Since 1908 the n.1 source of all things Italian featuring Italian news, culture, business and travel
Issue link: https://italoamericanodigital.uberflip.com/i/1499718
THURSDAY, MAY 18, 2023 www.italoamericano.org 22 L'Italo-Americano HERITAGE HISTORY IDENTITY TRADITIONS PEOPLE L atin, a language we often associ- ate with our high s c h o o l d a y s , h o l d s a s p e c i a l place in the hearts of many Italians. While we may have initially despised its intrica- c i e s , c o n s i d e r i n g i t a n ancient relic with little rele- vance to our lives, we may often fail to realize the pro- found impact it continues to have on our language and expressions. Latin forms the v e r y f a b r i c o f I t a l i a n a n d other romance languages, a n d i t i s w o v e n i n t o o u r speech through syntactical constructs and a rich lexicon borrowed from our ances- tors. Join me as we embark on a journey to rediscover the beauty and significance of some famous Latin phrases t h a t s t i l l r e s o n a t e i n o u r daily lives. But first, as I often do, I may tell you more about my own personal relationship with Latin, which has fol- lowed a peculiar trajectory. Upon completing my final high school exam, I clearly remember closing my Latin dictionary - the iconic Cas- tiglioni-Mariotti, on which generation after generation of "liceali" relied during in- class tests and exams - for what I believed would be for- ever. Little did I know that destiny had a different plan i n s t o r e f o r m e . A d e c a d e l a t e r , I f o u n d m y s e l f immersed in a Ph.D. pro- gram in Latin literature, my p e r s p e c t i v e t r a n s f o r m e d f r o m w h a t o n e c o u l d a l s o d e f i n e t e e n a g e d i s d a i n t o admiration. The language I once deemed useless became a wellspring of knowledge a n d a g a t e w a y t o u n d e r - standing my cultural her- itage. And that's perhaps why I tend to be interested and pay m o r e a t t e n t i o n t o t h e "unseen Latin threads" run- ning through my native lan- g u a g e , a n d I r e a l i z e t h a t , while we navigate our daily conversations, we often over- look the Latin phrases that seamlessly blend into what we say: the way these age- old expressions have man- aged to transcend time and permeate our modern ver- nacular is truly remarkable. L e t ' s e x p l o r e a f e w o f these hidden gems... In the realm of seizing the day, we encounter the time- less phrase carpe diem: this famous expression is actual- ly part of a much longer sen- tence, dum loquimur fugerit invida aetas: carpe diem, q u a m m i n i m u m c r e d u l a postero, which we can trans- late as "While we speak time passes by as if it hated us, so seize the day, without think- ing about the future." Simple w o r d s t h a t e n c a p s u l a t e a profound message: to make t h e m o s t o f t h e p r e s e n t moment, embracing life's opportunities while harbor- ing minimal trust in tomor- row's uncertainties. But the Romans were also pretty matter-of-fact, as you would expect from a people of great warriors, so they w e r e p r e t t y a w a r e t h a t , sometimes, life's victories arise from the defeat of oth- ers. In the phrase mors tua vita mea, which we Italians still use quite commonly, we find a stark, yet intriguing s e n t i m e n t : i t r e m i n d s u s t h a t t r i u m p h c a n e m e r g e from the misfortune of oth- ers, a reflection of life's intri- cate nature. But as we navi- gate the human experience, we also encounter our falli- bilities, and the Latin say- ing errare humanum est, p e r s e v e r a r e a u t e m d i a - bolicum provides solace and a cautionary lesson: while it reassures us that making m i s t a k e s i s p a r t o f o u r nature, it also tells us that persisting in them is akin to succumbing to darkness. Or stubbornness, of course. L a n g u a g e h a s a w a y o f expressing unconditional l o v e , e v e n i n u n e x p e c t e d places. In the Neapolitan idiom "Ogni scarrafone รจ bello 'a mamma soja," we witness the enduring love a mother holds for her child. Well, I actually didn't know that Naples borrowed the i d e a f r o m a n c i e n t R o m e , w h e r e p e o p l e u s e d t o say nemo non formosus fil- i u s m a t r i , e v e r y c h i l d i s beautiful to their own moth- e r , w h i c h r e m i n d s u s mamme will always see us as perfect, after all. L e t ' s m o v e o n t o o u r beloved four-legged com- panions: compassion and l o v e f o r a n i m a l s i s a n i m m e n s e v a l u e t h a t t h e ancient Romans share with us, as Ovid well expressed w h e n h e p r o c l a i m e d that saevitia in bruta est tirocinium crudelitatis in homines, that is, "harming animals is only an exercise in h a r m i n g p e o p l e , " a c l e a r reminder of the often-pre- s e n t c o n n e c t i o n b e t w e e n cruelty towards animals and its potential spillover into o u r t r e a t m e n t o f f e l l o w human beings. I admit this resonates with me because m y b e l o v e d g r a n d m o t h e r u s e d t o s a y t h a t " t h o s e harming animals, are going to harm people, too." Love for animals and love of our fellow human beings i s a u n i v e r s a l t h e m e t h a t transcends time and finds its e m b o d i m e n t i n a n o t h e r famous phrase penned by Ovid, amor vincit omnia, or "love conquers all." While, alas, life and reality teach us this may, unfortunately, not be always true, it used to be a favorite sentence to scrib- ble on bathroom stalls' walls with indelible markers when I was a teen. Who knows, perhaps it still is. And if it's true that life is hard and that love may not always be the answer, we should remem- ber that through life's hard- ships, we discover the path to greatness, as the Latin per aspera ad astra describes: through a difficult path, we c a n r e a c h t h e s t a r s . " N o pain, no gain," we would say in English. L a s t b u t n o t l e a s t , w e have qualis pater, talis filius, "tale padre, tale figlio," an expression as popular in Ital- ian as it is in English, where it translates as "like father, l i k e s o n . " I t r e f l e c t s t h e notion that children often inherit traits and behaviors f r o m t h e i r p a r e n t s , a reminder of the profound connection between genera- tions, something that may be true also for us modern Ital- i a n s a n d t h e a n c i e n t Romans, even if only, per- haps, when it comes to the language we speak. The lingering Latin: unveiling the hidden Latin gems in our language LUCA SIGNORINI Latin words... There are still plenty of Latin expressions we use daily (Photo: Jcoll/Dreamstime)