Emily Dickinson in Latin: Two Poems adapted in Latin Glyconics (XX – UU – U X)

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By lkoelle on January 4, 2012. No Comments

by Tara Martin

Haec epistula // est mea
mi composuit idem haud
orbi. Dicere fama quae
natura atque animo pio.
Palmis nuntius eius et
creditur tuitis neque.
Mei — Pectus — ob eam viri
iudicateve leniter.
deus invidus est enim.
observare ita non cum eo
vult ut ludere nolimus
alter malimus altero.

This is my letter to the World
That never wrote to Me —
The simple News that Nature told —
With tender Majesty
Her Message is committed
To Hands I cannot see —
For love of Her — Sweet — countrymen —
Judge tenderly — of me
God is indeed a jealous God —
He cannot bear to see
That we had rather not with Him
But with each other play.

About the Author
Tara Martin is a senior at the College of William & Mary and a member of the
Omega Chapter. While she originally took Latin to fill her language requirement,
it quickly became her favorite class. Tara began transcribing Emily Dickinson into
Latin to get a better grip on grammar, but adding meter turned the poems into a
puzzle more difficult than a newspaper crossword at the end of the week. Writing in
meter required several vocabulary changes and an in-depth review of the metrical
rules of Latin. Virgil working at about a line a day was an impressive feat.