# Remind you of anyone?



## guythegreg (Jun 15, 2012)

It runs thusly in English translation:

"I'm a poet, and improvise in odes
and see now that everyone seeks me out, longs for me,
Everyone competes to get to listen to me;
To lunch this one, and to dinner the other one calls me,
I say what I can, and that which I please,
And these good people praise me
To show that they understand what I sing.

Because if I have to confess the truth to you,
I think that among such a great crowd who would hear me,
Not a single dog understands an entire line of verse;
Just as I myself would not understand it.
One day a thought crossed my mind,
To sing the Hail Mary in Hebrew
And it was the source of an argument between a Friar and a Dwarf;
They thought I was singing in Italian."

Isn't that a penetrating, bittersweet style? It's by da Ponte, and it reminds ME of Juvenal.


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## Revenant (Aug 27, 2013)

Da Ponte himself does not immediately remind me of anyone, but "I think that among such a great crowd who would hear me,
Not a single dog understands an entire line of verse" does remind me of the public in general, and hipsters in particular.


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