Fabula de lupo qui ad lunam volavit

For the second meeting of my Free University Latin class I had my students write a story. Having gone over basic grammar in the first class, I gave them a list of vocabulary (first and second declension nouns, first conjugation verbs, adjectives, et al) and let them have at it. For simplicity, the present tense is the default, though that reads a bit awkwardly. Translation follows below.

Amica lupum ad lunam iactat. Lupus ad caelum volat, ergo iratus est. Amicam laudo. Dum saltamus cantasmusque in agro, lupus vaccas lunae salutat, quae purpurae sunt; sed alias non salutat, quia mortuae sunt. Agricolam, qui in lunā habitat, lupus culpat pro vaccis mortuis. Lupus cum agricolā pugnat. Amicam meam rogo per quam viam ad lunam navigabimus.
"Viā magnā et umidā," amica cantat.
"Cur cantas?"
"Quia in tabernā eram."
Gladios magnos portantes viam navigamus. In lunā, cum gladiis saltamus. Agricola lupusque nos laudant. Vaccae purpurae lunae de nobis fabulam narrabit. Finis.

My friend throws the wolf to the moon. The wolf flies toward the sky, therefore he is angry. I praise my friend. While we are dancing and singing in the field, the wolf greets the moon-cows which are purple; but he does not greet the others, because they are dead. The wolf blames the farmer who lives on the moon on behalf of the dead cows. The wolf fights with the farmer. I ask my friend by what road we will sail to the moon.
"By the great wet road," my friend sings.
"Why are you singing?"
"Because I was in the tavern."
Carrying large swords we sail the road. On the moon, we dance with our swords. The farmer and the wolf praise us. The purple moon-cows will tell the story about us. The end.

And who says Latin's dead?

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20-C-M-B-06

Feast of the Epiphany

The Wise Men
G.K. Chesterton

Step softly, under snow or rain,
To find the place where men can pray;
The way is all so very plain
That we may lose the way.

Oh, we have learnt to peer and pore
On tortured puzzles from our youth,
We know all the labyrinthine lore,
We are the three wise men of yore,
And we know all things but truth.

We have gone round and round the hill
And lost the wood among the trees,
And learnt long names for every ill,
And serve the made gods, naming still
The furies the Eumenides.

The gods of violence took the veil
Of vision and philosophy,
The Serpent that brought all men bale,
He bites his own accursed tail,
And calls himself Eternity.

Go humbly ... it has hailed and snowed...
With voices low and lanterns lit;
So very simple is the road,
That we may stray from it.

The world grows terrible and white,
And blinding white the breaking day;
We walk bewildered in the light,
For something is too large for sight,
And something much too plain to say.

The Child that was ere worlds begun
(... We need but walk a little way,
We need but see a latch undone...)
The Child that played with moon and sun
Is playing with a little hay.

The house from which the heavens are fed,
The old strange house that is our own,
Where trick of words are never said,
And Mercy is as plain as bread,
And Honour is as hard as stone.

Go humbly, humble are the skies,
And low and large and fierce the Star;
So very near the Manger lies
That we may travel far.

Hark! Laughter like a lion wakes
To roar to the resounding plain.
And the whole heaven shouts and shakes,
For God Himself is born again,
And we are little children walking
Through the snow and rain.

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Happy New Year

Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume,
labuntur anni...

-Horace, Odes 2.14

Happy New Year from all of us here at the Sacred and the Profane. (Well, I guess that's just me.) I find myself back at school on the eve of what promises to be an interesting Winter Study, my last at Williams. As of this morning, I am taking a class called Aikido and Ethics, for which I had previously signed up but didn't get into; I got an email today informing me that a spot had opened up, so I took it as a sign. I still hope to sit in on J.R.R. Tolkien, Middle Earth, and Modern Medievalism which is what I had been registered for. The latter is of course a bit more up my alley, but the Aikido class looked like a good opportunity to try something I'd probably never otherwise do, so I'm glad I got the chance to take it after all. We'll see how it works out.

Of course, this adds up to a somewhat busier schedule than I had anticipated. I'm also hoping to teach two courses in the "Free University" offered this month: "Introduction to Gregorian Chant" (co-taught with a professor in the PoliSci department) and "Is Latin Dead?", a quick (and hopefully entertaining) intro to the basics of the Latin language for anyone curious enough to sign up. I tried to offer the chant class last year and got a good number of signups, but unfortunately lost my voice for the entire month (I could talk, but not sing) and had to call the class off. I'm hoping for better luck this time.

Then, of course, there are the traditional Winter Study pastimes of sledding (and snow bocce, the most fun you'll ever have with a dining hall tray) and watching movies. Williams Catholic is also fielding (rinking?) a broomball team at my instigation, making our debut on the ice tomorrow night. After tossing out names from "The Ice Crusades" and "The Spanish Inquisition" (nobody expects them) to "Corporal Mortification" and "The Council of Trent" we settled on "The Papal Bulls". Yes, my principal motive in forming a team was to come up with as many wildly inappopriate names as possible. But the broomball part should be fun too.

And so it begins! Further updates as events warrant.

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