My father died 10 years ago today, of a massive heart attack, in the dead of night, in bed with his beloved wife. Dad was a Classics teacher, so we all did Latin at school, and he instilled in us a great love of language. We all had to do the annual Tayside Classical Association Latin recitation competition, if only to beat his own pupils, and here is one piece of verse I can still recite, from De Rerum Natura by Lucretius. First in English:

Now no more shall your happy home receive you, nor the best of wives, nor sweet children run up to snatch kisses and touch your heart with silent sweetness. You won't be able to flourish in your affairs nor protect your dear ones. Poor you. One fatal day, they say, has taken from you all your many rewards of life. But in saying this, they don't add: nor will the longing for these things remain with you either. If they could well see this, and follow it out in their words, they would release themselves from great heartache and fear.

Now, imagine a small girl in pigtails and a red kilt, wearing green fluorescent socks, wiping the floor with all those lads from the Harris Academy:

iam iam non domus accipiet te laeta neque uxor
optima nec dulces occurrent oscula nati
praeripere et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent.
non poteris factis florentibus esse tuisque
praesidium misero misere aiunt omnia ademit
una dies infesta tot praemia vitae
illud in his rebus non addunt nec tibi earum
iam desiderium rerum super insidet una
quod bene si videant animo dictisque sequantur
dissoluant animi magno se angora metuque

Tags: david poole, de rerum natura, harris academy, latin, lucretius, madras college, mr cleland, tayside classical association