by Elucubrator » Thu May 22, 2003 4:09 am
[face=SPIonic][size=18=12]<br /> It definitely sounds like Anacreon to me judging by other poems of his which I have read. This one fits the metrical pattern, of Anacreontic verses alternating with Ionic ones, and it speaks of wreathes, roses, Dionysus, a lyre, dancing with the deep bosomed girl....<br /><br /> Now, your text is definitely not right. I could only reconstruct so much of it, and am still missing the last word in the third line. It must be a word of two long syllables, and it must begin with a vowel. The infinitive at the beginning of the first line must be depending on some imperative, if you got the last three letters in that word right, an optative of wish perhaps. Perhaps also the stefanou=n me goes with something that preceeded these lines, and a new clause begins with kai/, but I have seen other five-liners in this exact metrical pattern written by Anacreon. At any rate, here is the partially reconstructed text without that word:[/face][/size]<br /><br /><br />[face=SPIonic]<br /> stefanou=n me kai\ luri/zw<br /> pa/ra sou Diw/nus' ? ? ?<br /> me/ta Kou/rhj baquko/lpou,<br /> r9odinoi=si stefani/skoij<br /> pepuka/smenoj xoreu/sw.<br />[/face]<br />[face=SPIonic][size=18=12]<br /> Until we can figure out whether I have the first line right or not (which I doubt), and what that last word in the third line is, our translation for the first line cannot be complete. <br /><br />The starting phrase of line three reads: "Beside you Dionysus (vocative)"<br /><br /><br />The last three lines read: (in regular English prose order)<br /><br /><br /> decked with garlands of roses,<br /> I shall dance together with the deep-bosomed girl.<br /><br /><br />well, so much, at this time can I hand back,<br />yours,<br /><br />Sebastian[/face][/size]<br />
