Sunday 25 September 2011

When I left

Quum subit illius tristissima noctis imago
qua mihi supremum [tempus] in urbe fuit
quum repeto noctem, qua tot mihi cara reliqui
labitur ex oculis nunc quoque gutta meis.
(When steals upon me the gloomy memory of that night
which marked my latest hours in the city -
when I recall that night on which I left so many things
dear to me, even now from my eyes the teardrops fall.)


Quoted from the Edinburgh-educated Malaysian Chinese scholar Ku Hung-ming's (1857-1928) quotation in "Days That Are No More" from Chapter3, Book 1, of Ovid's Tristia. Translation from Lo Hui-Min's “Ku Hung-ming: Schooling,” Papers on Far Eastern History, Vol. 37-38, 1988, p. 64.



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