the Best Footnote Ever
From Polemo-Middinia, an odd macaronic Latin-Scots poem by William Drummond of Hawthornden, who apparently got up to some odd things when he wasn't transcribing the drunken ramblings of Ben Jonson. I'm not sure who the editor/translator is.
Sea-sutor obstupuit, summique in margine saxi
Scartavit praelustre caput, wingasque flapavit;
Quodque magis, alte volitans heronius ipse
Ingeminans clig clagn shyttavit in undis.
(The cormorant was stupefied, and on the edge of the highest rock
Scratched his very illustrious head, and flapped his wings,
And something more: the heron itself flying high
Increasingly shat 'clig clag' into the waves.)
22. clig clag: this is a remarkably accurate bit of onomatopoiea, as anyone will attest who has heard the sound of bird droppings hitting the surface of the sea.
I love the assumption that there are obviously people out there who could accurately describe the sound of a bird crapping into the ocean.
Sea-sutor obstupuit, summique in margine saxi
Scartavit praelustre caput, wingasque flapavit;
Quodque magis, alte volitans heronius ipse
Ingeminans clig clagn shyttavit in undis.
(The cormorant was stupefied, and on the edge of the highest rock
Scratched his very illustrious head, and flapped his wings,
And something more: the heron itself flying high
Increasingly shat 'clig clag' into the waves.)
22. clig clag: this is a remarkably accurate bit of onomatopoiea, as anyone will attest who has heard the sound of bird droppings hitting the surface of the sea.
I love the assumption that there are obviously people out there who could accurately describe the sound of a bird crapping into the ocean.