silversolitaire | Urm... Latin help?

So, for some strange and unknown reason my half-uncle has taken a liking in me, despite the fact that I abhor him and barely spoke a work to him when he visited two weeks okay. I did say to him after he annoyed the fuck out of me for the 50th time that he's superimposing his standards on other people and should know that a hermeneutic approach only works when you share and / or understand someone's cultural background. Guess that left an impression. So, yeah... no clue why he likes me now, but he does because he wrote me an email. Or rather, my dad... on his birthday... without wishing HIM a happy birthday. It was some obscure Mac-format that none of us could open. Apparently, dad and bro tried all day to sorta format it. It was a Chronostichon which he composed to my honor for my 25th birthday! O.o; I mean... how odd is that??? I didn't even know what it was until my dad explained it to me.

So... now I've got a Chronostichon... in Latin. I did study Latin for five years, but my last class has has been 7 years ago or so! I barely remember anything! So I really have no clue what this means. Well I have a faint clue, but not enough to actually stand a chance against him and now I'm expected to call him and say thank you and he'll only make me look stupid ;_;.

Anyway, here is it:

[Name of his place in Latin], die vigesimo octavo mensis Iulii, qui infra indicatur anno.

(I know this! On the 28th of July in the year as indicated below! Which is the trick of a Chronostichon, btw. All the letters that can be read as a Roman number are supposed to add up to meaningful numbers. In this case, of the first part each line adds up to 2003 and the last part the entire thing adds up to 2003. Odd person...)

HERMANN DIGNA SILVERA HODIE,
NON INGRATA EI FORE EPIGRAMMATA SPERANS,
ANTICO MODO CANTAT AC CHRONOSTICHIS.

(Note, I changed my real name to "Silvera", but of course the V is extra there, but it doesn't count. It's just the I that's intended to be in there! ^_^; I still think he messed up the vocative... but what do I know. I must admit, I have no clue what this means... "Hermann tells Silver today..." does he call me an ingrate? LOL... Somehow my grammar has left me...)

QVATTVOR VT ANNI ET SAECVLI TEMPORA,
NVNC TIBI VERE, SILVERA, PERACTO
QVOT SINT VENTVRA DESINE PERCONTARI.

(Okay, this is something about a fourth of a century or so? God I feel so old... The rest... is silence. I have no idea x_x. Those words aren't even in my dictionary. It's probably some obscure grammatical term... meow.)

Okay... this is just too much... *frizzles* Help anyone??

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

whooooooooooooosh over my head!

what does hermeneutic mean?

randomly, are you going to finish your NaNo story?

Over my head too x_x.

Hermeneutics is the art of interpretation. Meaning either the ability to understand and interpret paintings, writings etc. but also what people do every day when they look at someone else and are able to read their gestures and the way they say things etc.

I'm planning on finishing it, I just don't know when. I don't much feel like it at the moment. But it'll come back eventually ^_^.

O_o
well, if this is not another good reason to hate him even more, then i don't know what is.. :p

"NVNC TIBI VERE, SILVERA, PERACTO"
nunc is 'now'
tibi.. isn't that 'to you' or something
vere.. rightly?
peracto.. ehm, maybe peragere 'complete, accomplish'?

It's so easy to hate him, isn't it? >.<;

nunc tibi... now you (dative)... yes, but... what about the rest??? LOL! This just seriously fries my brain... *rubs eyes*

Oh, you haven't read the accompanying letter, btw. Makes you want to punch him in the gut. Something about not wanting to make it a second Leukonoe or Elsa with diverse prohibitions of questions (???). And that the melancholic tone is coincidental, not methodical. *shakes paper and waits for melancholy to fall out*

not wanting to make it a second Leukonoe or Elsa with diverse prohibitions of questions?
hmm. y..es. i see. that was my impression right away..
the melancholic tone is coincidental, not methodical, he says?
ah, indeed. but that's obvious!

>>>*shakes paper and waits for melancholy to fall out*
hehehe.. too funny! :))

now, seriously.. he can't be for real! are you sure he didn't escape from a bad movie, or somethin'?

I'm afraid he's serious ;_;. He's a professor for math... statistics and stochastic and crap. But he was brought up with a love for the classics, and literature and all. Did I ever post about that??? He once called us up in the middle of the night because he wanted to speak to dad, but he wasn't there so he involved me in a chat. He wanted to ask me, since I'm "an academic, so to speak", what I think of Harry Potter and the big hype and how I would go about trying to convince him to read it. I tried my best for an hour or so and he closed with the sentence that he's almost 60 now and who knows when his eyes will give in, so he only wants to bother with books worth his time -.-;. Him and his wife, they're constantly talking about their impeding death and disablement. They start almost every sentence with "Who knows how many years we'll have left" or "Who knows when our eyes will lose sight" or "Who knows how long we'll be able to walk"... ARGH!

yep, you mentioned the Potter thing, but only briefly.

ROTF!! charming couple, i'm sure. :)
hahaha! that's SOME smartass, if there ever was one! old an' cranky even. i lurve those.. *g*

You know, my parents are like that!! My mother is speeding up all my wedding presents so that I won't get them when/if I get married but I'll get them within a couple of years instead!! "We want to do it while we still have our strength" and "I have to weave your wedding cloth now while I still have my eyesight" etc. It's really annoying me because it makes me feel I have to speed things up! My mom once said she wants to have grandchildren while she is still able to hold them in her arms!

First of all, I don't know what the heck a Chronostichon is!
Second of all: what is the intellectuality level in your family anyway???
Third of all: Are you sure your uncle isn't a bit pretentious?

Well as I said, a Chronostichon is a Latin poem (I think it has to be Latin) and all the letters that can be read as Roman numbers (I, V, X, L, C, D, M) add up to a meaningful number. In this case it was 2003.

Background coming up in email.

And yes, my half-uncle definitely is pretentious! This is why we all hate him so much. The sick thing about him is that it's pretty much half half. Part of it he does to look and sound smart, and the other part he does because he simple is that way. Scary scary person....

Urm... Latin help?

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