Monday, September 11, 2023
A Proper Education
Carmina Anacreontea 52 West (tr. David A. Campbell):
Jean-Bernard Restout (1732-1797), The Pleasures of Anacreon
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Why do you teach me the rules and laws of the rhetoricians? What good to me are all these useless speeches? Teach me rather how to drink the gentle draught of Lyaeus, how to play with golden Aphrodite.A free rendering by Thomas Bourne:
τί με τοὺς νόμους διδάσκεις
καὶ ῥητόρων ἀνάγκας;
τί δέ μοι λόγων τοσούτων
τῶν μηδὲν ὠφελούντων;
μᾶλλον δίδασκε πίνειν 5
ἁπαλὸν πῶμα Λυαίου,
μᾶλλον δίδασκε παίζειν
μετὰ χρυσῆς Ἀφροδίτης.
Why prate to me of critic rules,See Alexander Müller, Die Carmina Anacreontea und Anakreon: ein literarisches Generationenverhältnis (Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2010 = Classica Monacensia, 38), pp. 186-189.
And jargon of the jangling schools?
Your learned dogmas, prithee, spare,
They're useless all—not worth my care.
I'll hear thee gladly, canst thou tell
The happy art of living well;
How best to mix the sparkling wine,
To make the mellow draught divine;
How best to please the lovely fair,
For this indeed is worth my care.
