Monday, March 20, 2023

 

Siblings

Plautus, Aulularia 127-128 (tr. Paul Nixon):
But just the same, do remember this one thing, brother,—
that I am closer to you and you to me than anyone else in the whole world.

verum hoc, frater, unum tamen cogitato,
tibi proximam me mihique esse item te.
Sophocles, Antigone 905-912 (tr. Richard C. Jebb):
Never, if I had been a mother of children,
or if a husband had been rotting after death,
would I have taken that burden upon myself in violation of the citizens' will.
For the sake of what law, you ask, do I say that?
A husband lost, another might have been found,
and if bereft of a child, there could be a second from some other man.
But when father and mother are hidden in Hades,
no brother could ever bloom for me again.

οὐ γάρ ποτ᾽ οὔτ᾽ ἄν, εἰ τέκνων μήτηρ ἔφυν,        905
οὔτ᾽ εἰ πόσις μοι κατθανὼν ἐτήκετο,
βίᾳ πολιτῶν τόνδ᾽ ἂν ᾐρόμην πόνον.
τίνος νόμου δὴ ταῦτα πρὸς χάριν λέγω;
πόσις μὲν ἄν μοι κατθανόντος ἄλλος ἦν,
καὶ παῖς ἀπ᾽ ἄλλου φωτός, εἰ τοῦδ᾽ ἤμπλακον,        910
μητρὸς δ᾽ ἐν Ἅιδου καὶ πατρὸς κεκευθότοιν
οὐκ ἔστ᾽ ἀδελφὸς ὅστις ἂν βλάστοι ποτέ.



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