> Post Erminia, we are(at poetryetc) a bit monocultural linguistically....
Hence I suggest a new project.
>Most difficult line I've worked on in Latin is from Catullus 43, had
nightmares of difficulty over seven or so years with
>"decoctoris amica Formiani"...... can the classicists and everybody on the
list work at non-English translations of same,
> deadline for these January 3000 AD. An Italian translation and a French
would be particularly good. Hot tip, the man from >Formiae was Mamurra,
chief engineer of Caesar's army during Gallic campaigns.
>Hugh Tolhurst
Catullus XLIII
Salve, nec minimo puella naso
nec bello pede nec nigris ocellis
nec longis digitis nec ore sicco
nec sane nimis elegante lingua,
decoctoris amica Formiani.
ten Provincia narrat esse bellam?
tecum Lesbia nostra comparatur?
o saeclum insapiens et infacetum!
Catullo 43
(translated by EP, 5.8.2000)
Hello to you, girl, who can neither parade
a small nose, beautiful feet, black velvet eyes,
nor long fingers or an elegant speech,
friend of the Formian strategist, are you the girl
the provincials describe as being beautiful
and whom they dare to compare our Lesbia?
Oh, that's silly and not amusing.
NB
Hi, Hugh.
I am sorry for the barely literal translation I am providing you with.
My version does need to be embellished by a native English speaker and poet.
So please feel free to intervene on it as you wish.
Erminia
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