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Sunday, June 05, 2005The French mystic strikes...Stumbled across the Lord's Prayer in the original Aramaic, thought it would be interesting to find out how it compared to what we're used to uttering. I found several translations. This one was a little interesting: Therefore, this is how you shall pray:And then there was this one by Neil Douglas-Klotz: O, Birther of the Cosmos, focus your light within us -- make it usefulI don't speak Aramaic, so who knows. Assuming moderately close correspondence between Hebrew and Aramaic stems, I checked the roots for keywords in the first four or five lines and think this is the closest: Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.But it's the second translation, purporting to capture hidden shades of meaning, that intrigues. Especially when you read about how he came up with it. It tells us something, something that moves us to think in new directions. In the last few days, there's been much ado about the French and Dutch rejections of the EU Constitution. I don't know much about Holland, but I do know about France, and so I offer The Mystic's Interpretation of the French dévise as a way to understanding. Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité Liber means free, as in a man freed from slavery. But it is very similar to the root for book. The French, who make maximum use of words, rely on this "coincidence" to convey the notion that knowledge or received wisdom hold the key to true freedom. Égalité is a very special word. English speakers will recognize in it something similar to "equal," but the real root is "gal," a compacted form of the name of their ancestral home, "Gaul." Égalité captures the sense that French blood equals French land, that there is a shared unity or oneness with the land if you are Gallic. Fraternité has the old root, "frater," meaning brother. It reveals that those with ties to French land have implicit ties to each other, existing as a single family with mother France, the land, providing a sacred feminine to root this masculine energy. As important is the ending of the word, "aternité," similar to the Latin aeternum and French éternité - eternity. This is a brotherhood that endures forever. Now that we have seen the true and multiple meanings contained within, let us consider the real translation of "Liberté, Églalité, Fraternité": Freedom in shared Gallic wisdom Oneness in shared Gallic ancestry Family in the ever-joined masculine Gallic will and the feminine Mother France Understanding the true meaning of the French dévise, we see why a "non" to the EU was necessary. While France welcomes the expansion of her family, others joining her brotherhood by devotion to Mother France and the wisdom traditions of her people, an undermining of that tradition that fails to nourish and grow the Gallic spirit by adding of human spirit or French dominion is contradictory to the very meaning of the three words by which the French understand themselves. - - - We also sell bridges... 
posted by gbarto at 11:24 AM |
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