I had decided to go back and really focus on my memory project this week.
Somehow, tonight I ended up fooling around with this Catullus poem.
[backstory: I took latin in high school and the first semester of college. I loved it because it was a lot more like studying math or science than a language - didn't have to worry about being able to generate fluid conversation or good pronunciation (issues I have with current languages) and it was more like solving a puzzle by recognizing patterns and applying rules (stuff I'm good at). Always liked this little couplet by Catullus most commonly known as "Odi et Amo" or Carmen 85. The message is really timeless and universal (like a good pop song) and there are a lot of very simple but effective poetic constructions going on. It's direct and powerful without being obtuse or pretentious. Goes like this:
Odi et amo. Quare id faciam fortasse requiris.
Nescio. Sed fieri sentio et excrucior.
I hate and I love. Why do I do this, perhaps you ask.
I don't know. But I feel that it happens, and I am tortured.]
Anyway, I don't know how or why I started thinking about it in the middle of researching neurons but in the course of trying to remember the translation/grammar I made notes to keep it all straight:
and then I decided to do a little something with it. it's 4 layers. the first one is the latin:
then the english translation:
then this one chiasmus construction dealy:
and another one within that
so...yeah. why did I just do this?
