Heu! Id Fec(i) Iterum ("Oops, I Did It Again!" in Latin)

We did it again: A pop classic from the year 2000, in Latin.

[Editor’s Note: Britney Spears is old enough to get the “lifetime achievement” award from MTV, which means her songs may as well be in Latin. Jon Meyer translated this version years ago, which we bust out whenever among the Gen X set. The song is a Max Martin song, with simple lyrics that are easy enough to match in Latin (“I’m not that innocent” = “non sum tam innocens”). Meyer was a bit stumped at how to do “baby” as a term of endearment — a Britney staple — and he coined the term “meli” as a two-syllable variant on “mel,” “honey,” which works fine though you won’t find it in a dictionary. Consider it paragoge, the opposite of elision. Speaking of which, elisions often give English speakers fits, so remember “te esse amasium” becomes “tes Amasium.”]

HEU! ID FEC(I) ITERUM (OOPS, I DID IT AGAIN!)

(Britney Spears) (Martin/Rami) (tr. Meyer) [1999]

Id, puto, fec(i) iterum

Suadebam tibi

t(e) ess(e) amasium

ocelli,

saepe te basio,

sed non sequitur, quod plus cupio

sensibus nam privari:

hoc est tam proprium mihi

ocelli, meli

[Chorus:]

Heu! id fec(i) iterum,

cum corde lusi,

perdita ludo

ocelli, meli

Heu! putas m(e) amare,

demissam superne;

non sum tam innocens

Hic labor, hoc opus est:

ego somnio,

volens exstare

rever(a) heroes.

ploro super horis,

sed ego stulta sum permultis modis

sensibus at privari:

hoc est tam proprium mihi

[Chorus]

Heu! id fec(i) iterum,

cum corde lusi,

perdita ludo

ocelli, meli