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):
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Holding in awe this grove, with its beasts of the far-shooting Mistress,The Greek:
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.
Ἁζόμενος πολύθηρον ἑκηβόλου ἄλσος Ἀνάσσας,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):
Τᾶς δεινᾶς τεμένη λεῖπε, κυναγέ, θεᾶς.
Μοῦνοι ἄρ᾿ ἔνθα κυνῶν ζαθέων κλαγγεῦσιν ὑλαγμοί,
Ἀνταχεῖς Νυμφᾶν ἀγροτερᾶν κελάδῳ.
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.
