A rhyme which I heard from my Latin classmates
-
- Textkit Zealot
- Posts: 2563
- Joined: Sat Jun 14, 2003 8:57 pm
A rhyme which I heard from my Latin classmates
"Latin's a dead language, as dead as dead can be
It killed off all the Romans - and now it's killing me"
I don't know about you, but that offended me. I was transfixed speechless at that. Talk about contumelias conicere!!
It killed off all the Romans - and now it's killing me"
I don't know about you, but that offended me. I was transfixed speechless at that. Talk about contumelias conicere!!
- benissimus
- Global Moderator
- Posts: 2733
- Joined: Mon May 12, 2003 4:32 am
- Location: Berkeley, California
- Contact:
- klewlis
- Global Moderator
- Posts: 1673
- Joined: Tue Jul 29, 2003 1:48 pm
- Location: Vancouver, Canada
- Contact:
-
- Textkit Zealot
- Posts: 2563
- Joined: Sat Jun 14, 2003 8:57 pm
-
- Textkit Neophyte
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Sun Apr 25, 2004 5:36 pm
-
- Textkit Member
- Posts: 129
- Joined: Sun May 04, 2003 12:42 pm
Here's a version with a little bit more to it.
Latin is a language
As dead as it can be.
First it killed the Romans
And now it's killing me.
All are dead who spoke it,
All are dead who learned it,
All are dead who wrote it:
Noble death -- they earned it!
I found it at <www.palouse.net/proise/latin.htm>, but I'm betting that it's quite a bit older than the internet!
Obviously inaccurate, but too old to be offensive.
Magistra
Latin is a language
As dead as it can be.
First it killed the Romans
And now it's killing me.
All are dead who spoke it,
All are dead who learned it,
All are dead who wrote it:
Noble death -- they earned it!
I found it at <www.palouse.net/proise/latin.htm>, but I'm betting that it's quite a bit older than the internet!
Obviously inaccurate, but too old to be offensive.
Magistra
-
- Textkit Member
- Posts: 143
- Joined: Mon Sep 09, 2002 9:05 am
- Location: Maidenhead, England
-
- Textkit Neophyte
- Posts: 82
- Joined: Wed May 12, 2004 5:10 pm
vinobrien, that was beautiful. I shall probably never be the same, after reading it. I liked the metaphor for human suffering, and the archetypal battle between civilization and nature, but what really pulled at me was the stripping away of the social conventions of the "lady" to reveal the animal core within (or "without" as the poem has it, when ego and id are reversed).