Friday, January 25, 2013

Jan Chryzostom Pasek

In his diaries Jan Chryzostom Pasek writes a funny anecdote. He was sent somewhere in Denmark (from Aarhusen) with an order to fetch money for the military. He went there and expected to have no language difficulties, since even peasants (he says) could speak Latin there. But he made a joke. They were asking him whether he could speak German, Italian, French, but he answered every question with a single word ("Gielt" - Germ. "money"). They knew he was Polish so they tried Latin, but he pretended not to understand. They were desperate and thought that he did not understand any language at all. Next day they brought him some food and a cup of coins. Once he saw it he said in Latin: "Iste est interpres meorum et vestorum desideriorum" ("These are the translators of my and your desires."). They were laughing and later always when they spoke about money they called them "interpres" (translators).

No comments:

Post a Comment