• Tag Archives Diana

  • If You Can, Speak

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Spring                                    Waning Bee Hiving Moon

    More fun with poor Actaeon.   I translated this short speech of Diana’s and it really gets to the point of what Ovid had in mind.

    Diana has just sprinkled Actaeon with avenging water and his transfer to a stag is complete, though he doesn’t know it quite yet.  She says to him:

    “Now let me show you the garment you saw set down,

    If you can tell about it, you may.”

    When he tries, all that comes out are a groan and tears, “only his pristine mind remained.”  Ouch.  You want to stay on the good side of any goddess in your vicinity.

    We’ve decided to change my tutoring sessions to a reading course format.  I will prepare several verses, translate them, but on the day of our session, I will read the Latin out loud, then translate as much as possible from sight.  This should speed up my learning.

    On Friday’s Kate goes to the bank to get our weekly cash, goes to the pharmacy which is close by (our credit union is at Mercy Hospital and the pharmacy in the medical office building across the street) and often comes home with lunch.  When she gets home, she says,  “I’ve got money, drugs and food.”  Those little domestic rituals.


    📂This entry was posted in Family Humanities 📎and tagged

  • Lost In Translation

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Spring                                                             Waning Bloodroot Moon

    Just wanted to post a notice here that I have several verses of Ovid’s Metamorphosis translated, about a fourth of his version of Diana and Actaeon, the subject of one of Titian’s paintings at the MIA’s current exhibition.  This level of translation is a first pass, so is not meant to be in idiomatic English.  That’s a next step.  I’m excited that I’ve gotten this far.

    The task of translation is far more complex than it appears, involving inevitable personal choices that reflect not the original work, but the mind and culture of the translator.  I suspected this, but now I know for sure.

    This work has become a hobby for me, something I enjoy picking up in spare time, a jigsaw puzzle or a model.

    Those of you who’ve mastered another language or languages, I’m getting to the place, at 64, where I may join you.  I have a lot of respect for any who have stuck the course with another language, we are so inept here in the US.  It’s been a fun ride so far.


    📂This entry was posted in Aging Humanities 📎and tagged

  • Deeper Into The Text

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Winter                                                                 Waning Moon of the Cold Month

    We woke up to a new snow, sparkly and still coming down like flour from a flour sifter, gentle but persistent.  These kind of snows freshen up the scenery, cover up the dirty layers with fresh white linens.

    Business meeting.  We’re still feeling our way into retirement finances.  Not doing too bad, but we’re both a bit edgy since its new.  We’re fine, but until we have experience under our belts we’ll have some doubts.  Irrational.  Yes.  Ignorable?  No.

    Finished my English to Latin today and am now about to embark on a new adventure.  I’m going to work on the Ovid behind the two Titian paintings in the new MIA exhibit that reference the Metamorphosis:  Diana and Acteon in book 3:138-255 and Diana and Callisto Book 2:401-503.  This means I’m jumping over the intro for now and going straight into the text about the changes.  Since these paintings will be here a while, they will add some energy to my work.  Should be fun.


    📂This entry was posted in Art and Culture Humanities Myth and Story Retirement 📎and tagged

  • Imagine Your Soul Traveling on a Lambent Beam

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    69  bar rises 29.85  0mph NE dew-point 68  Summer night with a full moon, steamy beautiful

    Full Thunder Moon

    Five of us sit down every 4 to 5 weeks or so and play sheepshead.  This is a game, as I’ve said before, peculiar to eastern Wisconsin and there among the German community where it is also known as schotskopf.  Sheepshead is the thin glue that gives us an excuse to sit together, laugh and be amused at the spectacle of ourselves.

    As I grow older, it is these close gatherings of friends that provide the social cohesion I need.  My needs may be less than most, but they are not non-existent.  These men, all save me variously Catholic, from not anymore to still engaged in the work, have wry, knowing attitudes toward life, attentive to the ridiculous and the tender.  I am more when I return than when I left.

    And something to be said for the moon.  A perfect circle, silvered white and suspended in the sky with stars and planets gathered round.  On the nights of the full moon the dark opens its arms to secret pacts, whispered love and the breath of Diana, huntress and defender of the forest.

    Take a moment and step outside, stand under the Full Thunder Moon and let it shine on you.  Imagine your soul traveling on a lambent beam to the moon and back, gazing down toward the spinning blue globe as you come home.  This dance of the planets and their satellites around the greater gravity of Sol creates and destroys.  Shiva Nataraja.

    Amen.


    📂This entry was posted in Faith and Spirituality Friends Great Wheel 📎and tagged