Friday, November 13, 2020
So Let Me Live
Tibullus 1.10.39-44 (tr. J.P. Postgate):
Kirby Flower Smith ad loc.:
Paul Murgatroyd ad loc.:
Hat tip: Eric Thomson.
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Nay, the hero is he whom, when his children are begotten,William H. Race, "Prole Parata at Tibullus 1.10.39," American Journal of Philology 102.2 (Summer, 1981) 146-147, convincingly argues that prole parata means with his children at hand or in attendance (which for some reason reminds me of these lines from the song Dégénération by the group Mes Aïeux: Ton arrière-arrière-grand-mère, elle a eu quatorze enfants / Ton arrière-grand-mère en a eu quasiment autant .... Mais y'a des matins, tu te réveilles en pleurant / Quand tu rêves la nuit d'une grande table entourée d'enfants).
old age's torpor overtakes in his humble cottage.
He follows his sheep, his son the lambs,
while the good wife heats the water for his weary limbs. So let me live
till the white hairs glisten on my head
and I tell in old man's fashion of the days gone by.
quin potius laudandus hic est quem prole parata
occupat in parva pigra senecta casa!
ipse suas sectatur oves, at filius agnos,
et calidam fesso comparat uxor aquam.
sic ego sim, liceatque caput candescere canis
temporis et prisci facta referre senem.
Kirby Flower Smith ad loc.:
