But I too shall
translate as I want and not to please them, and whoever does not
like it can just ignore it and keep his criticism to himself, for
I will neither look at nor listen to it. They do not have to
answer for or bear responsibility for my translation. Listen up,
I shall say "gracious Mary" and "dear Mary", and they can say
"Mary full of grace". Anyone who knows German also knows what an
expressive word "dear"(liebe) is: dear Mary, dear God, the dear
emperor, the dear prince, the dear man, the dear child. I do not
know if one can say this word "liebe" in Latin or in other
languages with so much depth of emotion that it pierces the heart
and echoes throughout as it does in our tongue.
I think that St. Luke, as a master of the Hebrew and Greek
tongues, wanted to clarify and articulate the Greek word
"kecharitomene" that the angel used. And I think that the angel
Gabriel spoke with Mary just as he spoke with Daniel, when he
called him "Chamudoth" and "Ish chamudoth, vir desiriorum", that
is "Dear Daniel." That is the way Gabriel speaks, as we can see
in Daniel. Now if I were to literally translate the words of the
angel, and use the skills of these asses, I would have to
translate it as "Daniel, you man of desires" or "Daniel, you man
of lust". Oh, that would be beautiful German! A German would, of
course, recognize "Man", "Lueste" and "begirunge" as being German
words, although not altogether pure as "lust" and "begir" would be
better.
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