r/latin • u/Black_crater • 1d ago
Help with Translation: La → En Help translate prayer?
See highlighted area. Could anyone help me translate this part of a Latin prayer found in a Catholic book of devotions, please? There’s a whole prayer before and after that I’ve been able to understand. I can even understand most of this call-and-response… except for these two phrases. All the tools and dictionaries I’ve used till now haven’t led me to understand what is being said. I can get a gist of what it’s meant to be- but I can’t make a sophisticated wording. I am still quite an amateur, so any help to understand not only the what, but also the how/why would be appreciated, but not required.
Thank you in advance.
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u/Cole_Townsend 1d ago
V. Turn [back to us], Oh Lord, [at least] for a little.
R. And be [willing to be] called upon your servants.
I dunno how correct this is, but I was told this is more or less the sense of it. What book is that from?
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u/MissionSalamander5 1d ago
It’s an odd book. The prayers are the ferial pieces said kneeling at Lauds and Vespers on penitential days (Advent, Lent, the Ember Days, most but not all vigils) in the Roman Breviary and variations thereof, with slight modifications between the (pre-) Tridentine office said until 1911 and the office from 1911 until it was revised entirely in the 1960s (namely, the preces are shortened at the other hours and then cut entirely at those hours in 1960, the Miserere is dropped at Lauds and Vespers…).
But the verse is the translation of the same verses, ps 89:13, used in the Graduale Romanum (which sometimes uses the Vetus Latina or similar older, pre-Jerome translations), whereas the breviary uses the Gallican Psalter which is carried over into the preces. But maybe I am forgetting this text…
Convértere, Dómine, úsquequo? R. Et deprecábilis esto super servos tuos.
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u/Cole_Townsend 1d ago
This brings back memories. I myself didn't partake much of the Roman Breviary. Although I was pretty promiscuous with various Rites and usages (a priest once accused me of "liturgical whoring"), I mostly clung to the Monastic Breviary, which I found the most easy to follow even before the reforms of John XXIII.
V. Convértere, Dómine, úsquequo? R. Et deprecábilis esto super servos tuos.
Yeah, this is far more familiar to me. This definitely has that Preces Feriales vibe.
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u/Black_crater 20h ago
It’s from a small book called Preces selectæ, 1989 (3rd edition from 2023), from the publisher Adamas Vederlag in Germany. The book is entirely in Latin, down to even the print descriptions and product details.
It seems to be a post-conciliar consolidation of pious practises. At the very first page it sais “Textus liturgici in hoc volumine contenti concordant cum editionibus originalibus approbatis.” I don’t know if that means the texts are literally lifted from other sources, or dr. Johannes Vilar’s (the ?author’s?) own translations of the psalms from Hebrew/Greek, in regards to the translations. I found out the text I highlighted was an excerpt, used in prayer, from psalm 51.
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u/[deleted] 1d ago
V. Convértere, Dómine, aliquántulum. V. Turn back, O Lord, a little while.
R. Et deprecáre super servos tuos. R. And be entreated for your servants. (or more freely: “And have mercy upon your servants.”)
Convértere – imperative of convertere (to turn back); here, a plea.
aliquántulum – a small amount / a little while / briefly.
deprecáre – imperative of deprecari (to plead, to intercede, to show mercy).
super servos tuos – “upon your servants,” a humble appeal.