WELCOMING JULY
By Mahesh Verma, Muscat Daily
Long time no read? That’s because long time I no write!
But now with July approaching, and not having written for almost a month, I thought it’s best to reintroduce myself to the discerning readers lest you get into the ‘no read TT’ habit and sort of start enjoying the mediocrity of the WhatsApp forwards and start believing those to be the benchmark of literary excellence. Like it or not, but there is a modicum of truth in the fact that social media will be the bane of our existence. To rub home the point…which was the last book you read? Or actually, when was the last time you read a book?
Ego sum reus est…I am guilty too of this but the redeeming factor is that I am finally reading Jokha Alharthi’s Celestial Bodies. Mea culpa…I am however guilty of not having progressed from the fourth chapter of the book, thanks to this necessity of keeping the kitchen fire burning. And due to this so-called necessity being the mother of invention, it often drives me to resort to in vino veritas, in aqua sanitas – in wine there is the truth even though in water there is health!
You may be wondering why this sudden penchant for Latin phrases? It’s essentially to welcome the month of July, which for the uninitiated is ‘the seventh month of the year (between June and August) in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and the fourth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. It was named by the Roman Senate in honour of Roman general Julius Caesar, it being the month of his birth. Prior to that, it was called Quintilis, being the fifth month of the ten-month calendar’.
And our friend Caesar was the one who is purported to have used Veni, vidi, vici meaning ‘I came; I saw; I conquered’ referring to a swift, conclusive victory in the war against Pharnaces II of Pontus at the Battle of Zela. In Shakespeare’s play, he went on to utter the even more famous words Et tu Brute when he sees his dear friend Brutus unsheathe the dagger and plunge it into him while he utters his last words “And then fall Caesar.”
But then there is a catch… “According to the 1st century CE Roman historian Suetonius, Julius Caesar spoke mainly Greek and not Latin, as was the case with most patricians at the time. In his history about the life of Julius Caesar, Suetonius writes that as the assassins plunged their daggers into the dictator, Caesar saw Brutus and spoke the Greek phrase kai su, teknon, meaning ‘you too, my child’.
“There is still debate whether or not it was shouted in shock or said as a warning. On one hand, Caesar may have been amazed to find a close friend like Brutus trying to kill him; on the other hand, he may have meant that Brutus would pay for his crime in the future for this treachery.”
Either way, the words were Greek, so we will leave Et tu, Brute for Shakespeare since Kai su, teknon is Greek to me!
However, as we approach July, it makes sense to stick to the Latin sayings and since I sport a goatee or a French beard (which is half a beard or a style which encircles the mouth), I am sure Caesar and his ilk would have referred to me as barba tenus sapientes meaning ‘wise as far as his beard’ – or, insinuating that though I might look intelligent but am actually far from it. Wonder how they realised it and hit the nail on the head? This incidentally is just one of a number of phrases that show how the Romans associated beards with intelligence, alongside barba non facit philosophum meaning ‘a beard does not make a philosopher’, and barba crescit caput nescit, meaning ‘the beard grows, but the head doesn’t grow wiser’.
Guess by now you have had enough of this hair splitting business and Latin phrases to pickle you to the gill. Though one now bids au revoir (see no Latin but French!) to June, one somehow still feels that there is no better way to welcome July except with the Latin phrase In una virtute or ‘Together towards excellence’ which also happens to be the motto of the new inclusive school, opening its doors to the Muscat residents in September.
And before I sign off, a few random thoughts
Do you know that it is okay to be ignorant in some areas, but there are some people who abuse this privilege?
Do you know that the good thing about bad memory is that books can be enjoyed more than once?
Do you know that I just want to be as thin as my patience?
Till next fortnight…or maybe till another month?
