Cambridge Latin Course, 4th Edition
Lingua Latina
Wheelock's Latin
And of course if you have any questions, please reach out to me! You should all have my number!
Back in high school, I translated Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody to Latin as my final project for A.P. Latin. The translation is as follows; how much of it do you understand? If a letter is in parentheses, it is elided (omitted) and you can think of as silent when singing the song. If a phrase is in brackets, that's just me noting that it's sung in the background.
English
Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide
No escape from reality.
Open your eyes.
Look up to the skies and see.
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy
Because I'm easy come, easy go
Little high, little low.
Anyway the wind blows,
Doesn't really matter to me, to me.
Mama, just killed a man.
Put a gun against his head
Pulled my trigger, now he's dead.
Mama, life had just begun
But now I've gone and thrown it all away.
Mama, ooh ooh.
Didn't mean to make you cry
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow
Carry on, carry on, as if nothing really matters.
Too late, my time has come.
Sends shivers down my spine
Body's aching all the time.
Goodbye everybody, I've got to go.
Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth.
Mama, ooh ooh [any way the wind blows]
I don't want to die
I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all.
Instrumental
I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouche, Scaramouche will you do the Fandango?
Thunderbolt and lightning very very frightening me.
Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Figaro. Magnifico.
I'm just a poor boy; nobody loves me.
He's just a poor boy from a poor family.
Spare him his life from this monstrosity.
Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?
Bismillah, no, we will not let you go. Let him go!
Bismillah, we will not let you go. Let him go!
Bismillah, we will not let you go. Let me go!
[We will not let you go.] Let me go!
[Never, never let you go.] Let me go!
[Never let me go.]
Oh, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Oh mamma mia, mamma mia,
Mamma mia, let me go.
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me
for me, for me!
So you think you can stop me and spit in my eye!
So you think you can love me and leave me to die!
Oh baby, can't do this to me baby!
Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here.
Instrumental
Oh, oh, oh yeah, oh, oh yeah.
Instrumental
Nothing really matters.
Anyone can see.
Nothing really matters.
Nothing really matters to me.
Instrumental
Any way the wind blows.
Latin
vitane vera?
aut modo fabula?
est capta lapsu?
quo non est verum fugiendum?
aper(i) oc(u)los.
aspici caelos, vide.
modo sum pauper, quaero non aliquid
qui(a) ego s(um)(h)umilis aeternum
surs(um) infra (a)liquando.
ubicumque spirat
ventus non importat mihi, mihi.
mamma, mar(em) occidi.
pistolio pro capite
press(i) itaque mortu(u)s est.
mamma, vit(a) inceperat.
sed iam, perdidi meam qualecumque.
mamma, ooh, ooh.
nolui tu lacrimes.
si non tempor(e) ego hoc cras reddibo.
supera, supera, sicut nihil est sonticus.
sero, moriendus sum.
perterret m(e) unique
corpus semper me dolet
valet(e), universi; eundus sum.
mihi relinquendi (e)stis pet(am) ut verum.
mamma, ooh, ooh [qualibet spirat]
nolo cadere
vol(o) aliquand(o) omnino (e)sse natus non.
Instrumentalis
vir(i) ego miro parv(am) adumbrationem
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, fandangonemne saltas?
fulmen tunitrusque atrocissimi mihi
Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Galileo, Figaro. Magnifico.
modo sum pauper, amat nemo me.
modo pauper est, pauper(e) origine.
parc(e) eius vitae de his asperis
cit(o) eo, et venio, liberaborne?
Bismillah, vah, non liberabimus. liber sit!
Bismillah, non liberabimus. liber sit!
Bismillah, non liberabimus. liber sim!
numquam liber sis! liber sim!
numquam liber sis!
[numquam liber sim!]
Ei, vae, vae, vae, vae, vae, vae, vae.
mamma mea, mamma me(a)
amabo te me libera.
Beelzebub mod(o) (h)abet diabolum mihi
mihi, mihi!
ergo vis inhibere m(e) et despuer(e) in oculum
ergo vis me amar(e) etsi miraris moriar
o de'liciae, non potes tu, deliciae!
egrediendus sum, egrediendus sum, perditim!
Instrumentalis
ooh, ooh, ita, ita.
Instrumentalis
non importat nihil.
quisquam conspicit.
non importat nihil.
non importat nihil mihi.
Instrumentalis
ut animae spirant.
Another project of mine was my translation of the first few pages of my favorite childhood book. For this one, I'll only present the Latin. Can you guess what book it is? How much of it can you understand? To see the rest of what I have translated, you'll have to see me in person.
CAPVT I
CASV DOCTRICEM PRAEALGEBRAICAM CAEDO
eho, nolebam esse heros.
si hoc legis quia te cogitas heroem esse, tibi est consilium meum: nunc claude hoc librum. crede cuicui mendacio quod tibi mater vel pater dixerit, conareque vitam bonam agere.
esse heros est periculosum. est terribile. saepe efficit mortem in modis turpibus dolorosisque.
si es iuvenis naturalis et legis quod cogitas hoc modo esse fabulam, mane legeque! tibi invideo credenti nihil horum umquam factum esse.
sed si te agnoscas his paginis—si sentias aliquid surgens intra te—siste statim. forsitan es unus nostri. et simulatque noscas, cito quoque ei sensient teque petent.
noli dicere me non te monuisse.
praenomen mihi est Perseus Ioannis.
duodecim annos habeo. usque ad paucos menses abhinc eram discipulus habitatorque Yancy Academiae, scholae secundariae privatae in Novo Eboraco boreale.
sumne iuvenis turbidus?
ita. potes dicere hoc.
possum incipere in ulla parte vitae miserabilis brevis meae ut id probem, sed mala verissime inceperunt proximo mense Maio, ubi nostra classa sexti gradus iter fecit ad Manhatam—viginti sex discipuli vacerrosi duoque magistri, euntes ad Museum Metropolitanum Artis ad res antiquas graecas romanasque videndum.
intellego—videtur sicut tormentum. plurima itinera Yancy sic fuerunt.
sed doctor Brunner, noster doctor linguae latinae, iter ducturus erat, itaque spes habebam.
doctor Brunner erat vir aetatis mediae in sella rotali motoria. habebat comam tenuantem et barbam incomptam et tuedae tunicam manuleatam retextam, quae semper cafea fragrabat. non prima specie videtur iucundus, sed fabulas iocosque narrabat ac nobis permittebat ludere in classe. quoque habebat collectionem miram armorum telorumque Romanorum, itaque erat doctor unicus cuius classis non me fatigabat.
speravi ut iter hoc bonum sit. saltem speravi non quidem castigari.
eheu erravi.
comprehendite, mala me obtingit in itinere. exempli gratia in schola mea quinti gradus, ubi ad loco pugnae Saratogae venerunt, casum passus sum cum tormento Belli Rerum Novarum. non laophori scholari intendi, sed scilicet nihilominus expelsus sum. ac ante hoc, in schola mea quarti gradus, ubi circumiimus piscina pistrium Mundi Marini, forte vectem mendosum pressi in semita classisque nostra erat ad paulum natandum. et antequam hoc … o ideam capis.
hoc itinere certus ad agendum bene eram.