“We’re so distracted by how things end, we usually forget how beautiful the beginning was.”
— Ryan Vandeput
“We’re so distracted by how things end, we usually forget how beautiful the beginning was.”
— Ryan Vandeput
“Nolite te bastardes carborundorum, bitches”
— Margaret Atwood; The Haidmaid’s Tale.
(broken Latin, meaning ‘don’t let the bastards grind you down’)
Many will recognise this quote from Margaret Atwood’s 1985 dystopian novel ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ (and the subsequent – and epic – Hulu adaptation for the small screen). But where does this ‘fake’ Latin phrase originate? Michael Fontaine, a classics professor from Cornell University; and this blog’s author, Ryan Vandeput, an English Literature Masters Graduate from the University of Leicester, took their best guesses.
“It was likely an old school joke, for those who took Latin class. It’s not really ‘true’ Latin; rather, it sounds like something a school pupil made up for fun. It might even be something Margaret Atwood remembers from her schooling & childhood” surmised Vandeput. Another similar Latin joke phrase with the same supposed translation is “illegitimi non carborundorum,” which Fontaine noted was equally fake—though it’s perhaps a little more legit as Latin, since it at least doesn’t use the made-up “bastardes.”
“Illegitimi is a real Latin word,” Fontaine continues. “It could indeed mean ‘bastards’ (though it’s not the usual word, which is spurius or nothos).”
“My guess is that c. 1890-1900, some American people thought it would be funny to pretend like ‘carborundum’ was actually a Latin word meaning ‘needing to be worn down’ or (making allowances for ignorance, which is surely part of it) ‘to wear down.’ If the phrase was originally illegitimis non carborundum, then the original idea was that ‘there must not be a wearing down (of you) by the bastards,’ or in plain English, ‘don’t let the bastards get you down.’ Either then or soon after, illegitimis would have become illegitimi, which changes the grammar, but most English speakers can’t tell because our grammar doesn’t work that way. That would pretty quickly give you illegitimi non carborundum”
“The key to the mystery is knowing that carborundum was a trade name (for an abrasive scrubbing powder used for cleaning),” he continued. “Whatever it was, it’s not in use any more, so we’ve lost all memory of it. Nowadays it just looks like a strange, broken Latin word to us,” Fontaine concluded.
— Ryan Vandeput, 2018
www.karinpark.com
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www.last.fm/music/Karin+Park
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www.itunes.apple.com/gb/album/highwire-poetry-deluxe-edition/id525778296
Spring was never waiting for us, girl
It ran one step ahead
As we followed in the dance
Between the parted pages and were pressed,
In love’s hot, fevered iron
Like a striped pair of pants
MacArthur Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down…
Someone left the cake out in the rain
and I don’t think that I can take it
‘cause it took so long to bake it
and I’ll never have that recipe again
Oh, no! I recall the yellow cotton dress
foaming like a wave
on the ground around your knees
The birds, like tender babies in your hands
and the old men playing checkers by the trees
MacArthur Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down…
Someone left the cake out in the rain
and I don’t think that I can take it
’cause it took so long to bake it
and I’ll never have that recipe again
Oh, no! (BRIDGE)
There will be another song for me
For I will sing it
There will be another dream for me
Someone will bring it
I will drink the wine while it is warm
and never let you catch me looking at the sun
And after all the loves of my life
after all the loves of my life
You’ll still be the one.
I will take my life into my hands
and I will use it
I will win the worship in their eyes
and I will lose it
I will have the things that I desire
and my passion flow like rivers through the sky.
And after all the loves of my life
After all the loves of my life
I’ll be thinking of you
and wondering why. MacArthur Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet, green icing flowing down…
Someone left the cake out in the rain
and I don’t think that I can take it
’cause it took so long to bake it
and I’ll never have that recipe again
Oh, no!
What is this life if full of care
We have no time to stand and stare?
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep, or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this, if full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
© William Henry Davies 1871 – 1940
~ Contra Omnia Discrimina
I swear I was born right in the doorway
I went out in the rain suddenly everything changed
They’re spreading blankets on the beachYours is the first face that I saw
I think I was blind before I met you
Now I don’t know where I am
I don’t know where I’ve been
But I know where I want to go
And so I thought I’d let you know
That these things take forever
I especially am slow
But I realize that I need you
And I wondered if I could come homeRemember the time you drove all night
Just to meet me in the morning
And I thought it was strange you said everything changed
You felt as if you’d just woke up
And you said “this is the first day of my life
I’m glad I didn’t die before I met you
But now I don’t care I could go anywhere with you
And I’d probably be happy”
So if you want to be with me
With these things there’s no telling
We just have to wait and see
But I’d rather be working for a paycheck
Than waiting to win the lottery
Besides maybe this time is different
I mean I really think you like me
My love for you is deeper than the depths of any ocean,
And as faithful as the stars that grace the night,
As constant as the sun making its journey through heavens,
and we’ll always be together you and I.
[Chorus]
Together you and I can stop the rain
and make the sun shine.
Paint a pretty rainbow,
brushed with love across the sky,
Together you and I belong,
like a songbird and a song and we’ll always be together you and I
Life with you is sweeter than the fragrance of the flowers
And as happy as the laughter of a child
As peaceful as a river and as lasting as forever
you know we’ll always be together you and I
[Chorus]
I always be beside or close behind you.
Wherever you go,
you’ll always know I’ll always find you
[Chorus]
We’ll always be together,
you and I Forever together, forever you and I
(forever you and I)
Forever together, together you and I will always be
(together, together)
Together, you and I… ~~~
{Contra Omnia Discrimina}
Dedicated to Travis Toogood for asking me the question of all questions on the 4th July 2011 – Our Independence Day.