Friday, January 26, 2007

Homerida

Det är fredag, den vackra snön har försvunnit, flaggan har varit på halv stång utanför bibblan idag och jag har ingen aning om varför, mina händer luktar billigt kaffe och kära handledaren har sänt mig en tvåsidors stil (text att översätta till latin) som består av meningar av denna typ: "Vilken människa är inte olycklig-inte bara när han ansätts av svåra smärtor, om han menar att det högsta onda består däri, utan även därför att han vet att detta kan hända honom?".

Vi tar och muntrar upp oss med en gammal artikel från The Onion; You Are No Longer Welcome In The Homer Reading Group:

"Then, as you well know, you are no longer welcome in the Homer reading group.

I was completely serious. You are either in my reading group, or you are in Kouri's Virgil Symposium. A woman cannot drink from two fountains at once, nor can she butter her bread on three sides. You've been sneaking about and I've caught you, so get out. No, do not finish your ouzo. Just go.

Childish? How is that childish? Please, I'd like to know.

Yes, well, that's all very interesting. As much as I hate to interrupt that fascinating monologue, I'm afraid you're wasting the others' valuable learning time. Gather up your vocabulary cards and parsing sheets. Take your lists of Attic equivalents and Homeric exceptions from the push-board in the hall. You may return my Smyth and pay any outstanding copy-charge fees by campus mail. For now, . You are no longer invited to my birthday.

No, it's out of the question. I am afraid you have wounded me, and the wound cannot so easily be healed, two-faced woman of apologies. I might reconsider, were it not for the litany of kicks and bruises I have received: your ignorance of the dual, your difficulty with the circumstantial participle, your tendency to conflate clauses of natural and actual result.
...
Oh, now I am getting a migraine. This is too-too sad-making. Let us be graceful, I beg you. As in book XXIV, line 507, when Achilles looks down upon Priam, supplicant at his feet, I am weary with lamentations and grief. Please, do not make a scene. Let us not go through the unkind motions of returning gifts. As a gesture of goodwill, I shall accept those last two chocolates.

I said I shall accept and eat those chocolates. . Yes, goodbye then, and take care not to let the door slam. Now, who in the audience—who in the group, I mean, can give me the third person singular, aorist optative middle for ? The dative plural for lie? The nominative singular for woman? The accusative singular for good teacher? Go. ! Excuse me, I believe that pencil belongs to the group"

2 comments:

Erika said...

Underbart! Helt enkelt underbart.

ChW said...

Aj, säger jag.