N o .126
T he T rusty S ervant
Monumentum Aere Perennius
Tim Giddings (Co Ro, 09-) and his VI
Book 2 Latin set do some verse composition.
A recurring nightmare faced by every
classicist is being asked, ‘What does
that mean, then?’ as their interlocutor
points to some illegible inscription full
of abbreviations and obscure vocabulary.
Without the historian’s excuse of ‘It’s
not my period’, we do our best and fudge
the rest. With nearly every surface of
Winchester College inscribed with a
Latin epitaph, a Classics don here at
least gets plenty of practice. And with
my VI Book 2 Latin set freshly primed
by translating a selection of Horace’s
odes into English verse for the Stephen
Spender Prize, I was pleased to oblige
when I was contacted last June by Rear
Admiral Kit Layman CB DSO LVO (A,
51-55):
‘We are restoring a 1613 monument
to an ancestor, Sir Richard Mille, in
nearby Nursling Church. Here is a
photograph of what it should look like:
at the moment it is all in scattered
pieces, and the unfortunate lady, who
is made of alabaster, has been broken in
half – but the excellent restorers say this
sometimes happens, and all will be well.
You can see at the top of the monument
a Latin inscription. What is needed is an
elegant translation to be displayed by the
restored monument.
But, motivated by a kind offer of reward,
we produced the following version,
with hopefully not too many hideous
inversions to force the rhyme.
We used the proceeds to fund a Lucullan
feast in a Kingsgate St garden in our final
hour of Cloister Time. cenabis bene, mi
Fabulle.
In this same tomb lie mother, son and wife;
Each to the others worthy throughout life.
The mother after four score years of breath
Threw off her mortal coil in noble death.
Her son was Hampshire’s fortress
and her fame,
A military man in more than name.
His wife came from a noble Cheshire line,
A Savage, famed for countless soldiers fine.
Her purity of life earned her a name
No other wife from North or South
could claim.
In life their pious deeds and conscience clear
Did first to man and then to God endear.
Their worth has built the mound
wherein they lie:
From men their loving hearts,
from God the sky.
‘I thought the verse part of the
inscription could properly go into heroic
couplets. I have tried to dust off my
Latin of 66 years ago, and have found it
not really up to the task, even allowing
myself a rather disgraceful amount of
translator’s freedom: I fear only β- - -.
We and the vicar and everybody would
be extraordinarily pleased for some help.’
In these post-Prufrock days where rhyme
and strict metre are rarely seen in poetry
written after prep school, 4L found the
rigours of heroic couplets challenging.
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