Phaleran Update: Arkhilokhos' _A Poet's Shield_
From: | Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...> |
Date: | Tuesday, December 11, 2001, 22:24 |
Here's another posting about recent developments in
Phaleran. This is the Greek lyrical poem that I mentioned
in my last post. Below are three versions: the original
Greek, my English translation, and the Phaleran version.
Thereafter are some notes about grammatical structure.
Arkhilokhos (BC c. 680 - c. 640): _A Poet's Shield_
Aspidi men Saio:n tis agalletai, he:n para thamno:i
entos amo:me:ton kallipon ouk ethelo:n;
autos d'exephugon thanatou telos: aspis ekeine:
erreto: ! Exaute:s kte:somai, ou kakio:
Some Thracian is taking enjoyment from my shield, which I
unwillingly left beside a bush though it was unharmed;
But I was escaping death's grip; to hell with
that shield! I can get myself another, no worse.
Thallu Saiouþþa garai polwamisses, u?marnagwatenti
fleruo pou hrontaþnugwandi selc|a;
Aima g|eNgûku twelma sNâsyostai; heotli garai
tyote'er|ilsta! Tþon esa sxoramilta, marty' asyu.
Thallu Saiouþþa[1] garai polwamisses,
3SgAIndef Thracian.ABE shield.ABS enjoy.MID.3SgProgRe.C
u?marnagwatenti, fleruo pou
damage.REL.NEG.3SgPfRe.S bush.DAT beside
hrontaþnugwandi[2] selc|a; Aima[3] g|eNgûku
leave.CAUS.REL.1SgPfRe.S unwillingly however death.DUR
twelma sNâsyostai; heotli[4] garai
end.ABS run-away.TR.1SgProgRe.DYN.S that.INV shield.ABS
tyolt'er|ilsta! Tþon esa sxoramilta,
be-absent.INTR.3SgProsIr more one get.MID.1SgProsIr
marty' asyu. [5]
possibly just
[1] lit. "some particular one out of the Thracians"
[2] Note that English has two forms of "leave" which are
homophonous: transitive and intransitive. In Phaleran,
the intransitive one is basic, while the transitive one
is derived by a causative suffix.
[3] _aima_ "but, however" is more strongly asseverative
than _ene_ "but"; its use is much like Georgian _k'i_.
[4] The Phaleran demonstrative system has four dimensions:
physical deixis, visibility, time and formality. _heotli_
here specifically denotes "yon-wretched-invisible-one".
[5] To avoid vowel hiatus, _martei_ has a shortened form
_marty'_. In such shortened forms generally, the diphthong
reduces to the semivowel version of the highest vowel in
the diphthong. /i/ is higher than /e/, so the shortform
is /j/.
=====================================================================
Thomas Wier <trwier@...> <http://home.uchicago.edu/~trwier>
"...koruphàs hetéras hetére:isi prosápto:n /
Dept. of Linguistics mú:tho:n mè: teléein atrapòn mían..."
University of Chicago "To join together diverse peaks of thought /
1010 E. 59th Street and not complete one road that has no turn"
Chicago, IL 60637 Empedocles, _On Nature_, on speculative thinkers
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