H. P. Lovecraft

[modus.irrealis]

Hi,

I needed something to do today to get away from serious work and I thought I'd try writing something in Greek, and since I couldn't think of anything original I thought I'd might translating something. Now this was all over my head and the main thing I learned was just how little I know, but I decided on a story by H. P. Lovecraft because there's a sort of Ancient Pagan feel to his writings. I chose "The Cats of Ulthar", and I've only translated the first paragraph so far.

Λέγουσιν ὅτι ?ν τῇ Ο?λθὰ? τῇ πέ?α τοὖ ποταμοὖ Σκαῖ αἴλου?ον ἀποκτεῖναι ο?κ ἔξεστιν· καὶ τοῦτο μὴν ῥᾳδίως ἀληθὲς οἴομαι ??ῶν τὸν καθήμενον π?ὸ τῆς ἑστίας. ? γὰ? αἴλου?ος αἰνιγματώδης ?στίν, καὶ πλησιάζει τοῖς δεινοῖς ἃ ο? βλέπουσιν οἱ ἄνθ?ωποι. ψυχή ?στι τῆς ἀ?χαίας Αἰγ?πτου φέ?ων μ?θους ἀπὸ τὦν ?πιλελησμένων πόλεων ?ν Με?ωῇ καὶ Ωφί?. συγγενής ?στι τοῖς βασιλεῦσι τῆς ὕλης καὶ κλη?ονόμος τῶν ἀπο??ήτων τῆς πολιᾶς κακῆς τε Αφ?ικής. ἀνεψιός ?στι τῆς Σφιγγός, καὶ τὴν γλῶτταν α?τῆς ἵησιν, ἀλλὰ παλαίτε?ος α?τῆς καὶ μέμνηται ὧν α?τὴ ?πιλέλησται.

The only word I didn't translate was "purring" because I could find nothing anywhere that might be a reasonable translation of the word in Greek. Any ideas for that? Another question is I tried to cheat by using βλέπω for "able to see" and I was wondering if that is idiomatic.

I'd really appreciate any comments, especially about basic grammar, but I'd love to hear comments about how to improve the style, word-order and word-choice too (I mostly stayed close to the original).

Thymios