Kevin's Classics

Prelude I have continued my efforts of translating Tibullus's elegies and after the wearisome wars of the 1.10, I was up for a more open amatory poem directed to the main love interest of the poet, his mistress Delia. Not wanting to go all the way back to the beginning, I split the difference and simply started on elegy 5 which was rather more complex than I thought at first sight. The first 18 lines adresses the poem's ego's feeling of torment about the break-up with Delia, which he finds extra harsh after having done a lot to save her from a harsh disease ( morbus tristis (9) ). Lines 19-36 form an "idyllic vignette", an description of a farm house with wheat-fields, sheepfolds and vineyards, similar to the estate described in poem 1.1. After the forsaken dream starts the second part of the poem, in which there's a change of atmosphere. Here we see how the poem's ego tries to forget his sorrows with wine and woman, but to no avail. And we find out that ...

When I read poetry, it is often either Greek or Latin, and preferably short. That's one of the reasons I like Greek epigrams as they meet both criteria. Hopefully you can appreciate these three poems too. There is not much to say more, rather than I have chosen them for their theme on love. The titles are my own as are the translations.

I have finally finished the first translation of my Translating Tibullus project (i.e. the last poem of book 1 about which I made an earlier post a couple of weeks ago). During the translation process, I came across some interesting themes in this poem, including the nature of death, idealisation of military life, and much more. But for now, I will not have you read the whole poem since I don't want to share my whole work immediately with you: patience is virtue. Instead, I will focus on the ending of the poem as this was most thought-provoking, heart-warming, and eye-opening.