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

Description

READ ACROSS AMERICA!
Special Read Latin in the Classroom

C'mon! Try them, in Latin. Sam-I-am's smiling enthusiasm for the seemingly unappetizingly tinted green eggs and ham is undaunted, despite repeated disdain shown by an unnamed, dour disparager. Sam will not give up, though, and offers the dish over and over, proposing that it be sampled under sometimes whacky circumstances and in odd locales (with a goat, on a boat, in the rain, on a train, in a box, with a fox, etc.). In the end Sam does get the grumpy disparager to take a taste—if only to get Sam off his back. The disparager's demeanor quickly changes to all smiles when he discovers to his surprise that disdained green eggs and ham are, in fact, quite tasty. Sam-I-am, yet another delightfully plucky Seuss protagonist, allows both adults and humans to look—with the objectivity humor so adeptly affords—at our all-too-human tendency towards knee-jerk negativity in response to anything that is new or different.

Special Features

Dr. Seuss' perennial favorite, Green Eggs and Ham, is here rendered in spirited Latin: in trochaic rhythm with rhyme in the last two syllables, a sprightly verse-form that goes toe-to-toe with Seuss's whimsical drawings. Virent Ova! Viret Perna!! is a true delight—Latin as it is infrequently experienced: fun, exhilarating, ebullient. This Latin-language edition is a welcome, all-occasion gift, a delightful way to revisit a treasured tale, and an enjoyable way to refresh your high school Latin.

• Fast-moving Latin translation that echoes the lighthearted spirit of the original
• Original artwork of Dr. Seuss
• Latin-to-English vocabulary
• Note on 'How to Read these Verses'

Comments and Reviews

'Cattus' in the hat popular with kids

CHICAGO, Oct. 24 (UPI) — Latin teachers are hailing new translations of Dr. Seuss books into the ancient language as a wonderful teaching tool, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday.
"Virent Ova! Viret Perna!!" is very popular among students who might have read "Green Eggs and Ham" growing up, as is "Quomodo Invidiosulus Nomine Grinchus Christi Natalem Abrogaverit," or "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas."
"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?"
"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 Illinois' Monmouth College.

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.

— Chicago Tribune
October 24, 2003

Now, how do you say "Green Eggs and Ham?"

— Arianna Huffington
Syndicated columnist and author

Latin lovers

A dead language is making a comeback. Latin fell out of favor as a high school course in the '70s. But recent studies show students of the ancient Roman tongue outperform all others on the verbal portion of the SATs. And schools report soaring enrollments in Latin classes. Instructors are in demand, says Richard LaFleur, who teaches Latin at the University of Georgia. Because up to 70% of English is Latin-based, "it's an economical way to boost word power," he says. Latin is creeping into pop culture, too. The first 5,000 copies of Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham in Latin (Virent Ova! Viret Perna!!) sold out within weeks of its summer release; a second printing is out this month (Bolchazy-Carducci, $22.50). Actress Angelina Jolie even has a Latin tattoo across her stomach: "Quod me nutrit me destruit" ("What nourishes me destroys me"). Now, that may need further translation.

— USA Weekend, page 12
November 21-23, 2003
http://www.usaweekend.com

Superb Seuss for Latin lovers

Ave, lector benevole! Hail, gentle reader! Dulcis amor Latinae — sweet is the love of Latin, which is anything but a dead language in some places. Ubi gentium? Where in the world? Why, in Wauconda, Illinois, whence Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers sends forth frustillatim, bit by bit, the wonderful works of Dr. Seuss in utterly delicious Latin translations by Guenevera (Jennifer) and Terentius (Terence) Tunberg. Virent Ova! Viret Pena! ("Green Eggs and Ham"), the latest of these, is even more poetically Seussian than the Tunbergs' version of "The Cat in the Hat." To be sure, the Tunbergs use more than the mere 50 words employed by Theodore Seuss Geisel in the original (which he wrote with such verbal economy in response to an editor's challenge). But what wonderful words the Tunbergs use! Sam-I-Am becomes Pincerna, not a name but a common noun for server or waiter and a perfect rhyme for perna (ham). Thus, "I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-Am" is melodiously transformed into Non mi placent, O Pincerna. Virent ova! Viret perna!

Rerum primordia (the beginnings of things) are structured by the Tunbergs to explain the switch of Sam from a named character to a generic server. The pre-story pages in which Dr. Seuss has Sam announce, "I am Sam. Sam-I-Am," here become, Sum 'Pincerna' nominatus. Famulari...nunc paratus! In other (English) words: "I'm called the server. To serve I'm prepared." This is scarcely literal translation, but, ex improviso (unexpectedly), it is far more effective than literalism could possibly be. Virent Ova! Viret Perna! is simply fun. And ecce! Behold! Some of Dr. Seuss' characters' expressions — all the original drawings are retained — seem to fit the Latin words better than the English ones. Exemplum: The non-green-food-eating character's first sour-faced response to Pincerna's appearance is not "That Sam-I-Am! That Sam-I-Am! I do not like that Sam-I-Am!" It is Est Pincerna submolestus, Nec decorus, nec modestus — "That server is annoying. He's not dignified, not modest." Spes non fracta, there's still hope ("hope is not broken"), for more enjoyment of Latin — a desideratum (thing desired) that may seem a limbus fatuorum (fool's paradise) until you absorb the lilt and, yes, elegance of Dr. Seuss in Latine. Open januae mentis, the gates of the mind, and aude sapere, dare to be wise! Concluding pages on vocabulary and on how to read the book are most helpful, boni principii bonus finis, the good end of a good beginning. It's all mitis sapientia, gentle wisdom, in any language.

— Infodad.com

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