Nov 082010
 

DG realizes that this may be a stretch for some of you. A couple of weeks ago NC published Jacob’s poem “After Reading Heidegger and Seeing a Dead Rat” which has proved amazingly popular, partly because it’s a witty poem and partly because it gets a certain number of hits every day from people searching “dead rats” on Google (who would have thought this was an underground hot topic?). DG took off the “rat” tag, but that hasn’t stopped the deluge. In any case, this is neither here nor there to Jacob who wrote the poem for fun and who has since translated it into Latin for fun. The fact that he has a mind for this is a continual delight to his father.

dg

After Reading Heidegger and Seeing a Dead Rat

Vidi id in bestiolam via
Secundo die autumno
Bestiola, quae bestiolae fuit, sed
Nunc nihil non fuit, sed
Aliqua non Ens
Bestiola habuerat, sed nunc
Tenebras firigidas rigidarumque habet.
In via, secondo die autumno
Enti cinctus est, in Ente,
Idquod bestiola, non iam ens, fuit
Olim, Ens in Bestiola fuit
Olim Ens fuit hac bestiola, quando ea
Fuit ens.
Sed nunc, Ens nihil non est, abfuit,
Ex hac bestiola, utique, ergo abisset.
—Jacob Glover

  7 Responses to “After Reading Heidegger and Seeing a Dead Rat, Translated into Latin — Jacob Glover”

  1. It’s very elegant in Latin. I particularly like the 8th line. Not that I remember much from high school 30 odd years ago, but most of these words are familiar. Thanks, Jacob, for making me want to study Latin again!

  2. I think the Glover Boys (all 3) need to make an appearance at the 1st annual Montpelier Numero Cinq awards ceremony, to be held with a bottle or two of Talisker at a site TBD. Perhaps the Bell Tower or Nobel Lounge? (If aforementioned Glover brothers are not yet of legal age to consume said award- libations, then they may drink fruit punch, or perhaps appeals might be made to higher legal authorities…what’s the drinking age in Canada? Besides, single malt isn’t really drinking, it’s experiencing) I’ve really enjoyed all their participation on NC. That they’ve found a following on the internet only convinces me that we’re on to something.

    • Ah, well, Jacob is legal where he is and in Quebec but nowhere else. Very odd when you go from being a young man to a boy again by crossing a border. But thanks, Rich. I’m glad you appreciate them. If we keep NC going, of course, your children will join as well. Have you got them writing yet?

      • Glover boys have an important role on NC..’tis my opinion anyway.

        I was reading Ted Kooser poems to my daughter the other night. (I know, grumpy guy in person, helluva poet though.) My son has a growing fascination with turkey vultures. (He’s 5.) Perhaps this, soon: “Circling above us, their wing-tips fanned//like fingers, it is as if they are smoothing//one of those tissue-paper sewing patterns//over the pale blue fabric of the air,//touching the heavens with leisurely pleasure,//just a word or two called back and forth,//taking all the time in the world, even though//the sun is low and red in the west, and they//have fallen behind with the making of shrouds.” -Ted Kooser, “Turkey Vultures”

        • Corrupting your children early in the best possible way. Excellent. An interest in turkey vultures bespeaks a mind already turning to the dark, poetic side, harbingers of Death. No doubt your son sees them as a symbol of the inexpressible emptiness of life, its deep ambiguity in the face of our ultimate prognosis. Have you got him reading Marx on alienation yet?

      • I was legal when I turned 19 over six months ago, Dad!

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