Translation Notes #2: Hail Virgin Mother of God

One of the most well-known hymns to the Mother of God is Theotoke Parthene, which is the Orthodox version of the Hail Mary, which of course references the Annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin. Here are the Greek and Church Slavonic translations below, with transliterations:

Θεοτόκε Παρθένε,
Χαῖρε κεχαριτωμένη Μαρία,
ὁ Κύριος μετὰ σοῦ.
Εὐλογημένη σὺ ἐν γυναιξί,
καὶ εὐλογημένος ὁ καρπὸς τῆς κοιλίας σου,
ὅτι Σωτῆρα ἔτεκες τῶν ψυχῶν ἡμῶν.

Theotoke Parthene,
Chaire kecharitōmenē Maria,
ho Kyrios meta sou.
Eulogēmenē sy en gynaixi,
kai eulogēmenos ho karpos tēs koilias sou,
hoti Sōtēra etekes tōn psychōn hēmōn.

Бцⷣе дв҃о ра́дꙋйсѧ,
бл҃года́тнаѧ мр҃і́е, гдⷵь съ тобо́ю,
бл҃гослове́на ты̀ въ жена́хъ,
и҆ бл҃гослове́нъ пло́дъ чре́ва твоегѡ̀,
ꙗкѡ сп҃са родила̀ є҆сѝ дꙋ́шъ на́шихъ.

Bogoroditse Devo raduysya,
blagodatnaya Marie, Gospod s toboyu,
blagoslovena ty v zhenakh,
i blagosloven plod chreva tvoego,
yako Spasa rodila esi dush nashikh.

A whole post could be written on the meaning of κεχαριτωμένη (perfect passive participle of the verb χαριτόω, which would literally mean She who has been graced); бл҃года́тнаѧ (an adjective derived from the word for grace, blagodat’) does not quite capture it.

This post, however, is about the first two lines. The first thing that I notice is that the beginning words are grouped differently. In the Greek text, Θεοτόκε Παρθένε (O Theotokos Virgin) in the first line is somewhat independent of Χαῖρε κεχαριτωμένη Μαρία (Hail Mary, full of grace) in the second line. In contrast, the Church Slavonic groups together ра́дꙋйсѧ (rejoice) with Бцⷣе дв҃о (O Theotokos Virgin).

Another important note is the very literal translation of the Church Slavonic, which translate Χαῖρε, which literally means rejoice, into ра́дꙋйсѧ, the Church Slavonic equivalent. As a result, many English translations of the hymn begin, “O Theotokos and Virgin Rejoice.”

Although it is true that the Annunciation was a joyous occasion, Χαῖρε in this context is simply how Greek-speaking people said Hello to each other. If we translated Shalom! as Peace! or Konnichiwa! as As for today! it would be technically accurate, but would make for bad English.

For this reason, Hail is preferable to Rejoice here. But where does one put the greeting? One could simply do a word-by-word translation,¹ which could come out like this:

O Theotokos Virgin,
Hail Mary, full of grace,
The Lord is with thee.

In this case, O Theotokos Virgin feels tacked onto the front of the hymn. Moreover, it doesn't sound very natural, at least to my ears. I think the Church Slavonic text had the right idea of putting rejoice with Theotokos Virgin. Since I generally prefer translating Theotokos as Mother of God, this is my proposed translation:

Hail Virgin Mother of God,
Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
And blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
For thou hast borne the Saviour of our souls.

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1. Though an even more literal translation could be: “O Virgin Birthgiver of God, Hail Mary, who hast been graced, the Lord is with thee.” ↩