Virgil and Trauma Recovery

One of my favorite courses in high school was Virgil's Aeneid in Latin taught by an excellent teacher named Robert Iorillo. Part of his theatrics was standing on his desk and cringing or throwing an eraser at you if your rendering of Virgil's beautiful was inadequate.

One of Dr. Iorillo's translations stuck with me. In Book 1, line 203, the Aeneid famously reads "forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit" which he rendered as "perhaps one day it will even please you to remember these things." It was an encouraging statement because, like Aeneas, "Doc I" was assuring us that one day we would look back with pleasure on our current sufferings. (I even considered making it my yearbook quote, but chose a much worse quote to honor Doc I with.)

Recently I have been using some of my quarantine time to revisit the fundamentals of my Latin with my Anderson and Groten textbook. In chapter five of a 70 chapter book, the text lists the verb parts and translation of "iuvo, iuvare, iuvi, iutum" as "help, aid." That set me to thinking that his translation, although encouraging, did not seem correct.

This line comes at a time that the men of Aeneas had suffered extraordinary wartime trauma. His speech was meant as a help to his men, but the difference in translation is important. Is Virgil having Aeneas say that this memory will be like college friends who get together, laugh and recollect exploits that landed them in trouble or is this memory something more important?

Three years ago, I studied a book by Bessel Vanderkolk titled The Body Keeps Score. In my characteristic enthusiasm, I recommended the book to all and even bought it for some. One of my friends termed it "the Granowski bible." The premise of the book is that childhood recovery is a challenge because trauma needs to be processed, but the mind, being merciful, typically suppresses the memory of the trauma. The long term result of the suppression is physical and mental illness. It seemed to me that Virgil might be pointing in that direction.

I began lookin up other translations on Google and almost all were in Doc I's translation camp. But I then found a wonderful article on this topic by a Latin high school teacher Dani Bostick titled "Forsan Et Haec Olim Meminisse Iuvabit: Will Remembering Help or Please?" She comes down on the side of help and even narrows it down to trauma. I would love to audit her class!

I think that a rendering of iuvabit as "help" forces a deeper interpretation of "meminisse." "Iuvabit" is the future tense "will help" and is paired with the perfect infinitive "to have recalled or remembered" implying an action that has to be done in a prior time. With this verb, Latin generally uses a perfect tense form with a sense of present tense. However, I think that it is better to render this as a perfect tense that implies a past work completed. So a better translation might be "perhaps one day it will  help to have processed even these things."

Why has everyone gotten this so wrong? I think it might be rooted in generations of glorifying war. For years, Vanderkolk struggled to get anyone to acknowledge PTSD. There was a societal unwillingness to acknowledge the true horrors of war. I believe that Virgil profoundly understood the horrors of war and that a real purpose of the Aeneid was to critique the high price of empire, but carefully worded to not offend the emperor. I think my translation honors that critique of empire - relevant to our current day struggle as we try to help vets returning from long campaigns in the Middle East.

Who says the classics are irrelevant? Maybe its been the translations that have been irrelevant.

COVID - 19: End Game

In Steven Covey's well-known Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, he advocated "keep the end in mind." Given the complexity of the current pandemic, I thought it might be helpful to think about the end game.

If the virus continues to spread, even at a low rate, it seems highly likely that everyone gets it. Only if its transmission completely goes away by isolation does the virus drop out of existence. Given the global connectedness, the past transmission rates, the current populations affected, it is difficult for me to see how this does not result in all of us getting the virus. But this full contagion has a variety of possible outcomes.

First, it is possible that a much greater number than we realize have already contracted this virus and are effectively immune to its impact. This group of people either have genetic characteristics or attained antibodies that protect them from its often horrendous impact. If this number is sufficient, then it is possible that we may be able to trace a solution for the rest of us that would allow full exposure. It seems this solution is months away at earliest.

Second, it is possible that treatments may be developed that allow for a diminishing of the impact of the virus on the body. It appears that the combo of an anti-malarial and a z-pack could be effective as an immuno-suppressant as the worst effects come from the body's own attack on the virus. This solution would seem to be the earliest that science can develop in terms of months away.

Third, it is possible that a vaccine is developed at a faster rate than the next few years - given the history we have of vaccine development and the urgency at hand. In that way, we could simply generate global supplies of vaccines and dramatically lower the fatality rate.

In all cases, it appears that we need more time. To gain this required time, we have to practice three simple steps: 1) social distance, 2) washing our hands and 3) not touching our faces. The economic impact would seem likely to fade as these social practices are implemented. The practice of non-activity cannot go on for prolonged periods as people develop "safe work" practices that do not impair the economy.

Clearly the last parts of the economy to heal were the first to go: travel and luxury goods. These areas are trading at low prices, especially when accompanied with debt.