Thursday, February 12, 2015

 

No Hunting Sign

Thomas Gray (1716-1771), Greek inscription for a wood in a park, tr. LaRue van Hook, "New Light on the Classical Scholarship of Thomas Gray," American Journal of Philology 57 (1936) 1-9 (at 1):
Holding in awe this grove, with its beasts of the far-shooting Mistress,
    Leave, O Hunter, I pray, leave the dread goddess' demesne;
Only here resounds the baying of hounds of th' immortals,
    Answ'ring the Nymphs' shrill call, echoing throughout the wild.
The Greek:
Ἁζόμενος πολύθηρον ἑκηβόλου ἄλσος Ἀνάσσας,
    Τᾶς δεινᾶς τεμένη λεῖπε, κυναγέ, θεᾶς.
Μοῦνοι ἄρ᾿ ἔνθα κυνῶν ζαθέων κλαγγεῦσιν ὑλαγμοί,
    Ἀνταχεῖς Νυμφᾶν ἀγροτερᾶν κελάδῳ.
A more literal translation, by Barry Baldwin, "On Some Greek and Latin Poems by Thomas Gray," International Journal of the Classical Tradition 1 (1994) 71-88 (at 78):
In reverence, huntsman, leave the game-filled grove of the far-darting Queen, the sacred abode of the dread Goddess; for there only the bayings of the sacred hounds ring out, answering in echo the cry of the huntress Nymphs.
Hat tip: Karl Maurer.



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