Karla



I Fontanasalsa

I found the metrical haiku a welcome invitation to get my feet wet with Latin quantities, and what better subject than the exquisite hospitality of Fontanasalsa?

Fontanasalsa
hospitibus studia
iucunda praebet

Metrical Haiku

Translation: Fontanasalsa offers to guests pleasant pastimes

II Dog and Dogstar

The vigilant ministrations of the six dogs of Fontanasalsa held no end of fascination for most of us. As we sweltered and sought shade under the centuries-old vine in the courtyard, I couldn’t believe how they would seek out a sunny spot to stretch out for a nap in their thick fur coats between the arrivals and departures that demanded their attention.

nunc iam Sirius aster haud amoenus
latrans intrat in omnium latebras;
torporem insuperabilem perosus
infundit canibus perenne stratis

Meter: Hendecasyllables

Translation: Now Sirius, (dog-)star most unpleasant. baying enters retreats where all take refuge; loathed, he doles out lethargy to dogs forever napping, unresisting.

III Charioteer of Motya

We took a field trip to Motya, an island colony where centuries ago pre-Punic Phoenicians manufactured and traded purple dye from murex shells and harvested salt from salt pans, still in use today. There, the so-called Charioteer of Motya, a larger than life-sized marble sculpture of Greek manufacture was pulled from the earth in 1979. After a whirlwind tour of great European museums, he has returned to the island where he was discovered to grace the Whitaker museum. Plenty of educated guesses have been made about his provenance and how he wound up in Motya, his face deeply scarred already in antiquity, but we will never know for sure the answers to our questions. He became the subject of my single elegiac couplet:

ostrifera insula clausit te pulcherrime pubes
     sed de aetate tuo denique mutus eris

Meter: Elegiac Couplet

Translation: An island of oysters concealed you, most beautiful young man, but in the end, about your times, you will remain silent.