Demitto ("Let it Go" in Latin)

From Disney Film to Broadway to Latin I

[Editor’s Note: This song, from the Disney musical Frozen, won an Academy Award and a Grammy, and has been credited with being “musical crack” that “sends children into altered states.” Disney had it recorded in 47 languages, and it has gone around the world. But as far as we know, they forgot Latin. This version is by the peerless Jon Meyer, and its title is a good example of his pattern of looking for Latin phrases that follow not only the meaning but the sound of the original song — “Let it go” becomes “Demitto.” Singing the song requires some musical-theater singing chops, but we’ve seen this version of the song send students into precisely the same “altered states” the English version does.]

LET IT GO/DEMITTO (Idina Menzel) (Anderson-Lopez, Lopez) (tr. Jon Meyer)[2012]

nives nocte candent hac in monte,

null(a) apparent vestigia:

imperii desolati

appellabor regina.

ululant venti, ut tempestas interna;

id non tenui, cum sim conata.

ne ineant, ne videant,

esto bona, quod semper postulant;

celes, dures, ut ignorent:

hem, nunc scient!

demitto, demitto,

frenare id nequeo;

demitto, demitto,

terga dans portam claudo.

nil refert

quid sint dicturi;

fremat tempestas:

frigus numquam mi fuit oneri.

videtur esse parvum

quidvis e longinquo;

nec timores dominantes

me tenent omnino!

nunc temptabo meas vires,

accedam, excedam fines,

quid fas, nefas, leges mihi? Misi!

demitto, demitto,

una sum cum vent(o) et caelo;

demitto, demitto,

non palam plorabo!

Hic adsto,

hic manebo:

fremat tempestas…

volat potestas per auras usq(ue) in solum,

torquetur animus in spiris gelidis circum;

durescit unus sensus quas(i) in crystallum:

numquam regrediar, fugit praeteritum!

demitto, demitto,

ego surgam ut aurora;

demitto, demitto,

bon(a) abest puella!

hic adsto

luc(e) in diei;

fremat tempestas:

frigus numquam mi fuit oneri.