| Monday, March 28, 2011 |
| Carmen II |
I finished another Latin poem today!! :)
In Latin lately, we've been reading lots of Catullus. And generally when he wants to mess with someone, he'll write a poem to them in a playful meter called the hendecasyllabic, or Phalacean, meter (11 syllables). Sometimes these poems are playful, and sometimes they're...well...not so playful. More like bitingly sarcastic.
But either way, I really wanted to write a poem in this meter, a funny (or attempt at being funny, or at the very least a funny situation) poem. And this is what resulted.
Here's the meter I worked with. It's a lot more strict than dactylic hexameter, having fewer exceptions as to what you can do (exceptions occur only in the first foot, and in the last foot where the "x" is, which can be either a long or a short):
--/-uu-/u-u-x
-u
u-
And thus I give you "Amanter memoro, venuste numme" (English at the bottom):
Carmen II ex libro primo Cristianae Gottronis
(Hehe. I had to do that. :-D)
Amanter memoro, venuste numme,
quem ad fontem Trivii videns in Urbe
in manu meo habui, ridens beate.
Ieci te in aquam Urbe sicut est mos
sperans ut redirem in meo futuro.
Sed heu! Quando ego ieci in illam aquam te,
forte tum pepuli virum sedentem
tecum in pectore ibi in tempore eo!
Fugi, et non ego vidi ibi hunc et iam te.
Sed quando memorem, venuste numme,
te, erubesco ab ineptia mea tum
mea culpa ego rideo impedita.
"I remember you fondly, dear coin, whom I held in my hand while looking at the Trevi Fountain in the City (Rome), smiling happily. I threw you into the water as is the custom in the City, hoping that I might return in my future. But alas! When I threw you into that water, accidentally, I then struck a man in the chest, who was sitting there at that time! I fled, and I did not see you or him there any longer. But when I remember you, dear coin, I redden with shame at my folly, then I laugh, embarrassed by my fault." |
posted by Kristin @ 10:10 PM  |
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