Latijnse gedichten door Michiel Sauter (1964) |
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| (True story: a bright young woman went scantily clad to a job interview. She got the job and proudly posted pictures online of herself with her new, yet slightly older employer). |
| (The Largo di Torre Argentina in central Rome, an ancient forum where Julius Caesar was probably killed, is now a stray cat colony). |
| Unconditional love (A forbidden kiss, after Janus Secundus, ïambus dimetrus catalecticus) “Do you love me?” you asked... How I wish I could give the full translation, “if not at once the gods of chastity forbade” to quote the few decent lines from this rather carnal catalogue. However, I took the liberty to borrow many a word from my compatriots Janus Secundus (Basium VIII) and Janus Dousa (Ad Idam). Hence, I suggest the eager reader find a clue in the translations of these two poems. Needless to say, I copied their metre as well. Another source of inspiration was Vergil, whose opening line of the Aeneid (Arma virumque cano...) I gladly parodied: “Of shoulders and buttocks I sing.” |
| A paraklausithyron is a lover’s lament at the closed door of his beloved mistress. In vain the exclusus amator is begging for entry. To the best of my knowledge only four Roman poets used the elegiac distichon to write their paraklausithyron: Ovidius (Amores I, 6), Tibullus (I, 2), Propertius (I, 5 and I, 16) and Catullus (67). Largely copying from Ovidius I wrote my own entirely different version, adding three lines from Tibullus, two lines from Propertius and one line from Catullus. Since its title speaks volumes, I strongly recommend that the curious reader resort to translations of the five chaste examples. |
| Ante inventionem artis typograficae pretiosissimi erant libri. In scriptoriis scribae non modo manu scribebant codices, verum etiam imaginibus ornabant et post nonnullos annos perficiebant. Qua de causa saepe addebant in colophone maledictiones, ne quis inquinaret, surriperet, deleret exemplaria unica. Eorum librorum lectoribus scribae minabantur excommunicationem, anathema et damnationem ad calamitates avertendas. Quamvis hae minae -quasi praecursores iuris auctorum hodierni- plurimos lectores a malo deterrerent, non semper damna vitare poterant. Non legunt enim animalia. Praesertim mures vellera codicum devorabant et pagellis rosis nihil relinquebant nisi pulverem. Bibliothecariis feles auxilio veniebant, quippe qui die et nocte optimi praedatores sunt. Feles autem neque legunt, neque bibliophili esse videntur, ut animadvertit quidam scriba Conradus Scheych de Grunenberg terrore affectus Daventriae (Deventer, Nederlandia). Anno 1418° in libro suo questus est de maculis, quas feles in pagella libri reliquit: “Hic non defectus est, sed cattus minxit desuper nocte quadam. Confundatur pessimus cattus qui minxit super librum istum in nocte Daventrie, et consimiliter omnes alii propter illum, et cavendum valde ne permittantur libri aperti per noctem ubi catti venire possunt.” Delineavit etiam maniculas indicantes verba sua nec non animal mirum, asino non dissimile, felem simulans. In hoc libro Conradus scripsit De decem praeceptis, ignarus se praeceptum undecimum addidisse: sit nobis ergo etiam diebus hodiernis praemonito ne permittantur computatra aperta per noctem ubi catti venire possunt. Me ad carmen scribendum instigaverunt et cattus et Conradus. Usus sum scribae temporis metro goliardico, orthographia (nichil, michi) et grammatica (praecipue in ultima linea): |
| As some medieval manuscripts document, cats sometimes deemed it necessary to stain books with their inky paws or even worse by urinating on them. This poem is about a medieval scribe who befriended a cat only to discover the disastrous effects of his feline friendship. Accordingly, I used post-classical metre, orthography and grammar (last line). |
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