Dream of:
04 March 1975 "De Senectute"I was driving in the country with the secretary of Professor Harry Hultgrun (my Latin professor at Ohio University Athens). She was an attractive, black-haired woman with whom I was having an affair. Since I had an appointment with Hultgrun, we finally headed back toward his office. It was the last day of the school quarter and I was supposed to translate some Latin passages into English – Cicero's De Senectute, as well as passages of Euclid. Since I had been with my family earlier and I hadn't completed the work which Hultgrun had assigned me; I was rather apprehensive that Hultgrun would detect I hadn't completed the final portions of the assignment and I would fail.
When we arrived at Hultgrun's office, the woman told me Hultgrun had left instructions for me to take a test by choosing passages of my own volition to translate. She said Hultgrun had called my father
and the two of them had gone to Cleveland together. I was quite relieved Hultgrun was absent; I asked the woman what passages she thought I should translate. I also mentioned something to her about my dislike for popular literature.Suddenly Hultgrun arrived in a hurry. Doctor Murphy (who taught Greek in the classical language department) was with him. The woman told Hultgrun about my dislike for popular literature and he asked me what I meant by that. I simply said I didn't care for popular literature.
Hultgrun decided I should immediately begin translating. He opened a window, but I was freezing and I asked if he cared if I closed it.
I looked into the other room and saw the secretary with her arms around a boy about half her age. I figured it was probably her brother.
I was in a panic. Hultgrun said he did not know if I knew what "aqui diurnum" meant. I said it meant "the passing of time"; Hultgrun said that was correct. He came across the word "glukos" (written in Greek) and doctor Murphy said the word meant gold. Hultgrun picked a passage of De Senectute which I hadn't read and asked me to translate.
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