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?
. What about “boiled down this isn’t a town”?