“Perhaps the only doo-wop song sung in Latin”

by Mallory Ortberg · November 26, 2014

Let’s all lie down quietly on the floor with something cool draped over our eyes and listen to this for a while.

“”De Brevitate Vitae” (Latin: “On the Shortness of Life”), more commonly known as “Gaudeamus Igitur” (“So Let Us Rejoice”) or just “Gaudeamus,” is a popular academic commercium song in many Western countries, mainly sung or performed at university graduation ceremonies. Despite its use as a formal graduation hymn, it is a jocular, light-hearted composition that pokes fun at university life. The song is thought to originate in a Latin manuscript from 1287. It is in the tradition of carpe diem (“seize the day”) with its exhortations to enjoy life.”

Stressing the “jocular, light-hearted” aspect of the thing, and leaving out the reminders of mortality, of course. Just nice to have Latin doo-wop’d at one, every now and again.

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32 Comments

  1. sokkysinging +12

    Happy few minutes distraction! I’ve had to perform this a couple of times for graduations and it’s actually REALLY hard not to sing it in a boppy fashion. (stately organ accompaniment is apparently no bar.)

  2. gripyfish +7

    Well, I just started hyperventilating so much, my coworker came around the corner to see if I was dying. This may be my new favorite thing ever.

  3. craftalchemy +8

    This made my wet and ill afternoon a great deal brighter. I’m now wondering what else in Latin could really benefit from a bouncier rendition …

  4. supernanify +13

    Holy crap what is this
    I’m prepping a lecture on Rome as we speak. Surely this counts as research.

  5. elsajeni +59

    So I looked up a translation of the lyrics and:
    Perish sadness, perish haters… as well those who mock us!

    So. If you have been wanting to know how to scornfully dismiss your haters in Latin, apparently “Pereant osores” is what you’re looking for.

      1. winterbymorning +43

        It should actually be “perite” because you would use the imperative when addressing your haters directly

        1. sigaloenta +17

          Yeah but surely it’s also okay to bid all haters to perish, not just the ones you happen to be talking to.

          Or, in the words of the Twelve Tables, Si queis quid oderit, perito

          1. winterbymorning +19

            You are right – the use of the jussive subjunctive in this context is not grammatically incorrect!

  7. MsNormaDesmond +23

    Nothing could make my Smithie heart happier than this. My personal favorite line (somehow not sung at Smith) translates to “Long live girls easy and beautiful” although pereant osores also holds a special place in my heart.

    1. squiffyocelot +13

      Hey, fellow Smithie! *waves*
      This just made me very nostalgic for convocation…is it weird that I wish I had more occasions in life to sing raucously in latin with my top off?

  8. Pantomime_Horse +25

    A couple of years ago I translated Mariah Carey’s Fantasy into Latin, just for fun. The chorus makes a surprisingly good Gregorian Chant.

  10. gavinbyrnes +5

    INFINITE JEST INFINITE JEST INFINITE JEST INFINITE JEST

    (deep breath)

    INFINITE JEST INFINITE JEST INFINITE JEST INFINITE JEST

    ps allston rules

  11. francescahoney +3

    Just finished a large paper that has been consuming my life, so I am really feeling this right now.

  12. middlemarch +12

    Aw, man, this reminds me of my Latin teacher who made us sing this all the time. God, that was the best class – like, half the time, he would just go off on these random tangents about how he had an extraordinarily stupid sheep named Doofus in Wisconsin, or the importance of isometric exercises, or how he accidentally named his son after his pet rooster. And somehow we actually managed to learn Latin, too.

    High school Latin, man. I MISS IT.

    1. craftalchemy +6

      This is giving me amazing flashbacks to Prof Belcher, who taught me first-year uni crash-course Latin, and took only the mildest persuasion to go off on huge tangents about *his* high-school Latin teacher, who was apparently known to all and sundry as Screaming Jeannie. He also gave us chocolate cake every Friday and mulled wine at Christmas.

  13. emdash +18

    My first- and second-year Latin teacher a) Taught us the “Let’s all go to the lobby” drive-in snack song in Latin and b) Made us a Latin Scrabble set. In that he only used the classical Latin alphabet went through the lexicon and assigned proper numerical value to each number based on its number of appearances in the lexicon and made the tiles with the correct numbers himself.

  15. Stellmaria_ +3

    Ah so at high school in Sydney we sang this at the beginning of every school assembly & at all other formal occasions, in the ‘correct’ Latin pronunciation (Hard c’s, w’s for v’s etc. Not sure if this is actually ‘correct’ or not). It wasn’t until several years later that I actually learned what it means! Bizarre. (I can still sing you most of it on request).

  18. reuvenc +5

    it’s been a day and nobody’s yet mentioned Sam, Ed & Larry, and some others sing it in a Season 4 Episode of The West Wing (“Debate Camp”) so I am doing that now

  19. Rosemary

    My third-year Latin teacher made us sing this once, but with a much slower, dirge-like tune. I wish we had done this one instead!