Or "das Vaterunser" as they call it. [The Father-our; pronounce it doss Fotter-oonzer. Throw those "r"s back into your uvula and try to roll them there. If you can't, don't worry about it, most Germans can't either. I was taught to do it by a Danish girl named Merete.
My pronunciations are based on the simplest, standard (Midwestern-) American English rules.]
Matthäus 6:9-13:
Ma-TAY-oos
Matthew
9. Unser Vater im Himmel!
Oonzer Fotter im Himmel
Our Father in [-the] Heaven
Dein Name werde geheiligt.
dine nomma vair-da ge-HILE-igt
your name be hallowed
10. Dein Reich komme.
dine rysh (long 'i') coma
your kingdom (empire) come
Dein Wille geschehe
dine villa ge-shay-a
your Will happen
wie im Himmel so auf Erden.
vee im himmel zo ouf AIR-den
as in heaven so on earth
11. Unser tägliches Brot gib uns heute.
Oon-zer TAYG-lish-ess brote gip oonce hoy-ta
Our daily bread give us today
12. Und vergib uns unsere Schuld,
Oont fair-Gip oonce oonz-er-a shoolt
and forgive us our debt [yes, just one]
wie auch wir vergeben unsern Schuldigern.
vee oukh veer fair-GAY-ben OONzern SHOOL-dig-ern
as also we forgive our debters
13. Und führe uns nicht in Versuchung,
Oont fyoor-a [merge the 'yuh' and 'oo' sounds completely; actually, "furra" wouldn't be the worst butchering of that word I ever heard] oonce neesht in fair-ZOOKH-oong
and lead us not into temptation
sondern erlöse uns von dem Bösen.
Zone-dern air-LERZ-a [make that "ER" in there sound Valley-Girlish, not Bostonian] oonce fun dame BERZ-en
but redeem us from the evil [or evil one]
Denn Dein ist das Reich und die Kraft
den dine isst doss rysh oont dee kroft
because yours is the kingdom and the power
und die Herrlichkeit in Ewigkeit. Amen
oont dee HAIR-lish-kite in AY-vig-kite. Ah-men.
and the glory in eternity. Amen.
At my church we celebrate Pentacost by reciting The Lord's Prayer in any other language we happen to know, all at once. They print up a sheet with about 20 different ones.
2 comments:
Some of the most beautiful religious language I know comes from listening to Dietrich Fisher-Deskau singing JS Bach (in German of course). I think the recordings that the old man had were all Deutsche Gramophon.
"Ich habe genug" has a ring and power...
"I've had enough?" Or "I have enough." I'm afraid German allows some ambiguity there. Even at my peaks of atheism, I couldn't stand to let Handel's Messiah, for instance, go. Or even a reverent understanding of Jesus Christ: Superstar.
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