Sam Rodriques
Cambridge, MA
Translated the Cat in the Hat Comes Back into Latin (Cattus Petasatus Regressus).
Rodriques studied Latin for five years, and began his translation in the beginning of his junior year in high school. He says he got the idea from two other Dr. Seuss books published in Latin, Cattus Petasatus (The Cat in the Hat) and Virent Ova, Viret Perna (Green Eggs and Ham), translated by Jennifer Morrish Tunberg and Terence Tunberg.
Says Rodriques about his project, “It is written in trochaic tetrameter (8 beats per line, odd beats are accentuated), a medieval meter, and 2-syllable rhyme, although I experimented some with dactylic tetrameter (12 beats per line, every third accentuated).”
Rodriques did a rough translation of the whole Cat in the Hat Comes Back, and was in the process of revising it when he learned that the company who had published Cattus Petasatus and Virent Ova, Viret Perna was not interested in publishing another book. “Apparently there isn't much of a market for Dr. Seuss in Latin,” jokes Rodriques. “Who would’ve guessed?”