Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings

[mcb]

I was sitting at the piano this evening, trying out ideas for a setting of the Gloria I'm trying to write (without too much to show for it so far). My 12-year old son came into the room, so I started singing the opening lines. He interrupted me with an incredulous look on his face. "And on earth peace to people of good will? Has it been rewritten by Yoda?"

I explained recent events, and the way the English matches the syntax of the Latin; he's a term and half into his first year of Latin in school. He wasn't having any of it. "But Mr Dumbill [Latin teacher] says you almost always have to change the order of the Latin words if you want to make sense in English."

I'm a proud father.

[Nick Baty]

Sadly, the translation has not come from one with your 12-year-old's perspicacity. The new texts do, indeed, sound as if they have been written by K9 – I'm slightly older than your 12-year-old! Still, they have kick-started an awful lot of composing. Hardly a day goes by without some friend or other (many of them SSG members) emailing a Holy or a Glory for feedback. In fact, I'm taking some of these to our choir rehearsal on Thursday to guage initial reaction.

[presbyter]

My 12-year old son .............. he's a term and half into his first year of Latin in school.

Has he raised the question of why anyone in their right mind should want to talk to a table yet?

[TimSharrock]

I'm a proud father.

ditto godfather

[JW]

I spose we should be grateful they haven't translated 'pax hominibus' as 'peace to men' - an odd inconsistency.