The first 75 lines of the Odyssey done into Scots

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jeidsath
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The first 75 lines of the Odyssey done into Scots

Post by jeidsath »

I discovered this today.
Tell me, O Muse, o dat clooky man, at waandered
Sae faar, sin he spuilied da helly broch o Troy.
Mony men's toons he saa, an dir minds lairned;
An mony's da pain he dreed apo da haff,
Trang ta win his life an his men's haemfarin...
“One might get one’s Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato." "In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much.”

Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com

mwh
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Re: The first 75 lines of the Odyssey done into Scots

Post by mwh »

I was expecting it to be by Douglas Young (Greek scholar and Scottish nationalist, translated Aristophanes into Scots, died while reading the Odyssey), but it's by a guy who translated the gospel of Mark into Shetlandic. Is this Shetlandic too?

The wiki entry on Shetlandic is written in what I can only presume is Shetlandic. :roll:

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jeidsath
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Re: The first 75 lines of the Odyssey done into Scots

Post by jeidsath »

I have been reading up on Douglas Young since seeing your post. He is also the author of "Is Linear B Deciphered?," which I've read and hope to come back to at some point. I downloaded all of the Linear B entries from DAMOS a few weeks ago, and hope to do a project on those on those at some point in the future.

From Young's The Burdies:

Code: Select all

Nou at first there was Chaos and Nicht, and the Mirk,
    and Tartarus spelderan fozy:
nae yirth and nae air, nae heiven was there,
    till at last, i the infinit bosie
o the pitblack Mirk, the dark-wingit Nicht
    lay a wind-egg, airest o onie,
frae whilk, as the times cam roond, there sprang
    the Love-God, Eros, sae bonny,
wi his spauls bricht sheenan wi twa gowd wings,
    and a luik like the stormwinds dizzy.
And here is Young's Burns:

Code: Select all

Οὐ τὸν πολλὸν ἔρωτα, τὸν ἄφρονα τόνδ’, ὀνοτάζω.
    Ἁλιοδώραν γὰρ πᾶς κεν ἰδὼν ἐμάνη·
εὐθὺς ἰδὼν ἐμάνη τε καὶ ἐς βαθὺν ἅλατ’ ἔρωτα,
    τάν τε φιλεῖ μώναν τάν τε φιλασεῖ ἀεί.

Αἰ ’πεφιλάμεθα νῶ γα πόθῳ μὴ τὼς μανιώδει,
    αἰ ’μεμανάμεθα μὴ τυφλοτάτᾳ φιλίᾳ,
αἰ μή πώ ποχ’ ὁμοῦ ’γεγενάμεθα, μή ποκα χωρίς,
    οὔ κα νῦν ἄμφω τόσσον ἀθυμέομες.
Source:
I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy;
Naething could resist my Nancy;
But to see her was to lover her;
Love but her, and love forever.

Had we never lov'd sae kindly,
Had we never lov'd sae blindly,
Never met--or never parted--
We had ne'er been broken-hearted.
And apparently there is a full Scottish wikipedia:

https://sco.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shetlandic -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shetland_Scots
“One might get one’s Greek from the very lips of Homer and Plato." "In which case they would certainly plough you for the Little-go. The German scholars have improved Greek so much.”

Joel Eidsath -- jeidsath@gmail.com

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