Talk:A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

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Traditional/more accurate translation non used on page?

Latest comment: 3 years ago3 comments2 people in discussion

The modernly accepted translation is:A mighty fortress is our God,A trusty shield and weapon;He helps us free from ev'ry needThat hath us now o'ertaken

The old evil foeNow means deadly woe;Deep guile and great mightAre his dread arms in fight;On Earth is not his equal....

LSB 656

It is what Church goers have sing for decades or more... As this is a Lutheran song, God's intent should be more important than a translator's, no? And yes no translation is perfectly going to fit the original German, but at least put what the Christian Church sings on this page please? Mattwise96 (talk) 19:30, 7 August 2020 (UTC)

I grew up on this song and others like it, as did my parents and their parents, I feel bad for those who didn't and would like them to see the song as all English speakers have done for a long time... Mattwise96 (talk) 19:32, 7 August 2020 (UTC)

Hymnary.org has a great database; and much of it is faithful to the translation by Hedge (or to some other translation - that by Thomas Carlyle, for ex.) - and well at some point we can't include fifty different variants, so we need to pick the most significant one, which Hedge seems to be... The LSB variant I haven't ever heard: minor modernisations (ex. For still our ancient foe/ does seek to work us woe (instead of "doth") - example of such changes with another hymn: Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, &c.) yes, but wholesale changes such as the above no.

For more details about translations and exactness thereof see this and the linked page here. Cheers, RandomCanadian (talk / contribs) 06:22, 12 March 2021 (UTC)

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