I have recently become obsessed with classical music to an unprecedented degree. I am very deeply in love with a Carl Orff composition called O Fortuna, which is the title of one of 24 Latin poem collection called Carmina Burana, dating back to the 13th century.

I have always had a profound, at times sinful, attraction to dark moods. By nature, I have a morbid mind and a tendency to appreciate the obscure, the gloomy, and the depressing. Within this context, I am a blink away from worshiping O Fortuna.

O Fortuna (Chorus)

O Fortuna
velut luna
statu variabilis,

semper crescis
aut decrescis;
vita detestabilis

nunc obdurat
et tunc curat
ludo mentis aciem,

egestatem,
potestatem
dissolvit ut glaciem.

Sors immanis
et inanis,
rota tu volubilis,

status malus,
vana salus
semper dissolubilis,

obumbrata
et velata
michi quoque niteris;

nunc per ludum
dorsum nudum
fero tui sceleris.

Sors salutis
et virtutis
michi nunc contraria,

est affectus
et defectus
semper in angaria.

Hac in hora
sine mora
corde pulsum tangite;

quod per sortem
sternit fortem,
mecum omnes plangite!


English Translation

O Fortune,
like the moon
you are changeable,

ever waxing
and waning;
hateful life

first oppresses
and then soothes
as fancy takes it;

poverty
and power
it melts them like ice.

Fate - monstrous
and empty,
you whirling wheel,

you are malevolent,
well-being is vain
and always fades to nothing,

shadowed
and veiled
you plague me too;

now through the game
I bring my bare back
to your villainy.

Fate is against me
in health
and virtue,

driven on
and weighted down,
always enslaved.

So at this hour
without delay
pluck the vibrating strings;

since Fate
strikes down the strong man,
everyone weep with me!

Download O Fortuna - Carl Orff here. Everyone weep with me.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 2nd, 2007 at 1:36 pm and is filed under Love. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.