Translation of: SCENE IN SCHOOL-AN EXERCISE IN COMPOSITION

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Propertius
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Translation of: SCENE IN SCHOOL-AN EXERCISE IN COMPOSITION

Post by Propertius »

On pg. 210 of D'Ooge's book.

SCENE IN SCHOOL-AN EXERCISE IN COMPOSITION
Students: Hello, teacher.
Teacher: Hello (to) you all too. Did you bring your writing tablets and styluses?
S: We brought them.
T: Now, we will learn a fable from Aesop. I will read, you write in your tablets. And you, Publius, give me the book of Aesop from the book box. Now, everyone listen: The Fox and the Grape.
A fox once urged by hunger saw a hanging grape. It jumped to the grape trying to get (it). Having tried for a long time in vain, at last, it was angry, and as it stopped jumping it said, “That grape is sour; I don’t care about a sour grape.”
Did you write everything, boys?
S: Everything, teacher.

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bedwere
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Re: Translation of: SCENE IN SCHOOL-AN EXERCISE IN COMPOSITION

Post by bedwere »

Propertius wrote: Wed Aug 26, 2020 9:28 am On pg. 210 of D'Ooge's book.

SCENE IN SCHOOL-AN EXERCISE IN COMPOSITION
Students: Hello, teacher.
Teacher: Hello to you all too. Did you bring your writing tablets and styluses?
S: We brought them.
T: Now, we will learn a fable from Aesop. I will read, you write on your tablets. And you, Publius, give me the book of Aesop from the book box. Now, everyone listen: The Fox and the Grapes.
A fox once urged by hunger saw a hanging bunch of grapes. He jumped to the grapes trying to get them. Having tried for a long time in vain, at last, he was angry, and as he stopped jumping he said, “Those grapes are sour; I don’t care about sour grapes.”
Did you write everything, boys?
S: Everything, teacher.

mwh
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Re: Translation of: SCENE IN SCHOOL-AN EXERCISE IN COMPOSITION

Post by mwh »

vulpes is feminine, as the Latin makes very clear. I don’t know why bedwere writes “he.”

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bedwere
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Re: Translation of: SCENE IN SCHOOL-AN EXERCISE IN COMPOSITION

Post by bedwere »

mwh wrote: Wed Aug 26, 2020 5:37 pm vulpes is feminine, as the Latin makes very clear. I don’t know why bedwere writes “he.”
The fox is traditionally masculine in English.

mwh
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Re: Translation of: SCENE IN SCHOOL-AN EXERCISE IN COMPOSITION

Post by mwh »

True enough but false to the Latin. I think inverting genders in animal fables is asking for trouble.

And wouldn’t it more helpful to highlight the changes that you make to Propertius’ translation (which you don’t signal as changes at all!), or simply to tell him that uva is a bunch of grapes rather than a single grape? Then neither he nor a casual visitor like me would have to make a word-by-word comparison in order to see how you’ve interfered with what he wrote. That prefatory “Propertius wrote” is very misleading.

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Barry Hofstetter
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Re: Translation of: SCENE IN SCHOOL-AN EXERCISE IN COMPOSITION

Post by Barry Hofstetter »

Vulpes is always feminine in Latin. There is no masculine form. Grammatical gender doesn't have to relate to "real" gender...
N.E. Barry Hofstetter

Cuncta mortalia incerta...

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