Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Prolixity
Horace, Epistles 1.20.14-16:
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... ut ille15 words in Latin, compared with 41 words in David Ferry's translation:
qui male parentem in rupis protrusit asellum
iratus: quis enim invitum servare laborat?
... like the man whose donkeyHat tip: Eric Thomson.
Kept pulling against being pulled back from the very
Edge of a cliff, till finally the man
Lost patience and pushed the stupid thing right over.
Why save a creature that doesn't want to be saved?
