An Indianapolis listener has a copy of a wedding poem that refers to the thrice-happy pair. Is a thrice-happy pair three times as happy as anyone else? Martha explains that the idea goes all the way back to Roman poetry. Here’s an example from a translation of Horace’s Ode 1.13. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Thrice Happy Pair”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello, Grant. This is Bob Giannini calling in from Indianapolis.
Well, hello, Bob. Welcome to the program.
Hello, Bob.
Hello, Martha. It’s a pleasure to be talking with you all.
Well, it’s our pleasure. Well, how can we help you today?
Well, I have come across a poem. It’s been a part of our family’s tradition for as long as I can remember.
It was a poem that was written from my mother and father when they got married, written by a fellow named Charlie Gus, who is an Episcopal priest who was one of the ushers.
And it begins with the line, Thrice Happy Pair. And for years, I just knew that poem by heart because it was embroidered and it was on the wall of my mother and father’s bedroom. But just this past winter, being with my sister in Florida and seeing it again hanging on her wall, I was reminded that I hadn’t the slightest idea of what thrice-happy meant.
Well, I looked it up, and I found some references to it in both Wagner in the Wedding March, of all things, from Lohengrin, and also in Edmund Spencer uses thrice-happy lovers.
But I kept looking for a footnote to say, what does thrice-happy mean?
Now, I couldn’t find it, so I’m going to throw the ball in your court.
Do you still have it memorized?
Can you recite the lines in question?
I can recite the whole poem. It’s not that long.
Well, let’s have a snip of it.
Yeah, let’s hear some.
Okay.
Thrice happy pair who knelt to pray before the throne of God. Remember ere this sacred day and give your thanks to God. The boughs are said, the ring is given, the host is lifted high. The living bread comes down from heaven, your love to sanctify.
Charlie, this other high church.
I can hear that.
That’s lovely.
So you’re curious about the thrice in thrice happy.
Yes.
Which just basically means really happy, as you can imagine, greatly happy, extremely happy. Sort of more than twice happy, but…
Yes.
It goes back to the same idea in Latin. There’s a word ter, T-E-R, that’s related to all those three words, like three and tres in Spanish. And it means the same thing. It means three times or greatly.
And you see this all the way back in the poetry of Horace. There’s a poem where he talks about a thrice-happy couple.
-huh.
All the way back there. Thrice-happy they that free from strife maintain a love as long as life.
Loosely translated.
That sounds almost like one of the odes.
So thrice-happy doesn’t have anything to do with free or trinity. It’s simply an intensifier that has somehow or other, Charlie Gus knew about it, but almost the rest of the whole world has forgotten it.
Right.
But, I mean, it is an intensifier, but I think it does go back to this idea of three being more than just one. It’s like 300 percent.
Maybe.
That’s pretty happy.
But 300 percent happy is very happy. Just like on the program we had a few weeks ago, that means it’s as happy as a clam.
That’s right.
In Hog 7.
Something like that.
It’s been a pleasure talking with you all, and thank you for helping me finally understand this wonderful poem that’s been part of our family’s heritage.
It must have been quite a gift to be kept for so long and be passed to the new generations.
Well, I hope my children have a chance to see that poem and my grandchildren and hear it and just continue the tradition.
Super.
Very cool.
Bob, thank you for calling today.
Best of luck.
A pleasure indeed. Thank you all so much.
Okay. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
That’s the number to call us and talk about your linguistic heirlooms and language questions, or you can email us. The address is words@waywordradio.org.
