Thursday, May 14, 2015
Priamel
Johnny Guitar (1954; Johnny speaking, played by Sterling Hayden):
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You know, some men got the craving for gold and silver. Others need lotsa land, with herds of cattle. And then there's those that got the weakness for whiskey, and for women. When you boil it all down, what does a man really need? Just a smoke and a cup of coffee.Sappho, fragment 16, lines 1-4 (tr. David A. Campbell):
Some say a host of cavalry, others of infantry, and others of ships, is the most beautiful thing on the black earth, but I say it is whatsoever a person loves.See William H. Race, The Classical Priamel from Homer to Boethius (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1982).
ο]ἰ μὲν ἰππήων στρότον οἰ δὲ πέσδων
οἰ δὲ νάων φαῖσ᾿ ἐπ[ὶ] γᾶν μέλαι[ν]αν
ἔ]μμεναι κάλλιστον, ἔγω δὲ κῆν᾿ ὄτ-
τω τις ἔραται.
