Anyone know - or know where I can find - the Greek original o’th’Archilochus line: “I have a high art, I wound with cruelty those who wound me”?
Thanks.
I’m not sure there even on the web yet. Have you tried your library first?
Fragment 126 (West), trochaic tetrameter:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ἓν δ’ ?πίσταμαι μέγα,
τὸν κακῶς <μ’> ἔ?δοντα δεινοῖς ἀνταμείβεσθαι κακοῖς.
thanks annis
not quite what i was expecting it to look like but glad to know it all the same.
Z.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
I’m 95% confident that’s the Greek the translation is supposed to match. The translator seems to have felt Archilochus’ language needed elevation.
Annis you’re right about the translation v th’original; so I’m going to come right out & say it: maybe the english version as english is better than the greek version as greek. Evidence that a translation can be better than the original? Yeats’ translation of Sophokles… The game certainly is afoot.
Obviously I’ve chosen my camp. I came across the phrase in English & it struck/impress’d/wow’d me so much that I used it as my signature. Immediately afterwards I wanted to know th’original. Now, thanks to Annis, I do. But even though I now know th’original… I still use the translation, as I think it’s better.
What are your criteria for “better?” What defects do you see in the Greek?
Why is Shakespeare better than Aeschylus?
If someone says something poorly, translating it into another language should reflect that. If the translated version says it eloquently, then it is a poor translation.