The many ways to sing, "Hosanna"
贺三纳 hè sān nà Hosanna, literally congratulate-three-accept
贺撒纳 hè sā nà Hosanna, literally congratulate-scatter-accept
At Palm Sunday Mass, we used two different transliterations for Hosanna. The translators of the Lectionary into Chinese elected the first one above, 贺三纳, in the passage the priest read from the Gospel of Mark. Last year I noted my appreciation for this combination of Chinese characters to render "Hosanna" It seemed to show the joy at welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem, with a dose of Trinitarian theology for good measure.
In the hymn used for the procession, we sang "贺撒纳." This rendering of Hosanna, with the middle syllable meaning "scatter," also captured the story of the Gospel, as the people of Jerusalem scattered their cloaks and branches in Christ's path. (There's a video on last year's post that is of this hymn.) Again, I was taken by the choices the translator made here.
My Pleco dictionary translates Hosanna with a different sequence of characters, 和散那 Hé sàn nà, with-scattered-that. The Sanctus sung at Mass has no Hosanna in any form included in the current Mandarin translation. Instead we repeat 欢呼之声, 响彻云霄 Huānhū zhī shēng, xiǎngchèyúnxiāo, conveying meaning of Hosanna In Excelsis, with "shouts of joy, loud and clear." I could probably uncover more, were I to continue to dig. Hosanna itself has vague and varied meanings in Western Biblical and liturgical use, the roots of this word coming from Psalm 118. It shouldn't be a surprise Chinese has multiple words for Hosanna.
And now, with that----on to Holy Week.
贺撒纳 hè sā nà Hosanna, literally congratulate-scatter-accept
At Palm Sunday Mass, we used two different transliterations for Hosanna. The translators of the Lectionary into Chinese elected the first one above, 贺三纳, in the passage the priest read from the Gospel of Mark. Last year I noted my appreciation for this combination of Chinese characters to render "Hosanna" It seemed to show the joy at welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem, with a dose of Trinitarian theology for good measure.
In the hymn used for the procession, we sang "贺撒纳." This rendering of Hosanna, with the middle syllable meaning "scatter," also captured the story of the Gospel, as the people of Jerusalem scattered their cloaks and branches in Christ's path. (There's a video on last year's post that is of this hymn.) Again, I was taken by the choices the translator made here.
My Pleco dictionary translates Hosanna with a different sequence of characters, 和散那 Hé sàn nà, with-scattered-that. The Sanctus sung at Mass has no Hosanna in any form included in the current Mandarin translation. Instead we repeat 欢呼之声, 响彻云霄 Huānhū zhī shēng, xiǎngchèyúnxiāo, conveying meaning of Hosanna In Excelsis, with "shouts of joy, loud and clear." I could probably uncover more, were I to continue to dig. Hosanna itself has vague and varied meanings in Western Biblical and liturgical use, the roots of this word coming from Psalm 118. It shouldn't be a surprise Chinese has multiple words for Hosanna.
And now, with that----on to Holy Week.
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