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Kosmo

Carmina Burana

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After years of listening to some of them on Orff's music (I even watched a ballet :rolleyes: on this music) now I'm reading the poems in a bilingual edition (latin/german originals - romanian translation)

 

They are really amazing given that they were written between 1150-1250 AD. Most mentions on christianity and chivalry are highly critical of the way thay are practiced. Instead the knowledge of roman mytholgy was very good. The explicit erotic content of a few poems was a surprise given the period. Also the invokations of ancient gods and offers of sacrifice are surprising.

 

The frequency of the use of roman mythological characters it's very high. This guys learned a lot about it besides their latin studies.

 

The rime and the rithm of the poems look great but the fact that I don't know latin makes my opinion worthless.

What do you think of this poems? Are they good compared to their models, Virgilius and Naso?

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As much as I love the Carmina Burana, I favor the Greek lyric style to the medieval chorus rhymed ones. The former has far more detail, includes a heavy stress and play on words, whereas the latter seems far more simplistic.

Edited by Divi Filius

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After years of listening to some of them on Orff's music (I even watched a ballet ;) on this music) now I'm reading the poems in a bilingual edition (latin/german originals - romanian translation)

 

They are really amazing given that they were written between 1150-1250 AD. Most mentions on christianity and chivalry are highly critical of the way thay are practiced. Instead the knowledge of roman mytholgy was very good. The explicit erotic content of a few poems was a surprise given the period. Also the invokations of ancient gods and offers of sacrifice are surprising.

 

The frequency of the use of roman mythological characters it's very high. This guys learned a lot about it besides their latin studies.

 

The rime and the rithm of the poems look great but the fact that I don't know latin makes my opinion worthless.

What do you think of this poems? Are they good compared to their models, Virgilius and Naso?

I think they're good, I like the Carmina Burana in their simplicity..the lexical choices and the plain style.

 

O Fortuna, velut Luna statu variabilis, semper crescis aut decrescis; vita detestabilis nunc obdurat et nunc curat ludo mentis aciem,

egestatem potestatem dissolvit ut glaciem.

 

It is hard to forget such an incipit ;) . I had to learn Fortuna imperatrix mundi, Primo Vere and In taberna by heart at some point in school lol, but I liked the Carmina and still do.

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