WHAT THOUGHTS ARE NOT PRIVILEGED TO KNOW

Sreekumar K

 

              Walking down the streets of Thanjavoor, back from meeting the Nadi Astrologer, who could see into your past present and future (looking into the present was free but they had to pay for the other through their nose) the old man and the old woman wondered where they could find a good book of Latin Grammar. They found several volumes of Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam grammar books but were quite unlucky about what they really wanted

A Latin grammar book

Any author, any publisher.

Two days later, after eating idlis and masala dosas for breakfast, lunch and dinner, they found a tattered copy of a book on Latin Grammar, complete with exercises and all. It belonged to a Bishop. In between its pages they also found a letter a girl had written to him. The old woman felt more shy than jealous to read it.

The astrologer had told them that this life was a punishment for poisoning a Roman scholar, a friend of Dr. Johnson, the man who wrote the first dictionary in English. The Roman scholar had died three days after they had poisoned him. All this had happened in one of their previous lives centuries ago.

The reason why they had lived this long was quite simple. They were to study Latin Grammar.

Both of them were quite old; no one knew how old they were.

They were addressed as old man and old woman by everyone who knew them.

They could never remember a time when they were young.

For all practical purposes, they were dead a long time ago.

The voters’ list didn’t have their names and nobody missed them at harvest feasts anymore.

They too wondered why they don’t die. That was why they had come to see the astrologer.

The astrologer had no doubt about it. They were here, in this ocean of life, to learn Latin Grammar.

In two week’s time, they mastered the basics. But when it came to conditional clauses, especially the

conditionalis clausulis falsis, the unreal conditionals.

The book offered them a short cut: take turns at talking about things that you wish had been different. Or in other words, sentences that begin with the words ‘had I been or had we been’ and the like.

The old man and the old woman began by saying all the things they would have done, had they been young.

That’s where they got stuck.

After a thousand turns with variations of the same theme they were going pretty strong.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner and sleep waited long for them and then gave up.

Days later, when they were found dead, the coroner said that their breath still sounded like speech to him. A graduate from the local college, he said it sounded Greek and Latin to him.

Years later, looking through the old notebooks they had when they were in their teens, their great-grandson found these Latin poems.

Those who have the time may read it in Latin. For those who do not have the time, the English version is also given..

(found in the woman’s book)

Ego Amare

Te reliquit.

Quod est OK.

Te reliquit quia invenit me frustretur.

Sed …..

dulcedo mellis

frigore mane aura

in warmheartedness mei mane capulus

vas autem odor florum plastic

in rusticitas horologii

calor mei laneum bedclothes

quare etiam auferre

cum vobis

etiam quae non sunt.

Ego Amare (I love you)

You left.

That is OK.

You left because you found me disappointing.

But…..

the sweetness of honey

the chill of the morning breeze

the warm heartedness of my morning coffee

the fragrance of the plastic flowers in the vase

the coyness of the clock

the warmth of my woollen bedclothes

why did you take away them too

with you

well, that was not fair.

**************************************************

 

(found in the man’s book)

Luna enim pretium duxi

Omnia voluit erat eius.

Tamen excipit universis cognatis adtulerat.

hilaritas, risus, pacem, otium,

momenta quod vixit in et in donec overlapped sicut squamas inbeatus draco

ruborem caeli, in scintillare de bullas in labium mei specula

luna et fontem

in suspirio virgo solo ut aratro vertit usque

ortusque est superbia nata sunt solum superbia

iniquitatem crepidinem quod teased me ut palpitaret ASCENSUS

torrentem scriptor scriptless dialecto

et

Cumque egressi relictis omnibus suis

septimanas post

aemulator eius mollis, cremeo corpus

luna habebat sollicitudin cum

et surrexit et venit post me sola montibus

Ad tamen eius

Nos duo abiit a ambulant

per intima momenta

ut sidera despiciens nobis

 

The Moon I Took for a Walk

All I wanted was just her.

However, I welcomes all her relatives she had brought.

merriment, laughter, peace, quietness,

moments that lived on and on till they overlapped like scales on a happy dragon

the blush of the sky, the sparkle of the bubbles on the brim of my glasses

the moon and the spring

the sigh of the virgin soil as the plough turned it up

the arrogance of the sprouts as they rose above the soil with haughty pride

the steepness of the hillside which teased me as I panted uphill

the brook’s scriptless dialect

And

When she left, they all left with her

weeks later

jealous of her soft, creamy body

the moon had had a showdown with her

and she alone came back and rose behind me over the hills

To spite her

We two went for a walk

along intimate moments

as the stars winked at us

*****************************************************

 

Another unfinished poem in the woman’s book

(in English)

O my words and phrases

You were my sweet companions

You were the whispers my thoughts made

In my sleep and wakefulness

But these feelings I have at the moment

are so intimate

I can’t share with you

Even thoughts are not privileged to know them

Yet I want the whole world to know

That I am in love

which is the crudest way of putting it