Wednesday, March 09, 2016
Alas, Poor Yorick!
Greek Anthology 9.439 (on a skull; by Crinagoras or Antiphilus; tr. W.R. Paton):
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Once hairy crown, deserted shell of the eye, fabric of the tongueless mouth, feeble fence of the brain, relic of the unburied dead, set by the wayside to draw a tear from passers-by, thou liest there by the path near the tree-trunk, that looking on thee we may learn what profit there is in being thrifty of life.Commentary in A.S.F. Gow and D.L. Page, edd., The Garland of Philip and Some Contemporary Epigrams, Vol. II (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968), pp. 257-258.
βρέγμα πάλαι λαχναῖον, ἐρημαῖόν τε κέλυφος
ὄμματος, ἀγλώσσου θ᾿ ἁρμονίη στόματος,
ψυχῆς ἀσθενὲς ἕρκος, ἀτυμβεύτου θανάτοιο
λείψανον, εἰνόδιον δάκρυ παρερχομένων,
κεῖσο πέλας πρέμνοιο παρ᾿ ἀτραπόν, ὄφρα <μάθῃ τις>
ἀθρήσας, τί πλέον φειδομένῳ βιότου.
5 suppl. Jacobs
