Insanity In A Dead Language

I remember there was a time when I was 16 and I was studying for exams and we played Orff's Carmina Burana non-stop for 5 days. Worse was to come. We couldn't stop humming bits of it in class. And even worse, they were the -loud- bits. Like 'O Fortuna' for example.

But one part of it stuck in my mind and wouldn't let go.

Feror ego veluti
Sine nauta navis
Ut per vias aeris
Vaga fertur avis

Non me tenent vincula
Non me tenet clavis
Quero mihi similes
Et adiungor pravis

In those days, we did our own translations, which is how we figured out that 'Auspicium Melioris Aevi' means 'looking for a good time', and 'Filiae Melioris Aevi' means 'good time girls'. What follows is our translation of the words of that ancient drinking song...

I am like a wild thing
A ship without sailors
On the paths of the air
A wandering bird

No chain can keep me
No key can bind me
I seek my own kind
And other reckless men

And that's why I firmly believe that youth must have its day - and that day is always the same, with all its glories, all its darkness, its fire and its singing and its passion.