Foreign-language poetry composition

General Chat
1

A thread in which language learners can make poems and correct each other.

Epulum
Seruí crámum pulsant
Coquus pulsat seruós
Ancillae álium conterunt
Moderátríx conterit ancillás
Conuíuae uínum pótant
Uínum pótat suós pudórés
Uter famulí et dominós dolébunt crás.

Banquet
The slaves beat the cream
The cook beats the slaves
The maids bruise the garlic
The mistress bruises the maids
The guests drink up the wine
The wine drinks up their senses
Both the servants and masters will be suffering tomorrow.

Queréla Áleátóris
Uir saeuissimus tú es
Pecúniam omnís meam in taberná potítus es
– Circulós argenteós
– Uíllam meam in Neápolí
– Etiam soleam
– Tamen honórem meum potíris nequís!

The Gambler’s Lament
You are the cruelest of men
You’ve taken all my money in the tavern
– Silver rings
– My villa in Naples
– Even my shoes
– But you cannot take my dignity!

Facultás
Míles Rómánus potest obstruit Graecós duós
Gallus potest obstruit Rómánós trés
Et fornicátríx Aegyptí potest obstruit uirós decem ad diés quattuor.

Skills
A Roman soldier can stop two Greeks
A Gaul can stop three Romans
And an Egyptian whore can stop ten men for four days.

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Ενδιαφέρουσα μου φάνηκε, ετούτη η ιδέα
θα γράψουμε στιχάκια μεγάλα και σπουδαία
μετά όμως εσκέφτηκα πως κάτι πάει στραβά
σε γλώσσες άγνωστες όλα μοιάζουν παλαβά

Στίχοι, ρίμες, λέξεις όμορφες και δαντελένια μέτρα
Μοιάζουνε σαν να γράφτηκαν σε άψυχη πάνω πέτρα
και τόσα εδώ που γράφω ποιος θα τα καταλάβει
εαν το λεξικό δίπλα του μαζί δεν περιλάβει;

Ok, it rhymes in Greek, but here is the translation:

Summary

Interesting I found, this new idea
we would write verses grand and amazing
but then I thought that something is going wrong
in unknown languages everything looks weird

Verses, rhymes, words beautiful and lacy meters
they all look like they were written on a soulless rock
and all that I am writting right now, who will understand
if they do not take a lexicon, right beside their stand

ok ok I tried to make the translation rhyme at least at the end of it :stuck_out_tongue:

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Céna Uitellií
Cerasa in múribus
In sturnís
In mellibus
In columbís
In súbus
In capreolís
In búbus
In camélís
In rhínocerótibus
In elephantís
—
Ménsa Príma

Vitellius’ Dinner
Cherries in mice
In starlings
In honey
In doves
In pigs
In goats
In cows
In camels
In rhinos
In elephants
—
First Course

Uénátor Múricum
Múrex maximé callidus sum
Múrex maximé magnus sum
Múrex maximé celer sum
Ergo múrex maximé cárus sum.

The Murex Hunter
The murex is very cunning
The murex is very large
The murex is very fast
So the murex is very expensive.

Míles In Múrum
Quid est in septentriónem, píca parua?
Féminae bellae estne?
Mónstra et rés foedás estne?
Urbés grandia estne?
Siue estne modo uentus, pluuiam, siluamque mútam?

Soldier on the Wall
What lies to the north, little magpie?
Pretty girls?
Monsters and foul things?
Grand cities?
Or only rain, wind, and silent woods?

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It’s not good by any means, but it’s a poem. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

秋风起，夏日去
听声音，别再哭
床过大，睡不足
谁在意，顺着路
痛，脑海的真相
望，远方的家乡
心，爱情的遗忘
怨，失去的力量
青春瞬间就逃脱
百爪挠心还犯错

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Tengo un silla
silla es bajo y gris
silla es bueno

Ok so idk much spanish but I wanted to make a post in here so I tried making a haiku in spanish. It is supposed to say
"I have a chair
Chair is short and grey
Chair is good"
in english so please correct me if anyone notices an error cause I’m not confident in my spanish.

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Modi Romanum
Ad septentrio, barbaros
Ad oriens, arenas
Ad auster, beluas
Ad occidens, undas modo.

The Bounds of Rome
To the north, savages
To the east, deserts
To the south, wild beasts
To the west, only the waves.

Placitum ad Britannis
O Druidae atroces
Quid uirgines pulchras teneras multas caedunt?
Alique huc tradite!

Plea to the Britons
Cruel Druids,
Why must you butcher so many pretty young girls?
Send some over here!

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A long time ago, I tried translating one ancient Greek poem into Rumantsch, keeping the structure of the stanzas. It wasn’t easy, and it doesn’t help if you know the language almost only from dictionaries. I should read more.

El ma para d’esser egual als dieus, quist
hom chi sta tschantà visavi da tai e
das-cha taidler co cha tü til pledontast
e co tü riast

dutsch e fich dalettaivel, e quai pelvaira
fa üna gronda temm‘ a meis cour; perquai cha
sch‘eir be ün tschüt jau’t dun, mia vusch nu sorta
pü da la bocca,

mia leua schirancla, ün fö stiglischem
tuot dandettamaing suot la pel ma cuorra,
cun meis ögls nu vezzi pü zist, plain schuschu-
röz las uraglias,

la süur fraida cul‘ a filun, jau trembl
dapertuot, pü sblacha co l’erba sütta
suna, e pac bsögnar a bod esser morta
par‘ a mai svessa.

It goes like this

He seems to be equal to the gods, this
man who’s sitting face-to-face to you and
may listen as you talk to him and smile

sweetly and very pleasantly; and this indeed
frightens my heart very much; because
even when I just look at you, my voice won’t exit
from my mouth anymore,

my tounge stumbles, a subtle fire
suddenly crawls under my skin,
with my eyes I can’t see shit, full of buzz-
ing are my ears,

cold sweat is dripping, I’m shaking
everywhere, I’m paler than dry grass,
and it doesn’t take much to be almost dead,
so it seems to myself.

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@bugcat

It’s kinda strange to see modern aesthetics expressed in Latin, but I quite like it. Also weird is that the Murex-hunter obviously claims to be a murex himself, using sum, but okay. Now that I look at your poems more closely, you still suffer from putting singular verbs on plural subjects (estne) and accusatives where you should use nominatives (pluuiam, silumaque mutam)

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:rofl:

And soon, you’ll be able to do something like this:

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lol wut

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In een Nimweegs cafe
zat een man die las de krant.
Hij keek op en zag twee go spelers
en zei vol verbazing:
"Kie deur, se spele met snuupkes.

Sorry, untranslatable :crazy_face:

EDIT: @KAOSkonfused, @Haze_with_a_Z, @bugcat, do you understand dutch?
Cool !

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Autumnus
Cum folia robiginosa ex arbores delabentur
Et flamina dulcia riuos siluae super spirabunt
Cum terra balanos et castaneas operient
Et ursi in cauis sua se abdent
Nos cum cornua et canes uenabimur
Et in nemora frondosa comisabimur!

Autumn
When the rusty leaves come tumbling from the trees
And pleasant drafts blow over the forest streams
When acorns and chestnuts cover the ground
And the bears retreat into their caves
Then we will go hunting with horns and hounds
And make merry in the leafy glades!

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Most of it, although not the end…

What are snuupkes?
And I also don’t know what “Kie deur” means.

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Snuupkes are candies. It is the way people from Nijmegen (just over the border near Kleve/Emmerich) pronounce snoepjes.
Kie deur means kijk daar eens (look over there).

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Also, it only makes sense if you’re aware these are popular Dutch candy:

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Ah, I didn’t know that!
In Germany, we have these white and pink chocolate candies that have the exact shape (and roughly the size) of Go stones, but that is even better.

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Nope. I had a go once, but to no avail. I know many English speakers say that Dutch is the easiest language to naturally understand, but personally I’ve found Swedish and even Latin better.

I have very little idea of what a typical Dutch sentence means.

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I like this one. Nemora frondosa is a good vergilian phrase. Would you like me to correct some grammar here in a PM?

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Sure, or do it LLL – either’s fine. Or here, for that matter. I know I’m full of error, it’s no secret~ c:

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Not sure my possessives are right here :expressionless:

Carmen Famis
Militi panem et poscam suus sunt
Imperatori crustula et uinum aureolum sua sunt
Barbaris sanguinem equi et hydromel suus sunt
Tamen modo folia acria citri mi :c

Famine Song
To the soldier his bread and posca
To the Emperor his cakes and fine wine
To the barbarians their horse blood and mead
But all I have are bitter lemon-leaves

1 Like