Tuesday 16 October 2007

Latin today


Today I attended the introductory class of legendary Latin professor, Fr Reggie Foster. His passion for Latin and his equal passion for detractors of Latin and for non-enthusiasts make for a good afternoon. His unique system for teaching Latin is through his graded experiences. I have already done one experience, the first: I hope to move on now to third and fourth experience. It will be a lot of work but it will aid me in reading Hilary: the question is time but I think that the time devoted to this will pay off in the long run with Hilary. Reggie is a remarkable man - probably speaking Latin better than he does English - and that's meant as a compliment!


Here's what an article by Tom Heinen on http://www.jsonline.com/ says:


He is the pope's senior Latinist, a gifted and demanding linguist who did the lion's share of the translation when Pope Benedict XVI followed tradition and delivered the first formal speech as pontiff in Latin to the cardinals on the morning after being elected.
Known as Father Reggie to some friends and students, he also is an internationally renowned Latin teacher and a fluent speaker of complex, Ciceronian Latin, not to mention a world-class curmudgeon and quirky critic of the temporal and spiritual universes around him. His sometimes intemperate outbursts of personal opinions apparently are offset by an expertise that has enabled him to survive and to serve four popes over 36 years.
This is how Foster reacted when Karol Wojtyla began signing papal documents in Latin as "Joannes Paulus II" instead of "Ioannes Paulus II" after being elected pope 26 years ago. He quickly pointed out to a papal adviser that there is no letter "J" in Latin.
"I said, 'By the way, friend, there's no J,' " Foster recalled. "And the answer kind of came back that the pope said, 'Well, now there is.' Well, fine, fine. He's the boss. And if you look at his tomb, the J is gone. One of my brethren said, 'Well he enjoyed his J for 26 years, and now it's gone.' His tombstone has 'I.' "


Some lines from his classes:


"One letter in Latin will kill you."



"After you've learned everything about Latin, you still have to think."



"Latin will kill you... if you're not smart."



"Every Latin sentence has a trap."


5 comments:

Clear Creek said...

I have been puzzled by a Latin sentence, and realize you are the one to ask about it. It is in a photo on Father Avram's blog, of a cloister walk at Saint Paul's Outside the Walls, and says, HIC STUDET ATQUE LEGIT MONACHORUM CETUS ET ORAT. Does it have a double meaning? I don't know much Latin, and I appreciate your help!

Hilariter said...

Yes..CETUS can mean a community or a large sea-fish.

So it could read: THE LARGE SEA FISH OF THE MONKS STUDIES, READS AND PRAYS HERE
or
THIS LARGE SEA FISH OF THE MONKS STUDIES, READS AND PRAYS

or
THE COMMUNITY OF MONKS STUDIES, READS AND PRAYS HERE

or
THIS COMMUNITY OF THE MONKS STUDIES, READS AND PRAYS HERE

Hilariter said...

I have often seen large sea-fish praying before the lunch of a monastic community

Clear Creek said...

Thanks! I will pass it on to the Latin teacher at Saint Andrew's Academy near us, as she came up with the first translation.

On the side of the angels said...

Silly me - I thought cetus was a whale [coming from latinized greek]
The whole Cassiopeia/Andromeda/Perseus thing .