/lit/ - Literature

>>17579058
That is a good match.

>>17579058
both far inferior to lucretius (pbvh)

>>17579082
really? what's so great about Lucretius?

>>17579082
And all three were btfo by Ovid.

>>17579229
Gotta agree with this

>>17579229
>>17579235
Metamorphosis?

>>17579058
What's a good translation to read Horace in?

Lucretius and Ovid are interesting, but we haven't settled whether Pindar or Horace is superior to the other.

>>17579058
Utrum Pindarus an Horatius sit poeta melior quæris, o ἀνώνυμε? Nos quidem tibi respondebimus: Cur non crederemus numeris hujus nostri poetæ?
>Pindarum quisquis studet aemulari,
>Iulle, ceratis ope Daedalea
>nititur pinnis, uitreo daturus
>nomina ponto.

>>17579082
>lucretius
proof that redditors existed since time immemorial.

>>17579256
Yes also his Ibis curses are fantastic

>>17579316
I personally really like the Dunsany version.

Horace’s ode to Pyrrha, various translations

Milton’s

What slender youth, bedew’d with liquid odors,
Courts thee on roses in some pleasant cave,
Pyrrha? For whom bind’st thou
In wreaths thy golden hair,
Plain in thy neatness? O how oft shall he
Of faith and changed gods complain, and seas
Rough with black winds, and storms
Unwonted shall admire!
Who now enjoys thee credulous, all gold,
Who, always vacant, always amiable
Hopes thee, of flattering gales
Unmindful. Hapless they
To whom thou untried seem’st fair. Me, in my vow’d
Picture, the sacred wall declares to have hung
My dank and dropping weeds
To the stern god of sea.


Literal translation

What slender boy, drenched in liquid perfumes,
presses hard upon you on many a rose,
Pyrrha, under cover of a pleasing cave?
For whom do you bind back your yellow hair,

Simple with elegance? Alas, how often will he lament
faithlessness and changed gods, and in surprise
He will marvel at
rough waters with black winds,

he who now enjoys you, believing, you are golden,
who hopes that you will be always free, always lovable,
he who is ignorant of the treacherous breeze!
Wretched are they for whom

you, untried, shine. As for me, the sacred wall
with its votive tablet declares that I have
hung up my dripping garments
to the god who rules over the sea.

Pic related is Dunsany’s

>>17579058
>>17579082
Unironcally not as good as Longus. Yeah he isn't a poet but you get what I mean.
>>17579229
Ovid is the best of all the writers mentioned though.

>>17579799
Salve etiam atque etiam litterarum decus -- in primus sunt 99 examinati. Quomodo se res habent tuæ? Te rogo, quare Nasonem, quem, ut ait vir disertissmus Quintillianus, præstare poterit si ingenio suo imperare quam indulgere maluisset, plurimi æstimes aliosque poetas malis. Si me diligas, quæstionem hanc tractabis diligenter. Faveant superi tuis conatibus. Vale.

>>17579760
>>17579964
great how nobody replies to the one poster who seems to know what hes talking about. Can anyone here translate these?

>>17580322
Salve. Tibi est discenda lingua latina.

>>17579229
>Following in the footsteps of Propertius, Ovid makes the same error: erudition makes heavy verse. Unlike other poets like Catullus and Tibullus, who avoided erudition in favor for simplicity and grace, both P. and O. stuff into their poems as much mythological allusions as possible.
>Ovid's first work The Heroides follow the amorous legends from Greek antiquity. As the Romantics said of the poetry by Alexander Pope, in this work we find more brain, more wit than heart.
>His second work Amores, perhaps the best of them all, is the opposite of his first: we find nothing of the abused erudition or the cold ironical detachment. Instead we find spontaneous, lively, sincere poems of the poet's personal life, fleeting emotions, and, above all, grace, simplicity and naturalness.
>As for his magnus opus, his tendency to become pedantic overwhelms the few sections that remain smooth and limpid like a thin crystal stream running along a pasture. He revels far too often in laborious descriptions, something a master poet avoids with the greatest care. To be brief, what Dante can convey in two lines, Ovid would need a page of verse.

nah

>>17579331
>we haven't settled whether Pindar or Horace is superior to the other.

Pindar might not come across as well in translation, but is clearly superior in the original tongue.

Would you read it?

>>17579760
Tu demandes, Ô anonyme, lequel, de Horace et Pindare, est le meilleur poète ? Nous te répondrons certes : pour quelle raison n’ajouterions-nous pas foi au classement de ce notre poète ?
>Quiconque lit pour l’émuler,
>Pindare, finit, Jullus, sur l’œuvre de Dédale,
>Sur des ailes de cire appuyé,
>Par donner des noms aux flots vitreux.

I don't even like poetry in English.