Dear readers. I keep telling you the Tower of Babel is a tragedy. Well, it is. And right now I need a Latin phrase, so I’m feeling it keenly because here in Baroquenland we speak no Latin (except maybe the odd, let’s see, veni, vedi, vici? Et tu, Brute!).
I need – for reasons which may one day become clear to all of you – the Latin for ‘you don’t half steam a pike fish’. For now, you need only know that it’s a comedy. Ideally I need this phrase by tomorrow lunchtime; any contributions welcome, as long as they’re correct.
Thank you one and all! And to butter you up I give you the above pike fish, which is “about to strike a yellow perch.” It is by a Canadian artist, Gil Menzies; click the picture to see the site.
Editing in to say I have got it tragically wrong. You see? The pikefish problem was solved, and what I really, REALLY need is the Latin for “the unknown in search of us.” Can any of you clever people help with this?
tu nostra semi aqua pint piso
which comes of course from the Latin of Cicona Demnestra, the 1C BC lesbian poet who caused outrage at the court of Astrominge the Gual in Poitoz (now Poiteau) in the central Masif enclave in France where the noted gay poet Chico Fuego was executed for calling up the gods for personal gain in a spring rites ceremony, by Astrex Doumnhall the Hibernian-Gualish king of the neighbouring region, who he had had secret liasons with and who executed him on this trumped up charge, so it would not become public knowledge at the spring fair in which he had threatened to spill the beans about his double life.
The full poem is
You don’t half know how to steam a pike fish
Because the sun closing forward, leans inward
And touching the hem of reality, gasps, stilling
The grey moon sinking over our love Astrex.
I think I could manage ‘Romans go home’ if that’s any help Ms B
No idea, but now I’m thinking how interesting it would be to actually learn Latin. If only I hadn’t so completely ignored that nice Mr. Hilbert in the 9th grade, I might know some. Manus manum lavat. I think that’s “the clothes make the man,” but I could easily be wrong.
Sorry. It’s, “one hand washes the other.” That with help from Mama. Clearly I need to brush up.