Ave Maria (traditional)

Language: Portuguese

This third song in the virgin trilogy was of course a bit more translated than usual: I was working off of what I'm told was a relatively literal English translation of the song. So the chain is, Latin to English to Portuguese to English.

My primary association with this song, not having been raised Catholic, is a pop-cultural one: I don't recall the context particularly, but I remember that Nell Carter, on "Gimme a Break," once took a ridiculous (considering how much airtime costs) amount of show time to sing it once, and it was very pretty the way she did it. That may well have been the first time I'd heard the song, and it's still kind of the way I expect to hear it, when I hear it, which is not very often.¹

The photo is from the Ugly Duckling car dealership in Clearwater, Florida, in 1996. There were apparently similar streaks on the building's other windows, but only this one looked like a figure in a hooded robe. The likely explanation is that the sprinkler system was throwing oil from the palm trees adjacent to the building up onto the glass, building up over time and forming rounded interference patterns. I think it's pretty, in an odd way, though not supernatural.

-Jessi

¹Carter's is kind of a tragic story, by the way. Check out the Wikipedia link.

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They hail Mary of grace,
Mary, completely full of grace.
Hail Mary, full of the grace:
hail you, Sir. You are blessed with
women; you enter,
and bless, and bless,
the fruit of its womb
(of its womb).

Hail Mary de Jesús! Pray
so that we will pray for them (sinners).
Pray for us sinners
now, and in the hour of death,
and the hour of our death,
and the hour of our death,
and our hour of the
death of Mary. Hail!

For My Expectation (Rebecca St. James)

Language: Russian

Well. I didn't wake up this morning thinking, hey, I should do a virgin trilogy on Babelpop! today. But I guess it stayed on my mind, and now here we are.

This is also, I think, the very first CCM¹ song I've ever run through, and as such it's kind of special, I guess. The video (link) is harmless enough, as these things go. Basically trying to be Shania Twain but without all the sluttiness, and I suppose I don't mind that too much. I mean, if you can get past the idea of wanting to be Shania Twain, then wanting to be a Christian Shania Twain isn't really that big of an additional step.

Nevertheless, there's something kind of not right about this song, and this video. I think Babelpopping has actually led to something slightly insightful here: it's not about waiting, it's about expectations. Probably specifically, male expectations of deflowering a virgin, and patriarchal expectations that one's little girl is keeping herself pure for somebody (is it symbolic that Ms. St. James is being kept in a box, or just a bad pun?). And speaking of the box, isn't it a little strange that she's more or less being equated with decorative objects? I mean, those are the only other things in the box. And what's up with the ending? I mean, if they've been waiting for one another for the whole song, shouldn't they at least kiss? Or make eye contact, or talk about Jesus, or something?

That said, I have to give Ms. St. James points for being prettier than Shania Twain. We should all be blessed with such skin. (Actually, the guy is prettier than Shania Twain too, when you get right down to it. I mean, if we're going to be giving out points for physical appearance.) It's not an uncharming video, all things considered. But the message is kind of ooky.

Also, before you ask -- I have no idea where the "mole" in the first verse came from.

-Jessi

¹(=Contemporary Christian Music)
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Darling, you know that
I dream about you:
your eyes in view
when we meet for the first time.
Darling, you know that I'm it,
(about your mole . . . )
which you will hold. (that mole . . . )
Content, your loving eyes for me,

I only wait to
pray for you, darling.
For my expectations, too,
I await you in proportion to myself. The expectations for me
I await. To me, they are
to pray for you, darling.
Expect it from me, too.
Expect it from me: I await you in proportion.
The expectation of a darling

life together. You knew about my darling dream;
(knowing they'll be forever:
I will be yours and you will be mine)
and darling, when I say I'll
make death part us, it will.
I intend it with all of my heart,
accurately, now and always to you.

I only wait to
pray for you, darling.
For my expectations, too,
I await you in proportion to myself. The expectations for me
I await. To me, they are
to pray for you, darling.
Expect it from me, too.
Expect it from me: I await you in proportion.
The expectation of a darling

error. I know you can complete it now.
But there will be forgiveness, and the second chance,
therefore: my expectation for a darling,
my expectation,
my expectation.

As a Virgin (Madonna)

Language: German

Well, a few good lines here and there. I think "like a virgin / all affected during the first time" came out nicely.

Does true love, in fact, wait? It's been my experience that the answer is not so much "yes" or "no" as "yes, but:" as in, "Yes, but not indefinitely, and it still makes plans."

One concept that's emerged in the last ten to fifteen years that amuses me is that of "secondary virginity." Secondary virginity is the way that the Christian evangelicals try to make girls anxious about losing their virginity when they've already lost it: methods vary, but the most basic idea is that, having already lost one's virginity, it can be partially reclaimed by the decision to just not have any more sex until marriage, which in some spiritual realm or another restores the virginity. This is also known as the "Once, Twice, Three Times a Virgin" method of abstinence, and I don't expect it ever to be particularly mainstream 'cause it's so silly. Though I've been wrong about the mainstream's tolerance for silly before.

Boys are not so much into the secondary virginity thing, as a rule.

I'm not really sure what to make of the picture above. Apparently, while true love is waiting, one gardens.

-Jessi

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I formed it in the wilderness.
Somehow, through it I
couldn't form. I was lost
until I was you.

The impact,
is which. I had became incomplete;
I was blue, sadly,
but you educated me to feel
formed and shining. You feel me? Yeah.

Like a new-found virgin,
who was all affected during the first time.
Like a virgin,
near my –

My whole love is going to be given, boy;
your heart impacts my fear.
You're fading fast, saving it, which can all last for you.
Only a "love cause,"

it is so my form, and
my form is fat-strong: yeah, it's fine.
Oh, their love thawed out,
yeah, their love thawed out,
what was frightened of cold weather.

Like a virgin,
all affected during the first time.
Like a virgin,
with your impacted heart near my –

Oooh! Oooh! Oooh!

And thus you are mine. (Are you, finely,
until the end of the time?) I did not form it, which
formed you. I caused a feeling for
you. Yeah, I'm believing myself:
I have to hide anything.

Like a virgin,
all affected during the first time.
How does a virgin
impact, with your heart near my –

Believe like a virgin,
ooh, ooh like a virgin.
So if you hold me inside: good,
and your heart impacts, and you can love me.

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
Ooh, baby.
You mean the heart didn't impact
to hear, all during the first time?