Somewhere the dust of the poet Catullus is whirling around like a little cartoon swirl of old papers at the exit of the Coyote from the out Shrine.
Somehow, I have the idea this is not what Catullus had in mind to get from his version of the poem:
VIVAMUS, meum Compendium, et cognoscamus,
rumoresque senum magistrorum
omnes unius aestimemus assis!
Soles occidere et redire possunt:
nobis cum semel occidit breuis lux,
nox est perpetua una dormienda.
Da mi quaesita mille, deinde centum,
dein mille altera, dein secunda centum,
deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum.
dein, cum milia multa cognovimus,
studebimus illa, ut sciamus,
et ut quis ignarus cognoscere possit,
cum tantum sciat esse quasitorum.
I know these kids at Notre Dame like their Compendium, but… sheesh! I hope they don’t try to adjust some of the other stuff by Catullus.
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Your comment (intentionally?) reminded me of one of my favorite Yeats poems, The Scholars, which seems ad rem here:
Bald heads, forgetful of their sins,
Old learned, respectable bald heads
Edit and annotate the lines
That young men, tossing on their beds,
Rhymed out in love’s despair
To flatter beauty’s ignorant ear.
All shuffle there; all cough in ink;
All wear the carpet with their shoes;
All think what other people think;
All know the man their neighbor knows.
Lord what would they say
Did their Catullus walk that way?
Shades of “bare ruined choirs”….
It is an honor to see you here.