AVE OGDEN! NASH IN LATIN Translated by JAMES C. GLEESON and BRIAN
N. MEYER 94 pages. Little, Brown. $5.95. This small volume of Ogden Nash's better verse translated into Latin was
put together, no doubt, to amuse those admirable scholars who actually
understand Latin. Never mind them. The soul in real need of Nash in
Latin belongs to a middleaged, indifferently educated individual who
once, perhaps 25 years ago, earned an A-minus on a Latin test. Of course this clod does not retain enough usable Latin to translate a
tombstone, but he cannot admit it. What is excellent about the Nash
translations, however, is not only that the English original is on the
facing page but that the poems are
very short. This is a great advance over a famous similar confection of
a few years back called Winnie IIle Pooh. Our ex-Latin student begins wistfully with “In the world of mules/ There
are no rules.” Without pause or hiccup he sprints through “Mundus
mulorum/ Non est regularum.” Triumph! Wistful no longer, the poseur
sweeps on to The panther is like a leopard, Except it hasn 't been peppered. Should you behold a panther crouch, Prepare to say Ouch. Better yet, if called by a panther Don't anther. Latined, this becomes: Panthera leopardo similis est, Nisi quod nan pipere nota est. Si distraheris pantherae flexu, Para dicere Heu. Praestat vocato a panthera, Non respondera. The newly hatched self-confidence man decides that Heu is quite good but
that Non respondera is not up to snuff as a translation of “Don't
anther.” Generally, that sort of Nashian distortion is not handled
really well, the arbiter elegantiarum decides comfortably, but
translations that do not require puns or word twists are sometimes
perfect. Exempli gratia: Strange as it seems, the smallest mammal Is the shrew, and not the camel. And that is all lever knew, Or wish to know, about the shrew. In Latin: Mirabiliter, minimus mammalis Sorex est, et non camelus. Quod est totum quod ego umquam Scivi aut scire de sorice cupiam. It should be added that the amusement provided is roughly doubled if the
reader is running about four degrees of fever John Skow
