Messiah - Comfort Ye/Every Valley/And the Glory (G F Handel,1741)
Tenor Recitative (Isaiah 40:1-3): Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness; Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Tenor Air(Isaiah 40:4):Ev’ry valley shall be exalted, and ev’ry mountain and hill made low; the crooked straight and the rough places plain.
Chorus(Isaiah 40:5): And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
《弥赛亚》280多年来之所以受西方人特别英美等“盎撒”国家的青睐,除了它美妙的音乐,我认为也与它相应的文化历史背景有关。16世纪随其它西欧北欧诸国与罗马天主教廷决裂的英国,在1611年按英皇詹姆士授意翻译出版的首个英语版圣经,史称King James Version (KJV),对英语语言文化的影响十分深远。若非以中国文化标准来对比衡量,英语KJV版圣经不仅仅是一部书,而是个集四书五经、道德经、易经、佛经加资治通鉴、三国志、水浒传、西游记、红楼梦等等书于一体的惊世之作。归化英籍的老亨第一次替英国人(包括已开始大批移居北美的英殖民地移民)用本民族语言写出了他们自己想写但又无能为力写出的作品,盎撒人岂能不惊奇地如获珍宝爱不释手。我按相关圣经章节翻译的中文歌词如下: