Translating one proverb via another

LSJ is fond of translating Greek proverbs with an idiomatic equivalent (as previously discussed). S.v. θύρᾱ we read, 'ἐπὶ θύραις τὴν ὑδρίαν to break the pitcher at the very door, 'there's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip', Arist.Rh. 1363a7; τίς ἂν θύρας ἁμάρτοι; Id.Metaph.993b5;'. Cf. s.v. ὑδρία.

'there's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip' is itself a Greek proverb that appears in Aristotle (frr. 571 and 611): πολλὰ μεταξὺ πέλει κύλικος καὶ χείλεος ἄκρου. The proverb is quoted by others and is Anth.10.32.

Let us not forget, 'Every bullet has its billet', s.v. ἀλλοῖος.

On the subject of LSJ, note the contrasting treatments of ἀντιοχεύομαι (only a Latin translation and no capital) and Κορινθιάζομαι (an English explanation) and the hybrid Λεσβιάζω (an English 'definition' of the word's form, but a Latin gloss).

Calvary: a place name only in translation literature

The Vulgate of John 19:17 reads Et baiulans sibi crucem exivit in eum qui dicitur Calvariae locum hebraice Golgotha with Calvariae locum created as a calque on the Greek text's Κρανίου τόπον, whence the familiar 'Calvary'. OED s.v. notes that in Old English the placename was Headpan-stow.

The Vulgate simply retained Lithostrotus in verse 13.

LSJ and proverbs: 'It takes a fox to catch a fox'

Greek proverbs are often translated idiomatically by a(n English) proverb that is thought to express the same received wisdom.

This practice is well exemplified s.v. ἀλώπηξ with English, French, and Latin idiomatic equivalents, but also a literal transation and explanation in the first instance.

Did the Greeks eat horses ?

The Loeb of Xenophon's Hellenica II.4.6 reads:
'Then when it was drawing towards day and the enemy were already getting up and going away from their camp whithersoever each one had to go, and the grooms were keeping up a hubbub as they curried their horses, at this moment Thrasybulus and his men picked up their arms and charged on the run. They struck down some of the enemy and turned them all to flight, pursuing them for six or seven stadia; and they killed more than one hundred and twenty of the hoplites, and among the cavalry Nicostratus, nicknamed “the beautiful,” and two more besides, catching them while still in their beds.'

Note also 'Nicostratus, nicknamed "the beautiful"' as on καλός inscriptions.

The Greek reads:
ἐπεὶ δὲ πρὸς ἡμέραν ἐγίγνετο, καὶ ἤδη ἀνίσταντο ὅποι ἐδεῖτο ἕκαστος ἀπὸ τῶν ὅπλων, καὶ οἱ ἱπποκόμοι ψήχοντες τοὺς ἵππους ψόφον ἐποίουν, ἐν τούτῳ ἀναλαβόντες οἱ περὶ Θρασύβουλον τὰ ὅπλα δρόμῳ προσέπιπτον· καὶ ἔστι μὲν οὓς αὐτῶν κατέβαλον, πάντας δὲ τρεψάμενοι ἐδίωξαν ἓξ ἢ ἑπτὰ στάδια, καὶ ἀπέκτειναν τῶν μὲν ὁπλιτῶν πλέον ἢ εἴκοσι καὶ ἑκατόν, τῶν δὲ ἱππέων Νικόστρατόν τε τὸν καλὸν ἐπικαλούμενον, καὶ ἄλλους δὲ δύο, ἔτι καταλαβόντες ἐν ταῖς εὐναῖς.

So, no curries, then.

Pindar the Australian poet

'On Pindar he once said, "He is a kind of Australian poet; has long tracts of gravel, with immensely large nuggets imbedded." This was in reference to the obscurity and inequality in the Odes: a hasty judgment, perhaps, on that colossal genius, if his work be closely studied as a whole.

One evening, in that upper room which could not be entered without a rising of the heart, a sense of exaltation, as of one admitted to the central shrine of Delphi, he read out off-hand Pindar's great picture of the life of Heaven in the second Olympian into pure modern prose, splendidly lucid and musical. This feat, incomparably more difficult and effective than when the pseudo-poetic facile disguise of some archaic form of language is resorted to, so struck me, that I begged him to think of preparing a version of these all but unique relics of the Greek Heroic Ode for English readers. But he smiled and said that "in his mind the benefit of translation rested with the translator." These were memorable words; but I fancy that ancient poets were at the moment before him.'

Tennyson, Hallam. (2013). p. 241. Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir By His Son (Vol. 4). London: Forgotten Books. (Original work published 1899).

The Shibboleth and translation technique

A dialectal difference in Hebrew between the Ephraimites and the other tribes gave rise to the English term 'a shibboleth' as a means of distinguishing an out-group from the in-group, whether by a mispronunciation specifically - as in the original instance - or, more generally, by a custom or fashion, by a catchphrase or password, or by a characteristic manner of speaking (and sometimes by a moral standard).

Until I can read Hebrew, here is the English Standard Version's rendering of the incident in Judges 12: 5-6:

"And the Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan against the Ephraimites. And when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me go over,” the men of Gilead said to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” When he said, “No,” (6) they said to him, “Then say Shibboleth,” and he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it right. Then they seized him and slaughtered him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time 42,000 of the Ephraimites fell."

The Old Greek versions differ in their treatment of 'shibboleth', which apparently means "a flowing stream" or "an ear of corn". The codex Vaticanus (showing so-called καί γε Hebraising features) takes a verbum e verbo approach and employs στάχυς, "an ear of corn" (note the first aorist forms of εἰπεῖν).

καὶ προκατελάβετο Γαλααδ τὰς διαβάσεις τοῦ Ιορδάνου τοῦ Εφραιμ, καὶ εἶπαν αὐτοῖς οἱ διασῳζόμενοι Εφραιμ Διαβῶμεν, καὶ εἶπαν αὐτοῖς οἱ ἄνδρες Γαλααδ Μὴ Εφραθίτης εἶ; καὶ εἶπεν Οὔ. (6) καὶ εἶπαν αὐτῷ Εἰπὸν δὴ Στάχυς· καὶ οὐ κατεύθυνεν τοῦ λαλῆσαι οὕτως. καὶ ἐπελάβοντο αὐτοῦ καὶ ἔθυσαν αὐτὸν πρὸς τὰς διαβάσεις τοῦ Ιορδάνου, καὶ ἔπεσαν ἐν τῷ καιρῷ ἐκείνῳ ἀπὸ Εφραιμ τεσσαράκοντα δύο χιλιάδες.

However, the codex Alexandrinus (with Antiochene or Lucianic features) takes a sensus de sensu approach (note the pluralisation too):

καὶ προκατελάβοντο ἄνδρες Γαλααδ τὰς διαβάσεις τοῦ Ιορδάνου τοῦ Εφραιμ, καὶ ἐγενήθη ὅτι εἶπαν οἱ διασεσῳσμένοι τοῦ Εφραιμ Διαβῶμεν, καὶ εἶπαν αὐτοῖς οἱ ἄνδρες Γαλααδ Μὴ ὑμεῖς ἐκ τοῦ Εφραιμ; καὶ εἶπαν Οὔκ ἐσμεν. (6.) καὶ εἶπαν αὐτοῖς Εἴπατε δὴ Σύνθημα· καὶ οὐ κατηύθυναν τοῦ λαλῆσαι οὕτως. καὶ ἐπελάβοντο αὐτῶν καὶ ἔσφαξαν αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ τὰς διαβάσεις τοῦ Ιορδάνου, καὶ ἔπεσαν ἐξ Εφραιμ ἐν τῷ καιρῷ ἐκείνῳ δύο τεσσαράκοντα χιλιάδες.

That is, 'and they said to them, "Then say 'password'!"' (cf. 2 Maccabees 8.23, 13.15).

There was no attempt in either version to reflect the phonetics involved, altough ἄσταχυς existed (and was known in Hellenistic Jewish circles - at least, those of Philo and Josephus). Something along the lines of the <σι-> for <θε-> found in Laconian might have been possible.

The Vulgate gives a version with an attempt to reflect the word requested and the word spoken in answer.

occupaveruntque Galaaditae vada Iordanis per quae Ephraim reversurus erat cumque venisset ad ea de Ephraim numero fugiens atque dixisset obsecro ut me transire permittas dicebant ei Galaaditae numquid Ephrateus es quo dicente non sum. (6. ) interrogabant eum dic ergo sebboleth quod interpretatur spica qui respondebat tebboleth eadem littera spicam exprimere non valens statimque adprehensum iugulabant in ipso Iordanis transitu et ceciderunt in illo tempore de Ephraim quadraginta duo milia.

Note also the explanation of sebboleth, quod interpretatur spica, "an ear of corn". All this seems closer to Vaticanus. Jerome may have drawn on Symmachus' translation, which combined fidelity to the Hebrew with natural Greek idiom and constructions.

There is one further detail of interest. Field's Hexapla has a note on στάχυς: σεβελω * και ειπεν ταχυς z. The * is a hexaplaric asterisk (an 'x' with a dot in each wedge) indicating an addition to the LXX text from another version. The Larger Cambridge Septuagint notes from the margin of cod. 85 : καὶ εἶπεν τάχυς. Perhaps, someone somewhere wanted to reflect the difference of pronunciation with a minimal pair... but note that the accent on "swift" would be ταχύς.

Carl Sesar

Yet more on the Catullan translator (see the earlier posts: 1, 2, and 3). Search for "plenty of enthusiasm for classic texts" once you have followed the first link.

Loebsprache

It has been a slow period for blogging funnies, but this 'one' was squirreled away some time ago.

In the Loeb translation of Demosthenes 18.15, we read the allegation, "he makes a hotchpotch of imputation and banter and scurrility".

Quite.

Funnies from Liddell-Scott

The Lexicon of Liddell-Scott is known for its archaic and opaque translations, but readers may be surprised to find some translations with a 'low' or even contemporary (ahead of Liddell's time) feel to them. For now, I submit:

ὑποκάπηλος - 'petty huckster'
ἑταῖραι οἰκόριαι - 'female house-mates' in Pi.P.9.19 (s.v. οἰκούριος ; I suspect 'gal pals' would be more suitable here).

Harmless drudge

Aside from Johnson's 'lexicographer', the OED contains s.v. 'bureaucrat':

An official who endeavours to concentrate administrative power in his bureau;

Ouch!

Housman's Fragment of a Greek Tragedy

For anyone following the political progress of the Translationese, this venerable ancestor--one of Housman's less acidic jokes--is essential reading.

~Typhus

FRAGMENT OF A GREEK TRAGEDY
by A. E. Housman

CHORUS: O suitably-attired-in-leather-boots
Head of a traveller, wherefore seeking whom
Whence by what way how purposed art thou come
To this well-nightingaled vicinity?
My object in inquiring is to know.
But if you happen to be deaf and dumb
And do not understand a word I say,
Then wave your hand, to signify as much.

ALCMAEON: I journeyed hither a Boetian road.

CHORUS: Sailing on horseback, or with feet for oars?

ALCMAEON: Plying with speed my partnership of legs.

CHORUS: Beneath a shining or a rainy Zeus?

ALCMAEON: Mud's sister, not himself, adorns my shoes.

CHORUS: To learn your name would not displease me much.

ALCMAEON: Not all that men desire do they obtain.

CHORUS: Might I then hear at what thy presence shoots.

ALCMAEON: A shepherd's questioned mouth informed me that--

CHORUS: What? for I know not yet what you will say.

ALCMAEON: Nor will you ever, if you interrupt.

CHORUS: Proceed, and I will hold my speechless tongue.

ALCMAEON: This house was Eriphyle's, no one else's.

CHORUS: Nor did he shame his throat with shameful lies.

ALCMAEON: May I then enter, passing through the door?

CHORUS: Go chase into the house a lucky foot.
And, O my son, be, on the one hand, good,
And do not, on the other hand, be bad;
For that is much the safest plan.

ALCMAEON: I go into the house with heels and speed.

CHORUS
Strophe
In speculation
I would not willingly acquire a name
For ill-digested thought;
But after pondering much
To this conclusion I at last have come:
LIFE IS UNCERTAIN.
This truth I have written deep
In my reflective midriff
On tablets not of wax,
Nor with a pen did I inscribe it there,
For many reasons: LIFE, I say, IS NOT
A STRANGER TO UNCERTAINTY.
Not from the flight of omen-yelling fowls
This fact did I discover,
Nor did the Delphine tripod bark it out,
Nor yet Dodona.
Its native ingenuity sufficed
My self-taught diaphragm.
Antistrophe
Why should I mention
The Inachean daughter, loved of Zeus?
Her whom of old the gods,
More provident than kind,
Provided with four hoofs, two horns, one tail,
A gift not asked for,
And sent her forth to learn
The unfamiliar science
Of how to chew the cud.
She therefore, all about the Argive fields,
Went cropping pale green grass and nettle-tops,
Nor did they disagree with her.
But yet, howe'er nutritious, such repasts
I do not hanker after:
Never may Cypris for her seat select
My dappled liver!
Why should I mention Io? Why indeed?
I have no notion why.
Epode
But now does my boding heart,
Unhired, unaccompanied, sing
A strain not meet for the dance.
Yes even the palace appears
To my yoke of circular eyes
(The right, nor omit I the left)
Like a slaughterhouse, so to speak,
Garnished with woolly deaths
And many shipwrecks of cows.
I therefore in a Cissian strain lament:
And to the rapid
Loud, linen-tattering thumps upon my chest
Resounds in concert
The battering of my unlucky head.

ERIPHYLE (within): O, I am smitten with a hatchet's jaw;
And that in deed and not in word alone.

CHORUS: I thought I heard a sound within the house
Unlike the voice of one that jumps for joy.

ERIPHYLE: He splits my skull, not in a friendly way,
Once more: he purposes to kill me dead.

CHORUS: I would not be reputed rash, but yet
I doubt if all be gay within the house.

ERIPHYLE: O! O! another stroke! that makes the third.
He stabs me to the heart against my wish.

CHORUS: If that be so, thy state of health is poor;
But thine arithmetic is quite correct.

Address of the Translationese to the Peoples of Ydnert

Greetings full but overdue to the Peoples of Ydnert. from the Translationese.

Lo! The month having been filled, it will have been already thirty years since your race came towards these borders. On which account we extend the hand of amity, that we, the stock of the divine tyrant Beol, might enjoy guest-friendship with your public thing.

In the senior era our founder embarked, these fruited, fertile, blessed, fecund plains to settle. After being transported a long span over the watery ways of the salty salt sea, his insides were much vexed. And truly, when he stood in the poop, anger bloated all his veins. Yet he put to one side his doleful cares and baleful sorrows when the shore was seen and arrived at. You having likewise done thus, would that insofar as you approached the land gladly, you might to the same extent us its dwellers!

Not without mutual advantage do we come for the purpose of to-be-joined hands. Nay rather, the peace between ours and our land-sharing Haploglots has been destroyed by nothing. Furthermore (lest you think poverty to sit on us), with your renowned fillets and ribands being handed over, we would be able to defray with each fitting good, that you might thus enjoy our copious vetch and much-irrigated sedge.

We will make the necessary sacrifices according to custom, lest we be found lacking in hostly piety, and, joined, garbed in festal garments, we will lie down together with the tables placed and make the entire region resound with well-omened ejaculations and gay intercourse.

We hope that, with these blandishments having been said, the cuirasses and baldrics and tabards of an unequal enemy might be placed to one side. May the revolving years enlarge our mutual grace.


~Typhoo