Friday, May 21, 2010

More Latin

We linguists don't get much respect. After all, how many times can you grin while some witty buffoon tells you you must be a cunning linguist? But every once in a while, I'm able to generate some respect and interest with a language-oriented post. Since my post this past Monday on Useful Latin got such a great response, I figured I might as well stick with linguistic success and share some more Latin with you, in the form of this great poem I discovered today in my daily "Writers' Almanac" e-mail from Garrison Keillor (for those of you who have never studied Latin, the title means, "I Love, You Love")...

Amo, Amas
by John O'Keefe

Amo, Amas, I love a lass
As a cedar tall and slender;
Sweet cowslip's grace is her nominative case,
And she's of the feminine gender.

Rorum, Corum, sunt divorum,
Harum, Scarum divo;
Tag-rag, merry-derry, periwig and hat-band
Hic hoc horum genitivo.

Can I decline a Nymph divine?
Her voice as a flute is dulcis.
Her oculus bright, her manus white,
And soft, when I tacto, her pulse is.

Rorum, Corum, sunt divorum,
Harum, Scarum divo;
Tag-rag, merry-derry, periwig and hat-band
Hic hoc horum genitivo.

Oh, how bella my puella,
I'll kiss secula seculorum.
If I've luck, sir, she's my uxor,
O dies benedictorum.

Rorum, Corum, sunt divorum,
Harum, Scarum divo;
Tag-rag, merry-derry, periwig and hat-band
Hic hoc horum genitivo.

And since tempus is fugiting, it's time to go.

Have a good day. It's Friday, after all.

More thoughts tomorrow...be here for Cartoon Saturday

Bilbo

P.S. - by the way, I actually am a cunning ... uh ... never mind.

B.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Will you translate the latin in the poem?

Mike said...

@anon - I was going to ask the same thing but thought better of it. That could turn into 8 or 9 posts.

Jean-Luc Picard said...

If we all spoke Latin now, would pop songs be like this?

Bilbo said...

Mike and Anonymous:
1. I think the refrain is nonsense (although the words sunt divorum could be translated "of the gods", and the rest of the words are Latin, but not always used grammatically...

2. Her voice as a flute is dulcis (sweet).
3. Her oculus (eye) bright, her manus (hand) white.
4. And soft, when I tacto (touch) her pulse is.
5. How bella (beautiful) my puella (girl)
6. I'll kiss secula seculorum (forever and ever)
7. ...she's my uxor (wife)
8. O dies benedictorum (oh blessed day).