Hellenika

[sovay]

Greek text courtesy of nineweaving, who scanned it. (I am not sure whether it will display properly on a browser not configured for the font, but since it's Unicode, a quick trip to Perseus may help. If not, there's always the scanned PDF!) Bracketed text courtesy of Martin West's conjectures. Apologies for non-Greek punctuation in a few instances, because this is one hundred percent cut-and-paste, and there's bizarrely no such thing as a raised dot on Perseus. Translation courtesy of me.* Inaccuracies, the same.

ὔμμες πεδὰ Μοίσαν ἰ]οκ[ό]λπων κάλα δῶρα, παῖδες,
σπουδάσδετε καὶ τὰ]ν φιλάοιδον λιγύρον χελύνναν:

ἔμοι δ' ἄπαλον πρίν] ποτ' [ἔ]οντα χρόα γῆρας ἤδη
ἐπέλλαβε, λεῦκαι δ' ἐγ]ένοντο τρίχες ἐκ μελαίναν:

βάρυς δέ μ' ὀ [θ]ῦμος πεπόηται, γόνα δ' [ο]ὐ φέροισι,
τὰ δή ποτα λαίψηρ' ἔον ὄρχησθ' ἴσα νεβρίοισι.

τὰ <μὲν> στεναχίσδω θαμέως: ἀλλὰ τί κεν ποείην;
ἀγήραον ἄνθρωπον ἔοντ' οὐ δύνατον γένεσθαι.

καὶ γάρ π[ο]τα Τίθωνον ἔφαντο βροδόπαχυν αὔων
ἔρωι φ . . αθεισαν βάμεν' εἰς ἔσχατα γᾶς φέροισα[ν,

ἔοντα [κ]άλον καὶ νέον, ἀλλ' αὖτον ὔμως ἔμαρψε
χρόνωι πόλιον γῆρας, ἔχοντ' ἀθανάταν ἄκοιτιν.

About the violet-lapped** Muses' beautiful gifts, children,
and the clear music-loving tortoiseshell, be serious:

but my skin that once was tender, old age has already
seized, and my hair has gone white from dark:

and my heart has turned heavy, and my knees would not bear me,
that once were dancers light as fawns.

I sigh over these things often: but what can I do?
It's impossible for a person not to grow old.***

An example: they say that rose-armed Eos, [. . . . . .]
with desire, once carried Tithonos off to the ends of the earth,

young and beautiful as he was, but in time grey age
caught up with him, who had an immortal wife.

*Very literal, or such to the best of my abilities at the moment. Go read poliphilo for poetry.
**Or "violet-breasted," in the sense of bosom, since κόλπος can mean both; any hollow, any fold.
***More literally, "it's impossible for a person to be never-aging." As differentiated from "ageless"—what never grows, as it never dies; rather than someone who may reach maturity, but never old age, never decay. nineweaving has suggested "unwithering" for ἀγήραος, and I'll buy it.

Comments

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

"Violet-lapped" is evocative of generation, of mothering, of (to put it
delicately) secrets.

"Violet-breasted" is the Audubon Society.

Nine

[sovay]

"Violet-breasted" is the Audubon Society.

"Oh, my God. It's Parry-Lord's Lesser Muse—a full-fledged adult female—right out there preening on the telephone wire. Don't startle it! I have to get my laptop!"

[kraada.livejournal.com]

The Greek-illiterate has a question: if κόλπος can mean "any fold" it seems that a particular set of "folds" in the . . . nether regions might be a more reasonable reading. After all, that is where children come from. And it's colored much closer to violet than breasts are (I suppose one could say the areolae are violet, though).

Just a thought. I have no idea if it's a viable one . . .

[sovay]

According to Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon, Freaking Huge Version That My Friends Got Me And That Practically Can't Be Moved Without A Baggage Trolley, κόλπος is good for: bosom, lap, vagina, womb, grave, chambers of the heart, gulf, bay (as in the geographical formation), and any hollow of the sea.

Damn, this is a useful word.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Is "violet" in Greek a color or a scent-word? I note that in Martin West's rather stilted version, it's "fragrant-bosomed."

Nine

[sovay]

The Greek ἴον is both the flower and its color, as in English, so my best guess is that West was going for flowers. ("She wants to be flowers, but you make her owls. Always it is owls . . .") But I still think a Muse with a lapful of violets—or a chain of violets over her breast—is a much more powerful image than, she smells nice. Even if she smells like violets.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

It strikes me as particularly odd that the same word can both be used for womb and grave. Considering how opposite they are . . .

"But the common form with necks was a proper figure, making our last bed like our first; nor much unlike the Urnes of our Nativity, while we lay in the nether part of the Earth, and inward vault of our Microcosme."

Thomas Browne, Urne Burial

I just came to say thank you for the translation: I have no Greek, and the literal translation didn't help me much -

and found this wonderful discussion.

*happy*

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

I love Thomas Browne.

Do you remember the passage on Crystal? "...wrought by the hand of its concretive spirit, the seeds of petrification and Gorgon within it self."

Nine

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

Oh thank you! That's lovely!

[lunarennui.livejournal.com]

ooo, brilliant. i like this far better than the translation i read in the times. this is far more like the mary barnard translations.

[sovay]

I am a barbarian who has not read Mary Barnard's translations of Sappho (Jim Powell's Sappho: A Garland in ninth grade, and then Greek as soon as I could learn it), but thank you!

[jlundberg.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this, Sonya. I also like it better than the clunky translation from the TLS.

[sovay]

Thanks! I'm not sure it's actually less clunky, but at least maybe it's clunky in modern diction . . . : P

Linked by daegaer

[lisa-bee.livejournal.com]

This is lovely. Thank you so much!

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

I have a question to ask you, but no means of getting in touch with you off lj. Could you e-mail me?

Thanks.

[sovay]

Sure—what e-mail address?

[larryhammer]

Perhaps "voilet-hallowed"?

---L.

[sovay]

I tend to use "hallow" for words like ὁσιόω ("to make holy"), so I'm not sure about this context. I need a double-duty word that I haven't marked strongly for translation elsewhere.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[janni.livejournal.com]

Yes, thank you for this.

hm..

[olympia-m.livejournal.com]

I think iokolpos has to do with the folds of the garment, either because they are dyed violet or because they smell of violet - there's a poem where you find a similar description of the wedding garment but I can't remember which one and I don't have access to TLG right now. It could have been by Sappho, actually. Hm...

Re: hm..

[sovay]

Sappho 30, lines 2—5:

πάρθενοι δ[
παννυχίσδοι[σ]αι [
σὰν ἀείδοισ[ι]ν φ[ιλότατα καὶ νύμ-
φας ἰοκόλπω.

the maidens . . .
celebrating all night long . . .
would sing of the love of you and (your)
violet-[whatevered] bride.

In the translation I own, it's done as "violet-sashed," as though it were a synonym for ἰόζωνος. I'm not very comfortable with that, because a κόλπος and a ζώνη are not the same thing; but if it's "violet-folded," as in her clothing? In Sappho 44, when Hektor brings his bride Andromache onboard for the voyage back to Troy, she comes with "much golden jewelry, and scented purple clothing, and intricate ornaments, and countless silver cups, and ivory," but I am not sure if that's related to the wedding feast or simply her dowry.

I think there's an attestation for ἰοκόλπος in Alkaios as well, but I don't have a text of him to hand.

[not-a-freak.livejournal.com]

I'd just like to say I came here from another journal and your translation is beautiful. Rolled out of bed and it was one of the first things I was directed to - great way to start the day.

[scixual.livejournal.com]

And I followed you here.

Lovely!

[dylanbd.livejournal.com]

Hello, that's lovely. Also, go Alan Garner!

[sovay]

(I imprinted on The Owl Service very young.)

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

The translation is lovely, and I too prefer it to the one I saw in the Times. Thanks so much for sharing it!

[toscas-kiss.livejournal.com]

Lovely translation. Thank you for sharing.

"More polish, Mr. Scott"

[larryhammer]

I've posted my version here. Much thanks for your helpful commentary.

---L.