By Dr. Seuss
Original Illustrations by Dr. Seuss
Translated by Jennifer Morrish Tunberg, Terence O. Tunberg

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Latin comes to life with Dr. Seuss
With growing interest in the language of ancient Rome, teachers are using translations of the popular children's books to help students learn

By Lisa Black
Tribune staff reporter

October 24, 2003

A new translation of the Dr. Seuss book "Green Eggs and Ham" has found its way into Latin classrooms, offering students a fresh look at a language that is anything but dead.

As more students take Latin courses to beef up their language skills and test scores, the introduction of "Virent Ova! Viret Perna!!"--or "Green Eggs and Ham"--has given teachers an alternative to classic works such as Virgil's "The Aeneid."

The book still has all the familiar whimsical creatures and colorful rhymes, but it is written in the language of Cicero.

"Part of our mission is to popularize Latin," said Marie Bolchazy, a co-owner of the company that published the book. "What better way to do it?"

Wauconda-based Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers recently released the book, the latest in a series that began in 1999 with "Quomodo Invidiosulus Nomine Grinchus Christi Natalem Abrogaverit" or "The Grinch That Stole Christmas."

"What's nice about Dr. Seuss is we're dealing with material students are already familiar with, so they can pick it up and read it without the intellectual level needed to read Virgil," said Thomas Sienkewicz, a classics professor at Monmouth College, about 70 miles west of Peoria.

Sienkewicz is among a handful of Latin teachers nationwide who are using the Seuss books in their classrooms to show students how the language continues to evolve, even though it is rarely spoken outside of academic or religious settings.

From elementary schools through colleges, students find the Latin children's books a more difficult read than the usual Seuss. But the books never fail to impress and entertain, teachers say.

"It's not intimidating, because it's a children's book and it's fun to use," said Jennifer Mitten, a Latin teacher at Aurora Catholic High School.

Bolchazy, who with her husband specializes in publishing classical books, worked with two university professors to produce the Latin Seuss books. The Latin version of the Grinch and "Cattus Petasatus," or "The Cat in the Hat," together have sold more than 65,000 copies.

The new "Green Eggs and Ham" book sold 5,000 copies immediately, prompting Bolchazy to order 5,000 more.

Her efforts dovetail with growing interest in Latin across the country, with schools seeing an increase in enrollment in classes at all levels, experts said.

The National Latin Exam, given to students from elementary grades through college, reported testing 36,000 students in 1982, the first year numbers were collected. In March, 140,000 students took the exam, said Joseph Clement of Software Design in Springfield, Va., who tracks the data for the National Latin Exam organization. Experts said they believe more students are taking Latin because they recognize it can help them improve their English skills and their college entrance exams.

"Latin gives you an edge in English, and so many professions have to do with good writing and spelling," said Virginia Anderson, who teaches Latin in Barrington's two middle schools. She displays the Seuss books for students to read at their leisure, but she said their Latin is above the level of most 6th graders.

"A lot of my friends are taking [Latin]," said Max Deevy, 12, of Barrington, who goes by the Latin name "Scipio" in Anderson's class. "Right now, it is helping me at reading, because almost all English words come from Latin."

At Oak Park-River Forest High School, administrators brought a Latin teacher out of retirement two years ago to accommodate a growing number of Latin students, said the school's other Latin teacher, James Chochola. The number of Latin students has grown about 25 percent--to 109 now enrolled--since 1998, he said.

Chochola also has used the Latin Seuss books, demonstrating to students how they differ in complexity and poetic meter from the epic Aeneid.

The Latin Seuss books are more comparable to medieval drinking songs, he said.

"Dr. Seuss has words that aren't even words in English," Chochola said. "They might have words with different noises and sounds."

Greg Ver Halen, 14, of River Forest, said he took Latin because he hopes to travel throughout Europe someday and wants to be prepared to learn the languages. He also enjoys stumping his friends who don't take Latin, throwing phrases at them in the language.

"They'll say, `Are you making fun of me?' They're thrown off completely," Ver Halen said.

Terence Tunberg, professor of Latin at the University of Kentucky, who translates the Dr. Seuss books into Latin, said he does not translate each word literally, because the idioms would not make sense or even be funny. So he has spent hours finding Latin words that fit Dr. Seuss' meaning that also rhyme and contain the same cheerful eight-syllable lines. For instance, he calls the Grinch "Invidiosulus" in Latin, which can be translated as "the little jealous one" or "the envious little wretch."

"It takes the process of invention, that's for sure," Tunberg said.

Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0310240053oct24,1,7452365.story?coll=chi-newslocal-hed

'Green Eggs and Ham' Put Into Latin
By ULA ILNYTZKY

NEW YORK (AP) - ``Green Eggs and Ham'' is an easy read. After all, the late Theodore Geisel, belovedly known as Dr. Seuss, wrote it after his editor challenged him to do a book in just 50 words.

But have you tried to read it in Latin?

Retitled ``Virent Ova! Viret Perna!!'' the Seuss classic has been rendered into Latin by Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers Inc. of Wauconda, Ill. The target audience is ``people who took Latin in school and have fond remembrance of it, teachers and students who take Latin - and, of course, Seuss fans,'' Kelly Hughes, a spokeswoman for the publisher, said Wednesday.

Two Seuss books that were translated earlier, ``How the Grinch Stole Christmas'' and ``The Cat in the Hat,'' have sold a combined 60,000 copies in Latin.

Translators Terence and Jennifer Tunberg, husband and wife professors in the Department of Classical Languages at the University of Kentucky, did not aim for a literal interpretation of the tale, in which the character named Sam-I-Am tries to get a friend to try green eggs and ham in a box, with a fox, in the rain, on a train, etc.

Instead, they went for a Seusslike rhythm of the eight-syllable lines.

In English, you get, ``I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-Am.''

In Latin, you get, ``Sum 'Pincerna' nominatus, Famulari ... nunc paratus!''

Sharon Kazmierski, a teacher of Latin and columnist for ``The Classical Outlook,'' the journal of the American Classical League, reviewed ``Virent Ova!''

``Instead of literally translating the classic, Jennifer and Terence Tunberg have written this book in the same style that Theodore Geisel might have if he were fluent in neo-Latin. This book doesn't just look like a Seuss book. It sounds like a Seuss book,'' Kazmierski said.

``Virent Ova! Viret Perna!!'' is accompanied by Dr. Seuss' original whimsical drawings. A glossary of Latin-to-English vocabulary and a note on ``How to Read These Verses'' appear at the back of the book.

Whichever recipe one chooses, of course, the result is the same.

Sam's once-defiant sidekick concludes:

``Mihi placent, O Pincerna!

``Virent ova! Viret perna!

``Dapem posthac non arcebo.

``Gratum tibi me praebebo.''

In other words:

``I do so like green eggs and ham.

``Thank you, thank you Sam-I-Am!''

On the Net:

Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc.: www.bolchazy.com

American Classical League: www.aclclassics.org

09/25/03 16:42

© Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Tasty in any language...

I will like them in a school, I will like them like a fool, I will like them dressed in satin, Yes, I'll like them, even in Latin!

I must confess, I do profess, I do so like Green Eggs and Ham!

'Green Eggs and Ham' has been translated into many languages, just as other classic Dr. Seuss pieces have been so translated. So, why should it be unusual that 'Green Eggs and Ham' would finally make it into Latin?

The publishers Bolchazy-Carducci, of Wauconda, Illinois, have devoted efforts toward an enterprise to publishing modern classics into Latin - and who ever said it was a dead language. There are many titles to be had, but few as well loved as Dr. Seuss, and few of those are as well known and loved as 'Green Eggs and Ham'.

The listing of vocabulary words at the end includes entries for about 100 primary words (depending, of course, upon how you count the words). The original challenge to Dr. Seuss for 'Green Eggs and Ham' was to produce a book with no more than 50 primary words. To keep the story line, in Latin there are a few more words to be used, but still this book can serve as a basic introduction to help with vocabulary for those studying Latin, and want a break from the Vulgate or from Cicero.

The story line proceeds apace, similar to the same story in English. This is a translation, after all, and not a revision or rewriting. However, because the Sam/ham rhyme doesn't neatly fit in Latin, one major revision is in the key rhyming phrase.

Non mi placent, O Pincerna, Virent ova! Viret perna!

'Ova' is a recognisable word even to those who have not studied Latin - the ovum means 'egg', the ovaries of course being the place eggs are produced. 'Perna' is the word for ham.

(Ironically, the word 'ovum' is a neuter term in Latin, rather than female; the word 'perna' is a feminine word.) The word 'Pincerna' means waiter or server (it can even mean butler). Virent/viret is actually a verb, meaning 'to be green'. So, the above phrase would roughly translate into

They do not please me, O waiter, Eggs that are green! Ham that is green!

Yes, I know, it suffers a bit in translation; imagine the power of poetry and how sometime this can be lost in translation. Thus, it is important to understand the literary license with which Jennifer Tunberg and Terence Tunberg have translated the text. They have made an effort to make sure the meter, rhyme, and story fit the text as a Latin text, rather than a forced translation.

The story continues as the waiter tries to convince the reluctant diner to at least try the 'virent ova/viret perna'. They are offered in a 'cista' (box); they are offered with a 'vulpes' (fox); they are offered 'sub tecto' (in a house); they are offered with a 'mus'(mouse) - all offerings are, of course, flatly rejected, until near the end, when a taste, just a taste, is accepted. And the rest is history (a seemingly ancient history in Latin, now, to be precise!).

Despite the fact that the authors, in their appendix, say that they have not in fact tried to duplicate the precise rhyme-and-rhythm system that Dr. Seuss developed in the English 'Green Eggs and Ham', in fact many of the versicles throughout do have a cadence to them that is reminiscent of the beloved scheme for which Dr. Seuss is famous. For example, read the following lines aloud:

Dapem tuam vix probabo. Tuos cibos non gustabo.

Or

Omni loco tuam pernam, Semper ova tua spernam.

They employ in many cases (as can be seen above) an eight-syllable line of trochaic rhythm that conclude in end-rhymes of at least two syllables (not just the final syllable). This is a common rhyming pattern in ancient Latin, used in secular and religious verse, dramatic and comedic. This can approximate the pattern, if read with the right intonations, the same kind of feel one would get from Dr. Seuss!

While this is not a Latin grammar, and the construction of verbs, noun endings, etc. are not explicated, still one can begin to pick up the basics of Latin grammatical construction from texts like 'Virent Ova! Viret Perna!' Jennifer Tunberg (Ph.D., Oxford) and Terence Tunberg (Ph.D., Toronto) are both educators, and thus have a care for the reader learning something from the text in addition to gaining enjoyment from it. While one could easily see the translation of a book such as 'Green Eggs and Ham' into Latin as a purely academic exercise, in fact the book serves several purposes, including teaching (or re-teaching) Latin to students, and introducing the language to people who might not otherwise be exposed to it. Dr. Seuss eliminates somewhat the 'intimidation factor' that Latin has for some, particularly when presented with Caesar or Cicero in long-winded passages.

This is a wonderfully fun book, a good gift for those who have everything, a good offering to the budding or the latent Latin scholar, and an interesting conversation piece even for those who have no Latin background at all. The classic line-art drawings, complete with green-coloured eggs and ham, the same Seussian characters, and the same wild drawings, are preserved here, so it looks at first glance like any ordinary Dr. Seuss book.

Like the Green Eggs and Ham themselves, you will enjoy this book QUOVIS LOCO - Anywhere!

-- FrKurt Messick
October 28, 2003
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