Sunday, March 12, 2006

Spring Song in Latin Elegiacs: "de Veris Reditu"

vere ego surgentes admirans gramine flores
et mihi cantantes dulcia carmina aves
dimitto officia et malo his ludere nugis
legere quam chartam , terse Tibulle, tuam.

TRANSLATION

in admiring the flowers, as they rise up with spring
and the birds singing sweet songs to me
duties I forgo, And I prefer to play with
these trivial verses, rather than read your learned page, concise Tibullus.
For the men's blue bathroom in the MacFarlane house, to replace a sign that says not to open the window:

ventis quae obfueram minitante fenestra procella,
ne, cave, sedator, me miseram reseras!
non defendo infensa patens, (patiens ego multa)
doctorum custos caeruleae foricae!

Translation:

Please! don't unbar me, a window, who's gotten in the way of winds whene'er a storm threatened! Much suffering, I can't ward off the insuferrable from you when I'm open, I
guard of the blue bathroom of Ph. D.'s.
For a friend returning from vacation in Indiana (and getting through war and peace was on the vacation agenda)


Carmen Adventicium amicae suae ab terra Indiana Providentiam reversae

visente Indorum te rura, me(a) _ ^^ _ _*
(bellaque, tu, paces O reditura, leges!)
te apricante procul maribus positis ambobus
litoribus, nante et gurgite dulce lacus
urbe morans quid ego, fortasse roges, navarim?
haec, tacitis aliis, carmina pro reditu.
______
*name has been omitted to preserve addressee's privacy.


Translation:

While you visited the land of Indians, O _____,*
(and do read there of wars and peace-treaties!)
While you sunned yourself on shores set far from both oceans,
and swam in the sweet waters of the lake,
Perhaps you will ask what I accomplished, tarrying here in the city
while you did these things?
This song on the occasion of your return (I pass over the rest in silence).
Tangerine in Latin Sapphics: The lyrics of the popular jazz standard turned into Latin Sapphics.


"tangerine, she is all they claim/with her eyes of night/and lips as bright as flame."

MY VERSION:

omnibus praestans mea Tingitana
feminis forma, placitisque labris
enitens rubris, oculos et audax
nocticolores.

PROSE TRANSLATION:

My Tangerine, excelling all women in beauty, with flashing red lips, boldy glancing with night-hued eyes.