The Classical Association of the Middle West and South Latin Translation Contest draws primarily from North American high schools and universities. It is a translation competition in the fullest sense: not multiple choice, not grammar identification, but the rendering of a Latin passage into English prose that is accurate, readable, and stylistically considered. The judges are classicists, and they evaluate on three grounds — precision, substance, and style — which means that correctness is necessary but not sufficient. A translation that is technically faithful but flat will not place. The number of prizes is deliberately small; only the best entries are awarded anything. The field this year included established classical schools such as the Geneva School of Manhattan and rigorous public institutions such as Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Virginia, one of the most competitive academic high schools in the United States. Five Emerson Latin students placed.
Gyuyeon Park
Jaye Cho
Translation is the most exposed form of Latin study. An examination that tests grammar can be passed with pattern recognition; a reading comprehension test can be managed with inference. A translation submitted for judging by classicists cannot be hidden behind either. Every choice of word, every handling of a Latin construction, every decision about how a sentence should move in English is visible on the page and accountable to a reader who knows exactly what the Latin says. To place in this competition, against the field this year, is to have demonstrated that the Latin has been understood at a level where something genuine can be made of it.
Two first-place finishes from a single academy is a result Emerson Latin has not previously recorded in this competition. We are proud of all five students, and we note that Hunjae Lee appears this year also among the NLVE World Champions — two entirely different kinds of Latin knowledge, demonstrated at the top of their respective fields in the same year.