Not Quite Dead

A friend of mine once told me of a colleague of his who, at an international conference of scholars of religion, found himself in the company of a researcher whom he knew by reputation and with whom he desired to converse. The two quickly discovered that they had no spoken language in common – however, as they were both experts in Indian religions, they realied that they could communicate in Sanskrit, an ancient language, that, although usually numbered among the dead, was, as least for a moment on that day, revived.

I was reminded of this story by today’s interview in National Geographic with Caroline Alexander, creator of a new translation of Homer’s Iliad. She interviewed Hastings Kamuzu Banda, the dictator of Malawi, when Banda was quite old and not in complete possession of his faculties. He had forgotten any language they might have in common — except that Banda, like Alexander, was a classicist. They conducted the interview in Latin, which he did still remember.