New and refined translation of the first strophe

After a consultation about the first raw translation I made I have started to think through once again the translation of the first strophe. If I compare the first strophe with the second, I have to admit that the first one's meaning and function is more obvious than the second one. The first strophe might have a religious concern, but the second strophe is clearly secular: a love poem.

So here you go: the second and refined translation of the first strophe:

Sîon, trûre dîn burchmûre hât von schûre und von winde manigen stôz. Darnach weine dem ortsteine der alleine dîne wende tzusamne slôz: Den wînt nam abe mit tzangen sînen kloben, nû lâ toben daz volc, lâ die wahtaer slâfen! Der küninc ist ûf gegangen und sîn her an die wer owê wâfen, îmmer wâfen! Waz sol echt nu hie geschen? der künic wil sen wie sîn stat behüetet sî. Son engilt nicht wan der tôt – owê der nôt! – her ist mit tzôrne bî. Noch wachent alle vûr dem walle, wachent wol dâ man wachen sol!

Sion, mourn: your walls weakened from of the thunderstorms and the wind After that, cry for the capstone, for the only one, that would keep your walls firm. The wind took with pincers its solidity*; the folk raves now, and the ward sleeps! The king is gone out and his army is unarmed; Alas, to arms, always to arms! What should happen here now? The King wants to see that his city is safe. So there’s nothing except Death – alas! the danger! – he is here with anger. Still keep watching out for the walls... watch indeed keep watching where one needs to watch!

*viz. the capstone’s solidity, its power to keep the walls firm

Raw translation of the second strophe

 After translating the first strophe I was all fired up and later I began to translate the second strophe as well. I have already had the suspicion that the second strophe will not be as clear as the first was, but I have to admit, I had no idea how right I was about this.

So hereby I present to you the first raw translation of the second strophe of Sîon, trûre.

Owê, Minne, mîner sinne meisterinne, wâ hâstû si hin gesant?	Alas, Love, my mind, mistress, where have you gone?
Lâ mich schouwen mîne vrouwen; in den ouwen müez si werden mir bekant	Let me see my lady; in the stream she will have to recognize me.
Sô der meie sînen krâme schouwen lât unde in gât mit vil manigen liehten mâle	Like May let her stall be seen Through the many holes The siege machines have done,
Daz ist mir ein bernder sâme sender klage, sît ich trage den slac von den mẏnen strâle	It is for me a fertile seed Of painful sorrow, Since I bear with The strike of Love’s wounding dart
Wære ein man ê siech gewesen Er möchte genesen, Swenne ez allez hügende lebet	There was a man who was sick, He would liked to be cured, Then to live happily ever
Unders meien liehten zelt, Sô walt, sô velt Spilnde gegen dem lufte strebet	[Under the lights of May it tells so violent, so shallow, fighting a tournament against the air.]
Nu tuont ir wunder ungesunder mînen lîp, ich ensehe daz wîp.	Just do a miracle For the wounded Life I have, so I can see the woman.

I have encountered many problems, because the text of the strophe is more complex than the other and also you cannot rely on the dictionary either. I'm not saying that you can rely on a dictionary when you translate something in general, but you would expect to find the right context of the expressions. For example in the sentence "unde in gât/mit vil manigen liehten mâle": unde is definately not unter. There's no such word as manigen, but you can find mangen which means siege machine. Or for instence the word mâle in this particular context has nothing to do with any possible the dictionary gives - malen, entwerfe im geiste, schminke, grenze ab or schreibe -, therefore we cannot apply a literal translation in this case. Although the final conclusion could be associated from the word "malen" which means to paint. So my conclusion was the following: the holes on the walls of Sion were not visible, but thanks to the siege machines (see previous entry for these siege machines) the holes now visible and not just imaginary - or so to say.

I think, I will have to think about this text a little bit more and find some other associations which would create a connection between the scrambled pieces of this puzzle.

Translation of the first strophe

I have searched for paraphrases of the lyrics, but I could not find any. After searching and searching, and waiting and waiting for articles and transcriptions, it turned out that there isn't any paraphrase of the original Mittelhochdeutsch lyrics. I was hoping to find one because I have seen the "Nachdichtungen" of Wizlaw von Rügen III (or IV, recently they proved that the minnesinger was actually the III), but I was mistaken. Although I have found an online Mittelhochdeutsch-Hochdeutsch Dictionary and with the help of this online dictionary and my current state of German (and of course Dutch, which helped me out very much). Thank God, that Dutch language stored some medieval German words or word forms.

And the result of my work is the following:

Sîon, trûre dîn burchmure hât von schûre und von winde manigen stôz.	Sion, mourn: your castle walls have trembled under the archers’ shots and the wind of siege machines’ missles.
Dû nach weine dem ortsteine der al eine dîne wende zesamene slôz:	Then weep for the cornerstone, for the one that already decided your Fate:
Abe nam der wint mit zangen sînen kloben. nû lâ toben daz volc, lâ die wahter slâfen	But take down the wind with pliers and put it into a birdcage. Now those unaware soldats, those watchmen are sleeping.
Unser künic ist ûf gegangen und sîn her an die wer. owê wâfen, îmmer wâfer!	Our King is gone out and his army is unarmed. Alas, to arms, always to arms!
Waz sol eht nu hie geschehen? der künic wil sehen wie sîn stat behüetet sî.	What should really happen now? The King wants to see how his people hold their ground.
Sô engilt niht wan der tôt – owê der nôt! – dem er ist mit zôrne bî.	For Death pays you nothing – Alas! the danger! – He is here now with anger.
Noch wachet alle vor dem walle, wachet wol dâ man wachen sol!	But keep watching on the walls, and watch well, the man’s duty to watch there.

This is not the final and ultimate translation, but a good start. I am still waiting for confirmation whether this translation is more or less correct or not.