5 ms·
Why Catullus continues to seduce us
- frereubu 2y agohttps://archive.is/rqDub https://archive.is/rqDub
- gertrunde 2y agoI think when I was around 12-13 or so, a new Latin teacher (fairly young - not long out of university) had our class reading Catullus. I'm sure you can imagine the reaction of a roomful of teenage boys reading Latin poetry that iirc involved quite a lot of masturbation...
- zetazzed 2y agoŌdī et amō. Quārē id faciam fortasse requīris. Nesciŏ, sed fierī sentiō et excrucior. I hate and I love. Why I should do this, perhaps you may ask... I know not, but I feel it done to me, and I am wracked.
- baruchthescribe 2y agoWritten after he broke up with Lesbia. Yes it is very sad that I can instantly recall this after fifty odd years. Perhaps Latin really does train your brain and memory.
- stevesimmons 2y agoI remember it by heart too, from 38 years ago. Plus most of "O Sirmio, gem of islands and peninsulas, every one of which Neptune, in his dual role, supports in the liquid lakes and vast seas...". That was thanks to a mid winter Catullus test that got delayed several times due to flu circulating in our year 11 class. By the time everyone was finally back in school, we'd revised it something like 5 times and knew all the set poems off by heart.
- wolfi1 2y agoIn that regard I want to point to Catulli Carmina by Carl Orff[1]. I can really recommend it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catulli_Carmina https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catulli_Carmina
- chasil 2y agoI didn't realize that the Carmina Burana was a fragment of a three-part work. Thanks!
- Crazy-Pills-305 2y agoGreat insight I knew the most prominent work but the whole Catulli Carmina is beautiful.
- billfruit 2y agoDaniel Mendelsohn the authour of this article, has a new translation of Odyssey which came out recently.
- AdmiralAsshat 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullus_16 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullus_16 "Pēdīcābo ego vōs et irrumābō" I had a college Latin teacher who asked us to translate this one. The professor was very clear that we should translate it in the spirit it was written, which is to say, vulgar. I offered the following translation of the first line: "I will fuck you up the ass, and jam my cock down your throat." The professor then said, "Excellent. Tonally perfect. Now let us never speak of it again."
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- jan_Inkepa 2y agoA most charming and very 90s translation of 'irrumabo' in this poem bequeathed to us the following result: "I'll sodomize and clintonize you,"
- tomcam 2y agoThat is a damn good professor
- dang 2y ago[stub for offtopicness]
- thimkerbell 2y ago[flagged]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- frereubu 2y agoI feel like I've started to see lots of weirdly anodyne comments like this on HN recently, with a kind of pointless summary of all or part of the article. Has this always happened and my LLM spider-sense is tingling too much, or are they written by real people whose purpose I don't get?
- pvg 2y agoIt happens on and off although LLMery might have made it worse. It's generally flaggable stuff: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20summary%20comments&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
- thimkerbell 2y ago[flagged]
- macielfclaudio 2y agoWhen I read the headline, the first thing that came to mind was "Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo".
- globnomulous 2y agoMendelsohn is a national treasure and easily one of the finest living Anglophone essayists. I remember little from the coverage of the manhunt for Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his brother but I vividly remember the powerful piece Mendelsohn wrote about its outcome: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/unburied-tamerlan-tsarnaev-and-the-lessons-of-greek-tragedy https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/unburied-tamerla...
- hugocast 2y agoIf you are curious what it sounds like https://youtu.be/cLOh9byyl1k?feature=shared https://youtu.be/cLOh9byyl1k?feature=shared