Jor-El's Farewell from the Christopher Reeve SUPERMAN Movies

Composition and Communication Composition Board
1

Just a bit of fun for any fellow Superman fans here! I welcome any critiques, as always.

JOR-EL’S SPEECH
ORATIO IORIS-ELIS
H ΙΩΡΟΣ-ΕΛΟΣ RHSIS

You will travel far, my little Kal-El,
Iter longum faciēs, ō mī parve Cal-El,
Μαχρᾱ̀ν χωρήσεις, ὦ ἐμὲ μῑκρὲ Κάλ-Ἔλ,

But we will never leave you,
Sed numquam tē relinquēmus,
Ἀλλ’ οὔποτέ σε λείψομεν,

Even in the face of our deaths.
Nē quīdem mortuī.
Οὔδε τεθνηκότες.

All that I have, all that I’ve learned, all that I feel,
Omnia qua habeō, omnia qua didicī, omnia qua sentiō,
Πάνθ’ ἃ ἔχω, πάνθ’ ἃ μεμάθηκα, πάνθ’ ἃ αἰσθάνομαι,

All this and more I bequeath you, my son.
Omnia haec et plūria lēgō tibi, ō fīlī mī.
Πάντα τοῦτα καὶ πολλὰ καταλείπω σοι, ὦ υἱέ μου.

You will carry me inside you all the days of your life.
Mē ferēs in tē omnēs diēs tuae vītae.
Με σίσεις ἔν σοι πάντας τᾱ̀ς τοῦ σοῦ βίου ἡμέρᾱς.

You will make my strength your own.
Meam vim faciēs tuam.
Τὴν ἐμὴν ἱσχῡ̀ν ποιήσεις σήν.

You will see my life through your eyes,
Meam vītam vidēbis per oculōs tuōs,
Τὸν ἐμὸν βίον ὄψῃ διὰ τῶν σῶν ὀφθαλμῶν

As your life will be seen through mine.
Ut tua vīta vidēbitur per meōs.
Ὣς ὁ σὸς βίος ὀφθήσεται διὰ τῶν ἐμῶν.

The sun becomes the father,
Fīlius fit pater,
Ὁ υἱὸς γίγνεται ὁ πατήρ,

And the father, the son.
Et pater, fīlius.
Καὶ ὁ πατήρ, ὁ υἱός.

This is all I can give you, Kal-El.
Haec sunt omnia qua tibi possum dare, Cal-El.
Τοῦτ’ εἰσὶν πάνθ’ ἅ σοι δύναμαι δοῦναι, Καλ-Ἔλ.

2

N. 2.—After oxytone prepositions and ἕνεκα enclitic pronouns (except τὶς) usually keep their accent (ἐπὶ σοί, not ἐπί σοι; ἕνεκα σοῦ, not ἕνεκά σου; ἕνεκά του, not ἕνεκα τοῦ). ἐμοῦ, ἐμοί, ἐμέ are used after prepositions (except πρός με; and in the drama ἀμφί μοι).

haec = ταῦτα (alpha, not omicron)

πάσας τᾱ̀ς τοῦ σοῦ βίου ἡμέρᾱς.

Ho do you type ῡ̀ ?

3

Thanks! How did I miss that gender disagreement with πᾶσα? I must’ve momentarily forgotten that it’s a mixed declension.

So we have…

Πάντα ταῦτα καὶ πολλὰ καταλείπω σοι, ὦ υἱέ μου.
Με σίσεις ἒν σοὶ πᾱ́σᾱς τᾱ̀ς τοῦ σοῦ βίου ἡμέρᾱς.
…
Ταῦτ’ εἰσὶν πάνθ’ ἅ σοι δύναμαι δοῦναι, Καλ-Ἔλ.

I vaguely recall reading somewhere, though, that neuter plurals take singular verb forms, so maybe the last line should be, “Ταῦτ’ ἐστὶν πάνθ’ ἅ σοι δύναμαι δοῦναι, Καλ-Ἔλ.”

As for typing the long grave upsilon, it’s a combination of two different mechanisms. I use Keyman Desktop (https://keyman.com/desktop/) to type in classical Greek, and its only shortcoming is that, once a vowel has a macron, the software can’t add any marks on top of it. I’ve figured out how to get around this by using Microsoft Word’s “combining diacritical marks” character set, which you can access via “Insert Symbol.” When you type them, these symbols appear above (or below, depending on the particular mark) whatever immediately preceded them. Word also gives you the option of assigning custom keyboard shortcuts, and my custom shortcut for the grave accent is Alt+G. So I first type just ῡ via Keyman Desktop and than press Alt+G to add the grave.

The only thing I haven’t managed to figure out is how to type a vowel with both a macron and a breathing mark (much less a vowel with all three: macron, breathing mark, and acute or grave), as at the beginning of imperfect forms of ἵστημι or the second-person plural pronoun. Technically, it can be done, but at best the breathing and pitch marks are awkwardly clustered on one side rather than being spaced evenly above the macron.

4

Another thing:

Μὴ οἴσεις ἐν

I can stack all the diacritics I want within LaTeX (XeLaTeX actually), but copying and pasting does not preserve them.
E.g., see ὕλας
https://archive.org/details/numbered_posselius/page/n73
I didn’t bother to put the macron on the alpha.

5

So you’re recommending “Μὴ οἴσεις ἐν σοὶ πᾱ́σᾱς τᾱ̀ς τοῦ σοῦ βίου ἡμέρᾱς,” instead of, “Με σίσεις ἐν σοὶ πᾱ́σᾱς τᾱ̀ς τοῦ σοῦ βίου ἡμέρᾱς”? Is this a particular usage of “μή” that I’m unaware of? That line isn’t a subordinated negative or negative imperative. And what does the verb “οἴσω” mean?

6

Sorry, forget what I wrote. It should be

Ἐμὲ οἴσεις

because you don’t start a sentence with an enclitic like με

οἴσω is the future of φέρω

7

Oh, wow! Somehow, even with my 20/20 vision, I’d always read the second principal part of φέρω as σίσω, starting with sigma instead of omicron. Thanks for setting me straight!

Updated Version:

You will travel far, my little Kal-El,
Iter longum faciēs, ō mī parve Cal-El,
Μακρᾱ̀ν χωρήσεις, ὦ ἐμὲ μῑκρὲ Κάλ-Ἔλ,

But we will never leave you,
Sed numquam tē relinquēmus,
Ἀλλ’ οὔποτέ σε λείψομεν,

Even in the face of our deaths.
Nē quīdem mortuī.
Οὔδε τεθνηκότες.

All that I have, all that I’ve learned, all that I feel,
Omnia qua habeō, omnia qua didicī, omnia qua sentiō,
Πάνθ’ ἃ ἔχω, πάνθ’ ἃ μεμάθηκα, πάνθ’ ἃ αἰσθάνομαι,

All this and more I bequeath you, my son.
Omnia haec et plūria lēgō tibi, ō fīlī mī.
Πάντα ταῦτα καὶ πολλὰ καταλείπω σοι, ὦ υἱέ μου.

You will carry me inside you all the days of your life.
Mē ferēs in tē omnēs diēs tuae vītae.
Ἐμὲ οἴσεις ἐν σοὶ πᾱ́σᾱς τᾱ̀ς τοῦ σοῦ βίου ἡμέρᾱς.

You will make my strength your own.
Meam fortitūdinem faciēs tuam.
Τὴν ἐμὴν ἰσχῡ̀ν ποιήσεις σήν.

You will see my life through your eyes,
Meam vītam vidēbis per oculōs tuōs,
Τὸν ἐμὸν βίον ὄψῃ διὰ τῶν σῶν ὀφθαλμῶν

As your life will be seen through mine.
Ut tua vīta vidēbitur per meōs.
Ὣς ὁ σὸς βίος ὀφθήσεται διὰ τῶν ἐμῶν.

The sοn becomes the father,
Et fīlius fit pater,
Ὁ μὲν υἱὸς γίγνεται ὁ πατήρ,

And the father, the son.
Et pater fit fīlius.
Ὁ δὲ πατὴρ γίγνεται ὁ υἱός.

This is all I can give you, Kal-El.
Haec sunt omnia qua tibi possum dare, ō Cal-El.
Ταῦτ’ ἐσtὶν πάνθ’ ἅ σοι δύναμαι δοῦναι, ὦ Κάλ-Ἔλ.