Venus

well some of the words are easy to translate;

mea-my tua-yours solis-sun que-what de-of/from misere-misery (i think)

This guys really know how to do music... it is a pity I couldn't understand any of their lyrics yet. Anyway, I guess they must be pretty good...

Did they write this?

The lyrics are actually from Carmina Burana - a collection of Old German and Latin medieval poems written by monastics if I recall correctly. They are about life, earthly love, some seem didactic. This collection Carl Orff took and set to music. The Carl Orff opera starts with the famous "O, Fortuna!". It's about fate, fortune, the wheel of life. The lyrics start "O fortune! Like the moon, how changeable you are!". Then there's a lot of songs about spring, drinking, gambling, 'the illness of love' as they called it back then just as we do now, and its prescribed remedies and erotic yearnings. Then it ends with a praise to Venus followed by another 'O Fortuna', as is quite fitting with the idea of cycles of life and fortune repeating themselves. Now, the lyrics of this particular song actually come from three different songs in the collection. To be honest, musically I'd much pefer ToT's version over that of Carl Orff. No offense. I did and still enjoy Carl Orff's version as a whole. But the lyrics that ToT has picked are about erotic physical attraction and Carl Orff's music that accompanies those particular lyrics don't seem to convey that feeling very well. Nothing compared to what gothic metal can do. Am I young, or what, hehe:)

Anyway now I'll post the translations. You can find the entire collection and its translations online if you're interested, they're quite accessible.

Here goes the first part:

Circa mea pectora In my heart multa sunt suspiria there are many sighs de tua pulchritudine, for your beauty, que me ledunt misere. which wound me sorely. Ah!

-wow, I happen to be feeling just that way for someone these days...sigh, sigh, sigh

the second part: iam amore virginali totus ardeo, I am burning all over with first love!

the third part: Amor volat undique, Cupid flies everywhere captus est libidine. seized by desire.

oh, and there's a fourth part: Tui lucent oculi Your eyes shine sicut solis radii, like the rays of the sun, sicut splendor fulguris like the flashing of lightening lucem donat tenebris. which brightens the darkness. Ah!

The actual Latin lyrics are these:

Circa mea pectora multa sunt suspiria De tua pulchritudine, quae me laedunt misere.

Iam amore virginali totus ardeo. Amor volat undique, captus est libidine.

Tui lucent oculi sicut solis radii, Sicut splendor fulgoris, qui lucem donat tenebris.

Where the h*ll's the English? Geesh!

For gawd's sake, who speaks Latin nowadays. And unless you wish to attend Catholic mass in Latin, you'd do better knowing English:

Lying to my heart as many can see. The yearning for your beauty strikes me wretchedly.

Venus! - I thought you were my friend - Asking the heavens that you would send; As a disciple of a villain Did you know of the tragedy?

Now love from a maiden makes us whole. Love flies in from all sides grabbing at us with it's violent desire

Venus! - I thought you were my friend - Asking the heavens you would send; As a disciple of a villain Did you know of the tragedy?

Now love from a maiden makes us whole. Lying to my heart as many can see The yearning for your beauty strikes me wretchedly.

The lights of your eyes are absolutely like the sun, A wonderful beam, a light that endures forever.