(no subject)

[flemmings]

Oh. National Poetry Month? Is my nation included?

Catullus Poem 58

Caeli, Lesbia nostra, Lesbia illa.
illa Lesbia, quam Catullus unam
plus quam se atque suos amavit omnes,
nunc in quadriviis et angiportis
glubit magnanimi Remi nepotes.

Caelus, our Lesbia, that Lesbia,
that same Lesbia whom Catullus has loved alone-
more than himself and more than all he has,
now at the cross-roads and in the back alleys
jerks off the descendants of the great-souled Remus.

Just to prove that classical Latin poetry *can* express an immediate emotion immediately, and doesn't have to be a double-crostic clever-clogs intellectual pastime. Though there are a couple of clever-clog tricks in this one if you look for them.

Oh look- there's also a wiki article on Catullus 96, that I once rewrote for Kanzeon Bosatsu.

Comments

[rasetsunyo.livejournal.com]

How come the picture to the article is The Burial of Atala? That's pretty weird.

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Hey, it's a guy mourning a woman, like the poem, and whoever picked it knew as much about Atala, Girodet and de Chateaubriand as I do, which is nothing. (Was. Thank google.) The *things* they teach in these S'pore schools, I'm amazed. Or is it, the things they teach in these S'pore art schools, which is more rational?

[rasetsunyo.livejournal.com]

Haha nah I took an introductory Western art history course in uni.

[i-am-zan.livejournal.com]

they defintiely skipped this when I was in school! @__@ ...

Hmmm is it National Poetry Month then? Aahhh not international though!

^__^

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I prefer that Americans at least keep their things 'national'- even if they don't say what nation it is- and not grandiosely label them 'international' as so often happens.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I'm told we're included, and in any case I don't see why I can't volunteer myself. Our political class is heading south to campaign for Obama for cripes' sake. XD;

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

Mhh. On principle I'm not happy at Canadians getting involved in American politics- consider how the reverse would play out if they came here to campaign for Harper- but I suppose a time comes when you have to start being proactive in these things.