HIC LOCUS EST UBI MORS GAUDET SUCCURRERE VITAE

[larvatus]

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                        SAY WHAT?

                                                                                         ÇA ?
                                                                      Tristan Corbière

A treatise? You don’t say! I haven’t treated squat!
A study? Slothful wretch, my culture fetid rot.
A volume? Random heap, sheets stacked in disarray.
Good copy? Not with me enmired in the fray.

A poem? Not today, my lyre is being cleaned.
A book? Of fusty tomes far better to be weaned.
A song? Would that it were, my ear is made of tin.
Fun pastime? Sordid den, dire boredom dwells within.

A cadence? Rhythmic flow is broken by dull grind.
A product? I divide what others multiplied.
A story? Handicapped, my lame and laggard Muse.
Clear proof? My mind is fraught by grief and lit by booze.

High fashion? Wealth and style inform nowhere my dress.
Grandstanding or grand mal? My spasms fail to impress.
Evicted from the hall, I lurk behind the stage,
In transit, poised to choose: a joy house or a cage.

Too old? But to retire, my tenure won’t suffice.
Too young? My hectic life will rid me of this vice.
A sage, a slob, an ace, a master, and a clown,
A stud without a flock, a king without a crown.

THIS is without pretense, and yet a blatant pose.
It’s life and nothing but, confessed in deathless prose.
A masterpiece? Could be, I never made one yet!
A farce? A waste? A bomb? Decide and place your bet!

I bet… and I shall sign herewith my humble name;
My child shall overcome each tainted libel claim.
Through chance it will prevail, its fate a stroke of luck…
Art knows me not at all — and I don’t give a fuck.

                      — traduced by MZ, 6 September 2005

Comments

[irinastan-2000.livejournal.com]

That is weird... I checked the definition of TRADUCE and I found it really intriguing. The same Latin root can engender very different meanings in different languages. In Romance languages the versions of the Latin TRADUCERE (a traduce, traduire, tradurre, traducir, traduzir, etc) mean to TRANSLATE. Whereas in English it means to humiliate. This is a real false friend for Romance language speakers like me...

[larvatus.livejournal.com]

Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged defines “traduce” as follows:

Main Entry: tra·duce
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Form(s): -ed/-ing/-s
Etymology: Latin traducere to lead across, transfer, degrade, from tra-, trans- trans- + ducere to lead -- more at TOW

1 a obsolete : to turn from one language or form into another b : to debase or pervert by translating
2 a : to lower or disgrace the reputation of : expose to shame or blame by utterance of falsehood or misrepresentation <feels that his country is being traduced and its war effort sneered at -- Richard Watts> b : to make mock of : VIOLATE, BETRAY <is traducing our American principle of law that a man is presumed innocent until proven guilty -- Agnes Meyer>
synonym see MALIGN

I mean just what it says, and used to say, as against the original: traditore traduttore.

SS

[(Anonymous)]

Traducere means trading one position or post to another, such as traversing a bridge, a river or anything when one, or thing leaves a space in order to occupy, yet another space. It also means translating, from one form or language to another, the commonality becomes the itinarary of the conection of point A to point B, thus derives the prefix TRADE.
As for the quote" HIC LOCUS EST UBI MORS GUADET SUCCURRERE VITAE" means in French " ICI REPOSE LE CORPS POUR SECURER UNE MEILLEURE VIE,"or in plain English " HERE LIES A BODY IN GUIDANCE OF INPROVED LIVING." OR " A STUDIED AT REST BODY, CREATES GREAT LIVING MINDS,"

Re: SS

[larvatus.livejournal.com]

Les plus fameux amphitéâtres de dissection, sont décorés d’inscriptions qui peignent au naturel ses travaux dont on s’y occupe, & le but utile qui en résulte. Nous nous contenterons de rapporter celle de l’amphitéâtre de Toulouse, & celle de celui de Paris. On lit à Toulouse:
Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae.
    Ici est le lieu où, la mort se plaît à secourir la vie.
    On lit dans l’amphitéâtre des Ecoles de Chirurgie, à Paris, l’inscription suivante, qui est encore plus belle ; elle est de Santeuil ; c’est tout dire.
Ad cædes hominum prisca amphiteatra patebant :
    Ut discant longùm vivere nostra patent.
Voici deux traductions de cette inscription, l’une plus allongée, & l’autre plus serrée.
Dans ses Cirques ouverts l’antiquité barbare
Enseignoit au mortel l’art d’abréger ses jours :
Ici par un secret & plus doux & plus rare
On apprend le moyen d’en prolonger le cours,
                                OU
Le Cirque offroit dans Rome un champ libre au carnage :
Le nôtre enseigne à l’homme à prolonger son âge.

— Pierre Sue, Anecdotes Historiques, Littéraires et Critiques, sur la Médecine, la Chirurgie, & la Pharmacie,
Seconde Partie, Amsterdam, 1785, pp. 98-99