Having spent some portion of my education simultaneously engaging and avoiding Greek and Latin, I have nothing but sympathy and admiration for those who persist in making Classics their life's work. I know that this sounds a little sarcastic, but honestly, it's not. Most people won't make the argument that our students/graduates don't need to know how to write, but classical languages don't benefit from the same perception or protection.
That's a serious open for what is actually a post about a hilarious site that came across Metafilter today. A LiveJournaler has posted a translation of one of the top ten guilty pleasure one-hit wonders of the 1990s. Yes, it's a translation, into Latin (and back again) of Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back." I know that this song is wrong, on so many levels, but I fell over laughing while reading the translation. To wit:
clunes, aio, maiores esse!
(Her buttocks, I say, are rather large!)
nec possum credere quam rotondae sint.
(Nor am I able to believe how round they are.)
Needless to say, it's not quite in meter. But it makes me appreciate the Web just a little bit more knowing it's out there. Enjoy.
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