CARMINA BURANA: Translation

PART I: FORTUNE, EMPRESS OF THE WORLD
"O, Fortune, like the moon you are changeable, ever waxing and waning; hateful life first oppresses and then soothes as fancy takes it...well-being is in vain and always fades to nothing."
--O Fortuna

PART II: IN SPRINGTIME
"Behold, the pleasant and longed-for spring brings back joyfulness. Violet flowers fill the meadows, the sun brightens everything, sadness is now at an end! Summer returns. Now withdraw the rigors of winter."
--Ecce gratum (Behold the Pleasant Spring)

PART III: IN THE TAVERN
"I travel the broad path as is the way of youth. I give myself to vice, unmindful of virtue. I am eager for the pleasures of the flesh more than for salvation. My soul is dead, so I shall look after the flesh."
--Estuans interius (Burning Inside)

THE COURT OF LOVE
"My virginity makes me frisky, my simplicity holds me back. Oh! Oh! Oh! I am bursting out all over! I am burning all over with first love! New, new love is what I am dying of!"
--Tempus es iocundum (This Is the Joyful Time)

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