When In Doubt - Quote in Latin
Latin is our recreational language. When we feel dull or grey, in the darkest depths of Winter's grasp, we take delight in the fact that for all its shortcomings, Latin is undergoing a veritable renaissance. One can find texts online, unbelievably enough, that have never been translated into English.
We believe that European culture went into decline when Greek and Latin were dropped from the universal curriculum and the general population was summarily cut off from the source of great inspiration and thought that had accumulated over the centuries. So, we go to our book of quotes and drop in this tidbit from Horace:
Luctantem Icariis fluctibus Africum
mercator metuens otium et oppidi
laudat rura sui; mox reficit rates
quassas, indocilis pauperiem pati.
Of course, being somewhat ignorant ourselves, we must read this from a book of quotes with translation:
The merchant, dreading the Southwest wind wrestling with the Icarian waves,
praises retirement and the rural life of his native town,
but soon he repairs to his shattered bark,
incapable of being taught to endure poverty.
We had to look up Icarian, it is a region, and an ancient sea. So it reads when pounded by the tumultus waves of a mighty African / Icarian sea, the heedless seller will talk of an idyllic life in his land of birth, which is probably a poverty-stricken, land-locked, two-bit burg, but after the danger of the storm passes, he repairs his ship and travels onward, not being fit enough to endure the lashes of living without the luxury of the trading life. Sort of like us here at the My-Lynx Associates world trading headquarters, except without the raging seas, or the ship, or the native town.
We believe that European culture went into decline when Greek and Latin were dropped from the universal curriculum and the general population was summarily cut off from the source of great inspiration and thought that had accumulated over the centuries. So, we go to our book of quotes and drop in this tidbit from Horace:
Luctantem Icariis fluctibus Africum
mercator metuens otium et oppidi
laudat rura sui; mox reficit rates
quassas, indocilis pauperiem pati.
Of course, being somewhat ignorant ourselves, we must read this from a book of quotes with translation:
The merchant, dreading the Southwest wind wrestling with the Icarian waves,
praises retirement and the rural life of his native town,
but soon he repairs to his shattered bark,
incapable of being taught to endure poverty.
We had to look up Icarian, it is a region, and an ancient sea. So it reads when pounded by the tumultus waves of a mighty African / Icarian sea, the heedless seller will talk of an idyllic life in his land of birth, which is probably a poverty-stricken, land-locked, two-bit burg, but after the danger of the storm passes, he repairs his ship and travels onward, not being fit enough to endure the lashes of living without the luxury of the trading life. Sort of like us here at the My-Lynx Associates world trading headquarters, except without the raging seas, or the ship, or the native town.
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