Baby Got Bacchus

October 14, 2003 8:45 AM

Large buttocks are pleasing to me, nor am I able to lie concerning this matter. A colorful tune is translated into Caesar's tongue. (via boingboing)
posted by gottabefunky (26 comments total)

Homo sum; humani nil a me alienum puto.
posted by rushmc at 8:58 AM on October 14, 2003

That is awesome. I have a friend who went to a wedding a couple of weeks ago and the first dance of the couple was Baby Got Back. Every single guest's jaw hit the FLOOR as soon as "OH MY GOD, BECKY. LOOK AT HER BUTT!" came on.
Amazing.
posted by aacheson at 9:04 AM on October 14, 2003

That is awesome. I have a friend who went to a wedding a couple of weeks ago and the first dance of the couple was Baby Got Back. Every single guest's jaw hit the FLOOR as soon as "OH MY GOD, BECKY. LOOK AT HER BUTT!" came on. Amazing.

I have friends who DJ weddings, and we have a standing bet for some large, undisclosed sum of money if they would ever play Baby Got Back instead of the couple's chosen first dance. That's terrif.
posted by blueshammer at 9:10 AM on October 14, 2003

I passed this on to my daughter, a Classics grad student, a couple of days ago when I first ran across it. Copies have been made and distributed in the Classics Dept. for further study.... :)
posted by Lynsey at 9:13 AM on October 14, 2003

Now this is funny. :)
posted by Foosnark at 9:18 AM on October 14, 2003

inflammare animos = I get sprung

Perfectus!
posted by psmealey at 9:21 AM on October 14, 2003

I've been chuckling to myself over this for a couple of days. dixistine te in meum vehiculum intrare velle? is the line that sets me off, for some reason.

I'd forward it to my dear old Latin teacher, but suspect the response would be the same as the time I persuaded him to let the class watch Derek Jarman's Sebastiane for an end of term treat.
posted by jack_mo at 9:27 AM on October 14, 2003

nnnnice
posted by scarabic at 9:28 AM on October 14, 2003

And once again the existence of the internet is validated...
posted by fletchmuy at 9:42 AM on October 14, 2003

gottabefunky dorcus est.
posted by jmgorman at 9:51 AM on October 14, 2003

Farkfilter, to be sure...but if ever there was a link from Fark that should be on MeFi, it is this one.

Blah blah, it's from boingboing...I bet you it was in Fark's queue first...no way Cory is an LJ freak.
posted by taumeson at 10:23 AM on October 14, 2003

humani nil a me alienum puto.

Doesn't that mean "Humans shouldn't patronize alien whores"?
posted by Sidhedevil at 10:35 AM on October 14, 2003

I don't get it.
posted by eastlakestandard at 11:02 AM on October 14, 2003

And this just in, from memepool - Baby Got Back in Greek.
posted by Lynsey at 11:55 AM on October 14, 2003

Doesn't that mean "Humans shouldn't patronize alien whores"?

You would think so, but my sources provide an alternate translation: I am a human being: nothing human can be alien to me. (The quote is by Terence.)
posted by rushmc at 12:10 PM on October 14, 2003

Some parts I found were translated in an overly literal fashion. For example you would want to translate "What's up?" as "Hello my friend", not as "I inquire as to what is in the air."

Take for instance the original lyric:

"oooooo rumple smooth skin
u say u wanna get my benz"

translated as:

"O skin wrinkled and smooth!
Did you say you wish to enter my vehicle?"

But the lyric wasn't trying to imply this lady person's skin was somehow both wrinkled and smooth, rather it was just a punny take off of the character in the well-known Rupenzel fairy-tale as a slang term for a hot chick. The 'rumple' part wasn't an adjective it was a meaningless by-product of the pun.

But I suppose its easier to translate it in a way it was not meant to be understood, than to come up with a way to replace a very specific cultural reference/word-play. Perhaps that's impossible. Which is why, I suppose, you will never see a Dennis Miller monologue translated into Latin.
posted by dgaicun at 2:45 PM on October 14, 2003

Oh I just checked, I see that he footnoted it:

The original doesn't make much sense either. Is it a cellulite reference?

He just didn't get the lyric.
posted by dgaicun at 2:48 PM on October 14, 2003

Some parts I found were translated in an overly literal fashion.

Some parts were analyzed by MeFi dweebs in an overly literal fashion.
posted by solistrato at 2:59 PM on October 14, 2003

Rapunzel? You mean Rumplestiltskin, yes?

"Rumple" happily evokde "rump", btw, so it's not just a by-product.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 3:11 PM on October 14, 2003

Reminds me of this little item from a few years back.
It's nice to see the Latin lyrics getting more up to date ... I'm looking forward to some L Sestertii translations!
posted by nomis at 4:25 PM on October 14, 2003

I was going to post this. With the greek too. So far the only link missed that I was going to include too was this. Too slow.
posted by wobh at 4:41 PM on October 14, 2003

Some parts I found were translated in an overly literal fashion

Way beyond that. But in a good way.
posted by scarabic at 5:06 PM on October 14, 2003

(this is good)
posted by ehintz at 6:13 PM on October 14, 2003

"Rumple" happily evokde "rump", btw, so it's not just a by-product.

Ooooh yeah; guess I missed the whole purpose of the pun (the 'smooth skin' part is the by-product, it's all about the butt, baby!). We solved the mystery tho. ;)
posted by dgaicun at 6:45 AM on October 15, 2003

From the Greek:
t?? t? s?e?? s???pt??sa? p????

this slays me! Though the rest is relatively unimaginative.
posted by Fezboy! at 11:53 AM on October 15, 2003

ah heck... it came through preview alright....
The line being [the] butt stuck to the material
posted by Fezboy! at 11:54 AM on October 15, 2003