Can anyone offer a translation? Much appreciated ;-)
Danny
It would be much appreciated! It would be utterly fabulous if the Latin
translation could actually rhyme, as the English below does! ;-)
From New Moon's lunar light bereft,
Selene doth wax from right to left.
CONTEXT:
- "New Moon" refers to the dark face, or aspect, of the Moon personified,
sort of like someone being referred to as a "Latin guru," though that is
just one face, or aspect, of the person.
- Selene is a Moon goddess.
Thanks!
-DB
Ed Cryer
"Danny" <danny...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:JaKdnSWAuIX...@comcast.com...
Lumine forma novo et pleno spoliata Dianae
De sinistra ad dextram crescit nocturnae.
That's my go. I'm assuming you know enough Latin to be able to translate it,
but if not, just say so here and I'll detail it.
It's an elegiac couplet. And I've even given rhyming line-endings, although
classical Latin poetry doesn't use rhyme; just metre.
I don't know whether I love or hate "novo et pleno". The first o of "novo"
is short, and the second elides before "et" giving the effect "nov' et
plainoh". Latin poetry is to be read aloud rather than silently.
Ed
Edward Casey
"Ed Cryer" <e...@5.Kent.co.uk> wrote in message news:cgi7rn$vkk$1...@news6.svr.pol.co.uk...
Congats, Ed. I was thinking of trying to cobble together a couple of lines:...... lumen......
dextrorsum / umbra.... laevorsum, but I don't know enough about Latin meter. Whatever the professors
may say, I will always elide "novo (ablative) et" as nov' ot rather than nov' et. Also lúnaque
(nominative) and lúnáque (ablative).
Btw, I think you reversed the lunation direction (for the northern hemisphere, anyway). The mnemonic
is DOC (COD for the southern hemisphere).
See:
http://www.fact-index.com/l/lu/lunar_phase.html
especially the bit about luna mendax (Decrescit Crescit), which is less confusing, maybe. This is
all too redolent of _Aliciae per speculum transitus_.
Is there anyone here from the southern hemispehre? Do toilets flush clockwise there or only the
hurricanes?
Eduardus
Rolleston
[...]
>Is there anyone here from the southern hemispehre? Do toilets flush clockwise there or only the
>hurricanes?
The water in my bathtub changes direction just before
the water runs out. I have no idea why this should be.
R.
Ed Cryer
"Edward Casey" <ej...@cpinternet.com> wrote in message
news:10ipg3l...@corp.supernews.com...
I have indeed reversed the lunation direction; a pure oversight. But luckily
enough I can still keep it in metre with a simple change-around.
Lumine forma novo et pleno spoliata Dianae
De dextra ad sinistram crescit nocturnae.
What do you think of the alliteration of "d"s? I'm reluctant to change it to
"a dextra" or "e dextra" because of the tendency towards elision after the
final syllable of "Dianae".
Ed
Ed Cryer
think) always long. I need a short to complement a dactyl.
Next attempt, please!; unless we grant this "poetic licence".
Ed
Ed Cryer
clockwise there or only the
> hurricanes?
>
> Eduardus
>
of tourists screams to a halt alongside a hut on a dusty track. A negro
comes out of the hut with a bowl of water and walks towards a line marked
running across the road. He puts it on the ground to one side of the line,
and drops some leaves in it. They start to circulate. Then he picks up the
bowl, lifts it to the other side of the line and puts it down. The leaves
circulate in the opposite direction.
Tourists all gasp in astonishment, negro collects tips in a hat, waves and
goes back inside; no doubt to await the next bus-load.
Ed
bob
Scripseras:
>
> Lumine forma novo et pleno spoliata Dianae
> De sinistra ad dextram crescit nocturnae.
Tibi, optime Ede, ob tuos versus iucundos ego gratulor qui verbo ad finem
pentametri trisyllabico "nocturnae" usum "Monobibli" lepide conserves, at
elisio tua ad caesuram penthemimeralem elegans et laudanda, una cum forti
hepthemimerali caesura consimili parique, mihi videtur tam venusta quam
finis pentametri tui doctus.
> I don't know whether I love or hate "novo et pleno".
Usus autem tuus et simplicitatem veterem et auctoritatem gravem refert quae
apud Plinium inveniantur.
> And I've even given rhyming line-endings, although
> classical Latin poetry doesn't use rhyme; just metre.
Hic modus mediaevalis, quamvis, velut demonstras, longe ab usu veteri absit,
at tamen filios Goliae qui tetrasticha sua cum homoioteleuto hexametrive
clarissimi pentametrive (quod apud doctos scriptores Theodiscos nuncupatur
'Vagantenstrophe mit Auctoritas') frequenter claudant, tantopere delectat.
> Latin poetry is to be read aloud rather than silently.
Humaniter ac rectissime, optime Ede, scripseras.
Cura ut valeas.
bob
> From: "Ed Cryer" <e...@5.Kent.co.uk>
> Newsgroups: alt.language.latin
> Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 18:51:02 +0100
> Subject: Re: Can anyone offer a translation? Much appreciated ;-)
>
> Aaagh! I've just found a fault with it. The second "i" of "sinister" is (I
> think) always long. I need a short to complement a dactyl.
Numerum falsum etiam non vidi: hic error, ut puto, qui non est dissimils
casui vocalium ante mutas et liquidas, est facilis. Sed aliam difficultatem
metricam inveni.
Lumine forma novo et pleno spoliata Dianae
De dextra ad sinistram crescit nocturnae.
"crescit nocturnae", ut puto, quoniam in pentametro post caesuram stare
debent duo dactyli et ad finem syllaba anceps, numerum etiam violat.
Hanc emandationem, cum verba nec 'nocturnae' nec 'noctu' sint necessaria,
tibi offeram:
De dextra ad laevam nascitur atque iterum.
Verbum tetrasyllabicum (hoc loco propter elisionem) ad finem pentametri non
rarissime invenitur:
cf. 'cantabat maestis tibia funeribus' (Fasti, 6.660)
Quamquam ad finem pentametri adverbium est rarum, at tamen accidit et non
est usus falsus, quandoquidem duo spondaei ad finem pentametri usum bonum
oppugnat.
cf. 'servabas? potui dedoluisse semel.' (Fasti, 3.480)
Musa, ut didici, est domina et dura et inexorabilis.
Nobis, curandum est, servis, ut bene fideliter serviamus. Itaque nemo qui
numeros unquam fecit, de conatibus tuis detrahet.
Tibi rursus gratulor et hortor ne versus novos retineas!
Vale.
Edward Casey
"Ed Cryer" <e...@5.Kent.co.uk> wrote in message news:cgik68$p49$1...@newsg2.svr.pol.co.uk...
Yes, in Meru it was, I think. His brother Melquiades runs the same shell game in Cayambe. They won't
let the Amazing Randy anywhere near the basin, so the less credulous think that maybe the leaves are
painted with Rustoleum ® and that the base of the basin has a radio controlled electromagnet
imbedded in it. Rolleston's bathtub supports this view since otherwise we would have to infer a
miracle even greater than the bilocation of saints, viz, the existence of wormholes connecting the
antipodes, enabling the bathtub not to be in two places at once but for two places to be at the
bathtub at once.
Eduardus
Ed Cryer
"bob" <por...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:BD525B8B.A513%por...@ix.netcom.com...
Thanks for the comments, Bob. I accept them wholeheartedly. I've just spent
ten minutes perusing some of Ovid's elegiacs from Amores, Heroides and
Tristia, and every single pentametric line I looked at ended dactyl, dactyl,
dot. (dah diddy, dah diddy, dah; strawberry, strawberry jam).
I do love Augustin poetry. It's when I have a go myself that my respect for
Vergil et al. reaches it highest.
Greetings. Ed
Ed Cryer
For me elegiac couplets will always go hand in hand with Ovid and his
lovers' laments. This is probably inapproriate because of all the Greek
precedents available, but I started learning Latin at age 11 and our teacher
had a thing for Ovid; Metamorphoses, Heroides, anything apart from Ars
Amatoria (No lads, that one got him banished to the Black Sea!).
I have a T.E. Page edition of Horace's Odes, and in I.33 H. tells Tibullus
to stop composing "elegi", moaning about his lost love. They weren't to H's
taste; nor Vergil's, come to think of it, but Ovid carved out his fame with
them. Page says that the word is derived from Greek "e e lege" (cry alas!).
My L&S Greek dictionary gives;
Elegos, ho; a song of mourning, a lament; at first without reference to
metrical form, later always in alternate hexameters and pentameters.
Strawberry strawberry jam in a strawberry strawberry jampot
Strawberry strawberry jam; strawberry strawberry jam.
You can feel the lamenting cadences if you repeat the above a few times. Try
it in comparison with a few epic hexameters;
Strawberry strawberry jam in a strawberry strawberry jampot
Strawberry strawberry jam in a strawberry strawberry jampot
Strawberry strawberry jam in a strawberry strawberry jampot
Strawberry strawberry jam in a strawberry strawberry jampot.
Ed
John Briggs
Down in a deep dark hole sat an old cow munching a beanstalk.
--
John Briggs
Ed Cryer
"John Briggs" <john.b...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:3GqXc.583$Zr6...@newsfe1-win.ntli.net...
> >
>
> Down in a deep dark hole sat an old cow munching a beanstalk.
> --
> John Briggs
>
>
to get into the basic feel of hexameters is something like one of these. I
found when I started that they always seemed to be too long somehow. I think
I was more used to 5 beats to a line, as in Shakespeare's iambic
pentameters; Now is/ the win/ ter of/ our dis/ content
This reminds me of a scene in Aristophanes' comedy "Frogs" where Dionysus
goes down to the underworld in search of the dead, great tragedians. They
have a competition in which Aeschylus accuses Euripides that he framed his
prologues so that each and all fit in with "Le:kuthion apo:lesen" (lost his
bottle of oil) and then goes on to illustrate it. Euripides keeps starting
one of his prologues and Aeschylus keeps throwing in "bottle of oil".
Ed
bob
> From: "Ed Cryer" <e...@5.Kent.co.uk>
> Newsgroups: alt.language.latin
> Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 18:07:51 +0100
> Subject: Re: Can anyone offer a translation? Much appreciated ;-)
>
> Elegos, ho; a song of mourning, a lament; at first without reference to
> metrical form, later always in alternate hexameters and pentameters.
Some have related it to an old Armenian word, elegn, meaning a flute song.
Bob
bob
> From: "Ed Cryer" <e...@5.Kent.co.uk>
> Newsgroups: alt.language.latin
> Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 12:47:02 +0100
> Subject: Re: Can anyone offer a translation? Much appreciated ;-)
>
> Thanks for the comments, Bob. I accept them wholeheartedly. I've just spent
> ten minutes perusing some of Ovid's elegiacs from Amores, Heroides and
> Tristia, and every single pentametric line I looked at ended dactyl, dactyl,
> dot. (dah diddy, dah diddy, dah; strawberry, strawberry jam).
Ed,
Yes, it's the law of the metrical jungle (just one of many). Awhile ago I
posted a Latin version of a Pope epigram. Much to my chagrin (and
embarrassment) once it had left my machine I realized I had made an error in
quantity so basic that it was beyond excuse. It would have made your
'sinistra' seem arcane in comparison.
I guess haste in composition, poor typing skills, and a failure to proofread
sufficiently after using word processing functions are chinks in my armor.
But I plod on comforted by the attempt and its revisions. I recently posted
a gross typo to another list, an accusative after 'sunt'. What can I say? In
my post to you I wrote aliam when alteram would have been better and
'oppugnat' which should have been 'oppugnant'. I used to get terribly upset
about such bloopers, but to what avail?
If you have any more verses, please, as I indicated previously, do send them
along.
By the way, another way to go on your couplet, might be to try Alcmanic
strophe, which is more straightforwardly dactylic, or even straight
hexameters, following Statius.
I don't know if you have read any of the work of Brad Walton. He is an
accomplished composer of Latin verses, an inspiration to dabblers such as
myself. His work is available at
> http://suberic.net/~marc/walton.html
I hope you weren't offended by my remarks which I would have refrained from
sending if you had not opened the door. At any rate, you are not alone in
your metrical grappling. There is, I am sure, a fraternity of demented
individuals out there who have delighted in bedding the muse on her
procrustean bed.
Bob
August de Man
"Danny" >
> Selene doth wax from right to left.
I also tried to make a correct distichon:
Vix Diana potest luce spoliata videri;
Dextera prima venit, laeva sed et sequitur.
Bereft of light, Diana (=Selene) can hardly be seen;
First comes the right side, but then also follows the left.
Di(ana) can be long in poetical languge.
Aug. Bat.
Ed Cryer
"August de Man" <audeman apenstaart wanadoo punt nl> wrote in message
news:412f0a0b$0$7145$abc4...@news.wanadoo.nl...
Nice try, August. I like to see people try. It all contributes to the fame
and glory of the great Augustan models we're inspired by.
Can you take some criticism? I'm not sure of a long "e" in "luce". I have
in mind Vergil's "luce sub ipsa". In fact I think that all ablatives in "e"
are short. eg. V's "si nihil ex tanta superis placet urbe relinqui".
Greetings to my fellow poet. Ed
Ed Cryer
I'd never seen or heard of Brad Walton before, but it sure seems like a bad
oversight after perusing some of his stuff. It seems quite brilliant to me;
epigrammatic in the style of Martial. (And, to tell the truth, I understand
it better than I do a lot of Martial's stuff)
A few years back I had a go at a Martial-style epigram, but I just threw
scansion to the winds and based it on a simple rhyming pattern;
Cyclopum cuique erat unus
Nullus usus pluris.
Bini nobis, totque mus
Dat muribus futuris.
Sed tempora mutantur
Ac cum illis et nos.
Mulieres dominantur
In viros binoculos.
Ed
P.S. I was not in the least offended by your criticism; in fact quite the
opposite. You've displayed over the months in this group a breadth of
knowledge and scholarship that I take always in a positive way.
Edward Casey
"Ed Cryer" <e...@5.Kent.co.uk> wrote in message news:cgn7pb$l3t$1...@newsg1.svr.pol.co.uk...
Many seem to think that the 3rd declension forms "fame," "tabe," "requie" ended in long vowels in
the ablative. Of course in the 5th declension long e in the ablative is the rule. In luce it's
almost certainly short, as you note.
Keep up the good work but beware, beware, there be dragons, as one critic ruefully remarked (Harold
Bloom, I think). In fact there is one primer on Latin prosody that recommends that you should be
careful to compose on only the most trite subjects and never as if you really mean it.
See also Marc Moscovitz's works along with a very uneven collection of short poems by other moderns
here:
http://suberic.net/~marc/poesislatina.html
There is even a Baudelairesque poem in the spirit of "Venus im Pelz" by the first latin blogger. You
will have to discover it by chance like I did since I am not sure the link has been published with
the author's blessing. Certainly his work is the most confessional of any I know of, including even
those who have admitted intravenous drug use, homophilia, and cacomania in the Grex.
Eduardus
Ed Cryer
>
>
> Many seem to think that the 3rd declension forms "fame," "tabe," "requie"
ended in long vowels in
> the ablative. Of course in the 5th declension long e in the ablative is
the rule. In luce it's
> almost certainly short, as you note.
> Keep up the good work but beware, beware, there be dragons, as one critic
ruefully remarked (Harold
> Bloom, I think). In fact there is one primer on Latin prosody that
recommends that you should be
> careful to compose on only the most trite subjects and never as if you
really mean it.
> See also Marc Moscovitz's works along with a very uneven collection of
short poems by other moderns
> here:
>
> http://suberic.net/~marc/poesislatina.html
>
> There is even a Baudelairesque poem in the spirit of "Venus im Pelz" by
the first latin blogger. You
> will have to discover it by chance like I did since I am not sure the link
has been published with
> the author's blessing. Certainly his work is the most confessional of any
I know of, including even
> those who have admitted intravenous drug use, homophilia, and cacomania in
the Grex.
>
> Eduardus
>
>
As far as I know all those 3 third declension nouns had long vowel in the
ablative in classical Latin. This is no surprise when you consider that the
"e" was also long in the nominative too.
"Requies" illustrates this point well. Two ablatives are found; "requie" and
"requiete". The first final vowel is long, the second short.
Ed
P.S. I'm not taking up writing Latin poetry. Maybe two goes in as many years
is enough. I tackle it merely as a complement (and compliment) to my reading
the great Augustan poets. I don't feel it as living and vital. I feel it as
a kind of intellectual exercise, rather like doing crosswords.
palinurus
I have tuned into this discussion rather late.
I take it that the orginal refers to a reversal of nature, so I have tried
to play around with the rhythm in the hexameter to express the horror of
this.
DEFIT LVNA NOVISSIMA PALPITAT ORBA SELENE
AD DEXTRAM RECVBANS ORTA SINISTRA LVCET
August de Man
"Ed Cryer" :
> Can you take some criticism? I'm not sure of a long "e" in "luce".
Well, I think your criticism is justified, but for the wrong reason.
Yes, the e in itself is short, but as it is followed by "spoliata"
the -sp- makes it long. If you would find a word like, say,
"calespis", you would automatically put the stress on the second
syllable.
But I try to find an example of this situation, a word ending in a
short vowel which is made long by a following combination of
consonants, and in Ovid and Vergil I cannot find any. So they avoid
this, it sounds awkward, and I have to avoid this.
What about:
Lumine Luna oculis non vult spoliata videri;
Dextera prima nitet, laeva mox et sequitur.
When the Moon is bereft of light, she doesn't want to be seen by our
eyes;
First her right side shines and soon also follows the left.
AdM
<audeman at wanadoo dot nl>
Rolleston
>"Ed Cryer" :
>> Can you take some criticism? I'm not sure of a long "e" in "luce".
>
>Well, I think your criticism is justified, but for the wrong reason.
>Yes, the e in itself is short, but as it is followed by "spoliata"
>the -sp- makes it long.
Strictly speaking, is it not the syllable that
is long by position, rather than the vowel?
R.
palinurus
rethink the line.
palinurus
August de Man
> >the -sp- makes it long.
> Strictly speaking, is it not the syllable that
> is long by position, rather than the vowel?
Yes, the e in itself is short, but as it is followed by "spoliata"
the -sp- makes the syllable long.
August de Man
Selene doth wax from right to left.
"palinurus"
> DEFIT LVNA NOVISSIMA PALPITAT ORBA SELENE
> AD DEXTRAM RECVBANS ORTA SINISTRA LVCET
Making good Latin verse is challenging, but quite difficult.
Also this is no good hexameter, I am afraid.
"Novissima" is impossible, because at this place there must be a
caesura (pause, break between two words) either after VIS- or after
SI-
In the pentameter you make LV short, but I see you have remarked that
already.
As to the meaning I cannot quite follow you: "the new moon fails,
Selene trembles bereft (orba, normally of a husband or children),
leaning on the right side she shines, having grown at her left side"??
I doubt about the "reversal of nature" and "horror".
I myself have taken "from New Moon's lunar light bereft" as just
meaning "when the moon(goddess) is deprived of light at the time of
New Moon", even if this light is presented as a kind of dark husband
which lets her alone once a month. But that is for "Danny" to comment.
Vale,
Aug.Bat.
bob
> From: "August de Man" <audeman apenstaart wanadoo punt nl>
> Organization: Wanadoo
> Reply-To: "August de Man" <audeman apenstaart wanadoo punt nl>
> Newsgroups: alt.language.latin
> Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 21:42:48 +0200
> Subject: Re: Can anyone offer a translation? Much appreciated ;-)
>
> What about:
>
> Lumine Luna oculis non vult spoliata videri;
> Dextera prima nitet, laeva mox et sequitur.
The hexameter is good, but the pentameter breaks meter with 'mox', where the
<o> should be long:
quam mox emittat pictis e faucibus currus (Ennius, in Cicero, De Div.
I.xlvii.cvii[cviii]
mox tamen ardentis accingar dicere pugnas...(Georg. III.xlvi)
Again I would make mention of the juxtaposition of two monosyllables at the
second half of the pentameter, which results in three metrical breaks or
pauses in the space of four syllables.
Bob
bob
> From: "palinurus" <pali...@tiscali.co.uk>
> Newsgroups: alt.language.latin
> Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 19:57:12 +0100
> Subject: Re: Can anyone offer a translation? Much appreciated ;-)
>
> to play around with the rhythm in the hexameter to express the horror of
> this.
>
> DEFIT LVNA NOVISSIMA PALPITAT ORBA SELENE
> AD DEXTRAM RECVBANS ORTA SINISTRA LVCET
August wrote:
> Vix Diana potest luce spoliata videri;
> Dextera prima venit, laeva sed et sequitur.
>
> Bereft of light, Diana (=Selene) can hardly be seen;
> First comes the right side, but then also follows the left.
>
> Di(ana) can be long in poetical languge.
Dianam tenerae dicite uirgines,
intonsum, pueri, dicite Cynthium
Latonamque supremo
dilectam penitus Ioui; (Hor. Carmina I.xxi.i-iv)
Luce breaks meter in the hexameter. <u> is long, <e> is short. The ablative short <e> in the third declension results from a collapse of an older locative into the ablative. <i> from <id> resulted in the long ablative <i>. It might be argued that <e> would be long by posittion because it is followed by <sp>oliata. However, there are severe restrictions on this tyoe of lenghtening: it is typically a vowel in the thesis which is lengthened. This instance does not conform to that rubric. I
"A syllable is said to be long by position when a short vowel is followed by two or more consonants, or a double consonant...The consonants may be divided between two words: per mare, in terris; but when all the consonants are in the second word, the preceding short syllable commonly remains short, except in the Thesis of a verse, when it is lengthened..."(Gildersleeve, 703)
linquimus, insani ridentes praemia scribae (Hor. Sat. I.v.xxxv)
When such a lengthening occurs at other than a thesis it can usually be explained by some other anomaly, such as positioning an enclitic at caesura, or a lengthening, in imitation of Homeric practice (-te...-te), of the first element in a -que...-que sequence:
terrasque tractusque maris caelumque profundum...(Ecl. IV.li)
Brontesque Steropesque et nudus membra Pyragmon (Aen. VIII.cdxxv)
In the pentameter the postposition and juxtaposition of two monosyllabic coordinating conjunctions violates the anticipated coincidence of ictus and metrical length at the first syllable of the final dactyl, resulting in a line closure of ambiguous length and cadence.
Cf. the following pentameter closures from Ovid:
...igne suo (Tristia V.iii.xxx)
...vocasse viri (Tristia I.iii.xcvi)
...nota fuit (Ex Ponto III.vii.xxxii)
Bob
August de Man
> > Dextera prima nitet, laeva mox et sequitur.
"bob":
> The hexameter is good, but the pentameter breaks meter with 'mox',
> where the<o> should be long:
I trust you are right; why don't my dictionaries tell me if the o is
long or short?
[ > mox tamen .....
That is no good example, because of the double consonant -x t-
.]
Well, my final proposal (I hope):
Lumine Luna oculis non vult spoliata videri;
laevaque dum tegitur, dextera prima nitet.
... en while her left side is covered, her right side shines
first.
("Danny" must be quite dizzy by now.)
A.
bob
> From: "August de Man" <audeman apenstaart wanadoo punt nl>
> Organization: Wanadoo
> Reply-To: "August de Man" <audeman apenstaart wanadoo punt nl>
> Newsgroups: alt.language.latin
> Date: Sat, 28 Aug 2004 02:19:49 +0200
> Subject: Re: Can anyone offer a translation? Much appreciated ;-)
>
> long or short?
> [ > mox tamen .....
> That is no good example, because of the double consonant -x t-
It is, quite to the contrary, a perfectly good example. <x> is already a
double consonant (<ks>, <cs>), so that without the addition of the <t> one
already must mark the <o> as a longum.
> Well, my final proposal (I hope):
>
> Lumine Luna oculis non vult spoliata videri;
> laevaque dum tegitur, dextera prima nitet.
Mehercle! I would say you've skinned the cat, at least metrically. With
respect to your interpretive choice of vocabulary, I can say little. I'm
satisfied, but I leave the semantics to sharper minds.
Congratulations on having found your way out of the labyrinth.
Bob
Ed Cryer
>
Many thanks for the lessons. They're very welcome.
However, I've puzzled and puzzled over that hexameter from Horace and I
can't see any unorthodoxy at all.
Please put me right.
linquimus, insani ridentes praemia scribae (Hor. Sat. I.v.xxxv)
__ -- __ __ __/\ __ __ __ __ -- __ __
Ed
bob
> From: "Ed Cryer" <e...@5.Kent.co.uk>
> Newsgroups: alt.language.latin
> Date: Sat, 28 Aug 2004 16:39:30 +0100
> Subject: Re: Can anyone offer a translation? Much appreciated ;-)
>
> linquimus, insani ridentes praemia scribae (Hor. Sat. I.v.xxxv)
_ x x | _ _ | _ || _ | _ _ | _ x x | _ _
| = foot division; || = caesura.
"A syllable is said to be long by position when a short vowel is followed by
two or more consonants, or a double consonant...The consonants may be
divided between two words: per mare, in terris; but when all the consonants
are in the second word, the preceding short syllable commonly remains short,
except in the Thesis of a verse, when it is lengthened..."(Gildersleeve,
703)
The line has only a penthemimeral caesura, with three diaereses, the most
striking of which coincides with a strong pause at the end of the first
foot. The point of the citation was that the <a> in praemia, positionally in
arsis, remains short before the initial doubled consonants <sc> of
<sc>ribae.
But:
nulla fugae ratio, nulla spes: omnia muta...(Cat. 64.186)
_ x x | _ x x | _ || _ | _ || _ | _ x x | _ x
Here the <a> in nulls spes, occurring in thesis, is lengthened before a
caesura, even though it is not principle.
Consider the following:
tu poteras fragiles pinnis hebetare zmaragdos (Aen. 3.270)
Here the final <e> of hebetare, again not in thesis, remains short before
<zm>, a combination of a double and a single consonant.
Bob
Ed Cryer
Ah, yes, I see. This line is so "normal" that it never caused me a moment's
doubt. But I can see that we're looking at it here in the light of
"following consonant combinations" ("positioning").
"Praemia" is so obviously a dactyl. Which Roman ever pronounced it
otherwise?
Ed
Matt Matthias
Followed this thread with interest, and would like to follow it up with a
query: are there any short cuts to gaining metrical mastery? I can scan
(Latin) hexameters and pentameters, though not that fluently, but I haven't
a clue about other meters, or the rules in Greek. Is there any substitute
for spending some serious time and effort on this?
Cheers,
MM
Ed Cryer
"Matt Matthias" <ma...@mmatthias.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
news:ch269l$sb$1...@news6.svr.pol.co.uk...
Alcaic metre in which he produced unrivalled masterpieces.
Odes I. 9,16,17,26,27,29,31,34,35,37
II. 1,3,5,7,9,11,13,14,15,17,19,20
III. 1,2,3,4,5,6,17,21,23,26,29
IV. 4,9,14,15
Johannes Patruus
... of which you can listen to Ode II.14 recited by Vojin Nedeljkovic from
an mp3 link on this page:
http://dekart.f.bg.ac.yu/~vnedeljk/VV/
Johannes
Matt Matthias
hexameter/pentameter. I've worked through it a little, but I always have the
feeling, mentioned above, that this is purely an intellectual exercise. It's
good fun tho'.
MM
Ed Cryer <e...@5.Kent.co.uk> wrote in message
news:ch2a2i$3jm$1...@newsg1.svr.pol.co.uk...
>
Rolleston
[...]
>I also have an ancient 'First Latin Verse Composition' book, but it's just
>hexameter/pentameter. I've worked through it a little, but I always have the
>feeling, mentioned above, that this is purely an intellectual exercise.
With gaping holes in our knowledge of how people recited
poetry 2000 years ago, I am inclined to agree with you. I think
we can be fairly sure that Horace and Co. would have been
unimpressed by our most careful attempts to do what they did.
R.
bob
> From: Rolleston <roll...@tiscali.co.uk>
> Newsgroups: alt.language.latin
> Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2004 19:19:29 +0100
> Subject: Re: TANGENT: Can anyone offer a translation? Much appreciated ;-)
Perhaps, but there is a body of truly accomplished Latin verse spanning the
last five hundred years or so: Giovanni Pontano, Marullus, Politanus, Bembo,
Leo XIII, Campion, Marvell, DuBellay, Ronsard, etc. etc., and, of course
Latin verse has often been the proving ground for some really fine
vernacular poets: Rimbaud, Baudelaire (a Latin poem is part of Fleurs du
Mal), Milton, Shelley, etc.)
You might search the used book stores for an old Gradus ad Parnassum, or you
might contact Brad Walton who has assembled a manual out of Gradus excerpts,
and makes it available for a nominal fee.
Bob
Rolleston
[...]
>Perhaps, but there is a body of truly accomplished Latin verse spanning the
>last five hundred years or so: Giovanni Pontano, Marullus, Politanus, Bembo,
>Leo XIII, Campion, Marvell, DuBellay, Ronsard, etc. etc.
Is any of this non-classical in form? I can see that we could
imitate the _written_ form of classical verse. That is not quite
enough. When read out loud such verse must please the ears.
If, in striving to reproduce the structure of classical verse, we
come up with something that sounds awkward and ridiculous
when we read it, what have we achieved exactly?
My ears are not attuned to the rhythms of Latin verse of any
period, so I am not well-placed to make any serious comment.
R.
Ed Cryer
> I also have an ancient 'First Latin Verse Composition' book, but it's just
> hexameter/pentameter. I've worked through it a little, but I always have
the
> feeling, mentioned above, that this is purely an intellectual exercise.
It's
> good fun tho'.
>
> MM
I love Augustan poetry. Vergil, Ovid, Horace, Propertius. I'm pretty skilled
at reading it, especially the hexameters of Vergil. I've read the whole
Aeneid in Latin, and enjoyed it; enjoyed the feeling of success at having
reached some degree of mastery over it, where I could see the poetry in it.
But for all that I'm reminded of what Mozart said of his predecessors. "They
look as if they shit marble". There's something about the way we package the
past, make it fit for public display, and in the process dry it out and
subtract the vital juices. You're left with something to adorn your shelves,
a kind of nick-nack.
I can sometimes feel the living love and pain in it (especially in Ovid's
Tristia) but to me Latin is a dead language; and even the exquisite beauties
of Horace's graceful masterpieces don't have that vital feel that, say, I
sense in Wordsworth or Byron.
That said, though, I am well aware that there were once people on this
planet to whom this Latin poetry held all that vital juice which I've
mentioned above. The problem is, though, that they've passed too.
Ed
bob
> From: Rolleston <roll...@tiscali.co.uk>
> Newsgroups: alt.language.latin
> Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2004 21:00:40 +0100
> Subject: Re: TANGENT: Can anyone offer a translation? Much appreciated ;-)
>
> Is any of this non-classical in form? I can see that we could
> imitate the _written_ form of classical verse. That is not quite
> enough. When read out loud such verse must please the ears.
>
> If, in striving to reproduce the structure of classical verse, we
> come up with something that sounds awkward and ridiculous
> when we read it, what have we achieved exactly?
>
> My ears are not attuned to the rhythms of Latin verse of any
> period, so I am not well-placed to make any serious comment.
>
> R.
All of the above wrote in classical meters and they did so at a time when
Latin was still a living language. Giovanni Pontano's elegiacs have been not
extravagantly compared to those of Tibullus. He, Marullus, and Politanus are
among the most accomplished of Renaissance Latin poets wrote in western
Europe. Pontano has also left a small collection of Latin poetry, the
"Neniae", wholly aimed at small children. They are quite lovely and also
unique in that they are among the few examples of such Latin extant.
To what degree we who speak and write a language so heavily stressed that
quantity seems almost foreign is an uncertainty. However, the effort,
strange as it may be, to observe open and closed syllables, and the other
rudiments of conjectured correct pronunciation, seems, at least to me, not
without its merits and rewards. I cannot claim any expertise or authority on
this matter, and in fact am skeptical and at times derisive of extravagant
claims of minute phonetic accuracy, but, that having been said, whenever I
recite carefully a piece of Latin verse, I do hear something, perhaps only a
faint echo of that antique sonority, and I am disappointed neither by the
attempt nor by the result, meagre though they both may be.
I think that if we study diligently, not just from a Gradus, but from
careful reading of Latin originals, so that the structure of the verse
becomes less and less alien and seldom fraught with labor, we will not
generate something bizarre and ridiculous. But that is just an opinion,
perhaps proceeding less from humility and realism than from a panglossean
optimism and vanity.
Bob
Robert Stonehouse
wrote:
>> From: Rolleston <roll...@tiscali.co.uk>
>> Newsgroups: alt.language.latin
>> Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2004 19:19:29 +0100
>> Subject: Re: TANGENT: Can anyone offer a translation? Much appreciated ;-)
>>
>> Matt Matthias wrote:
>> [...]
>>> I also have an ancient 'First Latin Verse Composition' book, but it's just
>>> hexameter/pentameter. I've worked through it a little, but I always have the
>>> feeling, mentioned above, that this is purely an intellectual exercise.
>>
>> With gaping holes in our knowledge of how people recited
>> poetry 2000 years ago, I am inclined to agree with you. I think
>> we can be fairly sure that Horace and Co. would have been
>> unimpressed by our most careful attempts to do what they did.
>Perhaps, but there is a body of truly accomplished Latin verse spanning the
>last five hundred years or so: Giovanni Pontano, Marullus, Politanus, Bembo,
>Leo XIII, Campion, Marvell, DuBellay, Ronsard, etc. etc.,
If we mention any but the Italians, George Buchanan deserves
naming, rather than just including under etc.!
> and, of course
>Latin verse has often been the proving ground for some really fine
>vernacular poets: Rimbaud, Baudelaire (a Latin poem is part of Fleurs du
>Mal), Milton, Shelley, etc.)
Here we should be able to get a comparison, because Milton
also wrote in Italian. Does anyone know how good his Italian
verses are? I have never seen a comment.
In Italian, he had the advantage of having lived in Italy
with native speakers and writers, which with Latin is
impossible. They spoke well of his efforts, but then they
were polite people. But if his Italian is bad, or mediocre,
or just incapable of expressing poetry, it would set an
upper limit to what he might do in Latin.
An example, (Sonnets 2):
Donna leggiadra, il cui bel nome honora
L'herbosa val di Rheno, e il nobil varco,
Ben è colui d'ogni valore scarco,
Qual tuo spirto gentil non innamora,
Che dolcemente mostrasi di fuora,
De' suoi atti soavi giamai parco,
E i don, che son d'Amor saette ed arco,
Là onde l'alta tua virtù s'infiora.
Quando tu vaga parli, o lieta canti
Che mover possa duro alpestre legno,
Guardi ciascun a gli occhi, ed a gli orrecchi
L'entrata, chi de te si truova indegno;
Gratia sola di sù gli vaglia, inanti
Che'l disio amoroso al cuor s'invecchi.
bob
> From: Robert Stonehouse <ew...@bcs.org.invalid>
> Newsgroups: alt.language.latin
> Date: Wed, 01 Sep 2004 20:06:46 +0100
> Subject: Re: TANGENT: Can anyone offer a translation? Much appreciated ;-)
>
> If we mention any but the Italians, George Buchanan deserves
> naming, rather than just including under etc.!
Jacobo Silvio (Jacques Dubois) was a doctor of medicine renowned for his
avarice, lack of charity, and generally mean spirited deportment. He died in
1550 at Paris where he had taught for twenty years or so. Buchanan reputedly
pinned the following epigram on the door of a lecture hall from which Dubois
had blackballed students unable to pay their tuition.
Silvius hic situs est, gratis qui nil dedit unquam-
mortuus et gratis quod legis ista, dolet.
> But if his Italian is bad, or mediocre,
> or just incapable of expressing poetry, it would set an
> upper limit to what he might do in Latin.
Perhaps, but not necessarily so. Milton was quite prolific as a Latin
author, but he for the most part abandoned Latin verse. I append one of his
most famous poems, with an amended version of MacKellar's translation (both
available at http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/damon/} which is
often used as a comparison with Lycidas. While the poem, a set piece done
according to the taste of the times, may not fire up modern sentiments, it
is quite good - perhaps not as good or appealing as Pontanus, but sill quite
good, and not an altogether unworthy production.
Epitaphium Damonis
Argumentum
THyrsis & Damon ejusdem viciniae Pastores, eadem studia sequuti a pueritiâ
amici erant, ut qui plurimùm. Thyrsis animi causâ profectus peregrè de obitu
Damonis nuntium accepit. Domum postea reversus, & rem ita esse comperto, se,
suamque solitudinem hoc carmine deplorat. Damonis autem sub personâ hîc
intelligitur Carolus Deodatus ex urbe Hetruriæ Luca paterno genere oriundus,
cætera Anglus; ingenio, doctrina, clarissimisque cæteris virtutibus, dum
viveret, juvenis egregius.
Epitaphium Damonis
HImerides Nymphæ (nam vos & Daphnin & Hylan,
Et plorata diu meministis fata Bionis)
Dicite Sicelicum Thamesina per oppida carmen:
Quas miser effudit voces, quæ murmura Thyrsis,
Et quibus assiduis exercuit antra querelis, [ 5 ]
Fluminaque, fontesque vagos, nemorumque recessus,
Dum sibi præreptum queritur Damona, neque altam
Luctibus exemit noctem, loca sola pererrans.
Et jam bis viridi surgebat culmus arista,
Et totidem flavas numerabant horrea messes, [ 10 ]
Ex quo summa dies tulerat Damona sub umbras,
Nec dum aderat Thyrsis; pastorem scilicet illum
Dulcis amor Musæ Thusca retinebat in urbe.
Ast ubi mens expleta domum, pecorisque relicti
Cura vocat, simul assuetâ sedítque sub ulmo [ 15 ]
Tum vero amissum tum denique sentit amicum,
C¦pit & immensum sic exonerare dolorem.
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Hei mihi! quæ terris, quæ dicam numina c¦lo,
Postquam te immiti rapuerunt funere Damon; [ 20 ]
Siccine nos linquis, tua sic sine nomine virtus
Ibit, & obscuris numero sociabitur umbris?
At non ille animas virgâ qui dividit aureâ
Ista velit, dignumque tui te ducat in agmen,
Ignavumque procol pecus arceat omne silentum. [ 25 ]
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Quicquid erit, certè nisi me lupus antè videbit,
Indeplorato non comminuere sepulchro,
Constabitque tuus tibi honos, longúmque vigebit
Inter pastores: Illi tibi vota secundo. [ 30 ]
Solvere post Daphnin, post Daphnin dicere laudes,
Gaudebunt, dum rura Pales, dum Faunus amabit:
Si quid id est, priscamque fidem coluisse, piúmque,
Palladiásque artes, sociúmque habuisse canorum.
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni. [ 35 ]
Hæc tibi certa manent, tibi erunt hæc præmia, Damon,
At mihi quid tandem fiet modò? quis mihi fidus
Hærebit lateri comes, ut tu sæpe solebas
Frigoribus duris, & per loca f¦ta pruinis,
Aut rapido sub sole, siti morientibus herbis? [ 40 ]
Sive opus in magnos fuit eminùs ire leones
Aut avidos terrere lupos præsepibus altis;
Quis fando sopire diem, cantuque solebit?
'Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Pectora cui credam? quis me lenire docebit [ 45 ]
Mordaces curas, quis longam fallere noctem
Dulcibus alloquiis, grato cùm sibilat igni
Molle pyrum, & nucibus strepitat focus, at malus auster
Miscet cuncta foris, & desuper intonat ulmo.
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni. [ 50 ]
Aut æstate, dies medio dum vertitur axe,
Cum Pan æsculeâ somnum capit abditus umbrâ,
Et repetunt sub aquis sibi nota sedilia nymphæ.
Pastoresque latent, stertit sub sepe colonus,
Quis mihi blanditiásque tuas, quis tum mihi risus, [ 55 ]
Cecropiosque sales referet, cultosque lepores?
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
At jam solus agros, jam pascua solus oberro,
Sicubi ramosæ densantur vallibus umbræ,
Hic serum expecto; supra caput imber & Eurus [ 60 ]
Triste sonant, fractæque agitata crepuscula silvæ.
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Heu quàm culta mihi priùs arva procacibus herbis
Involvuntur, & ipsa situ seges alta fatiscit!
Innuba neglecto marcescit & uva racemo, [ 65 ]
Nec myrteta juvant; ovium quoque tædet, at illæ
M¦rent, inque suum convertunt ora magistrum.
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Tityrus ad corylos vocat, Alphesib¦us ad ornos,
Ad salices Aegon, ad flumina pulcher Amyntas, [ 70 ]
Hic gelidi fontes, hîc illita gramina musco,
Hic Zephyri, hîc placidas interstrepit arbutus undas;
Ista canunt surdo, frutices ego nactus abibam.
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Mopsus ad hæc, nam me redeuntem forte notârat, [ 75 ]
(Et callebat avium linguas, & sydera Mopsus)
Thyrsi, quid hoc? dixit, quæ te coquit improba bilis?
Aut te perdit amor, aut te malè fascinat astrum,
Saturni grave sæpe fuit pastoribus astrum,
Intimaque obliquo figit præcordia plumbo. [ 80 ]
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Mirantur nymphæ, & quid te Thyrsi, futurum est?
Quid tibi vis? ajunt, non hæc solet esse juventæ
Nubila frons, oculique truces, vultusque severi,
Illa choros, lususque leves, & semper amorem [ 85 ]
Jure petit; bis ille miser qui serus amavit.
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Venit Hyas, Dryopéque, & filia Baucidis Aegle,
Docta modos, citharæque sciens, sed perdita fastu,
Venit Idumanii Chloris vicina fluenti; [ 90 ]
Nil me blanditiæ, nil me solantia verba,
Nil me, si quid adest, movet, aut spes ulla futuri.
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Hei mihi quam similes ludunt per prata juvenci,
Omnes unanimi secum sibi lege sodales, [ 95 ]
Nec magis hunc alio quisquam secernit amicum
De grege, sic densi veniunt ad pabula thoes,
Inque vicem hirsuti paribus junguntur onagri;
Lex eadem pelagi, deserto in littore Proteus
Agmina Phocarum numerat, vilisque volucrum [ 100 ]
Passer habet semper quicum sit, & omnia circum
Farra libens volitet, serò sua tecta revisens,
Quem si fors letho objecit, seu milvus adunco
Fata tulit rostro, seu stravit arundine fossor,
Protinus ille alium socio petit inde volatu. [ 105 ]
Nos durum genus, & diris exercita fatis
Gens homines aliena animis, & pectore discors,
Vix sibi quisque parem de millibus invenit unum,
Aut, si sors dederit tandem non aspera votis,
Illum inopina dies quâ non speraveris horâ [ 110 ]
Surripit, æternum linquens in sæcula damnum.
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Heu quis me ignotas traxit vagus error in oras
Ire per aëreas rupes, Alpemque nivosam!
Ecquid erat tanti Romam vidisse sepultam? [ 115 ]
Quamvis illa foret, qualem dum viseret olim,
Tityrus ipse suas & oves & rura reliquit,
Ut te tam dulci possem caruisse sodale,
Possem tot maria alta, tot interponere montes,
Tot silvas, tot saxa tibi, fluviosque sonantes. [ 120 ]
Ah certè extremùm licuisset tangere dextram,
Et bene compositos placidè morientis ocellos,
Et dixisse, vale, nostri memor ibis ad astra.
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Quamquam etiam vestri nunquam meminisse pigebit [ 125 ]
Pastores Thusci Musis operata juventus,
Hic Charis, atque Lepos; & Thuscus tu quoque Damon,
Antiquâ genus unde petis Lucumonis ab urbe.
O ego quantus eram, gelidi cum stratus ad Arni
Murmura, populeumque nemus, quà mollior herba, [ 130 ]
Carpere nunc violas, nunc summas carpere myrtos,
Et potui Lycidæ certantem audire Menalcam.
Ipse etiam tentare ausus sum, nec puto multum
Displicui, nam sunt & apud me munera vestra
Fiscellæ, calathique & cerea vincla cicutæ. [ 135 ]
Quin & nostra suas docuerunt nomina fagos
Et Datis, & Francinus, erant & vocibus ambo
Et studiis noti, Lydorum sanguinis ambo.
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Hæc mihi tum læto dictabat roscida luna, [ 140 ]
Dum solus teneros claudebam cratibus h¦dos.
Ah quoties dixi, cùm te cinis ater habebat,
Nunc canit, aut lepori nunc tendit retia Damon,
Vimina nunc texit, varios sibi quod sit in usus;
Et quæ tum facile sperabam mente futura [ 145 ]
Arripui voto levis, & præsentia finxi,
Heus bone numquid agis? nisi te quid forte retardat,
Imus? & argutâ paulùm recubamus in umbra,
Aut ad aquas Colni, aut ubi jugera Cassibelauni?
Tu mihi percurres medicos, tua gramina, succos, [ 150 ]
Helleborùmque, humilésque crocos, foliûmque hyacinthi,
Quasque habet ista palus herbas, artesque medentûm,
Ah pereant herbæ, pereant artesque medentñm,
Gramina, postquam ipsi nil profecere magistro.
Ipse etiam, nam nescio quid mihi grande sonabat [ 155 ]
Fistula, ab undecimâ jam lux est altera nocte,
Et tum forte novis admôram labra cicutis,
Dissiluere tamen rupta compage, nec ultra
Ferre graves potuere sonos, dubito quoque ne sim
Turgidulus, tamen & referam, vos cedite silvæ. [ 160 ]
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Ipse ego Dardanias Rutupina per æquora puppes
Dicam, & Pandrasidos regnum vetus Inogeniæ,
Brennúmque Arviragumque duces, priscúmque Belinum,
Et tandem Armoricos Britonum sub lege colonos; [ 165 ]
Tum gravidam Arturo fatali fraude Jëgernen,
Mendaces vultus, assumptáque Gorlöis arma,
Merlini dolus. O mihi tum si vita supersit,
Tu procul annosa pendebis fistula pinu
Multùm oblita mihi, aut patriis mutata cam¦nis [ 170 ]
Brittonicum strides, quid enim? omnia non licet uni
Non sperasse uni licet omnia, mi satis ampla
Merces, & mihi grande decus (sim ignotus in ævum
Tum licet, externo penitúsque inglorius orbi)
Si me flava comas legat Usa, & potor Alauni, [ 175 ]
Vorticibúsque frequens Abra, & nemus omne Treantæ,
Et Thamesis meus ante omnes, & fusca metallis
Tamara, & extremis me discant Orcades undis.
Ite domum impasti, domino jam non vacat, agni.
Hæc tibi servabam lentâ sub cortice lauri, [ 180 ]
Hæc, & plura simul, tum quæ mihi pocula Mansus,
Mansus, Chalcidicæ non ultima gloria ripæ
Bina dedit, mirum artis opus, mirandus & ipse,
Et circùm gemino cælaverat argumento:
In medio rubri maris unda, & odoriferum ver [ 185 ]
Littora longa Arabum, & sudantes balsama silvæ,
Has inter Phoenix, divina avis, unica terris
Cæruleùm fulgens diversicoloribus alis
Auroram vitreis surgentem respicit undis.
Parte alia polus omnipatens, & magnus Olympus, [ 190 ]
Quis putet? hic quoque Amor, pictæque in nube pharetræ,
Arma corusca, faces, & spicula tincta pyropo;
Nec tenues animas, pectúsque ignobile vulgi
Hinc ferit; at circùm flammantia lumina torquens
Semper in erectum spargit sua tela per orbes [ 195 ]
Impiger, & pronos nunquam collimat ad ictus,
Hinc mentes ardere sacræ, formæque deorum.
Tu quoque in his, nec me fallit spes lubrica Damon;
Tu quoque in his certè es, nam quò tua dulcis abiret
Sanctáque simplicitas, nam quò tua candida virtus? [ 200 ]
Nec te Lethæo fas quæsivisse sub orco,
Nec tibi conveniunt lacrymæ, nec flebimus ultra,
Ite procul lacrymæ purum colit æthera Damon,
Æthera purus habet, pluvium pede reppulit arcum;
Heroúmque animas inter, divósque perennes, [ 205 ]
Æthereos haurit latices & gaudia potat
Ore Sacro. Quin tu c¦li post jura recepta
Dexter ades, placidúsque fave quicúnque vocaris,
Seu tu noster eris Damon, sive æquior audis
Diodatus, quo te divino nomine cuncti [ 210 ]
C¦licolæ norint, silvísque vocabere Damon.
Quòd tibi purpureus pudor, & sine labe juventus
Grata fuit, quòd nulla tori libata voluptas,
En etiam tibi virginei servantur honores;
Ipse caput nitidum cinctus rutilante corona, [ 215 ]
Letáque frondentis gestans umbracula palmæ
Æternùm perages immortales hymenæos;
Cantus ubi, choreisque furit lyra mista beatis,
Festa Sionæo bacchantur & Orgia Thyrso.
Damon's Epitaph
The Argument
Thyrsis and Damon, shepherds of the same neighbourhood and following the
same pursuits, were most intimate friends from boyhood. Thyrsis, who had
gone abroad for the improvement of his mind, received news of Damon's death.
Having afterward returned home and discovered that the news was true, he
deplores himself and his solitude in this poem. Under the guise of Damon is
here understood Charles Diodati, connected on his father's side with the
Tuscan city of Lucca, otherwise an Englishman, a youth distinguished while
he lived for genius, learning, and other most notable virtues.
Damon's Epitaph
Nymphs of Himera ‹ for you remember Daphnis and Hylas and the long lamented
fate of Bion ‹ repeat this Sicilian song through the cities of Thames; tell
what words, what murmurs, unhappy Thyrsis poured forth, and with what
ceaseless complaints he disturbed the caves, the rivers, the eddying
fountains, and the recesses of the groves, while he mourned to himself for
Damon snatched away, nor left deep night free from his lamentations as he
wandered in lonely places. Twice the stalk had risen with green ear, and as
often had the garners counted the yellow crops, since his last day had borne
Damon down to the shades, and Thyrsis was not there the while; love of the
sweet muse forsooth detained that shepherd in a Tuscan city. But when a full
mind, and the care of the flock he had left behind, called him home, and
when he sat once more beneath his accustomed elm, then, then at last he felt
in truth the loss of his friend, and began thus to vent his measureless
sorrow:
"Go home unfed, my lambs, your troubled master is not free to tend you. Ah
me! what deities shall I name in earth or heaven, now that they have torn
you away, Damon, by inexorable death? Do you leave me thus, and is your
virtue to go without a name and be merged with the obscure shades? But nay,
let him who with his golden wand marshals the souls will it otherwise, and
may he lead you into a company that is worthy of you, and keep far off the
whole base herd of the silent dead.
"Go home unfed, my lambs, your troubled master is not free to tend you. Be
sure whatever comes, unless the wolf shall first see me, you shall not
moulder in the tomb unwept; your honour shall endure and long flourish among
shepherds. To you next after Daphnis shall they rejoice to fulfil their
vows, and next after Daphnis of you to speak their praises, so long as
Pales, so long as Faunus, love the fields ‹ if it aught avails to have
cherished the ancient faith and piety, and the Palladian arts, and to have
had a musical compeer.
"Go home unfed, my lambs, your troubled master is not free to tend you.
These rewards for you remain certain, Damon; they shall be yours. But what
will become of me; what faithful friend will stay close by my side as you
were wont to do in bitter cold through places rough with frost, or under the
fierce sun with the grasses dying from drought, whether the task were to go
within spear"s throw of great lions or to frighten the ravenous wolves from
the high sheepfolds? Who will now lull my day to rest with talk and song?
"Go home unfed, my lambs, your troubled master is not free to tend you. To
whom may I entrust my heart? Who will teach me to assuage my gnawing cares
and to cheat the long night with pleasant conversation, when the mellow
pears hiss before the cheery fire, nuts crackle on the hearth, and outside
the stormy south wind is throwing all in confusion and comes roaring through
the elms.
"Go home unfed, my lambs, your troubled master is not free to tend you. Or
in summer when the day turns on mid-axle, when Pan takes his sleep hidden in
the oak shade, and the nymphs return to their wonted seats beneath the
waters, when shepherds lie concealed, and the husbandman snores beneath the
hedge, who will then bring back to me your blandishments, your laughter,
Cecropian wit, culture, and charm?
"Go home unfed, my lambs, your troubled master is not free to tend you. Now
I wander in the fields alone, alone through the pastures; wherever the shady
branches grow thick in the valleys, there I await the evening, while
overhead rain and the south-east wind sadly moan, and the twilight of the
forest is broken with gleams of light.
"Go home unfed, my lambs, your troubled master is not free to tend you.
Alas, how my fields once tilled are overgrown with trailing weeds, and even
the tall corn droops with blight! The cluster of grapes withers unwedded to
the stalk. The myrtle groves please me not. I am weary too of my sheep, but
even they are sad and turn their faces to their master.
"Go home unfed, my lambs, your troubled master is not free to tend you.
Tityrus calls to the hazels, Alphesiboeus to the mountain ashes, Aegon to
the willows, fair Amyntas to the rivers.
"'Here are cool fountains,' they cry, "here are mossy greenswards, here are
the zephyrs, here the arbutus whispers amid peaceful streams."
"But, deaf to their songs, I gain the thickets and withdraw.
"Go home unfed, my lambs, your troubled master is not free to tend you. Then
Mopsus spoke, for he by chance had noticed me returning ‹ Mopsus who was
versed in the stars and in the language of birds:
"'What is this, Thyrsis?' said he; 'What black melancholy is tormenting you?
Either you are wasting with love, or some star is casting an evil spell over
you. Saturn's star has often been baleful to shepherds, and his slant leaden
shaft has pierced your inmost breast.'
"Go home unfed, my lambs, your troubled master is not free to tend you. The
nymphs are amazed and cry:
"'What will become of you, Thyrsis? What do you wish? The brow of youth is
not commonly cloudy, the eyes stern, the mien austere; youth seeks dances
and nimble sports, and always love as its right. Twice wretched is he who
loves late.'
"Go home unfed, my lambs, your troubled master is not free to tend you. Hyas
came, and Dryope, and Aegle, the daughter of Baucis ‹ Aegle instructed in
numbers and skilled on the lyre, but overly proud; Chloris came, a neighbour
of the Idumanian river. Their blandishments , their comforting words, are
nothing to me; nothing in the present moves me, nor have I any hope for the
future.
"Go home unfed, my lambs, your troubled master is not free to tend you. Ah
me! how like one another are the young cattle that frolic through the
fields, all comrades to each other under one harmonious law; none seeks from
out the herd a special friend. Even so the jackals come in packs to their
food, and the shaggy wild asses by turn are joined in pairs. The law of the
sea is the same, where on the desert shore Proteus numbers his troops of
sea-calves. Even that paltry bird the sparrow always has a mate with whom it
happily flies about to every heap of grain, and returns at evening to its
own thatch; yet should chance strike one of them dead ‹ whether the kite
with hooked beak has brought this fate, or the clown has pierced it with his
arrow ‹ the other seeks a new mate to be henceforth its companion in flight.
But we men are a stony race, a tribe vexed by stern fates, alien in our
minds one from the other, in our hearts discordant. Hardly from among
thousands does one find a single kindred spirit, or if fortune not
unfriendly gives one such in answer to our prayers, yet in a day and an hour
when we least expect it he is snatched away, leaving an everlasting wound.
"Go home unfed, my lambs, your troubled master is not free to tend you. Ah,
what wandering fancy lured me to traverse lofty cliffs and snowy Alps to
unknown shores! Was there any such need to see buried Rome ‹ even had it
been what it was when Tityrus left his sheep and his pastures to see it ‹
that I could part with so charming a companion, that I could put between us
so many deep seas, so many mountains, forests, rocks, and roaring streams?
Surely had I stayed I might at the last have touched the hand, and closed
the eyes, of him who was peacefully dying, might have said, "Farewell,
remember me when you go to the stars."
"Go home unfed, my lambs, your troubled master is not free to tend you. Even
though I shall never weary of remembering you, O Tuscan shepherds, youths
devoted to the muses, yet here too were grace and charm; and you too, Damon,
were a Tuscan tracing your lineage from the ancient city of Lucca. O how
elated I was when, stretched by cool murmuring Arno and the poplar grove
that softens the grass, I lay, now plucking violets, now sprays of myrtle,
and listened to Menalcas contending with Lycidas in song! Even I myself
dared to enter the contest, nor do I think I greatly displeased you, for I
still have with me your gifts, reed baskets, bowls, and shepherd's pipes
with waxen stops. Nay, both Dati and Francini, renowned for their eloquence
and their learning, and both of Lydian blood, have taught my name to their
beeches.
"Go, home unfed, my lambs, your troubled master is not free to tend you.
These things the dewy moon used to tell me, when happy and alone I was
shutting my tender kids in their wattled cotes. Ah! how often have I said
when already you were but dark ashes:
"'Now Damon is singing, or stretching nets for the hare; now he is plaiting
osiers for his various uses.'
"What I then with easy mind hoped for the future, with the wish I lightly
seized and fancied present.
"Say, good friend, are you free? If nothing prevents us, let us go and lie
down a while in the mumuring shade, by the waters of Colne, or in the fields
of Cassivellanus. You shall tell me of your healing herbs and juices,
hellebore, the lowly crocus, and the leaf of the hyacinth, whatever plants
the marshes yield, and tell me of the physician's art.
"Ah! perish the herbs and the simplex, perish the physician's art, since
they have profited their master nothing! And I ‹ for I know not what my pipe
was grandly sounding ‹ it is now eleven nights and a day ‹ and then perhaps
I had put my lips to new pipes, but they burst asunder, broken at the
fastening, and could no more bear the deep tones* ‹ I hesitate too lest I
seem conceited, yet I will tell the tale ‹ give place then, O forests.
"Go home unfed, my lambs, your troubled master is not free to tend you. I
would tell of Dardanian ships along the Rutupian Sea, and of the ancient
realm of Imogen, Pandrasus' daughter, of the leaders Brennus and Arviragus,
and old Belinus, and of colonists in Armorica under British laws; then I
would tell of Igraine pregnant with Arthur by a fatal fraud, of the seeming
face and counterfeit arms of Gorlois, Merlin's artifice. Ah! then if life
remain, you, my pipe, shall hang on some aged pine far off and forgotten,
unless forsaking your native songs you shrilly sound a British theme. Why
not a British theme? One man cannot do all things, cannot hope to do all
things. Sufficient my reward, my honours ample ‹ even if I am for ever
unknown and wholly without fame in foreign parts ‹ if yellow-haired Ouse
reads me, and he who drinks the waters of Alaun, and Abra full of eddies,
and all the woods of Trent, and above all my own Thames, and Tamar stained
with metals, and if the Orkneys and their remotest waves but learn my songs.
"Go home unfed, my lambs, your troubled master is not free to tend you.
These things I was keeping for you under the tough bark of the laurel, these
and more besides. Then I thought to show you the two cups that Manso, not
the least glory of the Chalcidian shore, gave me; a wonderful work of art
they are ‹ but Manso himself is wonderful. Round about they arc decorated
with a double band of carving. In the middle arc the waters of the Red Sea
and the odoriferous spring, the far off coasts of Arabia and the trees
dropping balsam, amidst these the phoenix, divine bird, alone of its kind on
earth, gleaming blue, with wings of many colours, watches Aurora rise over
the glassy waves. In another part are great Olympus and the whole expanse of
heaven. Yes, and who would believe it? here too is Love, his quiver,
flashing arms, and torch, his darts tipped with fiery bronze, all pictured
in a cloud. He does not aim at little souls and the ignoble hearts of the
rabble, but, rolling his flaming eyes about, unwearied he ever scatters his
missiles on high through the spheres, and never aims his shots downward.
Hence minds immortal and forms divine are inflamed with love.
"You too are among these, Damon ‹ nor does elusive hope deceive me ‹ surely
you too are among these; for whither should your sweet and holy simplicity
retire, whither your spotless virtue? It is wrong to seek you in Lethean
Orcus. Tears become you not, and I shall weep no more. Away then tears!
Damon dwells in the purity of heaven, for he himself is pure. He has thrust
back the rainbow with his foot, and among the souls of heroes and the
everlasting gods he quaffs the heavenly waters, and drinks of joys with his
sacred lips. But now that the rights of heaven are yours, stand by my side
and gently befriend me, whatever be now your name, whether you would still
be our Damon, or whether you prefer to be called Diodati, by which divine
name all the dwellers in heaven will know you, but in the forests you will
still be called Damon. Because a rosy blush, and a youth without stain were
dear to you, because you never tasted the pleasure of marriage, lo! for you
are reserved a virgin's honours. Your noble head bound with a glittering
wreath, in your hands the glad branches of the leafy palm, you shall for
ever act and act again the immortal nuptials, where song and the lyre,
mingled with the blessed dances, wax rapturous, and the joyous revels rage
under the thyrsus of Zion."
Bob