Athenaeus 8, 45 (pun intended)

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Polyfloisbos
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Athenaeus 8, 45 (pun intended)

Post by Polyfloisbos »

Hi fellows,

Every summer I do some Greek "gratis et amore" -mostly some authors that we don't study at University-, and usually some interesting questions come up when translating. Recently one of these philological challenges appeared. Here's a fragment of Deipnosophistae by Athenaeus (fragment 8,45):

Ἐν μικρᾷ δὲ πόλει διδάσκων ἔφη « Αὕτη οὐ πόλις ἐστίν, ἀλλὰ μόλις ».

Translation by Henry G. Bohn:

And once, when he was teaching in a small town, he said: "This is not a city, but hardly one".

The English translation doesn't show the pun in the original, where πόλις (city) and μόλις (hardly) rhyme. I made a Spanish translation which reflects more or less that pun:

"Con dificultad esto es una ciudad".

But my knowledge of English doesn't go too far so I can't work out a good translation. Any ideas?

oryx3
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Re: Athenaeus 8, 45 (pun intended)

Post by oryx3 »

"This isn't a city... it's an itty-bitty city."

LSorenson
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Re: Athenaeus 8, 45 (pun intended)

Post by LSorenson »

This isn't a city, it's a pity.

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Polyfloisbos
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Re: Athenaeus 8, 45 (pun intended)

Post by Polyfloisbos »

Hey that's a good one :D. What about "boiled down this isn't a town"?

Markos
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Re: Athenaeus 8, 45 (pun intended)

Post by Markos »

τὸ ἄστυ ὀστῶδες.
οὐ μανθάνω γράφειν, ἀλλὰ γράφω τοῦ μαθεῖν.

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