• Category Archives Latin

  • A Wednesday Ahead

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Yule                                                                              Stock Show Moon

    Kate’s got another all sew day, this one with the needle workers. They’ll be meeting, ironically, in the much higher and more expensive home of two hospital administrators. She has a brace on her recently surgically altered left thumb which may make this day a bit trying for her. Although, she pushes through that kind of obstacle. Just that kinda gal.

    My day will be Latin, review this time for Friday session with Greg, my Latin tutor.

    Work out, now during the day to get push all the water I drink further away from bedtime. Trying to get my sleep more routine. Some nights I sleep well, really well. Other nights, like last night, it’s a wrassling match.

    I plan to write a short essay, a prolegomena to Reimagining Faith. What is it? Why do I want to do it? What might it be? What are the elements available today that make it possible?

     

     


    Faith and Spirituality Family Latin Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant. Third Phase 📎and tagged

  • The Flight of Medea

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    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.

     


    Latin Myth and Story Translating Metamorphoses

  • Stock Show Weather

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Yule                                                                                 New (Stock Show) Moon

    The Denver metro has Stock Show weather. Stock Show weather is cold as opposed to snowy, not surprising since the Stock Show runs the three weeks after the first week of the New Year.

    We got 5 or 6 inches of snow overnight. The next few nights will be in the single digits or low double digits, cold by Colorado standards. Just getting cool by Minnesota’s. It rarely gets chilly here, that is well below zero, though it does happen. Still, as I told Greg, my Latin tutor, this morning, I wouldn’t care to visit Minnesota during a chilly period. Not anymore.

    A couple of weeks ago Greg gave me an assignment. Match my English translation against other English translations, then figure out where and why we differ. This means I’m moving closer to the sort of translating I sought when I began this long journey. In order to proceed honestly I still have to translate the Latin first, then check others. This way I don’t engage in cheating, making my translation fit someone else’s interpretation. But, done in the proper sequence this method allows me to begin polishing my language, getting beyond a more literal translation to a more literary one.

    Getting back to regular, that is daily, Latin work has been frustratingly slow. I’ve allowed holidays and illness to intrude. Understandable, not helpful. After this morning’s session though, I have a feeling I’m back at it. Greg said I did very well with the material I prepared. That means, when we sight read the Latin, I easily and accurately translated what I had put through the English translation match.

    With my workouts somewhat regular now, illness and holidays again, it feels as if I’m returning to the productive rhythm I had in Minnesota. Now I need to add writing on a novel and/or the reimagining book. Working out, Latin and creative writing are the three legs to my stool, each necessary in their own way.

    The art will come along, too.


    Colorado Humanities Latin Myth and Story Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant. The West US History

  • Translating Now

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Samhain                                                                   Christmas Moon

    N.B.: a note from my Latin tutor in response to my question, what do I need to do now to make progress? I’m putting it here so I can find it again when I need it.

     

    I think that you should do your translation and then check as many English translations as you have in comparison.

    If they differ from each other and/or from yours you should gain an understanding as to how they came up with what they did and compare it to how you came up with what you did.


    Latin Translating Metamorphoses

  • Smart

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Samhain                                                                       New (Winter) Moon

    The wind was calmer today so I got more tree trunks cut into logs. Used my smart holder for the first time. It works pretty well, but I’ve got to get more facile with placing logs on it. A learning curve. Lots of fireplace size logs stacked between two trees, three stacks in all. This is the last step in the fire mitigation process for this season. Now the wood will dry for a year, be ready to split next fall. As soon as I get all the front tree trunks cut into fireplace size, I’ll move to the back and begin felling and limbing.

    Getting my regular hour of Latin, but boy it’s coming hard right now. Not sure why. Struggling. Back to regular exercise, too, though most of my resistance time is still spent with arthritis alleviating exercises from Dana. I backed off a bit on them, tried to work in some other resistance, but the tingling returned, the left shoulder began to ping. Struggling a bit here, too. Not anywhere near my pre surgery levels.

    Tomorrow we’re going to Sushi Harbor with Jon and Jen to celebrate Jon’s 47th birthday. I met Jon when he was 21. 47. Realized another milestone birthday must be when your first child turns 50.

    Our neighbor Jude came over to wish us a Happy Hanukkah. Sweet of him.

     

     

     


    Family Great Work Health Holidays Latin Shadow Mountain Translating Metamorphoses

  • Around the Bulge

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Lughnasa                                                            Recovery Moon

    Yesterday and today I opened my Latin texts, continuing to translate the story of Medea in Book 7. Yesterday my eyes crossed and my brain froze. Too hard. Today, though, much better. I did 4 verses plus in an hour, then ran out of motivation. My goal is to get back to at least 5 verses a day or more, which was my pace b.c.

    Soon, sometime soon, Superior Wolf will return, this were creature loose in the Arrowhead of northern Minnesota. He’s proven as elusive to me as the author as he will to the people who hunt him and his kind. Different versions of this novel, always fragmentary, are in my files from before this millennium.

    The gas lines tomorrow. And my new crown. Oh, boy. The final IKEA delivery for now comes on Tuesday. Jon will be up sometime with the base for my art table. I hope he has time to assemble and join the two additional tall bookcases and the cabinet section for my tea and coffee accessories before he returns to work. The mini-fridge is in the garage.

    Life has begun to ease around the bulge of April, May, June and July. We ate at an indifferent Italian restaurant last night before the theater (see below). No medical conversation. Memories though of our honeymoon, the Italian food against which we compare every Italian place. And they almost never match up. The Italians have something special with their food and their coffee. And their art. And history.

    I told Kate last night over dinner that it felt like my summer had finally started.


    Cooking Latin Our Land and Home Tea Translating Metamorphoses Writing

  • Challenge Perceived Limitations

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Spring                                                           Mountain Spring Moon

    Apparently the dropout rate for language instruction is incredibly high. I believe it. There were several drop out points along the way in my Latin learning, moments when the thickness of my resistance seemed impenetrable.

    Read the other day that it takes 600 hours of practice to become fluent in a foreign language. The same article said that learning a language was just hard, not impossible. Now it’s beginning to appear that this article had it right.

    Thing is, it seems like I have way over 600 hours of practice translating. Now this article referred to learning, say, French, and admitted that other languages like Mandarin could take much longer. Maybe fluency and accuracy in translation are different, I don’t know, but it’s taken me a long time to get where I am and that’s still far from 100%.

    Like most pilgrims, the journey was key to the adventure, but the destination has proved worthy of the path. Rationales for learning Latin developed over time. One was the third phase desire to keep the brain active, creating new neural pathways. The second, or was it the original one, involved making the stories of the Metamorphoses a deep and accessible resource for writing. The third was to challenge my self-perception as one who could not learn a language.

    The first I don’t know how to measure. The second has been happening all along the way and, happily, the third was a successful challenge. Challenging self-perceived limitations is an important facet of life at any age, perhaps more so as we move well into our third phase.

     

     

     


    Latin Myth and Story Third Phase Translating Metamorphoses Writing

  • Moon Over Black Mountain

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Spring                                                            Mountain Spring Moon

    1428323496098Snow last night, not much but enough to coat rooftops and give the moonshine a reflective surface in the back. The moon hung directly over Black Mountain for a couple of mornings. Here’s a fuzzy (phone) photo taken from the deck off my loft.

    An odd phenomenon with shifting my workouts to the morning. I get more work done in the morning. Then, though, the afternoon, late afternoon, seems to drag.

    This will become my reading time for work related material. Right now I’m studying germline gene therapy for Superior Wolf. I’m also reading an older historical fiction piece called The Teutonic Knights by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Written in 1900 it is a great read. Sienkiewicz was prolific, author of many other works of historical fiction, including Quo Vadis. The Teutonic Knights have a role to play in Superior Wolf,so that book is work related, too.

    I count Latin, writing and reading to support them as work, as I do gardening and beekeeping. Some people would count these as hobbies, especially the gardening and the beekeeping, but for me they represent the non-domestic parts of my day and have done for many years now.

    At least for me a day filled only with meals, leisure reading, volunteer activities, shopping would be lacking a contrast, the contrast provided by labor with a forward progression, aimed toward an end of some kind. As I wrote before, I’m learning to detach myself from the results of this work, but that doesn’t deflate its value. Hardly. Work remains key to a sense of agency, a sense that does not come from merely sustaining life. For me.

    Mentioning work, Kate made me a spectacular wall-hanging with vintage Colorado postcards.


    Latin Mountains Our Land and Home Third Phase Translating Metamorphoses Writing 📎and tagged

  • Habitual

    Posted on by Charles 1 Comment

    Spring                                          Mountain Spring Moon

    New morning habit in process of forming. I’m going to protect the time from 5:45-11:00 am for work with timeout for breakfast. After long experience, I know that I don’t do well if my work times get interrupted. This means I’ll need to make appointments for the afternoons in the future. Yes, this potentially interferes with my workout regimen, which begins at 4:00 pm each day. And, yes, it could disrupt my nap, but I think the advantages outweigh the hassles.

    It also means I’ll not be posting here until mid-day, nor will I check e-mails, do other kinds of work on the computer until the afternoon or evening.

    What will I be doing in those morning hours? Latin. Moving forward with my translation of Book VII which I plan to be my first complete book translated. There are 15. Writing. I’ll be working on Superior Wolf, writing and researching.

    It’s odd, but the sunny disposition of Colorado really leans toward the outdoors, not like the cold and gloomy winters and early springs in Minnesota, where staying inside just made sense. This focus on mornings spent with the mind will have outside interference. I’ll have to focus harder on getting in hikes, plant identification, exploration in the time I have available.

    I’ve been taken over the last few weeks with an idea from the Baghavad Gita, action with out attachment to the results. In the Gita this notion prunes karma, since it is the entrapment of desire that bends karma one way or the other. With no focus on the result the action cannot produce bad karma. This is not the way I see it though I understand this more orthodox approach.

    Instead I find the idea of action without attachment to the result as a way to cut the final cord tying me to the bourgeois desire for achievement. It was this strain of thinking that cut across my cerebral cortex when living large popped up. In other words I learn Latin with no final end in mind. Being an amateur classicist is what I will do, defining the realm in which I will act. Just so the writing. Writing novels, being a writer is what I will do, what I have done. But the results of that action? Not important. Grandparenting. Gardening. Bee keeping. All the same.

    So creating the atmosphere in which I can act is critical. Creating an atmosphere in which I succeed, not so much so.


    Asia Family Latin Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant. Third Phase Translating Metamorphoses Writing 📎and tagged

  • Medea

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Spring                                       Mountain Spring Moon

    Medea. The more closely I follow her story in Ovid, the better I understand why she inspired so many works of literature and painting. In a time when women worked the looms and managed households (Penelope, for example) Medea was a strong woman in every phase of her life. She seduced Jason and literally brought new life to Aeson, his father.

    She is a magician, a sorceress, a witch, one who walks alone in the night. She banishes the clouds and calls for the clouds to return. She shatters living rock with a word and calls the winds, then bids them go. She is the female equivalent of the heroes of the age of heroes.

    I’ve not yet gotten to the portion of Ovid’s account where she kills her children, so I won’t comment on it.

    More to come.


    Latin Myth and Story Translating Metamorphoses