Daily Archives: January 9, 2016

Latin, Myth and Story, Translating Metamorphoses

The Flight of Medea

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Yule                                                                           New (Stock Show) Moon

Set the Cub Cadet on 6, its top speed, and rocketed through the fluffy snow on our driveway. Felt like cheating. It’s gonna stay cold so even the three or four inches we had would stick around a while, a la Minnesota. Better to whisk away to the sides, let the solar snow shovel do its work.

I’ve been working on Latin this morning, more of the comparison method, checking my English against Loeb’s, Penguin Prose and a translation by Charles Martin. My head begins to throb after about an hour. Snow blowing seems like an acceptable alternative.

Here’s a few verses as a sample. This is entirely my own translation.

Medea Flees or The Flight of Medea,  Metamorphoses, Book VII, 350-398

350b Had she not flown into the air on serpent’s wings

351b Would she not be taken for punishment?  She fled

352b above richly shaded Mt. Pelion, Chiron’s home, and

353b above Othrys in Thessaly, over the spot made known by the fate of ancient Cerambus.

354b He, raised into the air on wings here by work of the nymphs ,

355b  escaped, not overwhelmed by Deucalion’s flood

356b  when the burdened earth was being buried by the spreading sea.

357b  On her left she passed Aeolian Pitane

358b  And its great likeness of a dragon made of stone,

359b  And the grove of Idaeus, where the son of Bacchus stole a young bullock

360b  hidden by deceitful Bacchus under the likeness of a deer,

361b   She passed over Paris, the father of Corythi, buried under a small mound of sand,

362b  And over the fields Maera frightened by strange barking.

363b  She flew over the city of Eurypylus where the mothers of  Coa wore horns

364b  When the band of Hercules dispersed to Rhodes,

365b  dear to Phoebus Apollo, and Ialysos, home of the Telchines,

366b  the eyes of whom by beholding infected everyone,

367b  Jupiter, detesting them, plunged them under the sea to his brother, Poseidon.

 

368b  She then passed over the city walls of ancient Cartheia on the island Cea.

369b  where Alcidamas, her father, marveled that  the body of his daughter

370b  was born anew as a peaceful dove.

 

Poetry

There Will Be Stars

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Yule                                                                               New (Stock Show) Moon

There Will Be Stars

“There will be stars over the place forever;
Though the house we loved and the road we loved are lost,
Every time the earth circles her orbit
On the night the autumn equinox is crossed,
Two stars we knew, poised on the peak of midnight
Will reach their zenith; stillness will be deep;
There will be stars over the place forever,
There will be stars forever, while we sleep.”


By Sara Teasdale

Beyond the Boundaries, Faith and Spirituality, Original Relation, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant.

The Gate of Chan

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Yule                                                                            New (Stock Show) Moon

THE GATE OF CHAN

As a result of unwavering diligence you arrive at the gate of Chan. Before the gate stands a gatekeeper who says, “First you must put down your weapons.” Being determined to pass through the gate, you give it no second thought, so you drop all your defenses. After that the guard says, “Next you must take off all your clothes.” You think for a moment, and then you drop all your remaining attachments. Then the guard says, “Now you have to put aside your body.” You have been working hard for a long time so you decide that enlightenment is even worth dying for, so away goes the body. Finally, the guard says, “You still have your mind; that too must go. There can be nothing left of you when you enter.” Because you are determined to succeed, you agree to this final demand. The instant that you let go of your mind, the gate disappears. There was in fact no gate to pass through and nothing to enter.

–Song of Mind by Sheng Yen, pages 69–70
http://www.shambhala.com/song-of-mind.html

Aging, Beyond the Boundaries, Faith and Spirituality, Quotes, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant., Third Phase, Travel

Live in the Whole Ocean

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Yule                                                                         New (Stock Show) Moon

 

 

“Kay Cottee AO is an Australian sailor, who was the first woman to perform a single-handed, non-stop and unassisted circumnavigation of the world. She performed this feat in 1988 in her 37 feet yacht Blackmores First Lady, taking 189 days.”    Wikipedia

When Jessica Watson, in 2009, set sail for her southern hemisphere circumnavigation of the world, she was 16. I don’t recall how, but I found her website on which she posted as she sailed alone in her boat, True Spirit. There was something about her, something fresh and brave, youth, yes, but something more, perhaps it was true spirit.

Since then, I subscribed to her facebook page so I can keep very loose tabs on her as she grows older. Just curious about how true spirit manages adulthood. Wonderfully, as it turns out. She’s inspirational to Australian girls, an advocate for sailing and a modest celebrity down under.

She posted this quote from her idol, Kay Cottee. She means us to take it, I think, as literally intended, a comment on the nature of voyages alone. It is, however, too, a way of understanding the ancientrail we call life.