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Latin scholars needed...

26 Jun 05 - 02:14 PM (#1510373)
Subject: Latin scholars needed...
From: alanabit

I need the assistance of an erudite, helpful, Latin scholar to give me a couple of lines of Latin for a song introduction on the new album. Where better to ask than on Mudcat?
I would like something along the lines of,"Let us give thanks and praise unto the Lord for Diedre's magnificent bottom."
Don't ask me any questions and I won't tell you any fibs... If you don't think "magnificent bottom" sounds right, something along the lines of "wonderful body" or something like that would do just fine. I will happily despatch a copy of "Traveller's Tales" to the person who comes up with the most useful suggestion.


26 Jun 05 - 02:42 PM (#1510395)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: Nigel Parsons

The inter-tran site gives

"Permissum nos gratulor quod laus unto Senior pro Diedre's splendidus solum"

Although I think 'Fundament' might appear better than 'solum'

Nigel


26 Jun 05 - 03:09 PM (#1510422)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: alanabit

Well, there's a start. Thanks Nigel.


26 Jun 05 - 03:43 PM (#1510444)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: Amos

"Let us give praise" is translated as "Gaudeamus" in the old drinking song "Gaudeamus igitur"/ Probably closer to genuin Latin than the literal translation.

If you PM Deda she can give you a knowledgeable translation.

A


26 Jun 05 - 03:58 PM (#1510456)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: semi-submersible

I'm no scholar, but I wouldn't use that mechanical translation. It looks as if it begins "Permit us..." so it misses the whole point. It also didn't translate "Diedre's" at all.

The Vulgate (1 Chron. 29, 13) uses "Deus noster confitemur tibi et laudamus nomen tuum inclitum," which is translated "Our God we give thanks to thee, and we praise thy glorious name," so that gives you the first part.


26 Jun 05 - 04:25 PM (#1510473)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: alanabit

Yes, I can imagine that just trying to use the words literally would not exactly get what I am after. I should think that "Diedre" would need modification into a genitive form, but I know no Latin at all. I would not even attempt to translate anything into German even - and I have been living here for over twenty years. I think what we need here is one of those educated folks - wot got learned proper at school...


26 Jun 05 - 07:34 PM (#1510589)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan

Maybe Joe Offer will appear here soon - otherwise I´ll have to dredge up what little I remember...

"Let us give thanks" and "praise unto the lord" should be each be easy - one word for the first, three at most for the second. I´ll have to think about Deirdre´s bottom - so to speak.

Regards


26 Jun 05 - 08:58 PM (#1510620)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: GUEST,Inero

You could always ask on the Latin list. URL:

http://zbihniew.krasl.cz/news26/thread.php?group=alt.language.latin

They are a friendly lot and always willing to tackle little projects like Alanabit's
Vale!
Michael


26 Jun 05 - 10:40 PM (#1510684)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: GUEST,.gargoyle

I would suggest using the easily recognized (by Latin first year students) opening (first line) chords/tune of:

GAUDEAMUS IGITUR

For all the verses consult:
http://www.newfoundations.com/Gaudeamus.html

Gaudeamus igitur
Juvenes dum sumus
Post jucundum juventutem
Post molestam senectutem
Nos habebit humus.

Let us rejoice therefore
While we are young.
After a pleasant youth
After a troublesome old age
The earth will have us

Vivant omnes virgines
Faciles, formosae.
Vivant et mulieres
Tenerae amabiles
Bonae laboriosae.

Long live all maidens
Easy and beautiful!
Long live mature women also,
Tender and loveable
And full of good labor.

For melody etc. consul http://ingeb.org/Lieder/gaudeamu.html

Sincerely,
Gargoyle


27 Jun 05 - 01:21 AM (#1510742)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: Joe Offer

Well, "Let us give thanks and praise to the Lord" is:
    Gratias et laudam agamus Dominum
and that we could say something like:
    pro fundamentum splendidum Diedrei.
(Diedrei is pronounced Dee-DRAY-eeee). I'm sure that's not right, but it's close enough to fool most anybody. Can't say I learned the word for the anatomical bottom in seminary Latin class....
Maybe "fundamentum" would mean closer to "foundation garments."

-Joe Offer-


Oh, and "gaudeamus" means "let us rejoice," as Gargoyle indicated.


27 Jun 05 - 04:03 AM (#1510781)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: Wilfried Schaum

Gratias dicamus Domino qui Diedram ornavit pulcherrimo corpore
(Always presuming that the owner of this wonderful bottom is feminini generis, otherwise it should be Diedrum) = let us say thank to the Lord who ornated Diedre with a most beautiful body. If you insist on the bottom, scratch corpore, put anu (but that doesn't sound well).
On second thought: ... ornavit pulcherrimis globulis = with most beautiful roundings.
You may be assured that this sentence is the first grammatically correct contribution.


27 Jun 05 - 04:07 AM (#1510783)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: Le Scaramouche

Isn't gaudeamas the origin of the word joy?


27 Jun 05 - 06:37 AM (#1510851)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: freda underhill

Obesa cantavit. .. The fat lady has sung.



Amicule, deliciae, num is sum qui mentiar tibi? - Baby, sweetheart, would I lie to you?


27 Jun 05 - 07:18 AM (#1510870)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: alanabit

Thanks very much everyone. I shall now be able to praise this (regrettably fictitious) bottom, with the decorum which it deserves. Diedre is, unfortunately, a fictitious character. I wish very much that I had encountered her at the time when I was a choirboy and entering adolescence!


27 Jun 05 - 09:50 AM (#1510940)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: mack/misophist

If it is a 'magnificent bottom' you're praising, a reverent mention of Venus Callipygous might be in order. (She of the magnificent bottom)


27 Jun 05 - 01:32 PM (#1511050)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: GUEST

Shrewd observation Le Scaramouche -

Random House Dictionary of the English Language

[ME joy(e) < OF jore, joye gaudia, neut. pl. (taken as fem. sing.) of L gaudium joy, equiv. to gaud- (base of gaudere to be glad) + -ium n. suffix]

Sincerely,
Gargoyle


28 Jun 05 - 03:34 AM (#1511458)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: JohnInKansas

My Latin is a bit rusty, but it might help to know that the classic Greek? statue of the "Venus with the glorius butt" is commonly called Venus Kalypigos, sometimes given the Latinized? name Venus Steatopygia.

John


28 Jun 05 - 04:06 AM (#1511468)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: Joe Offer

Gee, and I though I knew obscure, useless stuff. Both John in Kansas and mack/misophist know about Venus Kalypigos, which must qualify as the most obscure piece of information posted at Mudcat in years.
I am duly impressed - so, where did you guys get that information? That must have been some kinda impossible Google search to come up with something like THAT.
-Joe Offer-


28 Jun 05 - 04:15 AM (#1511472)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: sian, west wales

Definitely go for the 'globulis'.

sian


28 Jun 05 - 07:24 AM (#1511522)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: Wilfried Schaum

Joe - doing years of Greek at school we not only learned about Glaukopis Athene (the owl eyed) and Hera Boopis (the cow eyed), but also about Aphrodite Kallipygos, albeit she is better known as Anadyomene (the foam born). That goddess with a real beautiful butt will never be forgotten by the impressible memory of the young soul is evident.

Useless knowing? I never thought good poetry useless, and to understand it we had to learn a lot of typical adjectives (epitheta ornantia) to know of whom the poets spoke.


28 Jun 05 - 09:21 AM (#1511603)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: Wilfried Schaum

And Joe - not impossible to find something in Google: you have to insert the correct search word "Kallipygos". Of the about 760 hits some of the finest:

here

and here

and here

Why her temple was erected: The story behind (in German)

and here a totally different "finebutt": afterlife of a classical expression


28 Jun 05 - 02:11 PM (#1511791)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: Joe Offer

The man who taught me first-year Latin, taught me first-year Greek three years later. His name was Father Daniel York (formerly Jurkiewicz). I took six years of Latin, two years of Greek, and four years of German - but no language teacher taught me better than Fr. York. One of his best teaching tools was his colorful irreverence. When we were pious first-year seminarians, Fr. York forced us to shout out the Latin word "scit," which means "he knows." In the Italian pronunciation used by the Catholic Church, that's SHIT!!!! And he had us shout it over and over, so it could be heard in all the classrooms down the hall. He had us memorize all sorts of irreverent quotations in Latin and Greek, and generally kept us in stitches while he crammed more language into our heads in a year than a normal teacher could teach in three.

But I have to say that today, I am disappointed in Fr. York, because he didn't teach us about Venus Kalypigos and Glaukopis Athene and Hera Boopis.

Ah, the things I learn at Mudcat....

-Joe Offer-


28 Jun 05 - 03:06 PM (#1511848)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: JohnInKansas

Joe -

The good father probably omitted it because of the unsettled nature of academic thought on the matter. I have references using at least 6 different spellings of Kalipygos, Kallipygos, Kallipygnos, Kallypigos, Callipigos, and Callipygous, and I think there are others. The "K" spellings would be more likely the Greek, I would think; but in that case she should have been an Athena (or Athene)?. The actual statue, I believe, was originally thought to be Greek, but now is(?) usually listed as a Roman copy (from a Greek original?).

The alternate Steatopygos or Steatopygios actually means(?) "fat butt," and I have seen it only a couple of times. My first sight of the statue, in fact, came from a 1930s era "Eugenics" book that a relative had hidden in the garage rafters. "Auntie" wouldn't let him keep it in the house because of the "dirty pictures," but the statue was used as an illustration for the "steatopygic" body type in the anatomy section. Very impressive to a 7 year old kid...60 years ago, but maybe not now.

Even for the better known Venus de Milo the case is muddied. The Louvre displayed her as a "classic period" work for a long time, even though the base she was found on identified the sculptor as a saxophone player in a late period Roman rock band. (At least there's documentation that he won an instrumental music contest and wrote a few plays.) The Louvre conveniently "misplaced" the base, because they really wanted something from the classical period to compete with other museums.

Any Google image search for "Venus" should turn up de Milo, Kallipygos, Esquilina, de Medici, and the "crouching Venus." They're all widely posted, but in fact may be a little difficult to document or to learn much about because of the frequency with which they appear on "know-nothing" sites. As with musicians, how well you're known depends largely on who your publicist is.

John


29 Jun 05 - 12:33 AM (#1512197)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: Joe Offer

Ah, but John, there's only one Greek spelling of it, and this sort of thing was right up the Good Father's alley. He told us a story about a man who complained to his psychiatrist that he kept having dreams about having a golden screw in his navel. So, the psychiatrist told him to dream of a golden screwdriver, and unscrew the screw.
The man did that, got up the next morning, and his rear end fell off.

Now, that story would have been a great lead-in for teaching about Venus Kalipygos, and that would have broadened our Greek vocabulary...
-Joe Offer-


29 Jun 05 - 01:59 AM (#1512208)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: GUEST,.gargoyle

Joe - curious wonder - why I enjoy YOU and fight with your clones.

No doubt, it is the shared Latin and German - combined a conservative Christian background. I am sorry I missed the Koinonia - however, with multiple translations, completed by scholars ... does a layman have a chance?

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Like a cursed verse GAUDEAMUS continues to cram the brain...haunting melody or weekly indoctrination (and why did Miss Ruff leave those other wonderful stanzas out?)


    My religious and political background is disgustingly liberal, Garg - makes you wonder why the Catholic Church just hired me to teach religion, eh?
    -Joe Offer-


29 Jun 05 - 02:11 AM (#1512210)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: JohnInKansas

Joe -

Maybe from now on I'll just use the description from the site I linked:

      die Venus "mit dem schönen Hintern"

John


29 Jun 05 - 08:44 PM (#1512903)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: Big Al Whittle

good to know you're keeping a perspective Al.....


30 Jun 05 - 06:13 AM (#1513126)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: semi-submersible

Could "cantamus" (we sing) properly replace "dicamus" (we speak)?


05 Jul 05 - 03:01 AM (#1515187)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: Wilfried Schaum

No, the subjunctive (let us sing) should be cantemus, as dicamus (let us say) is the subjunctive of dicimus (we say).


05 Jul 05 - 07:41 PM (#1515585)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: michaelr

Alan -- if the lady is fictitious, you may, of course, spell her name as you see fit. However, the common spelling is Deirdre, not Diedre.

Cheers,
Michael (auch ein Fan von schoenen Hintern)


06 Jul 05 - 03:10 AM (#1515856)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: Wilfried Schaum

That's what I thought first, too. But a google search for Diedre brought about 93.200 hits.


06 Jul 05 - 03:41 AM (#1515867)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: Peace

Maybe something in Latin that goes,

"Dear Lord, we thank you for what is before us and behind Deirdre."?


06 Jul 05 - 04:27 AM (#1515888)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: alanabit

LOL! We have now settled on two lines of Latin. One from Wilfried Schaum and another sent to me very kindly by Deda. The track - about twenty seconds long - has been recorded and will precede a rather rude song about the choirboy's favourite (female) chorister. It is comforting to have the company of so many who appreciate both good scholarship and fine bottoms. I think I'll come here again!


06 Jul 05 - 08:20 AM (#1516035)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: Wilfried Schaum

alanabit - glad to have been of some assistance to you. Don't forget to tell us, when and where the song will be published.


06 Jul 05 - 04:30 PM (#1516443)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: alanabit

Thanks for your help Wilfried. If you PM me your address, I will happily send you an album. I seem to recall vaguely that you live in Maarburg, so I might even venture to drive down when it is finished. You are not so far from Köln if I recall corectly. I have vague memories that you are a solicitor, so I guess that your Große Latinum was a compulsory part of your studies? We should have the album finished sometime between the end of the month and mid August.


08 Jul 05 - 02:53 AM (#1517743)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: Wilfried Schaum

alanabit - I'm not a solicitor, but a librarian for the Oriental Department at the University of Giessen (thirty odd clicks down from Marburg), but I'm living at Friedberg (thirty odd clicks down from Giessen).
I'll PM you immediately.

Sing and enjoy
Wilfried


08 Jul 05 - 09:47 PM (#1518569)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: Genie

A bit OT, but I thought the line in Gaudeamus Igitur was

"... Juvenes nunc sumus... " ( ...Now [while] we are young... )
not "...Gaudeamus igitur
Juvenes dum sumus ... ).

Genie


09 Jul 05 - 07:31 AM (#1518829)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: Wilfried Schaum

Thought wrong. Nunc = now, dum = while


10 Jul 05 - 01:11 AM (#1519325)
Subject: RE: Latin scholars needed...
From: Stephen R.

Steatopygia (yes, it's Greek for "fat-arse") is an anatomical feature known to anthropologists. The San people of southern Africa, whose traditional diet was low-fat, are noted for it; women store fat in their butts. It's very practical if you are a hunter-gatherer (well, since it's characteristic of the women, maybe just a gatherer)in the Kalihari, but for those not used to it it is rather startling at first. These ladies are pretty slender otherwise. In modern America, there are a lot of fat-asses, male and female, because we eat junk food and watch TV; but the rest of them is usually pretty big too. I heard of one of them that she read that Cher had a tattoo on her rump and wanted one there too, but gave up on the idea when she couldn't find a muralist.

Stephen