Second Stasimon 799-859
I
already wrote about the narrative and viewpoint of this Stasimon, but style and
construction of this choral ode is a good example of how translation fails in
rendering the full effect of the Greek. I will transliterate the Greek so if
you can’t read the original, you can hear a little of how it sounds.
1.
The song makes use of impressive compound
epithets, melissotrophou (799), perikumonos (800), toxophore (804), pontoporon
(811), kolligalana (837), leukopterou (847), teknopoion (852) ( “bee-cherishing,
wave-washed, bow-bearing, sea-going, beautifully unruffled, white-winged,
child-begetting”), Some of these appear to be inventions of Euripides, other
have resonances from Homer and the lyric poets. It is impossible for a translator {a} to render these
plausibly with one concentrated word. Since we don’t use such compounds in modern
English; {b} to convey in translation the rareness of the single word in Greek.
“Where bees thrive” for melissatrophou for example, sounds commonplace and is not as accurate as “
bee-cherishing” which sounds artificial and bizarre in English; {c} to convey
the Homeric and lyric resonances. The
special color such echoes would add to this context are entirely lost in
translation. The meter for instance,
is dayctylo-epitrite, like many of the Pindaric
odes. The ornamental style with its compound epithets and visual effects of
color, light and texture are also echoes
of Pindar.
2.
The tight-knit word order of the Greek, which
makes certain calculated emphasis is impossible to reproduce exactly in English.
At 802-803 we have elaias (olive) Athana (Athena) and Athenois (Athens) underlining
Athena’s importance to Athens in giving it the olive. Further, the adjective glaukos
(grey-green) is next to Athana and although it agrees grammatically with the
word for olive elaias in the line above,
by its proximity to Athana it reminds the audience of the goddess’ epithet “grey-eyed”
( glaukopsis). By grammatical allegiance
and by position, adjectives for example, can do two jobs at once.
3.
Some words are impossible to render in English
because they have multiple connotations in Greek. In this ode, pitulos is such a word. Commentators
suggest that one translate it as “onslaught” which is one of its meanings. But this word also has associations of
repeated movement which “onslaught” does not convey. It is used for instance of the sweeping movement
of oarblades striking the water, the rhytmical
thuds of raining blows, the regular
splash of falling tears or wine into a cup. In the context of an onslaught by spear, the
best word is probably “battering.”
4.
The Greek is often very condensed where only an
expansion will do in English, slowing down the rhythm and pace. Such a phrase
is kononon….tukismata…literally, “chisellings after the plumb-line.” What these
words convey is “walls of stone worked and squared by the chisel and measured
with the plumb line.” Tukos is a chisel and kanon is the line by which the
stones were marked for squaring. The two economic Greek words conjure a sense
of shape and texture but they can only do this in English is considerably expanded.
Alliteration is also at work in that sentence.
5.
A sustained sound effect in the middle of the
second strophe enhances the contrast between Ganymede’s frivolity in heaven and
the scene of desolation below. The
wailing and laments are onomatopoeically conveyed in the concentration of diphthongs
or long vowels in geinomena, daiaetai, eiones, halia iakchon oionos, hoios boos,
hoi eunos, hoi paidas, hai geraias. There are eight “ai” sounds in those words,
reminiscent of the cry “ aiai!”
These are just a few of the effects in Greek
which are impossible to render in translation, particularly a prose one.
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