Kevin's Classics

Introduction It was in my third year of secundary education (I believe that's the end of junior high school) when I first encountered this myth. Funnily enough, it was during a Latin exam, which tested our knowledge of the participle present. The exam consisted of some excersises that made us change verbs to their participle equivalents and vice versa, and it ended with a translation exercise. The text that we had to translate was a simplified version of this text, though it skipped to the part where Orpheus has already sung to Hades and Persephone. I don't remember what I got for that test, but the simplified Latin text, filled with present participles, is still in my mind when I think of Orpheus and Eurydice. It was a bummer to find out that Ovid's version was not so visually narrated as that simple text had been, but I was still enamoured by his style. Enfin, we are not here to recollect old school stories. We are here because we want to know how Ovid represents the myth...

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.

International Cat Day I have a confession to make: despite being heavily exposed to the internet, I am not a cat lover. Please, don't start to wreak an havoc. It's not like I harnass a profound distaste for cats, but I would simply choose a dog over a cat any day of the week. In fairness dogs are just better companions than cats, but enough of this blasphemy. Today is the International Cat Day (and you know it is important since it has its own twitter hashtag). So in honour of this special holiday, I present to you fable from antiquity that heavily portrays the nature of cats. And frankly, I believe that a cat would act accordingly if it had the opportunity: not that they are deceitful, but they are always following their own best interests. 

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.

After having posted a translation out of the blue on Tuesday , I return to it on Thursday. In today's post, I revisit the genre of Roman elegiac love poetry and how Tibullus fits into that genre. I  will explain why I started with Elegy 10 and how it relates to Tibullus's other Elegies in book 1. To conclude, I will add some remarks to my Dutch translation (and discuss some emendations). Hopefully, you have obtained a better understanding of the poem!

As you have read from the title, this topic will be Tibullus Elegies. This particular work fascinates me and I am going to attempt to translate the first two books into Dutch since the most recent translation is from the year I was born.

A (false) dilemma Not every argument you make can be as strong as you have intended it to be. Other arguments are deliberately false since you know that the view you are upholding is unfeasible (an intentional fallacy ).

Introduction:   It has been a while since I posted something, but I am back with something new for you to chew on: my own rhythmical translation of Ovid's Amores 2.5, the poem known as 'Kisses' or 'No love is worth that much'.