Can You Guess What These Beatles Songs Are in Latin?

The Beatles at the press launch for their new album ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,’ 1967 (John Downing/Getty Images)

Throughout their career as a band, the Beatles always scored brownie points for their foreign language skills. First, there was the two-sided 1964 single the band did entirely in German, featuring “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (“Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand”) and “She Loves You” (“Si Liebt Dich”). They followed that up with 1965’s “Michelle,” where Paul McCartney matches his first verse in English with one entirely in French. Then, John Lennon dropped some Sanskrit in 1970’s “Across the Universe.”

But for all that, The Beatles never touched Latin, the source of all Romance languages—and that 200-level elective you took in college that you’re still wondering what to do with. Thankfully, someone else did over at Beatles In Latin, a site dedicated to addressing Lennon and McCartney’s oversight.

RealClearLife has reproduced three Beatles songs in Latin below. See if you can guess the complementary English song. Take a good look, and if it doesn’t come to you, click on the link below the lyrics for the song.

Melius Fiens

Id est melius fiens omnia temporis.
Meae scholae irascebar (non queror.)
Magistri qui me docebant non novi erant (non queror,)
Deorsum me inhibentibus, me circumagentibus,
Me complentibus cum vobis doctrinis.

Me oportet concedere id esse melius fiens,
Paulum melius universum temporis (id peior non potest.)
Me oportet concedere id esse melius fiens,
Id est melius fiens cum fueris meus.

Me eram iratus adulescens,
Me celantes meum caput in harena.
Mihi verbum dedisti, ego denique audivi,
Facio optime ut esse possum.

Me oportet concedere id esse melius fiens,
Paulum melius universum temporis (id peior non potest.)
Me oportet concedere id esse melius fiens,
Id est melius fiens cum fueris meus.

Tam melius fiens omnia temporis,
Id est melius fiens omnia temporis.
(Melius, melius, melius.)
Id est melius fiens omnia temporis.
(Melius, melius, melius.)

Crudelis ad meum mulier eram,
Eam percutiebam et eam distinebam
A rebus quas ea amat.
Heu, humilis eram, sed ludum muto,
Atque facio optime ut esse possum.

Me oportet concedere id esse melius fiens,
Paulum melius universum temporis (id peior non potest.)
Vero, me oportet concedere id esse melius fiens,
Id est melius fiens cum fueris meus.

Tam melius fiens omnia temporis,
Id est melius fiens omnia temporis.
(Melius, melius, melius.)
Id est melius fiens omnia temporis.
(Melius, melius, melius.)
Tam melius fiens omnia temporis.

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Salve Vale

Dicis vero, dico non,
Dicis “desine,” dico “eo, eo, eo.”

O non, dicis “vale” et dico “salve, salve, salve.”
Nescio cur dicas “vale,” dico “salve.”
Nescio cur dicas “vale,” dico “salve.”

Dico “altus,” dicis “humilis.”
Dicis “cur?” et dico “nescio.”

O non, dicis “vale” et dico “salve.”
Salve vale, salve vale, salve vale.
Nescio cur dicas “vale,” dico “salve.”
Salve vale, salve vale, salve vale.

Cur, cur, cur, cur, cur, cur
Vale dicis, vale, vale, vale?

O non, dicis “vale” et dico “salve, salve, salve.”
Nescio cur dicas “vale,” dico “salve, salve, salve.”
Nescio cur dicas “vale,” dico “salve,”

Dicis “vero,” (Dico “vero”), dico “non,”
(Sed significam “non”), dicis “desine,”
(Possum manere), sed dico “eo, eo, eo”
(dum tempus ire est.)

O non, dicis “vale” et dico “salve, salve, salve.”
Nescio cur dicas “vale,” dico “salve, salve, salve.”
Nescio cur dicas “vale,” dico “salve, salve, salve.”
Nescio cur dicas “vale,” dico “salve, salve, salve.”

En heus! Heus salve. En heus! Ohe salve!
En heus! Heus salve. En heus! Ohe salve!

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