"All I Want for Christmas is You" in Latin

This board is a composition workshop, like a writers' workshop: post your work with questions about style or vocabulary, comment on other people's work, post composition challenges on some topic or form, or just dazzle us with your inventive use of galliambics.
Post Reply
Gregorius
Textkit Neophyte
Posts: 79
Joined: Wed Sep 28, 2005 9:48 pm
Location: http://student.fgcu.edu/ghbontra/mainpage.htm

"All I Want for Christmas is You" in Latin

Post by Gregorius »

Since many traditional Christmas carols are English adaptations of Latin songs (e.g. "Oh, Come All Ye Faithful" versus "Adeste Fideles"), I thought it might be interesting to turn the tables on that tradition and adapt a modern English yuletide tune into Latin. I think it would be especially fun to sing given how upbeat and decidedly contemporary in style this song is, thus subverting common expectations about the overall tone of practically anything sung in Latin, at least for Christmas. This is clearly neither a somber monastic chant nor a reverent ode to the Nativity.

So I welcome any comments and/or critiques on these lyrics that I've composed for "Natale Christi Volo Nil Praeter Te." As always, my goal was to take as few liberties with the meaning as possible within the constraints of the meter and rhyme scheme.

NATALE CHRISTI VOLO NIL PRAETER TE

Hīs feriīs nōn volō multa.
Ūnicam rem requirō.
Sub arbore iacunt dōna,
Sed dē nullō cōgitō.

Sōlum volō tē tantum
Ut numquam sapiās quantum.
Nātāle Christī
Volō nīl praeter tē. Adsīsǃ

Hīs feriīs nōn volō multa.
Ūnicam rem requirō.
Sub arbore iacunt dōna,
Sed dē nullō cōgitō.

Ita haud meum tībiāle'st
Suspendendum dē focō.
Nōn mē fēlīcem faciet nīl
Quod inveniam in illō.

Sōlum volō tē tantum
Ut numquam sapiās quantum.
Nātāle Christī
Volō nīl praeter tē. Adsīsǃ

Hīs feriīs nōn volō multa.
Nē quīdem nivem petō.
Hīc manēbō tē exspectāns.
Sub illō viscō stabō.

Indicem dēsīderiōrum
Nōn parābō hōc annō.
Nē quīdem pervigilābō
Dum cervī sint in tectō.

Volō hīc sentīre tē
Firmē amplexantem mē.
Nātāle Christī
Volō nīl praeter tē. Adsīsǃ

Quisque lūx nunc tam clārissimē splendet.
Et āerem rīsus puerōrum implet.
Audiō omnēs canentēs
Et campānās tinnientēs.

Sancte Nicolae, est ūnicus quem requirō.
Mīne ferēs illum ergō?

Hīs feriīs nōn petō multa,
Nam nīl praeter hoc petō.
Invenīre ante ianuā
Illum quem amō volō.

Sōlum volō tē tantum
Ut numquam sapiās quantum.
Nātāle Christī
Volō nīl praeter tē. Adsīsǃ

Post Reply