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quislibetLatin for Gamers: Intertextuality
Gamer-speak is very allusive (like the language of the Tamarians). The habit of quoting (or misquoting) poignant lines from (un)pop-cultural sources is found as much around the gaming table as it is in any other moment in a gamer's life (if there are others). It enables the gamer to participate in the rich cultural heritage of dorkdom, to display competitively his or her vast knowledge of this heritage, and to fill up gaps in conversation when an original thought simply will not do.
So we'd better translate some of these puppies into Latin. I have had to be highly selective; I could do an entire installment, no doubt, with quotations from just Star Wars or Monty Python, but I think we all get enough of that as it is. In a few cases I had to make sure of the exact wording of the originals -- and that, my friends, is what the internet is for.
In one instance I have "translated" a line from Star Wars with a line from the Heautontimoroumenos. How cool is that?
It's only a flesh wound.
Leve vulnus tantum in carne accepi.
Look at the bones!
Ecce adspicite ossia!
Have fun storming the castle!
Fruamini expugnando castello!
I never drink ... wine.
Numquam bibo ... vinum.
No, Luke, I am your father!
Minime, Luci! Ego sum pater tuus!
Today is a good day to die.
Hodiernus dies aptus est ad moriendum.
I attack the darkness!
Tenebras oppugno!
You have chosen wisely.
Sapienter elegisti.
To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women.
Opprimere hostes, videre eos ante te agi, audire lamentationes mulierum.
You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
Numquam invenies latibulum abiectius sentinae nequitiaeque.
Spoooooooon!
Cooooooooochleare!
There is no spoon.
Cochleare non est.
I'll be back.
Reveniam.
I have a cunning plan.
Est mihi callidum consilium
I've got a bad feeling about this.
Nescio quid profecto mi animus praesagit mali.
I see you shiver with antici - pation.
Vos video horrentes ob exspecta - tionem.
Laugh it up, fuzzball!
Perride, lanate!
Daddy needs a new Sword of Wounding!
Tata eget gladio novo incantato ad vulnerandum!
He's dead, Jim.
Mortuus est, Jacobe.
My Precioussss!
Pretiosisssssimum!
Don't speak Latin in front of the books, Xander.
Noli latine loqui libros coram, Alexander.
Gamer-speak is very allusive (like the language of the Tamarians). The habit of quoting (or misquoting) poignant lines from (un)pop-cultural sources is found as much around the gaming table as it is in any other moment in a gamer's life (if there are others). It enables the gamer to participate in the rich cultural heritage of dorkdom, to display competitively his or her vast knowledge of this heritage, and to fill up gaps in conversation when an original thought simply will not do.
So we'd better translate some of these puppies into Latin. I have had to be highly selective; I could do an entire installment, no doubt, with quotations from just Star Wars or Monty Python, but I think we all get enough of that as it is. In a few cases I had to make sure of the exact wording of the originals -- and that, my friends, is what the internet is for.
In one instance I have "translated" a line from Star Wars with a line from the Heautontimoroumenos. How cool is that?
It's only a flesh wound.
Leve vulnus tantum in carne accepi.
Look at the bones!
Ecce adspicite ossia!
Have fun storming the castle!
Fruamini expugnando castello!
I never drink ... wine.
Numquam bibo ... vinum.
No, Luke, I am your father!
Minime, Luci! Ego sum pater tuus!
Today is a good day to die.
Hodiernus dies aptus est ad moriendum.
I attack the darkness!
Tenebras oppugno!
You have chosen wisely.
Sapienter elegisti.
To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women.
Opprimere hostes, videre eos ante te agi, audire lamentationes mulierum.
You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
Numquam invenies latibulum abiectius sentinae nequitiaeque.
Spoooooooon!
Cooooooooochleare!
There is no spoon.
Cochleare non est.
I'll be back.
Reveniam.
I have a cunning plan.
Est mihi callidum consilium
I've got a bad feeling about this.
Nescio quid profecto mi animus praesagit mali.
I see you shiver with antici - pation.
Vos video horrentes ob exspecta - tionem.
Laugh it up, fuzzball!
Perride, lanate!
Daddy needs a new Sword of Wounding!
Tata eget gladio novo incantato ad vulnerandum!
He's dead, Jim.
Mortuus est, Jacobe.
My Precioussss!
Pretiosisssssimum!
Don't speak Latin in front of the books, Xander.
Noli latine loqui libros coram, Alexander.
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no subject
Date: 2004-01-13 03:19 pm (UTC)Noli latine loqui libros coram, Alexander.
I just used this line (in English, and without the 'Xander') as the header for a section of one of my syllabi; I'm not sure whether to be disappointed that I didn't think to use the Latin or pleased that it's a line worth including on this list. I'll have to remain resolutely ambivalent.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-13 08:05 pm (UTC)