Other Kingdom — E.M. Forster

"Quem, whom; fugis, are you avoiding; ab demens, you silly ass; habitarunt di quoque, gods too have lived in; silvas, the woods.' Go ahead " I always brighten the classics-it is part of my system-and therefore I translated demens by "silly ass." But Miss Beaumont need not have made a note of the translation, and Ford, who knows better, need not have echoed after me. "Whom are you avoiding, you silly ass, gods too have lived in the woods." "Ye-es," I replied, with scholarly hesitation. "Ye-es. Silvas-woods, wooded spaces, the country generally. Yes. Demens, of course, is de-mens. 'Ah, witless fellow Gods, I say, even gods have dwelt in the woods ere now.'"