I memorized it in Latin, and Latin Per Diem on YouTube is a great place to start. I do NOT read Latin. I can read this particular short section of this one text in Latin because I've worked on it, just like your average Catholic in the days before Vatican II could read the Nicene creed in Latin--engaged repitition and familiarity over time lends itself to understanding.
However, memorizing English texts is also helpful; in college I spent a good deal of time committing literature to memory, so that 15 years later I can still recall several pages of Tennyson, Keats, Frost, Burns and Shakespeare, among others. If you think about the hours and hours of song lyrics that most dedicated listeners can call upon, 75 lines of Lucretius is small potatoes, yet very rewarding.
My favorite verse translation is Rolfe Humphries. I'm less picky when it comes to prose.
For me, it's the Tetrapharmakos in ancient Greek.
I have used that in English as well. I once locked myself out of my apartment wearing shorts and flip flops in chilly weather, and had to walk fourteen blocks at night to my sister's place to get the spare key. I spent the time explaining the Tetrapharmakos to an imaginary audience in my head, and passed the time pleasantly enough.
I memorized it in Latin, and Latin Per Diem on YouTube is a great place to start.
I don't think I have seen this before, but I've watched few now and he does a great job.
I can read this particular short section of this one text in Latin because I've worked on it, just like your average Catholic in the days before Vatican II could read the Nicene creed in Latin
I have always felt the same way.
Dear, Kalosyni, in my case, I've been memorizing it, naturally, in Spanish. I like these parts from the first verses of Book I:
te, dea, te fugiunt venti, te nubila caeli adventumque tuum (I, 5-6)
(Eng.) Before thee, Goddess, and thy coming on, Flee stormy wind and massy cloud away
(Span.) De ti diosa, huyen los vientos, tu ahuyentas los nubarrones
Nam tu sola potes tranquilla pace iuvare mortalis (I, 31-2)
(Eng.) For thou alone hast power with public peace To aid mortality.
(Span.) Pues sola eres tú la que puede de paz serena a los hombres alivio mandar
I like to repeat them, because I think Lucretius may be talking not only about Venus, but, in a free interpretation, about pleasure itself.
When pleasure is present, the stormy clouds of pain and suffering go away (like in verses 5-6). And when we are in trouble, the only thing that can helps us is pleasure (only pleasure brings peace to us, mortals, like in verses 31-2).
I especially like the new find of Herculanean scripture: "They have nothing to say about pleasure." This is a simple but very powerful statement that unveils the emptiness of every argument that isn't rooted in our fundamental nature ( the opponents would disagree, but it's still hard to disagree with something elemental like searching for positive emotions).
"They have nothing to say about pleasure."
We might have to steal that line and feature it our our podcast tomorrow, which we are recording with Don ! thanks for the reminder!
LUKE FARRITOR: (Reading) They have nothing to say about pleasure, either in general or in the particular, when it is a question of definition.
"They have nothing to say about pleasure."
We might have to steal that line and feature it our our podcast tomorrow, which we are recording with Don ! thanks for the reminder!
Did you manage to discuss the line?
No! We forgot! But I will put it in line for this next episode!
