In Spanish the Hail Mary starts: "Dios te salve María...".
The word God is in the beginning even though in Latin it isn't, or in English.
A literal translation in English would be: "God hail you Mary...".
It seems it has been like that even before V2, but I find it very strange.
You will always find these peculiarities between languages. The French version says "pray for us poor sinners" (pauvres pecheurs).
If you look at the Our Father in Spanish it says "forgive us our offenses", in English "forgive us our trespasses", and in Portuguese "forgive us our debts"... The Latin literal translation is "debts" and because of this some Brazilian traditionalists say that any version in Portuguese that doesn't say "divida" (debt) is modernist! I disagree.
Language is complex and people who are always looking for literal translations that leave everything perfectly clear between languages
rarely never are able to learn to speak a language fluently before breaking this habit.
"Ave Maria" is Latin and the Spanish at the time decided that the equivalent expression was "Dios te salve Maria". The Portuguese retained "Ave Maria" while the French says "Je vous salue Marie".
Topic: Does anyone know why the Hail Mary is like this in Spanish? (Read 3093 times)