In Flanders Fields, Latin translation help

Textkit Community Open Board
1

Remembrance Day is coming November 11. In our times of great conflict, we must not encourages war but, instead seek peace. Remembrance Day was formerly known as Armistice Day, to commemorate the end of World War I. How many wars since then! This is why I shall never wear a red-for-bloodshed poppy on Remembrance Day but rather wear a white poppy for peace.

To that end, I’m hoping a member may be more expert in Latin poetics than I and translate the powerful and universal Canadian antiwar poem “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae into Latin.

Please post it here and also send a copy to me.

CJ Hinke
Thammasat University
Bangkok
<unblocktheplanet@gmail.com>


In Flanders Fields
John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

O lux beata lumina, lumina
Shine on us O blessed light, shine

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
in row on row
In Flanders fields.

O lux beata lumina, lumina
Shine on us O blessed light, shine

Time like an ever-rolling stream
Bears all its sons away
They fly forgotten as a dream
Dies at break of day

O lux beata lumina, lumina
Shine on us O blessed light, shine

We shall not sleep who lived and loved
Who felt the dawn saw sunset glow
If you break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

O lux beata lumina
Shine, O blessed light

Our light be yours

2

I wouldn’t dare. However, I’d like to have a list of poems in Latin or Greek that may be considered anti-war. Or at least quotes in prose:

Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus imperium; atque, ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.

Tacitus, Agricola, XXX

3

Is it actually McCrae’s In Flanders Fields you want translating, or the sentimentally confused cento you’ve posted there, with contributions from Isaac Watts and others?

I suppose the version you’ve posted has one thing going for it, which is that it’s an appropriate complement to the muddled thinking that causes some people to believe that wearing a white poppy betokens a greater compassion for suffering and a stronger desire to see an end to war than wearing a red one can.