Advent song for December 19: Birjina gaztetto bat zegoen, Basque Country

You probably know this one better as “Gabriel’s Message”, but this arrangement is intended to replicate the original Basque version of this lovely carol, about the origins of which I have been able to find out almost nothing. And it’s another one whose title I can’t translate – “Birjina” is “virgin”, of course, but then I get stuck. If you should happen to speak Basque, do let me know what the rest of it means.

Something slightly odd happens in the last few seconds of the audio, but if you ignore that, this is a good’un.

5 thoughts on “Advent song for December 19: Birjina gaztetto bat zegoen, Basque Country

  1. antoine

    Look here: It is a basque dialect from “Zuberoa” in Southern France, by the Pyrinees. It means something like:
    “There was a young virgin praying to the creator when an angel from heaven appeared in her window. The angel said while comming in: Hail Mary, full of grace, our Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women…”
    http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1959782
    Hope this clarify.
    I am basque but this dialect is a bit different. Please find below some key words:
    Birjina = Virgin. Gaztetto = Young. Bat = One. Zegoen = There was. Kreazale = Creator (God) Jaonaren = Jauna = Lord. Othoitzen = Praying Agur = Hello (hail?)…

    1. Mikel Saenz de Viguera

      I’m basque too. This is the old basque dialect from Lapurdi, the part of the Basque Country around Biarritz, quite different from the current unified basque language “Batua”. Anyway your translation is very correct. Thanks a lot (“Mila Ezker” in basque language)

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