The song “Happy Nation” by Ace of Base starts out with the following Latin lyrics:
What does this mean in English?
My latin is weak, but I believe it’s something like:
Praise all people, praise
Greatness in age
To life, my praise
Greatness in age
Some Latiny sort will be along to correct me.
My guess would be:
Pray everyone pray
Not-sure
And my soul, pray
Not-sure
One step closer to truth… 
I think QED got it right…
“Greatness in age” 
No wonder I couldn`t understand it…
Well, I’m not “Latiny”, still, I try to be a bit Litany sometimes…
Thank you Q.E.D. for being strong in the flying face of weakness weakness, …
I am sunk without help in interpretations.
Probably yours is close to exact (me - having brushed through a computer check) 
, but it leaves me wondering…
if all people are praised, - according to this interpretation,
who the heck stands out?
or did I leave the subject???
(chalk it up to newness…an excuse that will get ho-hummed very soon, I’m certain)
Who is Latiny?.. where are you?..
errrk!!!
Ale! Well placed!
No wonder!
Laudate omnes gentes laudate
Magnificat in secula
Et anima mea laudate
Magnificat in secula
It appears that Ace of Base grabbed stray lines from “The Magnificat,” a Latin prayer that comes from the Gospel of Luke. It’s supposed to reflect what Mary said after finding that she would be the mother of the Messiah.
Laudate is the imperative, second person form of the verb for “praise” or “give praise.” It’s a COMMAND to more than one person.
“Omnes gentes” means “all peoples.” In this case, it can be either vocative plural or accusative plural. I vote for vocative. That would mean the speaker is addressing all the peoples of the world and giving them a command: “(Hey) All you peoples, give praise!”
“Anima” can mean several things, but in this case, “soul” is the best translation. Again, I think “anima mea” is vocative, so the speaker is giving a command to his own soul: “Give praise, O my soul.”
Seculum means “age,” as in “Iron Age” or “Stone Age.” That is, it’s a looong period of time. “In secula” is short for “in secula seculorum,” which means “forever” (or, more precisely, until the end of all ages).
The tricky part, for me at least is the “magnificat.” It’s in the thrid person, so it means “he/she/it glorifies.” The line is out of context, but I believe the subject of the verb is “my soul.”
Roughly translated, I’d say it means:
Praise (God), all peoples!
My soul glorifies (God) forever.
Praise (Him), my soul!
My soul glorifies (Him) forever.
P.S. I’ve never heard the song, so I have no idea what Ace of Base meant by including those lines.
laudate omnes gentes laudate
magnificat in secula
et anima mea laudate
magnificat in secula
praise, all people praise (laudate is imperative–it is a command or an exhortation for all people to give praise)
(it) is esteems/prizes (or, makes great) forever (magnificat is declarative, it states that something is esteemed/prized/magnified) forever)
and my soul (give) praise (laudate is imperative–it is a command or an exhortation for my soul to give praise)
(it) is esteems/prizes (or, makes great) forever
I noticed on the thouands of hits on Google that this is a refrain in the band Ace of Base’s song Happy Nation that some links are associating with some rather nasty intents, but I don’t know the song or the band, so I do not know how accurate that is. The Latin in the song is not translated by the English lyrics.
Let’s take this refrain (it’s repeated) since it’s the hardest to translate. (On the web, some Ace of Base fan sites will translate this as “the greatest in all time” which is wrong, wrong, wrong – ‘greatest’ is ‘maximus’ or ‘magnissimus’ in Latin.)
Literally it means “he/she/it rejoices forever.” There’s no subject, (common in Latin), and so we assume one in English with a personal pronoun. The verb could also mean ‘magnifies’ or ‘amplifies’ or ‘exalts’ or ‘praises,’ but that would be a transitive form requiring a direct object, of which there is none in this line.
However, I suspect that that is not what this line is all about. Sometimes famous texts are known by their opening and closing words such as here. The ‘song’ that Mary, the mother of Jesus, sings in the first chapter of Luke begins with “magnificat” and ends with “in secula” (in Latin, of course). And so, you’ll sometimes see that text referred to in the shorthand as “magnificat…in secula.” So, in fact, the verb is transitive, with Dominum [the Lord] being the object that Mary’s soul [anima mea in the original text, being the subject of the sentence] is magnifying/praising. (Side note, later ecclesiastical Latin will spell it “saecula.”
This line is transliterally “and soul my praise.” And so, one would think that it is properly translated, “and praise my soul” as in the psalm which exhorts one’s own self or soul to praise the Lord: “Praise the Lord, my Soul!” However, there’s one catch: ‘praise’ is in the plural. It works for the first line (see below), but it should have been ‘lauda’ to match ‘anima’ in number (i.e., singular). Now, ‘anima mea’ does go with ‘magnificat,’ in fact, Mary’s Song begins with, “Magnificat anima mea…”
Note that many, many times a line in ecclesiastical Latin will begin with ‘et’ like it was a bad habit (and I went to the store; and I bought some detergent; and I went home; and I got into an accident; and the other guy was all wiggin’ out; and… and…).
[QUOTE]
**laudate omnes gentes laudate **[/QUOTE
Ah, this is simple: “Praise, all nations, praise.” Or, to biblify it: “Give praise, all ye nations, give praise!”
To the Lord, of course. It’s from Psalm 117 (Psalm 116 in the Latin Vulgate), the shortest Psalm (I think). St. Paul quotes it in Romans 15:11.
I think this whole stanza is just corrupted lines from somewhat famous prayer texts, mostly from Evening Prayer (i.e., ‘Vespers’) in which the Magnificat appears all the time and Ps. 117 is often used.
You’re not going to be able to make a coherent English translation from it. Sorry.
Pax tibi.
In a 1986-ish movie American Flyers about two brothers (one Kevin Costner) about to enter a bike race they go to a rather advanced (for the 1980’s) fitness facility run by good ol’ John Amos (Dr. Conrad) , and their motto, it is noted is: “Res Firma Mitescere Nescit” which Costner’s character states, “is loosely translated as, ‘once you got it up, keep it up’”
Res = “thing”
Firma = “solid” or “strong”
Mitescere = “soften” or “weaken”
Nescit = “does not know”
Literally, it means:
“A strong thing doesn’t know how to get weak.”
Symbolically, I suppose, it means that champion athletes have to get so tough/strong that NOTHING sways them or bothers them.