose of all Roses, smile upon your face. |
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Rose of all roses, countenance divine, |
Flower of flowers, heaven's glittering prize |
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Mother of mothers, gentle loving wife |
Lady of Ladies, I have made my choice |
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Mine is not a faithful translation of Cantiga X. For a start, it has a different number of verses (more in a moment). Instead, and as elsewhere on this site (real scholars will wince) it's a trial piece for a much bigger project of tackling Cantiga XV as a folk play. The only way to work out how to handle rhyme and meter is to have a go, and this was it. As it turned out, Cantiga XV was beyond me, but yielded to the efforts of a real pro, my good friend Andy Maliphant. You can see his rather wonderful text There are several scholarly translations of Cantiga X around, and it's been recorded several times, so I'll recommend this translation and this version and leave it at that. My own isn't a scholarly translation, it's meant to be sung in my kind of singing context. It's unlikely ever to be heard in the inside of a lofty church, much more likely in a pub after a couple of pints. I've knocked some of the rough edges off whilst singing it, but it's still at what I call the "doggerel" stage. Part of singing in this context is it uses a number of memory techniques more common in later ballads. One of these resulted in the change in number of verses.
With the exception of one contextual reference, the last two verses dropped out fairly easily, first time around. Then I noticed that the first verse expands on the chourus to make a "management summary" of the whole song. That's really common in French and German love-mystic poetry, but the way in which it's done is slightly different from my style. Four couplets would mean four following verses - Rose, Flower, Mother, Lady, with the chorus reminding the singer of the order each time.
Here's where I began to take real liberties. Five verses - well why not? It fitted with the way I wanted to use the images anyway. Images in the Cantigas come in blocks of six related miniatures. The sixth image in this case contains a reference to the context I wanted to change, so leaving it out gave five images for five verses. What a neat fit - well of course, as a consultant, if I'd wanted to use all six I'd have put the chorus against the first and still claimed a neat coincidence.
However, five verses also gives a problem, and it's just as well I noticed it, because I now know in advance that I'll need to make compromises on Cantiga XV. The Castilian/Portuguese rhyme structure runs BBBBA - CCCA - DDDA and so on. This works in the original because there are many fewer word endings than in English, and so many more words to choose from for the 'A' rhyme. I eventually hit on delight- bright - night - (a)right - light. I cheated on the chorus by using Lady of Hours, but I couldn't see another solution.
I had to rework verses four and five at this point, but Verse one then fell out neatly. Leaving verses two and three - Rose and Flower - and a hotch-potch of left over imagery. I fiddled and fiddled. I knew I'd have to add something in, but I wanted to add as few contexts as possible. Eventually, when I added "demeanour", the sort of “blessing dispensing” Sophia suggested itself and everything dropped out. After singing it a few times, it sort of grew on me.
The context change - you thought I'd forgotten, didn't you? Well, the end of the last verse is literally something close to "I will love You alone and henceforth consign all other loves to the devil". I don't fully understand the Castilian context, but from my experience of Trouvere and Minnemystik imagery, this would mean something close to "loving You, I will renounce the world (and enter a monastery)". Where I'm going to be singing, it would still be easy for someone to assume I meant "I consign all my previous loves to the devil" as in "to hell with women". And if you think I'm being extreme, perhaps a classical singer or two would like to try an open-mike evening at the Pig and Whistle and see how far they get. Church audiences tend not to throw hard objects.
So, I'm sorry classicists, but get thee behind me, satan. "I have made my choice" frames the verse quite nicely with "love You as the Lady of Pure Light". The Lady of Hours becomes the bringer of delight and ends as the patron, the Lady of Light. This is as good an image of Sophia as I can come up with at the moment. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes the case for the defence. If any prosecution witnesses care to mail me, let's discuss it.