Although short, this is a delightful hymn to the Mother of God – comcrete and almost iconographic in its appeal.
The Slavonic version in the Marian Hymnal (1984) had two alternative first lines:
- Purest Mother, the Rusyn homeland sings of your graciousness.
- Purest Mother, people of the homeland sing of your graciousness.
In the proposed MCI hymnal, I have chosen to use just the second version, since it is more direct (people are singing, some of the here, and not merely a far-way land), and also because our church historically includes Magyars, Croats and Romanians as well as Rusyns.
I also made on other change: where the Marian Hymnal has
Heaven and earth all sing your praises
I decided to keep Father Levkulic’s translation, which is closer to the original Slavonic:
Saints and angels with them sing your praises
which also emphasizes that those in heaven and earth are singing WITH the “people of the homeland”, and with us.
Here is the result:
The Slavonic version has been edited to match:
Thoughts or suggestions?
Please leave a comment!
OK, but that’s kind of like editing “America” out of *America the Beautiful* so that it can be sung by Mongolians. At least leave the reference to the Rusyn homeland as an alternative.
Michael, a couple of questions:
1. Doesn’t that sound like a bad accent to you? (“the” on the downbeat)
2. “Rusin” or “Rusyn”?
Should that first note be a “D” rather than a “C”? But if going up a 5th rather than a 4th is what’s intended, than ignore this. Also, would you consider changing “the homeland” to “our homeland”? That way, it could more easily include America or Canada, in addition to the Eastern European countries (“the homeland” sounds like something from an Eastern European nationalist movement.) Thanks for all the hard work!
Yes, the C should be a D; thank you! I made the change.
As far as “our homeland” – I’m inclined to do that (the Papp version has “nasheho kraju”, “our land”) but
a. “the homeland has already been in circulation for quite a while, and
b. to my ear, “people of the homeland” sings much more easily than “… of our….”
I will be submitting both options to the Music Commission along with another suggestion, “the Rusin [Rusyn?] homeland.”