Lines from HOWL in latin

Kynetus Valesius · Post by **Kynetus Valesius** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 9:41 pm

I have attempted to translate the opening lines of Allen Ginsberg's seminal poem HOWL into latin. This is an exercise of dubious validity since I don't know what I'm doing and because the syntax of the original is so ambiguous. What I am planning ultimately is an essay in latin on the poem and its author. The snippet that follows is a warm up exercise. I would be interested in your comments. I am also hoping someone into the bible can tell me how the words Moloch and Caananite would be rendered.

Optimos animos aetatis vidi furore destructos QUI esurientes bacchantes intecti sese per negritudinis vias prima luce trahens aculeolum papavereum petiverunt iratissime siccut capitibus scurrae angelicis ardentes sese coram vetusta coeli connexione ad stellatum machinalis noctis tormentum consumpserunt QUI Pauperisimi inanum luminum medicaminibus elati atque lacinis induti sederunt erecti fumantes in dio caligine insularum sine agua calida instructarum dum modos syncopatos meditaverunt

And in English the selected passage :

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by
madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn
looking for an angry fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly
connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat
up smoking in the supernatural darkness of
cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities
contemplating jazz,
who bared their brain

And some relevant links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Ginsberg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howl

bellum paxque · Post by **bellum paxque** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 5:22 am

Interesting project! I don't doubt its validity, just its feasibility!

As for Moloch and Canaanite, they're both Biblical words and used in the Old Testament. Why don't you find how Jerome renders them in the Vulgate?

-David

Kinadius · Post by **Kinadius** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 6:40 am

bellum paxque wrote:As for Moloch and Canaanite, they're both Biblical words and used in the Old Testament. Why don't you find how Jerome renders them in the Vulgate?

Moloch is Moloch, and seems to be an indeclinable noun. Canaanite is Chananeus, -i.