Urm... Latin help?

[silversolitaire]

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??

Comments

[silversolitaire.livejournal.com]

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!

[no-ron.livejournal.com]

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*

[kribban.livejournal.com]

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!