The Shandon Bells.

 This is a poem I came across while looking over the poetry material I am reading for school. Oh Thursdays! Latin, poetry and reading all in one day! I would rather do poetry than chemistry any day. As for Latin...I would much rather learn Italian or Old English. We'll see. Maybe I will learn 'em all.

 Anyway, this is a poem written by Francis Mahony. I just thought it sounded really, really cool. I read it aloud, and it has this sort of rhythm to it that all great poems have.

The Shandon Bells

Francis Sylvester Mahony (1804–66)

Sabbata Pango;

Funera Plango;

Solemnia Clango.

INSCRIPTION ON AN OLD BELL.

 WITH deep affection, 

And recollection,

I often think of 

Those Shandon bells, 

Whose sounds so wild would, 

In the days of childhood, 

Fling around my cradle 

Their magic spells. 

On this I ponder 

Where'er I wander, 

And thus grow fonder, 

Sweet Cork, of thee; 

With thy bells of Shandon, 

That sound so grand on 

The pleasant waters 

Of the River Lee. 

I've heard bells chiming 

Full many a clime in, 

Tolling sublime in 

Cathedral shrine, 

While at a glib rate 

Brass tongues would vibrate-- 

But all their music 

Spoke naught like thine; 

For memory, dwelling 

On each proud swelling 

Of the belfry knelling 

Its bold notes free, 

Made the bells of Shandon 

Sound far more grand on 

The pleasant waters 

Of the River Lee. 

I've heard bells tolling 

Old Adrian's Mole in, 

Their thunder rolling 

From the Vatican, 

And cymbals glorious 

Swinging uproarious 

In the gorgeous turrets 

Of Notre Dame; 

But thy sounds were sweeter 

Than the dome of Peter 

Flings o'er the Tiber, 

Pealing solemnly-- 

O, the bells of Shandon 

Sound far more grand on 

The pleasant waters 

Of the River Lee. 

There 's a bell in Moscow, 

While on tower and kiosk O! 

In Saint Sophia 

The Turkman gets, 

And loud in air 

Calls men to prayer 

From the tapering summits 

Of tall minarets. 

Such empty phantom 

I freely grant them; 

But there 's an anthem 

More dear to me,-- 

'Tis the bells of Shandon, 

That sound so grand on 

The pleasant waters 

Of the River Lee. 

So, there it is.

I love poetry.

I Google-Translated the inscription above, and if I did it right, it is Latin. And it means:

Rest to fix;

Lament deaths;

Solemn sound.

Pretty awesome. Maybe I will try to learn my Latin a little harder...

~Natsu~

Sic semper tyrannis.

 I came up with "Sic semper tyrannis" as the post's name because it has been stuck in my mind since last Thursday.

Here is something from Wikipedia for those who are not familiar with the term:

Sic semper tyrannis is a Latin phrase meaning "thus always to tyrants." The full quotation, Sic semper evello mortem Tyrannis(literally : "Thus always I eradicate tyrants' lives"), or "death to tyrants" or "down with the tyrant." The phrase is often said to have originated with Marcus Junius Brutus during the assassination of Julius Caesar, but according to Plutarch, Brutus either did not have a chance to say anything, or if he did, no one heard what was said:"Caesar thus done to death, the senators, although Brutus came forward as if to say something about what had been done, would not wait to hear him, but burst out of doors and fled, thus filling the people with confusion and helpless fear..."[1] 

The phrase has been invoked historically in Europe and other parts of the world as an epithet or rallying cry against abuse of power. It is the official motto of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the city of Allentown, Pennsylvania. In the United States it is best known as the words John Wilkes Booth said that he shouted during his assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

Now, I had originally thought that it meant, "Long live the tyrants." But now that I think about it, that thought it basically the same as "Thus always." I am not very good with my Latin. I got maybe 6 lessons in the book before I wanted to switch to Italian. I like Italian much better.

 Though, it is true that Latin is pretty much the "base" for languages such as Italian. Latin is also a base for Spanish too. Some words in Latin are very similar--if not the same--to some words in Italian and Spanish. I am not sure if French is included in this, however. That would be something I would have to look up.

 For example, Gratias is Latin for "Thanks." Such as Deo gratias--which is Latin for "Thanks be to God."

"Thanks" in Italian, is Grazie. It's pretty close to the Latin word for thanks. Granted, I am not very good with my Italian--yet, and I did think it was spelled g-r-a-t-s-i...Nevertheless, I will continue to work on it. As for the Latin, I know a good deal of it from things I have memorized over the years. I cannot speak it fluently like I can English, but I mentally know a few things...such as prayers and the like. But if you asked me to say them out loud, well, I am not a public speaker. :)

Anyway, to finish up what I was saying, the Spanish word for "Thanks" is gracias.

Gratias.
Gracia.
Grazie.

I believe them to be fairly similar.*

I didn't think this was to be some sort of lesson on the similarities of "Thanks", but I guess that's what it turned out to be!

I believe it was originally some sort of rant on a News post my Dad sent to me about Merida.

Another day, I guess.

I's a beautiful day outside. It's cold though. I am inside because I have been feeling under the weather. Figured I would read something before I either took a nap, or watched a movie. My dog didn't want to watch anything with me today. ~sob~

I found a "Pajama Diaries" comic in one of the gazillion papers my little sister saves for me--I cut the funny ones out and put them in a scrapbook. Like the ones used for photographs. Weird? Nah--and it was totally, totally true.

Ahaa.

I gotta go. I might watch/read something that has to do with Lord Of The Rings...

I don't know.

Have an awesome day now.

~Natsu~

 

*This is my opinion of the languages. It may be true, it may not be, I read it in a book somewhere...I apologize if it's wrong. ^.^

Luke, ich bin dein Vater.

  I am not bored.  Quite the contrary, actually, I have much to do and no time to do it!  I have collected a reasonably good bunch of words to use as a blog post, but I can never find the right time to post such things. Today, however, is just a thought-filled post. Some things I have learned, done, and thought over through the week.

  As for the German, I read a book called “Waiting for Summer’s Return,” by Kim Vogel Sawyer.  Most of the town spoke High German. So I learned a couple German words in the course of reading that book. It was really interesting to me for some reason…Probably because I enjoy listening to foreign languages…And I am in the process of learning Latin, so different languages and where they originated is kind of cool to me right now. The classic phrase, “Luke, I am your Father,” was something my sister randomly typed into the Google Translate. It kind of stuck in my mind as a good title for a random blog post, such as this. :)

  Skipping through the pages of “The Art of Howl’s Moving Castle” (EPIC book if you love concept art ^^) I realized how much I LOVE concept art. Heh. ♥

 I read on of the more recent Penguins with Jet Packs posts, that she had done a cute little rainbow gif, I believe it is called. That got me thinking.  I have been trying to figure out the name/ how to make pictures such as this,

since I found this one a couple weeks back. (Because I think they are so cool!) And I am pretty sure that that is what they are now…A big thanks to Elizabeth! :) (If I am correct about the matter anyway... I misunderstand things sometimes...........)

 Another wonderful Bologna dish brought to you by my father. A Sunday afternoon dinner that consisted of:

• ·         Bologna
• ·         Lettuce
• ·         Tomato
• ·         American Cheese
• ·         AND MAYO!
•       And bread. Toasted bread ^^

All grilled up and toasty! :)

 I am a little bummed out today because (once again! \>:( ) I have misplaced my envelopes of pressed rose petals. I had waited for the rose petals to drop—and pulled a couple out a couple—earlier this year. Like, spring. They turned out really cool after weeks of sitting under  5 Encyclopedias…Now I can’t seem to find them.

 Today I happened to walk outside and found that the big pink petals had fallen! So I scooped them up, dried ‘em off, and stuck them into two different envelopes and stuck them under a box, THEN I put the stack of Wedding Dress folders on top of the box. The box is probably caved in right now, but I just put all the classic literature into the attic. You’ll see em probably when I pull them out in a month or so…

I have nothing cool to close this up with besides the fact that King Caspian is MUCH cooler than Prince Caspian...More to come...

 ~Natsu ♥