'Green Eggs and Ham' Put Into Latin

Yahoo News! ^ | Thu Sep 25 | ULA ILNYTZKY

[nickcarraway]

NEW YORK - "Green Eggs and Ham" is an easy read. After all, the late Theodore Geisel, belovedly known as Dr. Seuss, wrote it after his editor challenged him to do a book in just 50 words.

But have you tried to read it in Latin?

Retitled "Virent Ova! Viret Perna!!" the Seuss classic has been rendered into Latin by Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers Inc. of Wauconda, Ill. The target audience is "people who took Latin in school and have fond remembrance of it, teachers and students who take Latin — and, of course, Seuss fans," Kelly Hughes, a spokeswoman for the publisher, said Wednesday.

Two Seuss books that were translated earlier, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "The Cat in the Hat," have sold a combined 60,000 copies in Latin.

Translators Terence and Jennifer Tunberg, husband and wife professors in the Department of Classical Languages at the University of Kentucky, did not aim for a literal interpretation of the tale, in which the character named Sam-I-Am tries to get a friend to try green eggs and ham in a box, with a fox, in the rain, on a train, etc.

Instead, they went for a Seusslike rhythm of the eight-syllable lines.

In English, you get, "I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-Am."

In Latin, you get, "

Sum 'Pincerna' nominatus, Famulari ... nunc paratus!"

Sharon Kazmierski, a teacher of Latin and columnist for "The Classical Outlook," the journal of the American Classical League, reviewed "Virent Ova!"

"Instead of literally translating the classic, Jennifer and Terence Tunberg have written this book in the same style that Theodore Geisel might have if he were fluent in neo-Latin. This book doesn't just look like a Seuss book. It sounds like a Seuss book," Kazmierski said.

"Virent Ova! Viret Perna!!" is accompanied by Dr. Seuss' original whimsical drawings. A glossary of Latin-to-English vocabulary and a note on "How to Read These Verses" appear at the back of the book.

Whichever recipe one chooses, of course, the result is the same.

Sam's once-defiant sidekick concludes:

"Mihi placent, O Pincerna!

"Virent ova! Viret perna!

"Dapem posthac non arcebo.

"Gratum tibi me praebebo."

In other words:

"I do so like green eggs and ham.

"Thank you, thank you Sam-I-Am!"

[4mycountry]

What you say?!

[dsc]

Hey, this might be a good thread to ask another Latin question:

I have found two different versions of the Fatima prayer.

Prex Decadis Rosarii

O mi Jesu, dimitte nobis debita nostra, libera nos ab igne inferni, conduc in caelum omnes animas, praesertim illas quae maxime indigent misericordia tua.

Domine Iesu, dimitte nobis debita nostra, salva nos ab igne inferiori, perduc in caelum omnes animas, praesertim eas, quae misericordiae tuae maxime indigent.

Can anybody tell me if one of these is deficient, or better than the other?

[Desdemona]

What a riot!


It's quite an exercise in English for speaking clearly. I can only assume it is in Latin too.

[Duke Nukum]

I was just thinking that.

Someone should translate Jackson's "Stay Out the Bushes" speek into Latin so it might make sense. Or at least could be more easily ignored.

[Jim Cane]

Finally! Al Gore can now travel to South America to
hear it recited by the natives.

[shaggy eel]

,,, I'm sure we all eagerly await the Maori version.

[Calpernia]

I personally enjoy how Dr. Seuss explains Computer Technology.

Dr. Seuss Explains Why Computers Sometimes Crash~
(Read this aloud, if you can!)

If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,

and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,

and the access of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,

then the socket packet pocket has an error to report.

If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash,

and the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash,

and your data is corrupted cause the index doesn't hash,

then your situation's hopeless

and your system's gonna crash!!

If the label on the cable on the table at your house
says the network is connected to the button on your mouse,

but your packets want to tunnel to another protocol, that's repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall,

and your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauss, so your icons in the window are as wavy as a souse;

then you may as well reboot and go out with a bang, 'cuz sure as I'm a poet, the sucker's gonna hang!

When the copy of your floppy's getting sloppy in the
disk,

and the macro code instructions cause unnecessary risk,

then you'll have to flash the memory and you'll want to RAM your ROM.

Quickly turn off the computer and be sure to tell your Mom!

[nickcarraway]

I saw the latter, but I can ask someone.

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

I don't remember that part...

It might have been a different appearance. I do remember it vividly, though. I thought it quite hilarious at the time. The joke, as I recall, was that the control room people didn't want a lecture from Jesse about hiring more minorities. Or at least that was the implication. In those days he could make fun of himself, intentionally. Now he does it unintentionally.

[ELS]

LOL!

[Charles Henrickson]

Veni, Vidi, Vicki: "I came, I saw, and I'm like, 'Omigod!'"

[uglybiker]

What if Shakespeare had written the Hokey Pokey?

[livius]

LOL! Do you teach high school Latin, by any chance?

[Charles Henrickson]

Do you teach high school Latin, by any chance?

No. But I am a Lutheran minister, working on a Ph.D. in theology, so Latin is one of the languages I am able to work with.

[livius]

I thought that perhaps the "Vicki" and "I'm like" connection indicated somebody who spent time around teenagers.

Personally, I think teaching Latin would be a great thing to do. It's not well paid, though. If I ever win the Lottery, I plan to quit what I'm doing now and start teaching Latin. But not until I win the Lottery.

[Koblenz]

My favorite Latin saying:

O Civili, sed ergo
Fortibus es in ero
O Nobili, Deis Trux
Indem arcem causen Dux

Can't figure it out? Then read it out loud!

[Brian Allen]

I'm hanging out for the Moriori version.

US Morioris always get the shaft.

[Even we lucky few who managed to miss the cooking pot -- and who miss our moas and our beaches]

[shaggy eel]

,,, ko nga Rangatira o nga iwi o Niu Tireni kua noho i runga i te whakaaro kotahi me era Rangatira e tau ke ana e noho ana i runga i o ratou ritenga ano kahore ano kia uru ki tana whakakotahitanga e tino tuku rawa ana ki Te Kuini o Ingarangi nga tikanga me nga mana katoa o te Rangatiratanga e whakahaerea ana e mau ana i taua whakakotahitanga o ia Rangatira hoki e whakahaerea ana i runga i o ratou whenua i runga i to ratou Rangatiratanga ake ki reira.

[Charles Henrickson]

I thought that perhaps the "Vicki" and "I'm like" connection indicated somebody who spent time around teenagers.

It is mostly a teenage-girl phenomenon, and, within that, mostly a teenage-girl-talking-to-other-teenage-girls phenomenon.

We have a 19-year-old daughter and a 7-year-old daughter at home. When the 19-year-old is talking freely with her friends, she cannot go more than a few sentences without falling into the "I'm like"/"And she's like" pattern for reported speech or thought. I have tried to caution the 7-year-old not to use "I'm like," but I'm afraid she has started picking it up in the last year from her friends. Whatever. :-)

Personally, I think teaching Latin would be a great thing to do.

I agree. My Latin teacher was my favorite teacher in high school, and my Latin and Greek professor in college was my favorite teacher there.

[fqued]

Years ago, we read "Winnie Ille Poo" in High School.