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ricardienne) wrote2011-02-19 10:12 pm
ricardienne) wrote2011-02-19 10:12 pm
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More poetry fragments
Once upon a time, I discovered a small fragment of something I called the Attoliad. While poking around in the donated books in the department library and procrastinating, I seem to have found another fragment of historical epic, although in the altera lingua.
Notes:
1-2 The fragment begins in the middle of indirect speech, apparently by the king of Attolia. Our prose source's sand in food has been turned into mud in wine, but this provides a symposiastic joke about "merum". aurea...pocula: seems to refer both to the cup itself and to the drink inside. inmixto...limo: ablative of description.
4 Aristogitona: evidently had to be fudged a bit: the first "o" should be short, but Ἀριστογείτων would not ever be admissible in hexameter.
5-6 i.e. "nec id fallere se, quis...inscripsisset". inscripsisset sepia et atra/ foedasset: it is unclear whether this is merely figurative, or whether we are to undestand that actual words had been scrawled on the belt. The potential tension between image (picta) and text is nevertheless fascinating. Writing seems to be figured as an aggressive act, but also a as a polluting one, and inherently dangerous (cf l. 4: quae litterae). foedasset foedavisset. Note the insistent theme of defilement and inappropriate mixing. It would be interesting to know what the boundaries of the poem were, and to what extent this passage is reflecting a pervasive anxiety over mixed marriage.
6 The shift to direct discourse marks the climax and (probably) the end of the speech.
7 suo: probably agrees with "veneno," as if "manu sua." But it also possible that it looks back to mihi...regi ("for me, his very own king"). Note the interlocking order of quinalumpto(1)...mihi(2) lethia(3) regi(2) veneno(1)...amara(3).
...and who put the sand in my food. Who sent poor naive Aristogiton with the note to release the dogs, and which of you poured ink all over my favorite coat...And I know who put the quinalums in the lethium, Sejanus."
Megan Whalen Turner, The King of Attolia (HarperCollins, 2006), p. 225
............................. aurea mero
inmixto sibi qui depromant pocula limo
et quae mittendos docuissent esse Molossos
litterae Aristogitona fidum hominem innocuumque
5 cingula nec picta inscripsisset sepia et atra
foedasset quis fallere se. "nam nescius" inquit
"non sum quinalumpto et quis mihi lethia regi
veneno, Seiane, suo infecisset amara."
[he said that he knew] who brought him
golden cups inmixted with undiluted slime
and whose note taught that hounds were to be loosed
to Aristogiton, faithful harmless wretch.
He knew who'd signed embroidered belts
and with black ink befouled them. "For" he said.
"I am not either unaware whose quinalumptine drug
poisoned, Sejanus, my bitter lethium -- his king's."
Notes:
1-2 The fragment begins in the middle of indirect speech, apparently by the king of Attolia. Our prose source's sand in food has been turned into mud in wine, but this provides a symposiastic joke about "merum". aurea...pocula: seems to refer both to the cup itself and to the drink inside. inmixto...limo: ablative of description.
4 Aristogitona: evidently had to be fudged a bit: the first "o" should be short, but Ἀριστογείτων would not ever be admissible in hexameter.
5-6 i.e. "nec id fallere se, quis...inscripsisset". inscripsisset sepia et atra/ foedasset: it is unclear whether this is merely figurative, or whether we are to undestand that actual words had been scrawled on the belt. The potential tension between image (picta) and text is nevertheless fascinating. Writing seems to be figured as an aggressive act, but also a as a polluting one, and inherently dangerous (cf l. 4: quae litterae). foedasset foedavisset. Note the insistent theme of defilement and inappropriate mixing. It would be interesting to know what the boundaries of the poem were, and to what extent this passage is reflecting a pervasive anxiety over mixed marriage.
6 The shift to direct discourse marks the climax and (probably) the end of the speech.
7 suo: probably agrees with "veneno," as if "manu sua." But it also possible that it looks back to mihi...regi ("for me, his very own king"). Note the interlocking order of quinalumpto(1)...mihi(2) lethia(3) regi(2) veneno(1)...amara(3).