Hi everyone! If you have a specific question about this week’s section of the Odyssey that you need help with, or want some feedback on your English translation, please post it on this thread. However, if you think the question contributes to the general debate that’s being had over on the main thread, then feel free to post it there.
Thanks! Sean
Nausikaa’s Dream (with apologies to Edward Lear)Nausikaa, how did your mother give birth
to a girl with no manners or grace?
Your beautiful dresses are sprawled in a mess
and your wedding’s approaching apace!
You’ll need clean clothes, an elegant trousseau,
for the ladies who’ll be by your side.
Then your parents will glow and the dashing young beaux
will be begging to make you their bride.
Let’s go in the morning, when day is just dawning,
to give this poor clobber a rinse.
I’ll come, lend a hand, go as quick as we can -
you’ll soon make a match for a prince!
They’re circling in hordes, those Phaiakian lords
(and among them a cousin or two).
So come, let’s go, when the cock starts to crow,
to your dad, to see what he can do.
We’ll ask him for mules, to take us to the pools
and to carry the blankets and belts.
It’s so far away, we’d be walking all day
and our feet would be plastered with welts,
with welts!
and our feet would be plastered with welts.