Compilation of Final Fantasy VII | Advent Children
"Advent: One Winged Angel" Translation and Notes

As from the offical CD booklet:
(Lines in italics indicate that the translation relies on a correction to the given lyrics):

Noli manere in memoria.
Saevam iram et dolorem
ferum terribile fatus
veni, mi fili.
Hic veni, da mihi mortem iterum
qui mortem invitavis,
poena funesta natus,
noli nomen vocare.
Ille iterum veniet.
Sephiroth
Sephiroth...

-----

Refuse to remain in memory.
Fierce anger and anguish,
Wild, terrible fate,
Come, my son.
Come here, give me death a second time,
you who will summon death,
in revenge pollute births,
refuse to call [his/my] name.
He will come again.
Sephiroth
Sephiroth...

---

As in the song itself:
(Lines in italics indicate that the translation relies on a correction to the given lyrics)

Noli manere, manere in memoria
Noli manere, manere in memoria

Sephiroth! Sephiroth!

Saevam iram, iram et dolorem
Saevam iram, iram et dolorem

Sephiroth! Sephiroth!

Ferum terribile, terribile fatus
Ferum terribile, terribile fatus

Noli manere, manere in memoria
Noli manere, manere in memoria

Sephiroth! Sephiroth!

Veni, mi fili
Veni, mi fili
Hic veni, da mihi mortem iterum

Veni, mi fili
Veni, mi fili
Hic veni, da mihi...

Noli manere (in) memoria
Saevam iram et dolorem
Ferum terribile fatus
Ille iterum veniet

Mi fili, veni--veni, veni, mi fili
Mi fili, veni--veni, veni, mi fili
Mi fili, veni--veni, veni, mi fili
Mi fili, veni--veni, veni, mi fili

Qui mortem invitavis,
Poena funesta natus,
Noli nomen vocare
Ille iterum veniet

Sephiroth! Sephiroth!

Sephiroth!

-----

Refuse to remain, to remain in memory (1)
Refuse to remain, to remain in memory

Sephiroth! Sephiroth!

Fierce anger, anger and anguish (2)
Fierce anger, anger and anguish

Sephiroth! Sephiroth!

Wild, terrible, terrible fate (3)
Wild, terrible, terrible fate

Refuse to remain, to remain in memory
Refuse to remain, to remain in memory

Sephiroth! Sephiroth!

Come, my son (4)
Come, my son
Come here, give me death a second time. (5)

Come, my son
Come, my son
Come here, give me... (6)

Refuse to remain in memory (7)
Fierce anger and anguish
Wild, terrible fate (8)
He will come again (9)

My son, come, - come, come my son
My son, come, - come, come my son
My son, come, - come, come my son
My son, come, - come, come my son

You who will summon death, (10)
In revenge pollute births, (11)
Refuse to call [his/my] name (12)
He will come again.

Sephiroth! Sephiroth!

Sephiroth!

---

Translator's Notes:

1. This is phrased as a command, to a single person.


2. "Saevus" = savage; raging; fierce; harsh. "Dolorem" tends to be associated with suffering or grief, but can also mean resentment or indignation.


3. Echoing "Fate, monstrous and empty" from the original, just as the previous "Fierce anger and anguish" echoes "Burning inside with violent anger".
   
   I'm assuming what's given as "fatus" in the official version is accusative and neuter, as I can't find any sense in any other interpretation. It should properly be "fatum", at least in Classical Latin (what's more, "fatum" is what I seem to hear in the song itself). "Fatus" is another word meaning fate, but it's masculine nominative and so doesn't go with the neuter "terribile" and "ferum".
   
   With the repeated "terribile" in this line "ferum" could also be read as a noun ("beast"), giving an alternate reading of "Terrible beast, terrible fate".


4. Son, singular. Again, a command to a single person. Arguably, this could also be "I have come, o my son".


5. "iterum" can mean "again", "anew", or more specifically "a second time". It can also mean "in turn"; "give me death in turn". Yet again, this is a command to a single person.


6. As far as I can tell, this line is left unfinished in the song.


7. The "in" seems to be missing from the song at this point.


8. Without the repetition of "terribile", "ferum" cannot be read as a noun. Again, should be "fatum".


9. "ille" should technically be "that" or "that man", but can be translated as "he". "veniet" is almost certainly "(he) will come" (from venio), but (amusingly, at least to me) could also be from "veneo", which means to be sold (as a slave) or be disposed of for personal profit.


10. I have a *lot* of problems with this line.
    
    In the version of the lyrics from the official album liner (thanks Reeve), the line is given as it is here with "invitavis". As far as I can tell, that's "however unwilling" or "with whatever unwillingness". However, this cannot connect to "mortem" (death) - it would need to be "mortem invitamvis" to mean "unwilling death". "Qui" also connects to nothing else in the phrase, and without other clues could mean a lot of things. In short, as far as I can tell the official version makes no grammatical sense.
    
    A simple change to "invitavit" would make the line make perfect sense, as "[He] Who has summoned death". It could also be "invitabis", "You who will summon death", which ties into the next lines. This also makes more sense as a mistake either in coming from Japanese to Latin, or from a simple typing error (v and b are next to each other on a QWERTY keyboard).
    
    Alternately, it could be "invita vis". This would make "invita" the command "summon" ("mortem invita" = "summon death"), mirroring the commands in the next two lines. However, this still leaves "vis" and "qui", and I can't form a coherent sentence from this interpretation.


11. The easiest way to read this line is "crimson, calamitous birth" - unfortunately, it's also wrong. "poena" and "funesta" would be feminine, whereas "natus" is masculine, and the two can't go together ("crimson, calamitous birth" should be "poenus funestus natus").
    
    I think "funesta" is a command, "pollute (with murder)" or "desecrate". "Poena" means "punishment" or "revenge/retribution"; in this context it's probably an ablative "by means of revenge". "Natus" can mean "birth", "son" or "child". This line line could mean "In revenge pollute, o son", "In revenge pollute birth(s)", or "In revenge pollute the children". The latter should technically have "natos", and the former seems unlikely considering we already have the word "filius" (fili) used to mean son.


12. No clue on whose name. While this should probably be given as "the name", I feel there should be a pronoun. As Latin sometimes drops such things, it could easily be "my", "your", "his", etc.

Well... if you actually waded through all that, you deserve a bonus:

Anima facta de terra corrupta
Impuritas contundens
Flumen depurgens
Fatum ultimum vocare.
Ecce Chaos magnum
Armiger Omegae ad caelos sublimes.

Soul wrought of terra corrupt,
Quelling impurity,
Purging the stream
To beckon forth an ultimate fate.
Behold mighty Chaos,
Omega's squire to the lofty heavens.

---

Translation and notes by Anguipes Seraph, December 2006.