.
GangGreen, eh? Let’s hope you don’t need to be
amputated.
Not sure I understand [why there is any question about this]. The literal Latin translation is pretty simple.
Hail Queen, Mother of Mercy.
[Hail (typically omitted in English)] our life, our sweetness, our hope.
Yes, it’s been some time since I’ve heard
“Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, hail our life, our sweetness and our hope.” But that is what you will commonly hear from Philippino Catholics for example, and it’s likely that this is commonplace in the Philippines (since they tend to bring so much of their culture with them, e.g. Simbang Gabi). Maybe we have some members from there, on the forum! Correct me if I’m wrong!
I have heard people who have been catechized by Jesuit missioners in the 1940’s use this translation, but the ones trained in the 50’s, 60’s and up stopped saying it this way for whatever reason, probably a change in the curriculum. It might be that some Jesuit catechism (St. Peter Canisius??) has this form in English or maybe some dissemination from Jesuit headquarters recommended it at some point. This is just a guess, though.
It would have [to] be something more like
Salve Regina, Mater misericordiae, vitae, dulcedinis, spei nostra. (or something like that) to say mother **of **our mercy, **of **our life, **of **our sweetness, **of **our hope.
*Excellent point! * The Genetive case (called “possessive case” in English) has a different ending for each noun, depending on declensions of the nouns. Anyone with first level studies in Latin understands this. (Curiously, this is one time English is similar to Latin, because we use apostrophe-s, 's, for making nouns possessive, sort of like the Latin thing of changing the ending of the noun.)
Instead, it says Mother of Mercy. Then it says the Nominative [for] “the life, the sweetness,” and “the hope,” followed by hail our (word order isn’t all that important in Latin).
This “hail our” is the English equivalent of* “nostra salve,”* or, literally,* “salve nostra,” *but in Latin the order of words is not as important as it is in English since the different endings of the various declensions and cases specify what the words are doing in the sentence and what they modify and to what they apply.
I think it’s pretty clear. If you want to think of it in the English ordering of words rather than the poetic Latin it would probably be more like.
*Salve *[sancta] Regina, Mater Misericordiae
Salve nostra vita, dulcedo, et spes.
Same words, different ordering makes it a bit more clear.
I added the “
sancta” which is already implied in the Latin but the English translation makes specific since it’s not implied in English. (See votive Mass
Salve sancta parens, where “parent” does not imply holiness, but the Queenship of Our Lady does imply holiness.)
The second line could be even more obvious to the English reader with,*** “Salve nostra vita, nostra dulcedo, et nostra spes,” ***since word-for-word that means : “Hail our life, our sweetness and our hope.” But in Latin the “nostra” does not require repetition as it does in English, because since the case and declensions line up, the one word, “nostra” obviously applies to all the nouns that follow it.
You can see this in other common prayers as well, such as the Confiteor, where in the first half it is saying, “I confess ***TO ***almighty God, (to) blessed Mary ever virgin, (to) blessed Michael Archangel, (to) St. John the Baptist, (to) the blessed apostles Peter and Paul,” &c., all of which are declined as **Dative **(and therefore the Latin does not have to repeat the preposition “to” – not that there even IS such a word in Latin since it’s unnecessary), whereas in the second half, it changes to **Accusative **declension with, “I beseech the Blessed Mary ever virgin, blessed Michael,” &c.
The former,
Dative declension for St. Michael is
"Beato Michaeli Archangelo," because it is “to” him that you are confessing (the Dative declension is for INDIRECT OBJECT), and the latter,
Accusative declension is
"Beatum Michaelem Archangelum" because the name is the DIRECT OBJECT of the verb “beseech,” as you are beseeching him (you do not beseech “to” someone – that might not be so obvious in English, but it’s a big deal in Latin).
Please notice how all three words stick together because of their respective endings. You would not have “Beato Michaelem”
ever, because it mixes declensions.
“Blessed Michael Archangel” are three words you can use for all the situations in English but it Latin each kind of situation requires a different ending on the words so that it is clear what the meaning of the sentence is. This is why Latin is a superior language for liturgical use, than are English and other modern languages. The true meaning of the Latin words is much more precise in many situations.
I think the explanations given by Monica and Basilian pretty much sum up the theology behind it.
Yes, they did a very nice job on the theology. We could go on for several pages more on that alone, but we’re supposed to make our posts “short” according to the rules!
.
