Central Park

The Daily Plant : Thursday, January 22, 2004

VANDALS HAVE ADVANCED ROMANS IN CENTRAL PARK

All too often, graffiti "artists" have found the Parks Department’s Historical Signs an ideal surface for their tags and stickers. Unfortunately, even the slightest vandalism constitutes irreversible damage to the sign. A defaced sign detracts from the overall quality of a park patron’s experience. Recently in Central Park, however, this situation was reversed when someone used a black marker to correct the sign for the Waldo Hutchins Bench.

Though there are many benches in Central Park, few are as special as this elaborate exedra (curved outdoor bench) overlooking Conservatory Water, which honors public servant Waldo Hutchins (1822–1891). Hutchins was an original member of the Board of Commissioners of Central Park, the state-authorized legislative body which oversaw the park’s early design, construction, and management. He served as a park commissioner from 1857 to 1869, and again from 1887 to 1891. Hutchins also served as a United States Congressman from 1879 to 1885.

Two Latin phrases are carved into the bench. They are also transcribed and translated on the historical sign:

Alteri Vivas Oportet Si Vis Tibi Vivere, translates to "You should live for another if you would live for yourself."

Ne Diruatur Fuga Temporum means "Let it not be destroyed by the passage of time."

The sign had transcribed the Latin incorrectly as: Alteri Vivas Oportet Sit Vis Tibi Vivere and Ne Diruat Fuga Temporium. This error came to our attention, thanks to a letter from a Professor of Classics who visited New York in November. His two page letter first complimented the park, and then provided a meticulous explanation of the flaw. With utter deference he explained how these are all "very easy mistakes to make, and all the easier, in fact, if you happen to know Latin reasonably well."

What delighted the professor most of all was that someone had used a pen to score out the superfluous "t" and "i-." He went on to explain: "I do not imagine for a moment that you will condone vandalism of even the most minor or well-meaning kind, but I hope you will understand how a professor of Latin can take some comfort in the thought that at least one of the vandals in Central Park possesses so firm a command of Latin grammar."

For those readers who might be a little rusty in ancient history, taking a look at the etymology of the word "vandal" lends this story a more ironic component. According to Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary:

\Van"dal\, n. [L. Vandalus, Vandalius; of Teutonic origin, and probably originally signifying, a wanderer. Cf. Wander.] 1. (Anc. Hist.) One of a Teutonic race, formerly dwelling on the south shore of the Baltic, the most barbarous and fierce of the northern nations that plundered Rome in the 5th century, notorious for destroying the monuments of art and literature.

So whereas vandals historically had destroyed monuments of art and literature, in the utopia we call Central Park, vandals improve Latin monuments, but please leave the correcting up to us…

Written by John Mattera

"A pleasing land of drowsyhead it was."

(1700-1748)

Know Before You Go

Harlem Meer Center (formerly Lasker Rink)

Harlem Meer Center