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Hellenika
Greek text courtesy of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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 readpoliphilo 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.
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.
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---L.
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Jumping in from elsewhere...
Re: Jumping in from elsewhere...
That shouldn't stop you from using "violet-wombed" in your own translations, though. : )
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Your version is better than the one I've been picking at. But I've been working off West's pony -- Latin's my classical language.
---L.
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May I see your version?
If you really want to...
Seize the flower-folded Muses' gifts,
Girls -- the clear-songed lyre's music lifts
But not for me. My tender body's marked
By old age, my hair's turned white from dark,
My heart's heavy, and my knees are gone
That once let me dance as fleet as fawns.
I complain; but what else is there -- rage?
Being human, I cannot not age.
You've heard how Tithonus had his day:
Rose-armed Dawn loved him, took him away,
Young and handsome then, and yet grey time
Caught him, aged him in an immortal's house.
Very rough -- the meter's crap, the last couplet isn't, and rage is wrenched in for the rhyme by a recent exposure to Dylan Thomas. Needs much work.
---L, ovid's stepson.
Re: If you really want to...
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Or armpits. Didn't the Buddha's mother give birth from her armpit? This is developing into a wonderfully multicultural orifice discussion.
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