Verse 1 The vellum cracked beneath the lamp (A) Where patient scholars etched their signs (B) Between the careful printed lines (B) A quiet code no dean could stamp (A) Verse 2 The Latin curled like ivy vines (A) Around the margins of the page (B) Where restless minds from age to age (B) Had left their thoughts in secret signs (A) Pre-Chorus A whisper pressed between the text A key disguised as scholar’s jest A question none had answered yet But every reader could suspect Chorus Latin in the margins Ghosts of careful hands Writing past the centuries What no lecture understands Latin in the margins Footnotes drawn in flame Every hidden sentence Calling softly out my name Verse 3 The ink had faded into dust (A) Yet every phrase remained alive (B) A secret language to survive (B) In minds too curious to trust (A) Verse 4 A symbol scratched beside a line (A) Of Aristotle’s quiet claim (B) That truth and reason are the same (B) Until you read the footnote sign (A) Bridge You said the greatest scholars write Their truest thoughts outside the light Where only careful minds may see The cracks in pure philosophy And somewhere in the candle glow You asked how far I’d wish to know Final Chorus Latin in the margins Words the careful crossed Every hidden answer Shows the knowledge that it cost Latin in the margins Whispered from the page Every mind that reads them Writes another scholar’s cage
