What is it that roareth thus?
Can it be a Motor Bus?
Yes, the smell and hideous hum
Indicat Motorem Bum!
Implet in the Corn and High*
Terror me Motoris Bi:
Bo Motori clamitabo
Ne Motore caedar a Bo -
Dative be or Ablative
So thou only let us live:
Whither shall thy victims flee?
Spare us, spare us, Motor Be!
Thus I sang; and still anigh
Came in hordes Motores Bi,
Et complebat omne forum
Copia Motorum Borum.
How shall wretched lives like us
Cincti Bis Motoribus?
Domine, defende nos
Contra hos Motores Bos!

[*Corn[market] and High are two streets in Oxford]

--A.D. Godley, January 1914

Here's a rough translation:

What is is that roars so,
Can it be a motor bus?
Yes the smell and hideous hum
Indicates a motor bus
In the Cornmarket and the High Street
Fear of the motor bus fills me
I call out to the motor bus
Lest I be killed by the motor bus
Dative be or Ablative
So thou only let us live
Whither shall thy victims flee?
Spare us, spare us Motor Bus....
So I sang and on and on
Motor buses came in hordes
And the whole market place was filled
With a host of motor buses
How shall wretches live like us
Beleaguered by motor buses
Lord defend us
From these motor buses

I remember it from a Latin textbook we used at school, and found it by chance on the Web the other day.

That reminds me of Lewis Mumford's observation that the motor car and the "sorry mess of mono-transportation" it caused, (was) "as poor a bargain as Esau's pottage."

Arnie, why are some lines in Latin and some in English?

Lay of Ancient Rome
by Thomas Ybarra

Oh, the Roman was a rogue,
He erat was, you bettum;
He ran his automobilis
And smoked his cigarettum;
He wore a diamond studibus
And elegant cravattum,
A maxima cum laude shirt,
And a stylish hattum!

He loved the luscious hic-haec-hoc,
And bet on games and equi;
At times he won, at others, though,
He got it in the necqui;
He winked (quo usque tandem?)
At puellas on the Forum,
And sometimes even made
Those goo-goo oculorum!

He frequently was seen
At combats gladiatorial,
And ate enough to feed
Ten boarders at Memorial;
He often went on sprees
And said, on starting homus,
"Hic labor --- opus est,
Oh, where's my hic--hic--domus?"

Although he lived in Rome --
Of all the arts the middle --
He was (excuse the phrase)
A horrid individ'l;
Ah! what a diff'rent thing
Was the homo (dative, hominy)
Of far-away B.C.
From us of Anno Domini.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
Arnie, why are some lines in Latin and some in English?

There was a form of poetry which was common back in the 18th and 19th centuries which is familiar to those who, like me, sang in traditional English church choirs for years because it appears in many hymns. It's a mixture of Latin and English and is found in such Christmas carols as In Dulce Jubilo.

It's known as Macaronic Verse.

See also here,

That's excellent, I've bookmarked it in my "Favourites" folder and I'll print it out when I get some time ! I love the puns and the subtle wordplay. I'll have to look up this Thomas Ybarra and find out who he was.

I seem to have a huge space in my brain where my mathematical ability lobe should be but, to compensate, I love languages and I have a real flair for them. One of the many schools I attended (my father was in the Air Force) was an army school in Cyprus and I was lucky enough to have learned Latin for the two years I was there. Most service families lived in rented accommodation off base, so I also picked up colloquial Greek from our neighbours' children (including several bad words which eleven year olds shouldn't have known in the relatively innocent days of the early 1960s ).