Latin to English

That's from the Latin Hymn Omnis Mundi Creatura.

You can find a translation here:
http://www.danielmitsui.com/hieronymus/index.blog?start=1277096459

That page has a TERRIBLE translation. It's a joke. That's why I decided to ask you all.

I'm not sure you'd like my translation any better.
Here's the first verse:

Ergo spirans flos exspirat
So breathing, a flower expires

in pallorem dum delirat,
into paleness [i.e. fading] while it twists [lit. deviates from a straight line]
(not sure where the poet was going with delirat,
he may have been trying too hard to rhyme expirat.)

oriendo moriens.
by arising, dying.

Simul vetus et novella,
At once old and new,

simul senex et puella
at once an old woman and a girl

rosa marcet oriens.
arising, the rose droops.

. . . and the second . . .

Cuius vita cuius esse,
Whose life, whose to be,

poena, labor et necesse
pain, labor and it is inevitable

vitam morte claudere.
to close life by death.

Sic mors vitam, risum luctus,
Thus death closes life, mourning laughter,

umbra diem, portum fluctus,
shadow day, a flood the harbor,

mane claudit vespere
morning evening

Obviously, I'm translating quite literally.
This makes for an awkward translation, especially in the case of a poem.
But I think it gives you an idea of what he's saying (or singing).

In nos primum dat insultum
At first it offers us mocery

poena mortis gerens vultum,
a mask bearing the pain of death,

labor mortis histrio.
an actor playing death

Nos proponit in laborem,
It proposes us in distress,

nos assumit in dolorem;
It adds to that in sorrow,

mortis est conclusio.
The conclusion is death

(The last three verses are a play on the three parts of a syllogism)

I would like to thank you for the link George, I was able to show my little boy the paintings which were referred to in an Asterix book we've read together.

Asterix? In French?

Non, en Anglais.

When my daughter was in school, her teacher showed them some Asterix
cartoons. In one of them there was a character who spoke very poor
French. That, of course, was the character the students found easiest to
understand.

My French isn't great, I can just about make myself understood. My daughter's the linguist, German, Spanish, Japanese and Mandarin.

Yikes!

I know, she watches the news in Chinese and gets it.

I would be pleased if I could just get myself to learn to pronounce french words adequately. Adequately, I mean, for an american who will always sound like the clueless one re other languages. I know it's possible to play with pronunciation via computer - I just don't get around to it. I don't even understand the basics. Picture me in french restaurants, pointing at menus while drooling . . . I can read french a tad, better than I could say a french sentence.

I can't talk about French Canadians, but the French are really bloody snobby about French pronounciation. Get it slightly off, and a lot of them pretend not to understand.

The French even act that way to French Canadians.

I've heard that near forever, but don't know it personally to be true, since I haven't been there.

In many visits to italy, I'd only run into one clear language snot, woman behind the desk in Florence in a bank. Well, there is much about all that in books, but I haven't lived it passed that one time, that the distain was clear (and florentines have some good reasons for being aggravated)

I was often alone, which might make a diff, for not being dismissed.

the translation of the first post is as i am doing
Therefore, the flower of breathing expires
delirat, while in the pale,
oriendo dying but dead.
At the same time an old and young,
at the same time an old man and the damsel
FLAG East rose oil.

Whose being whose life,
punishment, and the necessary labor
death to shut life.
Thus the death of life, laughter, grief, and
the shadow of the day, the waves of the harbor,
closes early in the morning the evening.

Gives us in the first assault
face bearing the punishment of death,
actor labor of death.
We proposes in the hard work,
us to employ them in sorrow:
is the conclusion of death.
hope that it will be correct, i am the student of the latin language and i hope that it will be the correct translation,
thanks

Edit [Moderator]: Link Removed

A lot of it depends on the part of France you're in. The ferry ports Boulogne, Calais, Le Havre etc. are usually OK. They rely a lot on British daytrippers. I spent a fortnight in the Vendee, and everybody was really friendly there.

Paris is something else entirely. You don't really know what rude is until you've been to Paris.