Appetitive: Review-- Anne Carson's Antigonick

A friend of the family gave me a copy of Antigonick for my birthday. I was excited to read it. Two of my best friends both raved over it and I generally love Anne Carson. However, as much as I hate to admit this, I just didn't get it.

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't really anything. It was a loose, quasi-postmodern translation of the Sophokles play with a sprinkling of moderately interesting language, quotes from Hegal, and some rather confusing drawings. It conveyed a sense of futility and desolation that reminded me of (but did not follow the tradition of) Camus, but not much more.

And there was a weird mute character, Nick, who "measures things". What things?-- well, as an audience, we don't know. My initial thought was that he provided a measure-- like the chorus was supposed to do in the ancient world. The chorus reacted, related stories, and as helpless witnesses, stood in for the audience. However, the chorus often has such insight (in their philosophical or mythical flights of fancy) or such blindness (when they are used for dramatic irony) in comparison to the audience, that I thought maybe, especially for a modern audience, Carson envisioned that it would help to have a character reacting-- thus measuring-- the play as a sort of intermediary. This idea made sense to me. And yet, that's not what he seems to be doing. Nick appears only once in the stage direction at the end of the play on the final page: "exunt omnes except Nick who continues measuring." This, in combination with Kreon and Eurydike's linguistic games surrounding the phrase "nick of time," inclined me to believe he was literally measuring.

I thought that I must be missing something, so I looked up a  couple of reviews online. It seems I didn't miss much. One review saw spirit and inspiration and one review hated the anachronistic touches, but neither seemed to be working with something fundamental that I missed.

One review reminded me that this is the second work of Anne Carson's in succession about mourning the loss of a brother (see Nox, which I loved). However, I'm kind of wary of such a biographical insight for obvious reasons.

Spirited: Accountability

So I am taking a class that only meets once a week. I haven't been very good about starting my work early and this seem to pile up. However, I want to do well. So I thought I'd be forced to do a little every day if I forced myself to post a little every day. Just a little random snippet of what I've read.

Lysias 12.1:

οὐκ ἄρξασθαί μοι δοκεῖ ἄπορον εἶναι, ὦ ἄνδρες δικασταί, τῆς κατηγορίας, ἀλλὰ παύσασθαι λέγοντι: τοιαῦτα αὐτοῖς τὸ μέγεθος καὶ τοσαῦτα τὸ πλῆθος εἴργασται, ὥστε μήτ᾽ ἂν ψευδόμενον δεινότερα τῶν ὑπαρχόντων κατηγορῆσαι, μήτε τἀληθῆ βουλόμενον εἰπεῖν ἅπαντα δύνασθαι, ἀλλ᾽ ἀνάγκη ἢ τὸν κατήγορον ἀπειπεῖν ἢ τὸν χρόνον ἐπιλιπεῖν.

It seems to me that I am without a way not to begin the accusation, O jurymen, but to stop my speech. Such deeds with respect to their importance [were committed] by them and so many with respect to their number were committed that neither lying could I denounce more terrible things than the facts, nor wishing [to] could I speak the truth in its entirety, but it is necessary that either the prosecutor give in or time run out. 

I seem to have played a bit fast and loose with the grammar both in translating Greek and the English I used in order to translate it. However, I have a lot more to do before the classicist bread party tomorrow. So I will leave it here for now.

Spirited: Bellum Catilinae 4

This is the final chapter of Sallust's proem to the Bellum Catilinae.

Igitur ubi animus ex multis miseriis atque periculis requievit et mihi reliquam aetatem a re publica procul habendam decrevi, non fuit consilium socordia atque desidia bonum otium conterere neque vero agrum colundo aut venando, servilibus officiis, intentum aetatem agere; sed, a quo incepto studioque me ambitio mala detinuerat, eodem regressus statui res gestas populi Romani carptim, ut quaeque memoria digna videbantur, perscribere, eo magis, quod mihi a spe, metu, partibus rei publicae animus liber erat. Igitur de Catilinae coniuratione, quam verissume potero, paucis absolvam; nam id facinus in primis ego memorabile existumo sceleris atque periculi novitate. De cuius hominis moribus pauca prius explananda sunt, quam initium narrandi faciam.

Accordingly, when my mind settled down after many wretched things and trials and I decided to spend my remaining life at a distance from the Republic, it was not my intention to spend good leisure in laziness or inactivity, but neither was I intent upon spending my life tilling a field nor hunting, in servile tasks; but having gone back to the same thing from which undertaking my zeal and ambition detained me, I made up my mind to write in parts the deeds having been done of the Roman people, whatsoever ones seemed worthy of memory; that much more because my mind is free from hope, fear, and partisanship for the Republic. Accordingly, about the conspiracy of Cataline I will set forth a brief account as truthfully as I will be able; for this deed I estimate is especially memorable because of the novelty of the crime and attempt. Concerning the mores this man, first a little must be explained, so I may produce the beginning of my narrative.

I think Sallust's proem, in its entirety, is quite brilliant. I did not expect to like a Roman historian, but Sallust's bizarre and interesting take on the world as well as a wonderful professor changed my mind.

Sprited: Bellum Catiliniae 3

I am continuing on with the proem of Sallust's Bellum Catilinae. I really grew to like Sallust during this term. He's a lot of fun.

Pulchrum est bene facere rei publicae, etiam bene dicere haud absurdum est; vel pace vel bello clarum fieri licet; et qui fecere et qui facta aliorum scripsere, multi laudantur. Ac mihi quidem, tametsi haudquaquam par gloria sequitur scriptorem et auctorem rerum, tamen in primis arduom videtur res gestas scribere: primum, quod facta dictis exaequanda sunt; dehinc, quia plerique, quae delicta reprehenderis, malevolentia et invidia dicta putant, ubi de magna virtute atque gloria bonorum memores, quae sibi quisque facilia factu putat, aequo animo accipit, supra ea veluti ficta pro falsis ducit. Sed ego adulescentulus initio, sicuti plerique, studio ad rem publicam latus sum ibique mihi multa advorsa fuere. Nam pro pudore, pro abstinentia, pro virtute audacia, largitio, avaritia vigebant. Quae tametsi animus aspernabatur insolens malarum artium, tamen inter tanta vitia imbecilla aetas ambitione corrupta tenebatur; ac me, cum ab reliquorum malis moribus dissentirem, nihilo minus honoris cupido eadem, qua ceteros, fama atque invidia vexabat.

It is beautiful to perform well for the Republic, also to speak well is not at all absurd; it is allowable that fame is made either in peace or in war; both [those] who do and [those] who write about the deeds of others, are praised in great numbers. And in fact, it seems to me, although not at all equal glory follows the writing and the accomplishing of deeds, nevertheless it seems especially difficult to write the things done: first, because the deeds must be matched with words; then, because many, which faults you might blame, they think they are mentioned with ill will or jealousy; when when you recount great virtue and the glory of good men, which whoever thinks easy for themselves to do, accepts with equal mind, [and] reckons as false anything beyond these just as fiction. But initially I as a young man, just as many, I was carried by zeal for the republic, and in that place many things had become adverse to me. For instead of modesty, instead of self-restraint, audacity, spending, and avarice grew strong. Although my mind detested these things, unaccustomed to wicked arts, although in the midst of such vice, feeble age was held by corrupt ambition; and although I differed from the mad habits of the rest, no less did the desire for honor the same as the rest trouble me because of reputation and envy.

I will put up the last part of the proem, chapter 4, next.

Spirited: Sallust's Bellum Catilinae

I have not posted in a while because I have been rather busy with school and teaching. At the moment, I am writing a paper on the much-derided proem of Sallust's Bellum Catilinae (which I really like). I thought I would type out the sections of the proem and post them as I will be using them for my paper. Here is the first installment:

[1] Omnis homines qui sese student praestare ceteris animalibust summa ope niti decet ne vitam silentio transeant veluti pecora, quat natura prona atque ventri odoedientia finxit. Sed nostra omnis vis in animo et corpore sita est; animi imperio, corporis servitio magis utimur; alterum nobis cum dis, alterum cum beluis commune est. Quo mihi rectius videtur ingeni quam virium opibus gloriam quaerere et quoniam vita ipsa qua fruimur brevis est, memoriam nostri quam maxume longam efficere. Name divitiarum et formae gloria fluxa atque fragilis est, virtus clara aeternaque habebetur.

Sed dium magnum inter mortalis certamen fuit vine corporis an virtute animi res militaris magis procederet. (Name et prius quam incipias consulto et, ubi consulueris, nature facto opus est. Ita utrumque per se indigens alterum alterius auxilio eget. (Sallust, BC, 1).

[1]To strive becomes all men who apply themselves with the utmost of their power to surpass the rest of the animals [and] not pass through life in obscurity like cattle, which are inclined by nature and formed by obedience to their appetite. But our strength on the whole is situated in the mind and the body; we use more the authority of the mind and the servility of the body; one of ours is in common with the gods, the other is in common with the beasts. Consequently, it seems to me that to seek glory with the resources of innate nature rather than strength and, we delight in this life since it is brief, to produce a memory of ourselves as long as possible. For glory of wealth and bodily beauty is flowing and fragile, manly virtue is famous and eternal.

But for a long time there was a great contest between men whether military affairs turn out successfully because of body or virtue of mind. (For both before one begins deliberation and when one has deliberated, there is a need for a mature act. In this way and in another way through lack one requires the aid of the other.

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."

Appetitive: Online Libianus Translation Project

I have been waiting for something like this to come up. This may not be the first collaborative online translation project, but it is the first one upon which I have stumbled. AWOL posted the Online Libanius Translation Project, which will attempt to translate the rhetoric of the Fourth Century CE orator into English (much of it for the first time).

I have been expecting this ever since I read the beginning of an MIT-published study on education in the digital age. The study spent a few pages introducing the difference between Information Technology (IT) and participatory media (i.e. user-generated content). One of the findings of the study was the critical difference between the way that modern students respond to the two forms of media: students are more engaged by participatory media than the traditional top-down approach of information technology. Even Perseus is fundamentally information technology because although users can vote on definitions of particular words, there is no real content generated by users. It is fascinating to see a classical project looking for user-generated content.

I am returning from my Alma Mater today and normal posting should resume soon.

Spirited: Horace 3.30

It has been a long day so I will not post a translation of 2.13 until tomorrow.  Here is my translation of 3.30:

Exegi monumentum aere perennius
Regalique situ pyramidum altius,
Quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens
Possit diruere aut innumberabilis
Annorum series et fuga temporum.
Non omnis moriar multaque pars mei
Vitabit Libitinam: usque ego postera
Crescam laude recens. Dum Capitolium
Scandet cum tacita virgine pontifex,
Dicar, qua violens obstrepit Aufidus
Et qua pauper aquae Daunus agrestium
Regnavit populorum, ex humili potens
Princeps Aeolium carmen ad Italos
Deduxisse modos. Sume superbiam
Quaestiam meritis et mihi Delphica
Lauro cinge volens, Melopomene, comam.

I have completed a monument more durable than bronze
and higher than the majestic place of the pyramids,
because no consuming rain, nor powerless North Wind
can destroy [it] or the innumerable succession of years
and the flight of the seasons.
Not entirely shall I die and parts of me
will evade Death: on and on I will increase
in new praise. While the pontifex
mounts the Capitol with a silent virgin
I will be celebrated, where the furious Aufidus
makes a clamor and Danus, poor in water, once ruled
over rustic people, powerful from humble [origins]
the Aeolian song transferred into Italian poetry.
Take the proud honor sought by the meritorious and
graciously wreath my hair with Delphic laurel.

I used Bennett's edition of Horace (my copy is the first edition) and pieces of may translation amended from his notes. I also discussed the translation with Propertius II, although I did not take particularly good notes so I may have made mistakes that he urged me to correct.

Appetitive/Spirited: More Horace on Wine

I always enjoy picking wines for Christmas dinner. Since I am going to put up a new edition of "Wine Snob" very soon on my cooking/personal blog, I thought I would continue the tradition of translating Horace 1.38 and translate the last stanza of 2.14 (also about wine):

Absumet heres Caecuba dignior
     servata centum clavibus et mero
tinguet pavimentum superbo,
     pontificum potiore cenis.

The worthier heir will quaff the Caecuba [1]
     protected by one hundred keys and glorious
unmixed [wine] dyes the floor [2],
     more potent than the dinner of the priests.

The rest of the Horace poem (2.14) was about death and it was not particularly interesting [3]. The last stanza amused me, so I thought I would post it.

Some holiday wines.

Endnotes

1. Caecuba is a type of Roman wine.
2. I cannot decide whether the wine dies the floors from spillage or vomit. Either way, it shows the excess of the heir.
3. I mentioned to Propertius II that "anyone can write 28 lines about death" and he quipped "but can anyone write 28 lines about death in Alcaeic strophs?"

Appetitive/Spirited: A Translation of Horace 1.38 for the Holidays

Horace 1.38

Persicos odi, puer, adparatus,
     displicent nexae philyra coronae,
mitte sectari, rosa quo locorum
     sera moretur.

simplici myrto nihil adlabores
     sedulus curo: neque te ministrum
dedecet myrtus neque me sub arta
     vite bibentem.

I hated Persian styling, boy, woven crowns 

     from the linden tree displease [me],

do not seek out haunts 

    where the late rose lingers.

I take pains that you, diligent, endeavor nothing 

     [other than] plain myrtle: neither is myrtle unsuitable 

for you as you serve nor for me 

     drinking under the thick-leaved vine.

Advice on the translation was taken from the notes in the Bennett edition I borrowed from the library as well as from Propertius II. However, it has been over a month since I read the poem and the notes that I took for myself were not nearly as detailed as they should have been. However, this is a rendering of what I remember.

The reason I chose this poem for the holidays is twofold. First, at the Aimee Mann Christmas Show, Paul Tompkins did comic bit on the two versions of Christmas. He claimed that there was one for religious people and one for everyone else, which was a drinking holiday. I thought this was pretty funny, especially because of the tradition of my family's Christmas wine selection (although no one drinks very much), and because it reminded me of Horace, who mentions wine in almost every poem I have read thus far. Second, although I had to return the my Bennett to the library, I remember something about the "late blooming rose" in line 4 being the Egyptian rose, which was known to bloom until December, which further reminded me of the holidays.

So, crown yourself in myrtle, pour a glass of wine, and read Horace by the fireside.

Spirited: Translating Horace I.5

On Saturday night and Sunday morning (yes, I can certainly be a procrastinator), I read Horace I.1, 5, and 9. I had never read any Horace before, which seems a bit strange considering I took the equivalent of three years of Latin [1]. Since Horace was one of the texts on the Berkeley example reading list [2], Properitius II and I decided to read Horace together. Of the poems we have read thus far, I.5 is my favorite and I will offer my translation [3]:

Quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa

perfusus liquidis urget odoribus

grato, Pyrrha, sub antro?

cui flavam religas comam

simplex munditiis? heu quotiens fidem

mutatosque deos flebit et aspera

nigris aequora ventis

emirabitur insolens

qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea,

qui semper vacuam, semper amabilem

sperat, nescius aurae

fallacis. miseri, quibus

intemptata nites. me tabula sacer

votiva paries indicat uvida

suspendisse potenti

vestimenta maris deo.

Which slender youth, imbued with liquid scents

solicits you, Pyrrah, on a bed of roses [4]

under an pleasant grotto [5]

For whom do you arrange your golden hair,

simple in its elegance? Alas how often

he will lament faithfulness and changed gods and

the level seas, cruel because of black winds,

will be [a cause of] wonder [6]

[for him] who now delights in you, believing you golden,

who always hopes for vapidness, always for attractivenss,

ignorant of false air. Pitiable [are] men, for whom

you shimmer untried. The sacred wall

indicates by votive tablets that I have hung-up

my damp garments

to the powerful sea god [7].

I used the Shorey and Laing edition, an electronic version of which can be found on Perseus. It is a beautiful poem and has been translated by Milton among others.

Endnotes

1. I look my first "year" of Latin in 8 weeks through a fabulous summer course.
2. Although grad schools do put out a reading list of texts that are required reading for graduating their programs and passing written and oral exams, this is not the kind of reading list of which I speak. The other graduate school reading list is the list of materials that are required for acceptance to a grad school, which functions as to prevent graduate schools from needing to look over the syllabi of every class the applicants took in order to determine which and what portion of texts students read in the original languages.
3. As it seems to be a popular sentiment on the acknowledgment pages and in the introductions to various classics texts (and is also true), I shall offer this disclaimer: although Propertius II aided me
4. multa...in rosa literally on many roses i.e. on a bed of roses (from Shorey and Laing's notes).
5. antro, translated here as grotto, is literally "cave." It is used her possibly as an allusion to the cave in the Aeneid where Dido and Aeneas's "marriage" takes place (credit to Propertius II for his insight).
6. I definitely messed with the grammar here. Literally, "sea harsh with black wind will be wondered at," but aequora is the word for level, and I thought I should translate it with that meaning in mind. Also, I took the nigris ventis as an ablative of cause because I think it better expresses the image. Also, qui in the next line is nominative and added a dative connecting phrases, which I felt that it made the transition better in English.
7. Mariners who were shipwrecked would hang their wet clothes (presumably on a piece of the ship) as an offering to Neptune, god of the sea, in order to pray for safe passage.

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.