human
Very well, Reuben. Mr. Hibbs sniffed.
gpt
Lines twenty-one and twenty-two, and pray note that you are not to stress the caesura in line twenty-two, seeing there is no break in the thought.
human
What's the matter? Are you considering, Mr. Cory, whether the caesura be intended by the poet to indicate a pause for daydreaming?
gpt
Icarus immensas nomine signet aquas.
human
You have the quantities correct, and may now construe.
gpt
I was construing freely, sir.
human
Why?
gpt
I thought it sounded smoother so, in English.
human
Fiddle! _Fuit_, not being subjunctive, cannot be so translated.
gpt
Mr. Cory, one light fugitive moment if you please. Concerning the word _tutas_: is this an adverb?
human
No, sir.
gpt
If Ovid had wished an adverb he would have written----?
human
Yet he used this strange word _tutas_, which is----?
gpt
An adjective, sir. _Tutas_, _-a_, _-um_, meaning 'safe.'
human
Light breaks. Mr. Hibbs filled his clay pipe, deliberately maddening his tortured nose.
gpt
The source, incidentally, of a dreadful English word, 'tutor'--I suppose from some woeful misguided conceit to the effect that a tutor can hold his charges in safety, Master Reuben, from the perils of error--_wharrmphsh!_--within and without. An adjective, then, and plural, I presume. The case, Mr. Cory?
human
Objective, Mr. Hibbs.
gpt
Could it by any remote chance agree with--hm----
human
It agrees with _alas_, sir.
gpt
Oh! How we do see eye to eye at times! _Tutas alas._ I could even imagine it meant 'safe wings,' 'uninjured wings,' something like that, if an adverb had not gone flying past my aging benighted head. Now concerning this word _agitaret_. Did I hear you translate it as 'moved'?
human
I did, sir.
gpt
Had you considered the word 'agitate'?--excellent, _I_ should have thought, and taken direct from the mother Latin.
human
I did, sir, but the present-day meaning seemed unsatisfactory.
gpt
Why?
human
To me, Reuben said,
gpt
He glanced up, honestly feeling as apologetic as a puppy caught _in flagrante_ with a ravished shoe.
human
To me, sir, Daedalus was no butterfly.