This week I went to a new second-hand bookshop in my
hometown: every book for 2 euros. I bought some books about gnostic religion
and early Christianity and a commentary on Horace’s third book of odes by
Gordon Williams. I already have a copy of this book, but my fear is that books
which are left unsold – and who reads Greek and Latin anymore? – will simply be
sold as old paper. It is a remarkable
commentary as it has a text, translation and a running commentary, unlike the
old commentaries by Page and Kiessling-Heinze and the more recent by Nisbit-Hubbart
(on book 1 and 2). Especially the Kiessling-Heinze and the Nisbit-Hubbart are
so full of details that one loses track of a poem as whole. Of course such
commentaries are extremely useful, but not for a quick understanding. Williams
is like a teacher who explains in clear language not only a poem, but the book
as a whole. This kind of commentary is more focussed on literary aspects than
on philological details (`well dear reader, dabat
in line 3 means circumdabat’. Duh! What else could it mean? Giving his
arms to strangle her white neck in some kinky sex game?). To my knowledge such
a commentary has found but little following: the only example I know is on Ovid
Amores 1 by John Barsby.
It has been a long time since I read book 3 and some
poems struck me as new. May be I was at that time too much focussed on grammar
and too much concerned with the oral exam or is it that in due course one reads
the same poem with different eyes?
The following poem is a dialogue: male - female, male -
female, male – female. A man (Horace?) and a woman – Lydia - once had a
relationship, but now each has a new lover. Still, there is an underlying passion. The
final strophe seems to point to a happy ending and they will find each other
again; `you don’t deserve it, but ok.’ May be… I wonder about the age of the
lovers: Lydia describes her new friend as a puer
and unless we have to envisage her as a cougar with a toy boy, she is more
likely to be a teenager or someone in her early twenties than a woman of a
certain age.
This poem has been written more than 2000 years ago, but
it could have been written tomorrow as well.
Horace, Odes 3.9
Meter: - - - uu – x
- -
- uu – uu – u x
'Donec gratus eram tibi
nec quisquam
potior bracchia candidae
ceruici iuuenis dabat,
Persarum uigui
rege beatior.'
'Donec non alia magis 5
arsisti neque
erat Lydia post Chloen,
multi Lydia nominis,
Romana uigui
clarior Ilia.'
'Me nunc Thressa Chloe regit,
dulcis docta
modos et citharae sciens,
10
pro qua non metuam mori,
si parcent
animae fata superstiti.'
'Me torret face mutua
Thurini Calais
filius Ornyti,
pro quo bis patiar mori, 15
si parcent
puero fata superstiti.'
'Quid si prisca redit Venus
diductosque
iugo cogit aeneo,
si flaua excutitur Chloe
reiectaeque patet ianua Lydiae?' 20
'Quamquam
sidere pulchrior
ille est, tu
leuior cortice et inprobo
iracundior Hadria,
tecum uiuere amem, tecum obeam lubens.'
donec: as long
as
gratus: dear
bracchium: arm
cervix cervicis
(f.): neck
quisquam potior
iuvenis: some more favourite youth
vigesco vigui:
to thrive
alia: abl. with
arsisti `you didn’t burn through
another (woman)’. In English lovers normally
burn for another.
post Chloem:
second after Chloe
multi nominis:
of much fame
clarior Ilia:
more famous than Ilia (= Rhea Silvia, the mother of Romulus and Remus)
Thressa:
Thracian
modus: string
si parcent animae
fata superstiti : if the fates will save (parco + dat.) my darling as surviving.
torreo torrui
tostum: to burn
face mutua:
with a mutual flame
Thurini: from Thurii (South Italy)
prisca Venus:
old love
diduco diduxi
diductum: to split up, separate
iugo aeneo:
with iron yoke
flavus: blond
(Gentlemen prefer blond is certainly true for Roman men!)
excutio excussi
excussum: to drive away
reiectae Lydiae: dative
sidus sideris (n.): star
ille: Calais
cortex corticis
(m. and f.): rind, cork
inprobo Hadria: then the violent Adriatic Sea
iracundus:
irascible
obeo: to pass
away, die
lubens:
willingly
Translation by A.S. Kline (2003)
While I was the man, dear to you,
while no young man, you loved more dearly, was clasping
his arms around your snow-white neck,
I lived in greater blessedness than Persia’s king.’
‘While you were on fire for no one
else, and Lydia was not placed after Chloë,
I, Lydia, of great renown,
lived more gloriously than Roman Ilia.’
‘Thracian Chloe commands me now,
she’s skilled in sweet verses, she’s the queen of the
lyre,
for her I’m not afraid to die,
if the Fates spare her, and her spirit survives me.’
‘I’m burnt with a mutual flame
by Calais, Thurian Ornytus’s son,
for whom I would die twice over
if the Fates spare him, and his spirit survives me.’
‘What if that former love returned,
and forced two who are estranged under her bronze yoke:
if golden Chloë was banished,
and the door opened to rejected Lydia?’
‘Though he’s lovelier than the stars,
and you’re lighter than cork, and more irascible
than the cruel Adriatic,
I’d love to live with you, with you I’d gladly die!’
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