Re: Reactions to the secret vice (was: Steg's wonderful sig.)

On Tue, 9 Nov 1999, Barry Garcia wrote:

> DMorris12@aol.com writes:
> >  Just a plug for Latin: the greatest poet I ever read (well, in my humble
> >opinion) was this guy Catullus.  Now this was in high school, and so we
> >were'nt supposed to read the "racy" poems.  Of course, these were the
> >ones we
> >translated with glee, and I'll just say that there's at least one ancient
> >who
> >has a lot of..interesting...things to say.
>
>
> Hmm, maybe Catullus could change my mind. I just never got into it because
> it seemed so dry and clinical to me (i.e. like describing a medical
> condition when conversing in it).I'll have to search for his stuff .
It only sounds clinical because (to English speaking ears, that is) Latin
lacks imagry in our language.  For example, "catch" has a nice image to
it, but "impede" does not -- in English.  But of course "impede" comes
from Latin roots meaning "to stick your foot in it", which is a much more
vivid image (if you knwo that), than just "catch".  The trick, of course,
is knowing that.