"Sanity test results came back inconclusive."

[elvenpiratelady]

I've started writing poems in Latin. I think this is generally known as the point of no return, "abandon hope all ye who enter here"* territory. Thanks to the Perseus Tufts website, I give you a poem written in Latin with a vaguely haiku format. It's all about the multiculturalism, really.

(And now we have poem mark II, hopefully now sans mistakes and now that I've had time to poke at it. Meaning is still the same, I think.)

Bellum adgreditur:
Milites pergunt, sacerdes precorantur,
Et ancillae in tenebris contremiscunt.


War approaches:
The soldiers march, the priests intone,
And the slave-girls quiver in the shadows.

All feedback on the Latin will be welcomed with open arms. I'm still not entirely certain about the third declension.


*If you have already abandoned hope, please disregard this notice.

---

In other news, I finished reading Master and Commander today! And I have Post Captain waiting for me! Huzzah, huzzah, huzzah! Drinks all around!

Comments

[dracoena.livejournal.com]

Uhm, let´s see... shouldn´t "pergant" be "pergunt"? And "tremant", "tremunt"? Or what tense are you using?
Resecro has the specialised meaning of "freeing from a curse"; if this is not exactly what you want to convey here, you might want to use a more general verb (such as precor?). "Sacrificus" means anyone who is offering a sacrifice, so, while the term is appropriate, it should be rather translated as "sacrificer" or something of the sort. And the diminutive sound a little strange.

The 3rd declension (and the rest) are fine, and I actually like the poem. Short, but poignant and to the point. I hope you did well in your test!

[elvenpiratelady.livejournal.com]

Verb endings are fixed now - the Perseus website didn't say what conjugation they were and I assumed it was 1st, however searches with other latin dictionaries have been more informative. Thanks for pointing the mistakes out. Guess this shows how hard it is to write in a language that's not your own.

Glad you enjoyed the poem, anyway. I haven't got my test back yet, but I think I did middlingly well.

[dracoena.livejournal.com]

Latin´s a definitely booky language. Don´t trust online dictionaries. :P

Guess this shows how hard it is to write in a language that's not your own.

Challenge = fun.

Glad you enjoyed the poem, anyway. I haven't got my test back yet, but I think I did middlingly well.

I´m really glad. You could also show the teacher that you can already write poems in Latin. That would pump up your grades! ;)

[elvenpiratelady.livejournal.com]

I've found a couple of other online dictionaries that are more extensive - the problem with Perseus Tufts is that it comes up with names of priests as well as the actual noun. But if I didn't go online for the words I'd be stuck with only my Latin textbooks, which can show a distressing dearth of certain words. But I'll look out for printed English-Latin dictionaries.