Silly epigram about Dungeons & Dragons
5mon 8d ago by piefed.social/u/Schoudaan in latin@piefed.social
A while ago I had a flash of inspiration for a pun in Latin about Dungeons & Dragons. So naturally, I wrote an epigram about it. I thought the Latinists here might appreciate it. I've also added an English translation.
Quandocumque placet ludum hunc agitare draconum,
praetori bilis confluit in stomacho.
Namque poeta mihi sapientia verba probavit
expressitque suo carmine: carpe DieM.
Every time I get to play this awesome game of dragons,
our Dungeon Master feels an anger rising strong inside.
The problem seems to be I like to listen to the poets
and Horace taught me well his words of wisdom: carpe DM.
expressitque suo carmine: carpe DieM.
and Horace taught me well his words of wisdom: carpe DM.
Gotta explain this to the others, because OP did some amazing wordplay here:
The verb carpo, -ere is literally "I pick", "I harvest". And it's often used to convey "I enjoy it thoroughly, I make good use of"; that's how it is in the expression carpe diem "enjoy the day".
However. When the object of the verb is a person, the verb gets another connotation, more like "I pick on", "I criticise", "I insult". And "diem" in Latin sounds close to "DM" in English. So that "carpe DM" becomes roughly "shit on the dungeon master".
Thanks! Both for the compliment and the explanation. It saves me the moral dilemma whether to explain my own joke 😅