Hwaseong-si June 29th.
Jhā Jhā We began the Latin immersion today. We read an account of Tungubutum (Timbuktu) written in Latin in 1595 by Adriaan Van Roomen.
Tungubutum; situm ad magnum lacum piscibus abundantem, aqua tamen lacus est amara et venenata. Civitas magnae negotiationis, ad quam non tantum fit concursus Fessanorum et Maroccorum, sed etiam Cariensium. Huc magna defertur copia auri, argenti, pannorum, serici, coralli etc. Princeps huius loci magna utitur pompa et authoritate, ditissimus totius Ghineae, tum quod varia sub se habeat regna, tum quod in magna earum parte colligatur auri quantitas, denique quod vasallos suos valde premat. Hinc et equorum soleas facit aureas, canesque ornat aureis catenis. Delectatur valde scientiis, ideoque eo confluunt viri docti plurimi ex Barbaria lingua Arabica instructi, quibus Rex ingentia confert munera.
Tungubutum: situated on a great lake teeming with fish, though the water of the lake is bitter and poisonous. A commercial center, to which repair not only the caravans of Fez and Morocco but of Cairo. Hither is brought a large supply of gold, silver, stuffs, silk, coral, etc. The prince of the place, the richest man in Guinea [=West Africa], is attended with great ceremony and endowed with much authority: both because he has beneath his sway several kingdoms, and because a large portion of the region is gold-bearing, and finally because of his exacting, oppressive rule of his vassals. The shoes of his horses are of gold, and his dogs wear golden chains. He takes great pleasure in learning, and so learned men of Barbary, conversant in the Arabic tongue, flock to Tungubutum, where the king shows them great favor.
I am always convinced that Latin would live if only we could break the grip of Classicism. It might be that only a few university students in Africa want to study ancient Greece and Rome: but surely there must be students in Africa who want to study the history of Timbuktu, or who want to work with elephants. If we read these kinds of texts, they would find Latin equally useful for these life-paths as well. Latin is larger than the Mediterranean basin, and didn’t vanish from the earth in 180 A.D. when Marcus Aurelius died.
Post a Comment