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 á¼￾ν τῇ Οá½￾λθὰÏ￾ τῇ πέÏ￾α τοὖ ποταμοὖ Σκαῖ αἴλουÏ￾ον ἀποκτεῖναι οá½￾κ ἔξεστιν· καὶ τοῦτο μὴν ῥᾳδίως ἀληθὲς οἴομαι á½￾Ï￾ῶν τὸν καθήμενον Ï€Ï￾ὸ τῆς ἑστίας. á½￾ γὰÏ￾ αἴλουÏ￾ος αἰνιγματώδης á¼￾στίν, καὶ πλησιάζει τοῖς δεινοῖς ἃ οá½￾ βλέπουσιν οἱ ἄνθÏ￾ωποι. ψυχή á¼￾στι τῆς á¼€Ï￾χαίας ΑἰγÏ￾πτου φέÏ￾ων μÏ￾θους ἀπὸ τὦν á¼￾πιλελησμένων πόλεων á¼￾ν ΜεÏ￾ωῇ καὶ ΩφίÏ￾. συγγενής á¼￾στι τοῖς βασιλεῦσι τῆς ὕλης καὶ κληÏ￾ονόμος τῶν ἀποÏ￾Ï￾ήτων τῆς πολιᾶς κακῆς τε ΑφÏ￾ικής. ἀνεψιός á¼￾στι τῆς Σφιγγός, καὶ τὴν γλῶτταν αá½￾τῆς ἵησιν, ἀλλὰ παλαίτεÏ￾ος αá½￾τῆς καὶ μέμνηται ὧν αá½￾Ï„á½´ á¼￾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