Whenever I hear Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, I can make out only the first two words of each song after the opening words [O Fortuna, imperatrix mundi].  The music is too fast and loud for clear singing.

For one song with a compelling rhythm that starts with the words [Ecce gratum], I devised my own lyrics to finish the first stanza.  While I did look up the actual lyrics, I prefer my own silly lyrics to silly lyrics written entirely in Latin by piety-challenged clergy in an era when the Church might provide some upward mobility in this world, if not in the next.

The original lyrics celebrate the coming of spring, as do mine.  Either way, it’s as Thoreau almost said:

In silliness is the preservation of the world.