February 19, 2011

Corrige praeteritum, rege praesens, cerne futurum


Recording also available at iPadio using this link.

Today's saying is Corrige praeteritum, rege praesens, cerne futurum. In English: "Correct the past, direct the present, detect the future."

The "triple" aspect of this proverb is really appealing to me! Both as a teacher and as a student, I feel like I am always looking to the past and the present and the future. Correcting past mistakes is how I can try to avoid making such mistakes again in the future. By directing the present, I try to steer its course towards the destination that is my goal. Finally, I have to try, somehow, to discern what is to come in the future, detecting the trends that could end up having quite an impact on my future present, so to speak! Finally, what I like best about this proverb is that it suggests there is a perfect kind of balancing act here; you need to spend equal time on past, present, and future, not getting completely hung up on just one of them. So, try to keep all three in mind if you can: Corrige praeteritum, rege praesens, cerne futurum.

In terms of Latin, notice that there is a nice word play with corrige and rege, which have the same verbal stem, which I've tried to suggest with "correct" and "direct" in English. Plus, in the English, I've extended that echo still further, with "detect" the future, using a little bit of rhyme to emphasize the lovely tri-fold structure of the Latin saying.

For those of you who are fans of macrons, here is the Latin written with macrons:

Corrige praeteritum, rege praesens, cerne futūrum.



.