Latin Trivia

Well, now, did you know that with a good deal of applied concentration (the like of which any Roman would have sensibly forgone) you can make sense of this concise Latin composition? It runs thus:

Malo, malo, malo, malo

The scholars say that this means:

I would rather be

In an apple tree

Than a bad man in

Adversity.

The Latin version of Wikipedia kindly offers an explanation. . .but in Latin, of course, which does me little good. All I ever declined in that language was the opportunity to learn it.