magyarul
magyarul
This
page is part of a project (oocities.com/latinra)
intended to compile quality Latin translation of mostly Hungarian poems
and songs. This page, however, contains the material that English-speaking
(but non-Hungarian) Latinists may find interesting, too. For further information,
please sign the guestbook
or write an e-mail. I started to put together this page back in 2002 and nowadays I don't have enough time to keep updating it. If you want more, you may want to check out the Hungarian page (where you'll understand the Latin parts:-)) or visit the links at the bottom.
| Lewis Carroll:
'You Are Old, Father William'
|
Lewis Carroll:
'Grandis es atque senex, pater Gulielme'
|
| `You are old, Father William,'
the young man said,
`And your hair has become very white; And yet you incessantly stand on your head-- Do you think, at your age, it is right?' `In my youth,' Father William
replied to his son,
`You are old,' said the youth,
`as I mentioned before,
`In my youth,' said the sage,
as he shook his grey locks,
`You are old,' said the youth,
`and your jaws are too weak
`In my youth,' said his father,
`I took to the law,
`You are old,' said the youth,
`one would hardly suppose
`I have answered three questions,
and that is enough,'
|
'Grandis es atque senex, pater, aevo,' filius
inquit,
'Crinibus es canis; et caput est niveum. Atqui stare soles capite infra saepe reverso; Prave nonne facis, tam quia tute senex?' Respondit pater haec nato: 'Iuvenis metuebam
'Tu grandaevus re vera es,' iuvenis repetivit,
Canitiem quatiens dedit inde sagacia dicta:
'Debilibus maxillis atque senilibus,' inquit,
Reddidit haec pater: 'Ad legum studium puer ivi;
Te insuper aevo grandem,' postibi sic adulescens,
'Ter responsa dedi nunc, a te terna rogatus;
|
| Yes, this is from Alice in Wonderland,
and of course you can read the whole book either in English
or in Latin
on the web.
This piece of poetry is so amusing in its own right that most readers don't realise it was originally written as a parody of a didactic poem called 'The Old Man's Comforts and How He Gained Them' by Robert Southey. Check out the Lewis Carroll E-text Collection for further information on the author, Alice, and the parodies. |
| A. A. Milne:
Carmen Pui timidi |
A. A. Milne:
Anxious Pooh Song
|
| Io vivat Pu
Es tu? Est Pu! Umbellae gubernator Et Porci liberator! Indica tu: Cur clamat Pu? Dum patuit fugae unda Non timuit maris profunda Lagenulae nuntio lecto Succurrit amico dilecto! In aquis? Quis? Optimus ursus mundi Aequoris heros profundi! Is? Dic istud bis! Pu fuit parvulus ursus! Dic dum hoc rursus! Libenter, sis: Pu qui bonus et rectus est In cymba ad Porcellum vectus est Sed nunc vehementer Mel quaerit Pu-ursi venter.
|
3 Cheers for Pooh!
(For who?) For Pooh - (Why what did he do?) I thought you knew; He saved his friend from a wetting! 3 Cheers for Bear! (For where?) For Bear - He couldn't swim, But he rescued him! (He rescued who?) Oh, listen, do! I am talking of Pooh - (Of who?) Of Pooh! (I'm sorry I kept forgetting). Well, Pooh was a Bear of Enormous Brain - (Just say it again!) Of enormous brain - (Of enormous what?) Well, he ate a lot, And I don't know if he could swim or not, But he managed to float On a sort of a boat (On a sort of what?) Well, a sort of pot - So now let's give him three hearthy cheers (So now let's give him three hearthy whiches?) And hope he'll be with us for years and years And grow in health and wisdom and riches! 3 Cheers for Pooh! (For who?) For Pooh! 3 Cheers for Bear! (For where?) For Bear - 3 Cheers for the wonderful Winnie-the-Pooh! (Just tell me, somebody - WHAT DID HE DO?) |
| Translated by Alexander Lenard.
The source of these texts is the Hungarian Electronic Library (MEK): mek.iif.hu/kiallit/lenard/winnievers.html. By the way, the whole book is downloadable from here. The Latin version is especially cherished in Hungary, a phenomenon explicable with the translator's Hungarian origins. If you wish to know more about A. Lenard, click here: http://www.mek.iif.hu/kiallit/lenard/indexeng.html And never forget de apibus semper dubitandum esse! |
| Diem genitalem | Happy Bithday To You |
|
Diem genitalem, Diem genitalem, Care/cara ..., felicem Diem genitalem! |
Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to ..., Happy birthday to you! |
| Translated by Mate Halmos.
Note that cara should be sung for females and care for males. The letters should be pronounced as follows:
Sing it with the slightly altered words 'Herpetem genitalem' should you want to wish genital herpes to your beloved. By the way, this is not the only Latin translation of the song. In fact, the Internet is full of other attempts including 'Laetus natalis' and 'Anniversarium'. Note that the latter is not a proper Latin term for 'birthday' and has probably been translated by French people:). having sung Happy Birthday in Latin, you must be intrigued to find out how Romans said 'Cheers'. They originally used the term Bene tibi or Bene te, '(May it be) good/well to you'. Later on, another expression, Prosit, came into use and it is used sometimes even nowadays. |
| Domne Jane | Brother John | Frere Jacques |
|
Domne Jane, domne Jane, dormisne? Exsurge! Omnes nolae sonant,
Bim bam bum,
|
Are you sleeping, are you sleeping, Brother John, brother John? Morning bells are ringing,
Ding, dang, dong,
|
Frere Jacques, Frere Jacques Dormez-vous? Dormez-vous? Sonnes les matines,
Din, din, don.
|
| The translator is unknown. Ive found it in a book entitled Ludamus una by Baranyai Tiborne. |
| Christian Morgenstern:
Cantio piscis nocturna
|
Christian Morgenstern:
Fish's Night Song
|
Christian Morgenstern:
Fisches Nachtgesang
|
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|
|
| This poem has been one
of my favourites ever since I started reading poetry. I've found the Latin
version in a book on poetry by Ivan Horvath. The translator is unknown.
Here's what Friedrich Kittler wrote about the poem. "The signs on the page cannot be spoken by any voice -- regardless of whether one reads them as fish scales or discrete elements of the roman typeface. Man and soul, in any case, no longer apply. With all the wanderers between day and night, Spirit and Nature, male and female, Man simply died around 1900. It was a death to which the much discussed death of God is a footnote. " I. Horvath in his book 'A vers' ('The Poem') does
not consider the symbols either fish scales or typeset units, but symbols
indicating stress (written above imaginary words). He argues that the Hungarian
translation ('Hal eji eneke'), though apparently identical with the original
piece, is not near enough, as these symbols are used to indicate rythm,
rather than stress, in the Hungarian educational tradition, and therefore
it is not the same associations that it conjures up immediately in Hungarian
readers' minds as in Germans'. Eventually, he comes to the conclusion that
despite all these, the translation is not bad at all, as both stress and
rhythm have something in common: a special flavour of school and education.
|
LINKS
Hungarian homepage: oocities.com/latinra
Songbooks: The Leader in Lieder: :ingeb.org/ and laukart.de/multisite/songbook/latin.php
Contemporary Latin Poetry:suberic.net/~marc/latinpoetry.html
Viva voce: dekart.f.bg.ac.yu/~vnedeljk/VV/ Latin poetry recited - downloadable mp3 files.
Hungarian Electronic Library: mek.oszk.hu
A page compiled by Mate Halmos. Don't hesitate to sign the guestbook or write an e-mail should you have any questions, complaints, or compliments.
