Translation Thread - Horace Ode I.22

[QMF]

I had propinqui as being abstract (i.e. lacking a noun) and solis as being derived from solus, modifying domibus. I could be wrong. If I remember correctly, one says that something is "too..." by using nimis+gen.

And I mentioned what Lalagen is before. It's a Greek accusative singular, and upon a little research, it's the name of Horace's mistress.

 

[Cato]

And I mentioned what Lalagen is before. It's a Greek accusative singular, and upon a little research, it's the name of Horace's mistress.

This is correct; it is most obviously a pseudonym, and in fact there's no reason to assume such a person existed. Horace's poetry is littered with these single-named ladies, and here Lalage may represent more a type of girl (maybe the stereotypical teenage chatterbox?) than someone he was actually in love with.

 

[Cato]

Wait doesn't propinqui modify solis? The Near Sun... solis as in lonely is dative and ablative?

I think so; a more English word order would me pone (me) in terra negata domibus, sub curru solis nimis propinqui - "Put me in a land barren of houses, under the chariot of a sun that is too close." The chariot reference is, obviously, to the solar chariot driven by Helios and (from a famous story in Ovid) his son Phaeton.

 

[QMF]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Helios an earlier deity who had already been replaced by Apollo, whose name is the same in both Latin and Greek?

 

[Cato]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Helios an earlier deity who had already been replaced by Apollo, whose name is the same in both Latin and Greek?

Helios was a Titan, and some later writers give his duties to Apollo under the name of Phoebus (Ovid's story does this).

Homer mentions Helios in the Iliad (3.104 and 3.278) and Odyssey (11.102), and there is a Homeric hymn addressed to him. The link is an excellent resource for material on this and other minor gods in the Greek pantheon.

 

[Cato]

I wrote the following translation some years ago for a college class I took on Horace. Each of us had to offer a translation of an ode that was more than literal; one that reflected some of Horace's charm.

I'm not sure my attempt succeeded, but it has stuck with me these many years, so I offer it here as a curio:

The man of honest life and sinless heart
need not resort to bow or Moorish dart
or poisoned shafts that make his quiver swell,
although his path through sultry Syrtian hell
or 'cross the cruel Caucasus ranges goes,
or down to where the famed Hydaspes flows.

For wand'ring in the Sabine wood carefree,
where I trespassed and sang my Lalage,
A wolf did flee before my unarmed self,
A beast beyond what Daunus' martial wealth
could rear within his vast Apulian glens,
Or Juba nurse in arid lions' dens.

So set me on a wint'ry plain, where trees
are not revived by any summer breeze,
a murky spot that angry Jove confines;
or set me where the solar chariot shines
too near the earth, and still my love will be
my sweetly laughing, prattling Lalage.

 

[QMF]

Well done! A little clunky at times (the metrical necessity of omitting vowels is a bit peculiar-sounding) but very well done.

 

[Andy]

I wrote the following translation some years ago for a college class I took on Horace. Each of us had to offer a translation of an ode that was more than literal; one that reflected some of Horace's charm.

I'm not sure my attempt succeeded, but it has stuck with me these many years, so I offer it here as a curio:

The man of honest life and sinless heart
need not resort to bow or Moorish dart
or poisoned shafts that make his quiver swell,
although his path through sultry Syrtian hell
or 'cross the cruel Caucasus ranges goes,
or down to where the famed Hydaspes flows.

For wand'ring in the Sabine wood carefree,
where I trespassed and sang my Lalage,
A wolf did flee before my unarmed self,
A beast beyond what Daunus' martial wealth
could rear within his vast Apulian glens,
Or Juba nurse in arid lions' dens.

So set me on a wint'ry plain, where trees
are not revived by any summer breeze,
a murky spot that angry Jove confines;
or set me where the solar chariot shines
too near the earth, and still my love will be
my sweetly laughing, prattling Lalage.

Let me join QMF in applauding you, it's beautiful. You got both meaning and sentiment!