The Boy Who Was Afraid of Butterflies - Chapter 12

Chapter 12 Amamini

The fifth of May 1951. The vast school hall echoes as two twelve year olds climb the wooden steps onto the stage to hand in our work to the invigilator. We have just completed the final Latin paper of the Public Schools Common Entrance Examination. Mr Harris-Ide is there looking over the shoulder of the morose keeper of silence, flicking through the offerings we’ve just submitted.

Later that day he draws me aside.

“You did quite well I think. But what on earth were you dreaming of when you were asked to translate ‘amamini’? What possessed you to put ‘of a goat’?”

“I just guessed. I’ve never seen the word before.”

“Yes, you have. It comes from ‘amor’. It means ‘you are being loved’. Surely you knew that?!”

“Oh, I didn’t recognise it.”