AT the risk of provoking an avalanche of similar Latin sound puns after your recent correspondence (Letters, June 1 & 2), may I offer this ode from my schooldays:
Caesar adsum iam forte
Brutus aderat
Caesar sic in omnibus
Brutus sic inat.
Of course the Latin is nonsense, but read out loud, the meaning becomes clear (I hope). But for those who don't "get it"
Caesar had some jam for tea
Brutus had a rat
Caesar sick in omnibus
Brutus sick in 'at (hat)
But even with correct Latin usage, one has to be careful with translations. Take the sentence:
Mea mater mala sus est.
Mea means "my", mater is "mother", mala is either "bad" or the plural of malus, "apples". Sus is "pig", and est is the third person singular of the verb to be - "is" or from the word to "eat".
So the sentence translates in two ways, depending on the insertion of a comma after "mater"
Oh mother, the pig is eating the apples or
My mother is a dirty pig.
The Romans were therefore well ahead of Lynn Trusss' book Eats, Shoots and Leaves.
Neil Scott,
76 Carnbee Park,
Edinburgh.
SOME more Latin.
A force repairing fighter planes during WW2 had as its motto: Iubendum wemendum.
Also when I was teaching Latin I gave the following as homework on March 31:
O vile si ergo,
Fortibuses in ero.
O nobile deis trux,
Votis inem?
Caus en dux.
I gave the translation on April 1.
Clue - just read it aloud.
Ian Lyell,
9 East Park Avenue,
Mauchline.
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