Monday 16 March 2020

Latin Lover: locucions llatines per a totes les circumstàncies

by Mino Milani
illustrated by Sara Not
translated by Anna Casassas i Figueras

Hey, I just finished reading my first book in Catalan. With a little help of Google Translate, but I did it. I wasn’t my fault really. By some reason, it was not a Spanish edition of the book — originally written in Italian, still as Latin Lover but subtitled Detti latini per tutte le occasioni — but a Catalan one that found its way to the library of Las Palmas. So I had no choice.

The good news is that Catalan seems to be very humorous language. Which other tongue constantly uses expressions like “hi ha” (there is) or “ho he” (I have)? Funny, funny stuff.

Latin Lover contains 40 annotated and beautifully illustrated Latin sayings. No matter if you (think that you) know their meanings already: what is important is what the author has to say about them. Check out cogito ergo sum, conditio sine qua non, homo homini lupus, ipse dixit, or qualis pater, talis filus, et cetera — nice examples how to take everything, including Latin maxims, cum grano salis.

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