POEM REVIEW
GAUDEAMUS IGITUR
(THEREFORE, LET’S REJOICE)
…. A TALE OF TWO POEMS
Reviewed by
M. Saleem Seyal, MD, FACC, FACP
“For you may need to strain to hear the voice of the patient in the thin reed of his crying
For you will learn to see most acutely out of the corner of your eye to hear best with your inner ear
For there are late signs and early signs
For the patient’s story will come to you like hunger, like thirst”
From “Gaudeamus Igitur”
- John Stone, 1982
“G
audeamus Igitur” is the title of
two poems that originated many
centuries apart with two entirely
disparate messages.
The older version is a medieval song/poem
with several different renditions since 1287
that is performed at some European university graduation ceremonies; it’s considered to
glamorize the bacchanalian, hedonistic lifestyle
of the student days. Paradoxically, it also stresses the grim reality
of death that can seize any one anytime with the unambiguous
exhortation of enjoying life while we can in the spirit of “carpe diem”—“seize the day.” The song/poem has been bowdlerized during
public ceremonies but ribald words pertaining to “wine, women
and song” have been added in private functions.
The newer