Nothing They Can Do About It

Nothing They Can Do About It by Kit Miller first appeared in issue Issue 112 in 2024.

Summary

Sebastian writes poetry. Marcus translates Latin. They come together to translate Latin poetry.

Connections

Marcus and Sebastian also appear in A Snapshot of Married Life and A Roomful of Strangers.

Author's Notes

Right out of the gate, a disclaimer that I am a medievalist and not a classicist; while I did a lot of research, I cannot guarantee that I didn’t make errors that might make a proper classicist huff in annoyance. I do apologise.

Neither the manuscript nor the unknown poems therein exist. However, the description of the manuscript is an amalgamation of myriad manuscripts from roughly the right era and location. I weep for joy that I am a medievalist in the era of high-quality, digital facsimiles!

A few notes on the real Latin authors I reference in this piece:

• Catullus (Gaius Valerius Catullus, c. 84 – c. 54 BCE). You can read his works – originals plus various translations – here. Only one manuscript of Catullus’ works is extant – which is why discovering another one would be a huge deal! At one point, Marcus quotes Carmina 48.
• Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso, 43 BCE – 17/18 CE). His Ars Amatoria is a – probably satirical – manual for how to Love Properly. In contrast to other and usually earlier Roman poets, he was vocal about preferring to have sex with women rather than men/boys.
• Vergil (Publius Vergilius Maro, 70 – 19 BCE). More commonly spelt Virgil, but his actual, Latin name is Vergilius; the variant with i is a medieval invention that stuck for no good reason, and neither I nor Marcus are fans of academic conventions that got stuck for no good reason, so we both insist on the spelling that is closer to the guy’s actual name. Vergil’s second Eclogue is the lament of Corydon, a shepherd, over his unrequited love for the boy Alexis.

External Links

This story is also available on Archive of Our Own (AO3).