Spirited: Translation of Sulpicia 3 (Tibullus 3.15)

Although there is much in Greek and German that I should be translating, I decided to translate some Latin because I certainly must keep up my Latin.

Scis iter ex animo sublatum triste puellae?
     Natali Romae iam licet esse suo.
Omnibus ille dies nobis natalis agatur,
     Qui nec opinanti nunc tibi forte venit.

Do you know that the miserable trip has been lifted from the mind of your girl?
     Now it is allowed that she is in Rome for her birthday.
Here the birthday is celebrated by all of us,
     which comes now with unexpected luck.

I had some trouble with the translation, but I think it is fairly reasonable. I used the version from Minor Authors of the Corpus Tibullianum.

Spirited: Translation of Sulpicia 2 (Tibullus 3.14)

Long ago, when I first started this blog, I mentioned that I was going to translate the 6 poem cycle of Sulpicia. My favorite of the poems is Sulpicia 1, which I translated a long time ago. However, I had a little time today so i thought I woudl translate the second installment.

As always, I am happy for any translation suggestions. I used the version of the text from Minor Authors of the Corpus Tibullianum (e.d. John Yardley):

"Invisus natalis adest, qui rure molesto
et sine Cerintho tristis agendus erit.
dulcius urbe quid est? an villa sit apta puellae
atque Arrentino frigidus amnis agro?
iam, nimium Messalla mei studiose, quiescas;
non tempestivae saepe, propinque, viae.
hic animum sensusque meos abducta relinquo
arbitrio quam vis non sinit esse meo."

"My hated birthday is here, which must be miserably spent
In the troublesome countryside without Cerinthus.
What is sweeter than the city? But would a villa
In the Arrentine fields or the cold river be fitting for a girl?
Now, relax! Messalla is too eager on my behalf;
Frequently the journeys are not opportune.
Having been taken, I leave my mind and feeling here,
it is not permitted that she (i.e. Sulpicia) lives according to my own judgment"

I am a huge fan of Sulpicia's work. Enjoy!

Note 06/20/11: on second thought, I might retranslate the last two lines thus (in an attempt to keep word order and more elegantly translate the ablative absolute): "I leave my mind and feeling here, as I have been taken / it is not permitted that I may be my own master."

Reasoning: Women in the Ancient World

Tonight begins a conference on women in the classical world. I will attend tomorrow and report back. I'm especially excited for a lecture on Sulpicia 1.1 (Tibullus 3.13) in the afternoon.

Anecdote: One of the amusing little stories that always flies around the classics department happened in Greek History two years before I took it. My wonderful history professor is a Spartan historian, who writes a lot about Athenian perspectives on Spartan women. In this particular class (which Propertius II was attending as a prospective student), my Greek history professor had taken her students to the library in order to remind them where their best bet was for finding the print resources for writing their research papers as well as to instruct any who did not know in the use of electronic databases like L'Annee Philologique. As she is pointing to specific sections, journals, etc, she told the class "this is where you would come if you wanted to wanted to research women in the Ancient World." One student, who was known for his propensity toward obnoxious questions, responded, "why would anyone want to research women in the Ancient World." My professor turned toward him and asked, "well why would anyone want to put your head in cement?"

Appetitive: A Reading of Ovid

I was looking for something online the other day, I cannot even remember what it was when I stumbled across the podcast of a Dickinson Classics Professor, Christopher Francese, who reads poems in Latin. I listened to my first one this morning and I thought that it was thoroughly enjoyable. I listened to "The Art of Love (Ovid, Ars Amatoria 1.1-24)," Released: Jul 31, 2010. I can't link directly to the podcast, but it is the one called "The Art of Love" dated 07/30/10. He reads in his own translation and then reads in Latin:

"Siquis in hoc artem populo non novit amandi, Hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet. Arte citae lecto carmine doctus amet. Arte citae veloque rates remoque moventur, Arte leves currus: arte regendus amor. Curribus Automedon lentisque erat aptus habenis, Tiphys in Haemonia puppe magister erat: Me Venus artificem tenero praefecit Amori; Tiphys et Automedon dicar Amoris ego. Ille quidem ferus est et qui mihi saepe puppe magister erat: Me Venus artificem tenero praefecit Amori; Tiphys et Automedon dicar Amoris ego. Ille quidem ferus est et qui mihi saepe repugnet: Sed puer est, aetas mollis et apta regi. 10 Phillyrides puerum cithara perfecit Achillem, Atque animos placida contudit arte feros. Qui totiens socios, totiens exterruit hostes, Creditur annosum pertimuisse senem. Quas Hector sensurus erat, poscente magistro erberibus iussas praebuit ille manus. Aeacidae Chiron, ego sumtotiens exterruit hostes, Creditur annosum pertimuisse senem. Quas Hector sensurus erat, poscente magistro Verberibus iussas praebuit ille manus. Aeacidae Chiron, ego sum praeceptor Amoris: Saevus uterque puer, natus uterque dea. Sed tamen et tauri cervix oneratur aratro, Frenaque magnanimi dente teruntur equi; Et mihi cedet Amor, quamvis mea vulneret arcu Pectora, iactatas excutiatque faces. Quo me fixit Amor, quo me violentius ussit, Hoc melior facti vulneris ultor ero" (Ovid, Ars Amatoria 1.1-24) [1].

I have no idea about the accuracy of his pronunciation, but I enjoyed listening to it.

Pronunciation in both Greek and Latin is one of my greatest weaknesses. When i was originally learning the languages, I decided that other aspects were more important to me. I always loved listening to my friends speak in classical languages, but I never spent any time on developing my own ability. I did not realize how embarrassed of my lack of skill I was until this last year, when I was in a class where I had to read in Greek a lot more than I had bargained for. I enlisted the help of a Propertius, who rivals silver-tongued Hermes in pronunciation abilities, and after an hour of his patient help I realized what an arduous process learning pronunciation was going to be.

On his recommendation, I acquired a copy of Vox Graeca, but I have not gotten around to flipping through it. I read the preface and the Phonetic Introduction today, and it looks like it will be a lot of work. I have hopes that the process will pay off.

  

I was also excited to learn today that there was a Vox Latina. I do not know anything about it but I assume that it would provide a similar service. Does anyone know if it is any good?

Endnotes

1. I am not at all sure how to make the poem display in couplets (as one can easily guess from my problematic formatting on my translation of Sulpicia.

Spirited: Translating Sulpicia I

This is the first of the Spirited section. "Spirited" in English is a kind of misleading translation: the word Plato uses is much more like "honor-loving." This part of the soul makes the soldier, but not the strictly-following-orders modern soldier, rather a soldier whose motivation comes from his love of state, but also his desire to win honor for himself in battle. This is the same motivation that drives an athlete.

In this case, the "Spirited" section will be "honor-loving" only in the way that it is all about my thoughts on the classical world. I will post my own translations (starting, I think, with the six poems in Sulpicia's cycle) and my own commentaries hoping that people will discover them, read them, and, if they so desire, comment, respond, or post their own ideas.

I translated the first of Sulpicia I's cycle of six poems. It is my favorite and in my opinion the most interesting. I have played around with some of the typical interpretation, but I think that I am sticking fairly close to the Latin. However, if I did torture some part of the translation I am happy to be corrected or to debate the point.

In this poem, Sulpicia introduces Cerinthus, both as her lover and as the theme which will unite her poetry, although she does not name him.

Sulpicia Elegedia I (1)
[Tibulli Lib. III XIII=IV. VII]

Tandam venit amor, qualem texisse pudori,
quam nudasse alicui sit mihi fama magis.
exorata meis illum Cytherea Camenis
attulit in nostrum deposuitque sinum.
exoluit promissa Venus: mea gaudia narret,
dicetur si quis non habuisse sua.
non ego signatis quicquam mandare tabellis
me legat ut (2) nemo quam meus ante, velim,
sed pecasse iuuat, uultus componere famae
taedet: cum digno digna fuisse ferar.

At last love has come, [love] of the sort which
rumor that it might have been covered up by someone
would have been more shameful to me than if it were exposed.
Having been persuaded by my Muses (3),
the Cytherian (4) brought him and deposited [him] in my lap.
He released Venus from her promise: she may recount my joy
if anyone might be said to to have had her [joy].
I would not wish to commit anything in a sealed tablet
in order that no one might read me before my [love],
but it delights me to offend (5); it is tiresome to compose my visage for the sake of rumor
I should be deemed worthy to have been with a worthy man (6).

Dinner with my family went a little longer than I expected tonight, so I do not have the time to do the extensive commentary that I originally intended. Maybe that will be my next. Hopefully the endnotes will help explain. I wanted to do a translation that was literal, but still poetic (which is why I added words in brackets). Enjoy!

Endnotes:

1. From Minor Authors of the Corpus Tibullianum. e.d. John Yardly. Bryn Mawr, PA: Bryn Mawr Commentaries, 1992. I also made reference to Anne Mahoney's notes on the Perseus entry of Sulpicia as well as to the electronic Allen and Greenough. As a random sidenote, I tried to use my copy of Allen and Greenough, but although I have the wonderful 1903 edition that I bought for $5 at a booksale, it is so imbued with dust that I had an allergy attack trying to use it and switched to the electronic version.
2. I used Yardly version of the text, which for reference is different than the text on the Persus entry of Sulpicia, in that the line 8 reads: "ne legat id nemo quam meum ante, velim." For the textual scholars out there, I am not well schooled in picking one text over another, so I just picked the one I liked better.
3. From Anne Mahoney's notes (and my Latin Love Elegy Class), I gather that these are Italian goddesses or demi-goddesses that were, like the muses, associated with music, and were later blended into the Greek tradition of the Muses.
4. From Anne Mahoney's notes, Venus was referred to as Cytherea because she was born on the island of Cythera in some mythic traditions. In others, she was born out of the foam of the castrated parts of Ouranous falling into the sea.
5. This word means "offend" (as in to offend a person) but also means to "sin." I thought "sin" sounded too religious, when it was really more of the idea of a severe social transgression. The term may be interpreted both as a sexual innuendo and as the return to the idea of the liberation of an incendiary rumor.
6. This last line is kind of a pun. It is difficult to render in English and I may not have translated it properly. "Dignus" which I translated as worthy to try and make the pun work is the term that would be used in Rome to describe a proper Roman gentleman, but also would only be applied to a Roman nobleman. The following ideas appear in this line: A) Sulpicia is a noblewoman, B) Cerinthus is a nobleman, C) Sulpicia is a worthy woman because she made a worthy choice of lovers, however social convention does not see her this way, and prevents her from being a "proper lady" because she kissed and told.