Saturday, November 15, 2014

Telling details …

… Lucky Bones by Peter Meinke | Fox Chase Review.



Meinke may be tired of the Vatican's "moribund language," but Latin happens to be the Vatican's official language, and those of us classically educated remain fond of it. How familiar with it do you have to be before growing tired of it?

2 comments:

  1. The reviewer appears to have mis-transcribed a Latin line from Meinke's poem, which I found elsewhere online. It's "Habemus papam," not "Habemus papum," the former being the accusative, and correct, while the latter isn't even a Latin word. Terrible pedantry, I know, but it's the sort of thing that jumps out at those of us to whom Latin still matters...

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  2. You are quite right. Shame on me for not noticing. I can still remember Cardinal Ottaviano announcing the election of Pope John XXIII, sounding for all the world like Don Vito Corleone.

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