Wisdom doesn't always speak in greek and latin.
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The British system had requirements, including Latin. I'm not positive you ever had to know Greek, but there are certainly kinds of curricula where you had to know Greek too. I think in Britain there was the most mindless, repetitive sort of learning.
quote by William Scott
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Poor Scholar Of The 'Forties
MY eyelids red and heavy arc
With bending o'er the smold'ring peat.
I know the Aeneid now by heart,
My Virgil read in cold and heat,
In loneliness and hunger smart.
And I know Homer, too, I ween,
As Munster poets know Ossian.
And I must walk this road that winds
Twixt bog and bog, while east there lies
A city with its men and books;
With treasures open to the wise,
Heart-words from equals, comrade-looks;
Down here they have but tale and song,
They talk Repeal the whole night long.
'You teach Greek verbs and Latin nouns,'
The dreamer of Young Ireland said,
'You do not hear the muffled call,
The sword being forged, the far-off tread
Of hosts to meet as Gael and Gall
What good to us your wisdom-store,
Your Latin verse, your Grecian lore?'
And what to me is Gael or Gall?
Less than the Latin or the Greek
I teach these by the dim rush-light
In smoky cabins night and week.
But what avail my teaching slight?
Years hence, in rustic speech, a phrase,
As in wild earth a Grecian vase!
poem by Padraic Colum
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Harmony is an obscure and difficult musical science, but most difficult to those who are not acquainted with the Greek language; because it is necessary to use many Greek words to which there are none corresponding in Latin.
quote by Marcus V. Pollio
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Poseidonians
The Poseidonians forgot the Greek language
after so many centuries of mingling
with Tyrrhenians, Latins, and other foreigners.
The only thing surviving from their ancestors
was a Greek festival, with beautiful rites,
with lyres and flutes, contests and wreaths.
And it was their habit toward the festival's end
to tell each other about their ancient customs
and once again to speak Greek names
that only few of them still recognized.
And so their festival always had a melancholy ending
because they remebered that they too were Greeks,
they too once upon a time were citizens of Magna Graecia;
and how low they'd fallen now, what they'd become,
living and speaking like barbarians,
cut off so disastrously from the Greek way of life.
poem by Constantine P. Cavafy
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The Same Story, The same History
...and so the same story is told
the same history is made....
why always speak of descrimination
why always speak of war
why always speak of class
why always speak of injustice
why always speak of poverty
why always speak of rebellion....
why not speak of equality
why not speak of peace
why not speak of respect
why not speak of wisdom
why not speak of production
why not speak of working together...
...and so the same story is told
the same history is made.
poem by Marites C. Cayetano
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The Ant
A sixty feet long ant
With a hat on its head,
That doesn’t exist, that doesn’t exist.
An ant pulling a cart
Full of penguins and ducks
That doesn’t exist, that doesn’t exist.
An ant speaking French,
Speaking Latin and Javanese,
That doesn’t exist, that doesn’t exist.
Hey! Why not?
poem by Robert Desnos from Storysongs (Chantefables) (1945), translated by Dan Costinaş
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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A Prince from Western Libya
Aristomenis, son of Menelaos,
the Prince from Western Libya,
was generally liked in Alexandria
during the ten days he spent there.
As his name, his dress, modest, was also Greek.
He received honors gladly,
but he did not solicit them; he was unassuming.
He bought Greek books,
especially history and philosophy.
Above all he was a man of few words.
It got around that he must be a profound thinker,
and men like that naturally don't speak very much.
He was neither a profound thinker nor anything else—
just a piddling, laughable man.
He assumed a Greek name, dressed like the Greeks,
learned to behave more or less like a Greek;
and all the time he was terrified he would spoil
his reasonably good image
by coming out with barbaric howlers in Greek
and the Alexandrians, in their usual way,
would make fun of him, vile people that they are.
This was why he limited himself to a few words,
terribly careful of his syntax and pronunciation;
and he was driven almost out of his mind, having
so much talk bottled up inside him.
poem by Constantine P. Cavafy
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Just Because
Just because you did
Doesn't mean that you should
Just because you can
Doesn't mean that you could
Just because you are able
Doesn't mean you would
Just because you sat
Doesn't mean you should‘ve stood.
Just because you spoke
Doesn't mean that you thought
Just because you looked
Doesn't mean that you sought
Just because you argued
Doesn't mean that you fought
Just because you dreamed
Doesn't mean that you wished not.
Just because you cried
Doesn't mean that you wept
Just because you had
Doesn't mean that you kept
Just because you cleaned
Doesn't mean that you swept
Just because you said yes
Doesn't mean that you accept.
Just because you gathered
Doesn't mean that you own
Just because you gave up
Doesn't mean that you were alone
Just because you saw
Doesn't mean that you were shown
Just because you expiate
Doesn't mean you should atone.
Just because your old
Doesn't mean that you have flaws
Just because you won
Doesn't mean you have to applause
Just because you waited
Doesn't mean that you paused
Just because you were you
Doesn't mean anything, because.
Randy L. McClave
poem by Randy McClave
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Some Have Kindness
Some abuse others due to lack of kindness,
Or they shout into their ears with abusiveness.
Achiness is the solute of the body,
I calm some of us who speak with nobody.
This busybody is me, the fine world,
A swirl is created in the air, you have swirled!
My job was to protect yourself and myself
Leaving my own soul and yours on the shelf.
The books of Latin and Greek are too fine,
Like the expertise I have exhibited, I have aligned;
Please me now with your sudden news,
It tells nothing of any breakthroughs.
poem by Naveed Akram
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My Own Language
it is not as sweet as English
neither romantic as French
neither lyrical like Spanish
nor authoritative as Greek
nor mystical as Latin
nor progressive as Chinese
nor deep as German nor
friendly as Thai and
neighborly as Bahasa
but my own language
lies inside my heart and so
lovely still that i speak it
as musical as the language of my soul
as lyrical as the movement of my body
as heavenly as my God that speaks to me.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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And though thou hadst small Latin, and less Greek.
quote by Ben Jonson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Does God Speak to Everyone?
No, my friends...
I’m afraid he doesn’t
At least he never has
to me
When I needed him most
he was like a ghost
At least as far
that I could see
When my soul was aching
and my heart was breaking
And my daughter was slipping
Away from me
With my hand on her brow
I said, “Lord, the time is now”
To either keep her here…
Or set her free
The silence was deafening
In response to my plea
So, Blue eyes… I’m afraid he doesn’t…
At least he didn’t… speak to me
And since that fateful day
I guess that you could say
maybe God and I, we both agreed…
at least tacitly
That since he didn’t speak then
and still does not speak to me today
That he’ll only speak to everyone…
Everyone but me
poem by David Whalen
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Awhatthef..kia
'What ho? There ain't no bears down here, '
Said Robert Falcon Scott,
'I'll call it Anobearia.'
Back in acadamia
They translated it to Greek,
Called the place Antarctica,
That's still the name we speak.
What a shame he didn't honour
The flightless polar bird
And call it Apenguinia.
That name might have stuck-
Unless the Greeks had seen the bird
And called it whatthef..k.
In Greek that's ti-oto,
The land Ati-otoa.
Arty-ottowa.
'Sound's good, ' said acadamia,
'But meaning's not so nice.
We'll use the Greek for 'penguin'
And call Apigwevosa,
The Underland of Ice.'
poem by Douglas Scotney
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Poets that lasting marble seek Must come in Latin or in Greek.
quote by Edmund Waller
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Green Monkey
When the deep blue night is running close on your track
And you can feel the green monkey crawlin across your back
Dont take me so real that you forget how to feel
Dont let the threat of the dagger turn your heart into steel
Smell the perfume of the silent dream
Fly the ocean, read a story to me
Speak the wisdom of a redwood tree
Speak to me
So you think that star cluster shining bright in the sky
Will speak the fate of your evening, tell the truth to your lie
Dont let the features you read control the tickets you buy
Soon as you learn that you live, youre just beginning to die
Smell the perfume of the silent dream
Fly the ocean, read a story to me
Speak the wisdom of a redwood tree
Speak to me
Smell the perfume of the silent dream
Fly the ocean, read a story to me
Speak the wisdom of a redwood tree
Speak to me
song performed by by America
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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It Was Written
It was written in Hebrew, Greek and Latin!
Because, the English language was not spoken by then;
And like the muse of your love which is now exposed to all.
poem by Edward Kofi Louis
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