Euripides, Alcestis 311-327

[hawkwing_lb]

In lieu of Homer, since it's assigned for class.

Alcestis, 311-319:

καὶ παῖς μὲν ἄρσην πατέρ᾽ ἔχει πύργον μέγαν
[ὃν καὶ προσεῖπε καὶ προσερρήθη πάλιν]:
σὺ δ᾽, ὦ τέκνον μοι, πῶς κορευθήσῃ καλῶς;
ποίας τυχοῦσα συζύγου τῷ σῷ πατρί;
μή σοί τιν᾽ αἰσχρὰν προσβαλοῦσα κληδόνα
ἥβης ἐν ἀκμῇ σοὺς διαφθείρῃ γάμους.
οὐ γάρ σε μήτηρ οὔτε νυμφεύσει ποτὲ
οὔτ᾽ ἐν τόκοισι σοῖσι θαρσυνεῖ, τέκνον,
παροῦσ᾽, ἵν᾽ οὐδὲν μητρὸς εὐμενέστερον.

And while a male child has a father [as] a great tower of defence
(which (s/)he addressed and was accosted in return):
but you, O my child, how will you grow honourably to womanhood?
What sort of yoke-fellow meeting with your father?
[What manner of wife yoked to your father?]
Let her not, casting some shameful repute against
your youth, in its peak ruin your marriage.
For your mother will never give you in marriage
nor encourage you in your childbirths, child,
(there) being at that time nothing better than a mother.


Alcestis, 320-325:

δεῖ γὰρ θανεῖν με: καὶ τόδ᾽ οὐκ ἐς αὔριον
οὐδ᾽ ἐς τρίτην μοι μηνὸς ἔρχεται κακόν,
ἀλλ᾽ αὐτίκ᾽ ἐν τοῖς οὐκέτ᾽ οὖσι λέξομαι.
χαίροντες εὐφραίνοισθε: καὶ σοὶ μέν, πόσι,
γυναῖκ᾽ ἀρίστην ἔστι κομπάσαι λαβεῖν,
ὑμῖν δέ, παῖδες, μητρὸς ἐκπεφυκέναι.


It is necessary for me to die: not tomorrow
nor the day after, nor in a month to me does this evil come,
but forthwith among those no longer in existence will I reckon myself.
Farewell, be glad: and you, husband,
brag you are to take the best of wives,
you, children, to have generated the best of mothers.


Alcestis, 325-327:

Χορός
θάρσει: πρὸ τούτου γὰρ λέγειν οὐχ ἅζομαι:
δράσει τάδ᾽, εἴπερ μὴ φρενῶν ἁμαρτάνει.

Chorus
Be of good courage: for in defence of this, I do not shrink to say,
(s/)he'll do these things, if indeed (s/)he does not err of will.

Comments

[helivoy.livejournal.com]

Care for comments on the translation?

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

If you can tolerate reading my shoddy translation, by all means, I welcome comments!

(I post them up here to keep me honest, really.)

[helivoy.livejournal.com]

Hellenic, like all inflected languages, can be very economical. At the same time, you can keep as close as possible to the spirit of the original by being "saxon, not latin" yourself. In particular, I would not worry about keeping items in the same order if they don't sound idiomatic in English.

Example (done on the fly, which means it's very rough):

δεῖ γὰρ θανεῖν με: καὶ τόδ᾽ οὐκ ἐς αὔριον
οὐδ᾽ ἐς τρίτην μοι μηνὸς ἔρχεται κακόν,
ἀλλ᾽ αὐτίκ᾽ ἐν τοῖς οὐκέτ᾽ οὖσι λέξομαι.

I must die; and that evil won't come tomorrow
nor the third day, nor in a month,
but as of now I'm among those who are no more.

Mind you, if your professor wants an exact word-for-word translation, that's very different. But like Shakespeare, these people wrote a living language that was used in daily exchanges. So...

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

I'm a baby translator, so I appreciate the tips. I'm still trying to get syntax and sense solidly down in my head (and if I were going for polish, this really needs a second or third draft to bring out some poetry in the saxon: I know it's shoddy as all hell as it stands).

<--scraping by in second year Greek.

[helivoy.livejournal.com]

Translation is never exact, and these two languages are particularly far apart (about as far as two Indo-European tongues can be).

Here's an even more idiomatic version:

For I must die; and that evil won't come tomorrow
nor in three days, nor in a month,
but right now I'm among those who are no more.

It will come slowly but surely. The best general tip is to put your poet's hat on when you do the polishing.

[hawkwing-lb.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)