ceitfianna (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ceitfianna) wrote2012-04-06 03:17 pm
ceitfianna) wrote2012-04-06 03:17 pm
Entry tags:
Poetry from another life
Long ago, I lived in Wellington, New Zealand and tried to write a master's thesis about three odes by the Greek poet Pindar. Today I'm going to share my favorite of these odes and if I can find where I hid them, I may later share my own translations of these odes.
I apologize for the weird formatting of the ode, the author uses a particular form that I can't figure out how to reproduce and I'm getting a headache so here it is.
Also my landlords aren't helping with the whole, calm of I will find a job. My lease doesn't run out until August but apparently my place is the only one they have open, so they badger me. Not improving my day that started off running late and not getting tea. I'm really considering driving out to a bookstore and hiding there for a bit as I don't think I'm fit company for anyone.
Nemean 6
There is one race of men,
one race of gods.
Yet from one mother
we both take our breath.
The difference
is in the allotment
of all power,
for the one is nothing
while the bronze sky exists forever,
a sure abode.
And yet, somehow,
we resemble the immortals,
whether in greatness of mind
or nature, though we know not
to what measure
day by day and in the watches of the night
fate has written that we should run.
And now Alkimidas
gives clear proof
that the power
born in the blood
is like
the fruit bearing fields
that now in alternation,
yield mankind
yearly sustenance from the ground
and now, again, resting
withhold their strength.
See, he comes
from Nemea's joyful contest,
a boy contender, pursuing
the career that Zeus
has allotted him: he has shown himself
a hunter destined for success in wrestling,
treading in the footprints of his father's father,
Praxidamas--
for he, victorious at Olympia,
first brought the Aiakidai garlands from Alpheos;
and having won the crown five times at Isthmos
and three times at Nemea,
he put an end
to the obscurity of Sokleidas, his father,
who proved to be
greatest of the sons of Hagesimachos
because of his own three sons,
winners of prizes, who reached
the peaks of triumph
and had their share of toil.
But, with divine favor,
the contest
in the heart of Greece
has declared
no other house a steward of more
crowns for boxing.
I hope, with this boast,
to his the target squarely,
like an archer:
come, Muse, direct
upon this clan
the glorious breath of song--
for when men passed out of our midst
poems and legends
convey their noble deeds,
and these are not lacking
to the Bassidai, a race
renowned of old,
who sail in ships laden
with their own triumphal songs
and can provide
the plowmen of the Pierides
with many a hymn
by their proud achievements.
For in the sacred ground
of Pytho, Kallias too--
a scion of this family--
having bound his fists
in leather thongs, found
favor with the golden-distaffed
Leto's children,
and shined by Kastalia at evening,
in the Grace's attendance.
The bridge,
of the unwearying sea honored Kreontidas once
in the biennial celebrations of the men thereabouts,
when bulls are slain in Poseidon's sanctuary;
and once
he decked his brown in the lion's leafage
beside the shadowy primeval mountains of Phleious.
There are board approaches
from every direction
that bards may take
to adorn this island--
for the Aiakidai,
by the display
of their great deeds,
have bequeathed to it
a glorious heritage, and their name
flies far over the earth
and across the sea:
even in the midst
of the Ethiopians
it made its way, when Memnon
failed to return:
Achilleus had fallen upon them
heavily, stepping from his chariot
the day he caught
the son of gleaming Dawn
on the point
of his raging spear.
Men of old have also
made these matters
into a high road of song,
and I myself, intent
upon my theme, follow them here.
But the wave rolling
nearest the ship's keel
is always a man's first concern.
I come,
a messenger gladly embracing
my double burden,
proclaiming that you,
Alkimidas, have provided this
twenty-fifth triumph for your glorious clan
from the games called sacred.
Near the holy grove
of Kronos' son a sudden lot deprived
both you, my child, and Polytimidas
of two Olympic garlands.
And I would add that Melesias
steered your hands and drove your strength,
a charioteer
equal in speed to a dolphin flashing through the sea.
Translated by Frank J. Nisetich
I apologize for the weird formatting of the ode, the author uses a particular form that I can't figure out how to reproduce and I'm getting a headache so here it is.
Also my landlords aren't helping with the whole, calm of I will find a job. My lease doesn't run out until August but apparently my place is the only one they have open, so they badger me. Not improving my day that started off running late and not getting tea. I'm really considering driving out to a bookstore and hiding there for a bit as I don't think I'm fit company for anyone.
There is one race of men,
one race of gods.
Yet from one mother
we both take our breath.
The difference
is in the allotment
of all power,
for the one is nothing
while the bronze sky exists forever,
a sure abode.
And yet, somehow,
we resemble the immortals,
whether in greatness of mind
or nature, though we know not
to what measure
day by day and in the watches of the night
fate has written that we should run.
Counterturn 1
And now Alkimidas
gives clear proof
that the power
born in the blood
is like
the fruit bearing fields
that now in alternation,
yield mankind
yearly sustenance from the ground
and now, again, resting
withhold their strength.
See, he comes
from Nemea's joyful contest,
a boy contender, pursuing
the career that Zeus
has allotted him: he has shown himself
a hunter destined for success in wrestling,
Stand 1
treading in the footprints of his father's father,
Praxidamas--
for he, victorious at Olympia,
first brought the Aiakidai garlands from Alpheos;
and having won the crown five times at Isthmos
and three times at Nemea,
he put an end
to the obscurity of Sokleidas, his father,
who proved to be
greatest of the sons of Hagesimachos
Turn 2
because of his own three sons,
winners of prizes, who reached
the peaks of triumph
and had their share of toil.
But, with divine favor,
the contest
in the heart of Greece
has declared
no other house a steward of more
crowns for boxing.
I hope, with this boast,
to his the target squarely,
like an archer:
come, Muse, direct
upon this clan
the glorious breath of song--
for when men passed out of our midst
Counterturn 2
poems and legends
convey their noble deeds,
and these are not lacking
to the Bassidai, a race
renowned of old,
who sail in ships laden
with their own triumphal songs
and can provide
the plowmen of the Pierides
with many a hymn
by their proud achievements.
For in the sacred ground
of Pytho, Kallias too--
a scion of this family--
having bound his fists
in leather thongs, found
favor with the golden-distaffed
Stand 2
Leto's children,
and shined by Kastalia at evening,
in the Grace's attendance.
The bridge,
of the unwearying sea honored Kreontidas once
in the biennial celebrations of the men thereabouts,
when bulls are slain in Poseidon's sanctuary;
and once
he decked his brown in the lion's leafage
beside the shadowy primeval mountains of Phleious.
Turn 3
There are board approaches
from every direction
that bards may take
to adorn this island--
for the Aiakidai,
by the display
of their great deeds,
have bequeathed to it
a glorious heritage, and their name
flies far over the earth
and across the sea:
even in the midst
of the Ethiopians
it made its way, when Memnon
failed to return:
Achilleus had fallen upon them
heavily, stepping from his chariot
Counterturn 3
the day he caught
the son of gleaming Dawn
on the point
of his raging spear.
Men of old have also
made these matters
into a high road of song,
and I myself, intent
upon my theme, follow them here.
But the wave rolling
nearest the ship's keel
is always a man's first concern.
I come,
a messenger gladly embracing
my double burden,
proclaiming that you,
Alkimidas, have provided this
Stand 3
twenty-fifth triumph for your glorious clan
from the games called sacred.
Near the holy grove
of Kronos' son a sudden lot deprived
both you, my child, and Polytimidas
of two Olympic garlands.
And I would add that Melesias
steered your hands and drove your strength,
a charioteer
equal in speed to a dolphin flashing through the sea.
Translated by Frank J. Nisetich