Happy Birthday Hunter…
Good morning. It’s the middle of the night here at Owl Farm. It doesn’t take a genius to see that I’ve been either depressed or slammed for the last 9 months judging by the lack of postings. But it was was important for me to post a poem for you on Hunter’s birthday before going to bed.
This poem is not gonzo, but was lucky to come across it, thanks to my Latin teacher’s recommendation in a Catullus book that I’ve been man-handling during my final weeks at Columbia.
Hunter, we know you’re here, somewhere, but we love and miss you more and more as these years go by.
This poem is by Catullus, writing for his dead brother to hail and farewell forever. For those of you who remember some of your high school Latin, give it a go – it’s worth it. Thank the gods for the Latin dictionary, eh? Otherwise a decent translation follows.
Offering At A Distant Grave
Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus
advenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias,
ut te postremo donarem munere mortis
et mutam nequiquam alloquerer cinerem.
Quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete abstulit ipsum.
Heu miser indigne frater adempte mihi,
nunc tamen interea haec, prisco quae more parentum
tradita sunt tristi munere ad inferias,
accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu,
atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale.
— Gaius Valerius Catullus
Happy Birthday Hunter. We all love and miss you and celebrate your spirit!
Love, Anita
(posted by Anita Thompson)
| Through many nations and many seas have I come To carry out these wretched funeral rites, brother, That at last I may give you this final gift in death And that I might speak in vain to silent ashes. Since fortune has borne you, yourself, away from me. Oh, poor brother, snatched unfairly away from me, Now, though, even these, which from antiquity and in the custom of our parents, have been handed down, a gift of sadness in the rites, accept them, flowing with many brotherly tears, And for eternity, my brother, hail and farewell. |
| © copyright 11-12-1999 by Rob Shereda |
