Saturday, December 04, 2004

Latin in my spam, courtesy of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo

My spam sends me Latin to translate. There's some picture for the usual spam medications. I wonder what the connection is between the medicines and Augustine's Confessio.

1 "quis ego et qualis ego? quid non mali aut facta mea aut, si non facta
2 est egestas humanae intellegentiae, quia plus loquitur inquisitio quam
3 est medicina tua. potuimus putare verbum tuum remotum esse a
4 peccatores, tu autem, domine, cui reconciliare volebant, immortalis et
5 velles, quo consilio dilatus sum, ne tunc baptizarer, utrum bono meo"

I tried translating it (of course to little avail) before realizing what it was.

Translation by F. J. Sheed:
1 "Who am I and what kind of man am I? What evil has there not been in my deeds, or if not in [my] deeds ..." - IX.I
2 "Thus it is that so often the poverty of the human intellect uses an abundance of words: for seeking uses more words than ..." - XII.I
3 "... Thy medicine is [of more power]. We might well have thought Thy Word remote from ..." - X.XLIII
4 "... sinners; You, Lord, to whom they wished to be reconciled, are immortal and ..." - X.XLII
5 "... [if] You wish [to tell me,] to what end was my baptism deferred? was it for my good ..." - I.XI

So. Is this weirder or less weird than the Lorem Ipsum gibberish? Did some group of spammers program their spam generator to pick through Augustine's Confessio, or were they simply feeling uninspired and *cough* naturally looked to Augustine?

This deserves an Oslo award in any case.

For those of you not in on the joke, an Oslo award is bestowed on that which provokes a response of: "What the?" This response was provoked in the Oslo airport, whose floor asks in large, inlaid gold letters (in English): "Are you where you are? Are you not where you are? Go to where you are and I will meet you there."

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