The -ing form's great here. I vote for 'exulting', since it has the same level of rarefied, fancy usage as 'frohlocken'. 'Rejoicing' is something one can do any old day ... for instance when one something great happens - but to people on earth, not to angels.

Thanks Nancy, the explanaition of your vote helps much.

I hope a lot of good things happen to a lot of people today. Here on earth

Ich würde froliking als Übersetzung vorschlagen, weil es vom Ursprung fröhlich, bzw die holländische Übersetzung davon, stammt.

Also, frolicking wäre für mich nicht so die richtige Beschreibung für die Tätigkeit von Engeln...

Sofern ich nicht gerade an Hundefutter dabei denken muß, fällt mir zu dem Wort eigentlich nur die englischsprachige Übersetzung von Asterix ein. Da wird das Wort immer gerne auf die Wildschweine angewendet, die fröhlich im Wald herumtollen...

@ CJ: "Halleluja" in jedweder Sprache bitte mit 3 "l"...

... und 'im Kopf' bitte nur so ! . . .

Ach, Daddy, inwelcher antiquierten Phaseder Rechtschreib Reform steckstdudenn?
CJ hatdie beiden nächstenreformen ebenschon über schlagen.
eslebe dierechtschreib Reform von 2200!

If I understand the discussion here correctly, Hillard7 has hit the key point. In English ONLY animals (mainly small ones) or very small children "frolic." It would produce an absurd effect to speak of angels "frolicing" in English. However, I disagree with Nancy. In almost any situation I can think of "frohlocken" is best translated "rejoice" (compare the stem idea JOY in rejoice with the stem idea FROH in frohlocken). "Exult" is, I think, simply pompous in English (Wagner would have used it if he spoke English, nicht?). Now I AM less certain how to translate the opening of Bach's Christmas Cantata (Jauchzet! Frohlocket!) because I'm not sure how the two verbs are different in German. "Shout! Rejoice!" would be a typical vaguely Biblical sort of statement in English, but I don't think Jauchzet can be translated as "shout."

Yes, 'frolic' (frolicked, frolicking) isn't quite it, even though it's obviously cognate.

But of the rest -- rejoice, be jubilant, shout with joy, exult, any of those work for me. In its metrical translation, Bärenreiter has 'Shout ye exultant,' which is pretty good at least in matching the vowel sounds, if stiffer and less idiomatic. (And the next line, 'this day of salvation' is not good, because it introduces an extraneous concept.)

In the Christmas Oratorio (as opposed to CJ's text here from two years ago), the exhortation seems directed at the choir and congregation alike; it's not actually sung either by or for angels, but by and for Christians, in response to the biblical narrative, as with most Bach choruses and chorales. And while I'm not generally fond of 'ye' and so on in modern church texts, old-fashioned or literary words don't seem all that out of place here, as it's an 18th-century work.

For 'frohlocken' in particular I might be inclined to translate be merry, which is often paired with 'rejoice' in English Christmas texts.

'Jauchzen' may indeed be rather loud, but it seems to cover a wide range of sounds. According to one of my bilingual dictionaries, other possible translations for it in more recent German include 'to cheer,' as in what an audience does, or 'to gurgle,' as in what a happy baby does.

Maybe German speakers could comment on other possible contexts for 'jauchzen,' or indeed, whether it's still used much at all, if that's what you're curious about.






OT: My all-time favorite text to that movement is the parody one quoted here:

related discussion: Weihnachtsoratorium (von Bach) - #7

I wasn't of course concerned about the musical/metrical issues 'hm -- us' raises here (I mentioned Bach only because the line is fairly familiar even to English speakers), but I think the suggestion of 'be merry' is good IF it accurately reflects the nuance in the German (which I guess neither of us is sure we grasp). How many Germans out there are jauchzing right now? Does one do that sort of thing any more? Is it even LEGAL to jauchz in public? Finally, if any German speakers had ANY residual doubts about the insanity of English spelling, 'hm -- us' should have removed them in his picking up my dropped k in frolicking; but why IS it that we don't 'lic' our lips?

jubeln = frohlocken celebrate and cheer - think heavenly cheerleaders -cheering - or perhaps just to be nauseatingly cheerful

btw acdavis - if u get a nice white gown, a pair of wings and a harp for occasional weightless use on cloud 9 - you might well frolic

somehow the whole thing has to stay with old Aloisius

hm - i also like the juchuzen-version of jauchzen/Juchuzer (Freudenschrei) - this brings on the Lederhosen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5mRA3dE4hU

http://www.servus.at/spotsz/wiki/index.php?ti...

No. In the unlikely event that I go to heaven, I will not be frolicKing there. Perhaps shifting on my feet back and forth in bemused surprise.
More to the point: I am genuinely interested in this question. DO people use the verb "jauchzen" OR "frohlocken" any more? I infer from noli's comment that PERHAPS the behavior referenced is the sort of thing that goes on among sports fans after liberal dosages of consciousness altering liquids. Is that it? Or is it more the way a car salesman behaves the moment he realizes you're (1) a serious buyer and (2) have money to spend? Or the way my neighbor smiles at me when she realizes her child got better grades in school than mine?
Is there a difference between the two verbs?

Going back to my original question from 6 years ago, I still think Nancy had it right in the specific context (where a simple munich porter fiends himself in heaven with a daily schedule which specifies times for Frohlocken and singing Halleluja). The book is rather old (written in 1911) and even then nobody used frohlocken in everyday speach.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnchner_im...

You're right. The discussion has moved quite a distance from the original post. And, now that I think about it, perhaps my own bewilderment really has more to do with "jauchzen" than "frohlocken." Two Bach examples (admittedly fairly old) point to my confusion. "Jauchzet Gott" translates "praise God" (I think). But there "jauchzen" is used transitively. Yet in "Jauchzet! Frohlocket!" the verb is used intransitively (right?). At any rate, in ENGLISH you couldn't command someone to "Praise!" without indicating WHAT was to be praised. Does this shed any light on my bewilderment? But thank you CJ, in any event, for helping me see that frohlocken is pretty archaic. Is that the case with jauchzen?