{"id":3137,"date":"2016-01-29T17:07:33","date_gmt":"2016-01-30T01:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/?p=3137"},"modified":"2023-06-06T16:50:40","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T23:50:40","slug":"ultreia-et-suseia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomryng.com\/camino\/ultreia-et-suseia\/","title":{"rendered":"Ultre\u00efa et Suse\u00efa!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

O<\/span>n the Camino, there is an ancient greeting that is exchanged between pilgrims. Oh, those not on pilgrimage – hospitaleros, townsfolk, random people on the Way – will often shout out a hearty \u201cbuen Camino!”, but that’s not what I’m talking about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a tradition that was first recorded in the venerable Codex Calixtinus<\/em><\/a> in the eleventh century, the pilgrim shouts “ultre\u00efa!” and his fellow pilgrim responds “et suse\u00efa!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Ultre\u00efa” means something like “go further” or “to the end”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Et suse\u00efa” means something like “and go higher” or even “and beyond the end”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I say “means something like” because the language in which this is said – a rustic Romance language that may be related to Proven\u00e7al or Catalan or even Galician but is the clear ancestor of none of them – is not only a dead language, it’s a dead language that almost completely avoided being written down and apparantly survives primarily in oral fragments.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"8733145110_b50db03cc5_b\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In any case, it was a language spoken in the villages along the Camino Fran\u00e7es before the 11th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Ultre\u00efa et suse\u00efa” may be its longest surviving phrase. It remains not only as a pilgrim’s greeting, but also as the refrain of a French pilgrim’s song, common along the Chemin du Puy in France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultre\u00efa<\/strong> (French)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Tous les matins nous prenons le Chemin,
tous les matins nous allons plus loin,
jour apr\u00e8s jour la route nous appelle,
c\u2019est la voix de Compostelle!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chorus:
<\/strong>Ultre\u00efa! Ultre\u00efa! Et sus eia!
Deus adjuva nos!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chemin de terre et Chemin de foi,
voie mill\u00e9naire de l\u2019Europe,
la voie lact\u00e9e de Charlemagne,
c\u2019est le Chemin de tous les jacquets!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Et tout l\u00e0-bas au bout du continent,
Messire Jacques nous attend,
Depuis toujours son sourire fixe
Le soleil qui meurt au Finist\u00e8re.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Englished<\/strong>:<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Every morning we take the path,
Every morning we go further.
Day after day, the road calls us
It is the voice of Compostela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chorus:
<\/strong>Go further! Go further! And go higher!
God assist us!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dirt road and Faith
Ancient way of Europe,
The Milky Way of Charlemagne
This is the way all my pilgrims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while there at the end of the continent,
Santiago waits ahead,
Always his fixed smile
The sun dies in Finisterre.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n