Spring Waxing Bee Hiving Moon
All morning on 5 verses of the Actaeon story. I’m not sure now that I’ll make it before May 1st when the Titian exhibit leaves. I’m aiming that way still. It’s a goal, but one dependent on my continuing to gain skill as a Latin novice and gain skill fast. I’ve only now just gotten to the good part where Actaeon has entered the sacred grove, seen Diana and she’s going for her arrows and her bow. After that? Well, it’s not good news for our Actaeon.
Translating Latin, and I’m sure this is true with other languages too, requires holding several different pieces of information in mind, all at the same time. That’s different conjugations, declensions, clause forms, word meanings (usually multiple for the same word). The thing I still find hardest is not jumping to a conclusion and locking in a translation. If I do that, I end up with words that don’t fit and decisions that go down wrong paths.
The very complexity of it is what appeals to me right now, that and the fact that I’m digging deep into a text and therefore an author and therefore a world that fascinates me, the world that sustained Greek and Roman gods and goddesses. Ovid challenges this world, challenges it vigorously, with stories of transformation and injustice, but, in a great irony, also propagates it.
