https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmwF7cy-L8Q
Breathe. Breathe in the air.
Don’t be afraid to care.
Leave; don’t leave me.
Look around; choose your own ground.
ἀμπνοὰς ἔχε, ὦ τᾶν, ὁράων φάος ἠελίοιο.
μὴ ὀκνοῖς φιλεῖν.
ἄλλους μὲν ἀπόλιπε, ἐμὲ δ’ οὔ.
μολῶν, λάβε τὰ σά.
Corrections/comments are welcome.
To be continued…
Long you live and high you fly.
And smiles you’ll give and tears you’ll cry.
And all you touch and all you see
is all your life will ever be.
Χρόνια Πολλά! μετεωρίζου!
γελωτοποιήσας, κλαύσεις δή.
τί δὲ ὁ σὸς βίος?
τί δ’ ἔσται?
ὅσα βλέπεις καὶ ὅσους φιλεῖς.
χωρὶς τούτων, οὐδέν!
Run, rabbit run.
Dig that hole, forget the sun.
And when at last the work is done,
don’t sit down, it’s time to dig another one.
τρέχε, ὦ κύον.
μὴ μέλοι σοι σκάπτοντι τῆς τοῦ ἡλίου δύσεως.
πονήσας, μὴ παύου πονῶν.
δεῖ γάρ σε σκάπτειν ἄλλο ὄρυγμα.
Comments/corrections are welcome.
To be continued…
For long you live and high you fly.
but only if you ride the tide.
And balanced on the biggest wave,
you race towards an early grave.
δεῖ γάρ σε τοῖς πολλοῖς ἀκολουθεῖν ὥστε εὖ σοι γενήσεται καὶ ἔσῃ μακροχρόνιος.
κῦμά ἐστιν ὁ βίος σου.
μετεωριζόμενος, νέεις σύγε, ταχέως μέν, πρὸς δὲ θάνατον.
Comments/corrections are welcome.
To be continued…
I had a bit of trouble with the first line. I had not met the word ἀναπνοή before but from the dictionaries I’ve got the impression that ἀμπνοὰς ἔχε means breathe out. Woodhouse suggests ἕλκειν for inhale. Even though both have the implication of relax, breathe out to me implies “be laid back” while breathe in implies to me a more desperate “Don’t Panic!”.
I couldn’t make out ὁράων at all. Is it a form of ὁράω? And is φάος ἠελίοιο ray of the sun? How do you see the relationship with your Greek to the original?
Hi, Daivid,
The main thing is that I was looking for a more poetic way to say “breath.” LSJ says that ἀμπνοὰς ἔχειν= ἀναπνεῖν, “breath, live,” and quotes Sophocles:
Ajax 412-416: ἰὼ
πόροι ἁλίρροθοι
πάραλά τ᾽ ἄντρα καὶ νέμος ἐπάκτιον,
πολὺν πολύν με δαρόν τε δὴ
415κατείχετ᾽ ἀμφὶ Τροίαν χρόνον: ἀλλ᾽ οὐκέτι μ᾽, οὐκ
ἔτ᾽ ἀμπνοὰς ἔχοντα:
Ah! You paths of the sounding sea, you tidal caves and wooded pastures by the shore, long, long, too long indeed [415] have you detained me here at Troy. But no more will you hold me, no more so long as I have the breath of life.
This is what I was looking for because I think the first line of the album, addressed to an infant, is the injunction to start living, take the first few breaths of life.
I couldn’t make out ὁράων at all. Is it a form of ὁράω? And is φάος ἠελίοιο ray of the sun?
Yes, ὁράων is the singular participle of ὁράω, but I left it uncontracted, as you find it in Epic. (Attic-Koine would be ὁρῶν.) In this project I switch between dialects for effect. Yes, φάος ἠελίοιο is Epic for τὸ φῶς τοῦ ἡλίου, and “seeing the light of the sun” is a poetic idiom for “living, existing.”
How do you see the relationship with your Greek to the original?
That’s a good question, both here and in general. When you translate songs, you have to first interpret the original. This is highly subjective. Then, putting it into Greek is to the left of dynamic equivalence. One really seeks to capture not the words, nor even the thought, but the tone (as one feels it) of the original.
Dark Side of the Moon is my favorite all time album, and it is on my bucket list to translate the whole thing into Greek.
I didn’t know that it was addressed to an infant. Knowing that I can see how your free translation makes sense.
Thanks
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day,
fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way.
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town,
waiting for someone or something to show you the way.
ἡ ἡμέρα. κακὴ μέν, λύσεται δε.
τὰς ὥρας δαπανᾷς ἀμελῶς.
ἔχων τὰ σὰ, κατέχῃ ὑπὸ τῶν ἰδίων.
ἡγεμόνα δὲ μένεις.
Comments/corrections are welcome.
To be continued…
Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.
εὐδίαν ἔχεις καὶ κεθεύδεις.
ὅτε δὲ βρέχει, ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ μένεις.
λέγεις γὰρ τῇ ψυχῇ σου “νεός εἰμι καὶ μακρός ἐστιν ὁ βίος. οὐδὲ φεύγει ὁ χρόνος.”
ἰδοῦ! νῦν δὲ φεύγουσι δὴ καὶ ὁ χρόνος καὶ ὁ καιρός!
δρομεύς μὲν εἶ, ἀλλ’ οὐδέπω τρέχεις.
Comments/corrections are welcome.
To be continued…
So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it’s sinking,
racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way but you’re older,
shorter of breath and one day closer to death.Every year is getting shorter; never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines.
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I’d something more to say.
νῦν οὖν σύγε τρέχεις, διώκων τὸν δύοντα ἥλιον.
ὁ δ’ ἥλιος τρέχει, ἀνατέλλων πάλιν ὀπίσω σου ὥστε σε διώκειν.
μένει μὲν ἑαυτῷ ὁ ἥλιος, σύ δὲ γηράσκεις, πνέων μὲν κακῶς, θανῶν δέ.
τὰ μὲν ἔτη μικρά, ὁ δὲ χρόνος (καὶ ὁ καιρός!) φεύγει.
ἀτελὲς δὲ τὰ μὲν ποιήματα, τὰ δὲ βουλήματα.
ἄνθρωπος εἶ σύ. Ἕλλην εἶ σύ. Βρεταννικὸς εἶ σύ. ἀνεχόμενος μὲν οὖν εἶ σύγε, κακῶς δέ.
ὁ χρόνος (καὶ ὁ καιρός!) πέφευγε. τοῦτο δὲ τὸ ποιήμα τετέλεσται.
οὐδέν δ’ ἔγωγε ἔχω λέγειν!
Comments/corrections are welcome.
To be continued…
Home.
Home again.
I like to be here
when I can.
ὁ οἶκος.
ἡ οἰκία.
ὁ νόστος.
θέλω νοστεῖν εἰ δύναμαι.
When I come home
cold and tired,
it’s good to warm my bones
beside the fire.
ὀψὲ κακῶς νεόμενος, καλόν ἐστιν τὸ τὰ ὀστᾶ παρὰ πύρι θερμαίνειν.
Far away,
across the field,
tolling on the iron bell,
calls the faithful to their knees
to hear the softly spoken magic spell.
μακρόθεν, πέραν τοῦ ἀγροῦ,
τὴν τοῦ κώδωνος φωνῆς ἀκούω δή.
τοῦτο δὲ καλεῖ τοὺς πιστούς ὡς ὲπὶ γούνασι ἀκουσόμενοι τὸ εὐαγγέλιον εὐαγγελιζόμενον,
μαλακόφωνον μὲν, μαγευτικὸν δέ.
Comments/corrections are welcome.
To be continued…
Money, get away.
Get a good job with more pay and you’re okay.
Money, it’s a gas;
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.
μολῶν τὰ χρήματα λαβὲ καὶ ἄπιθι.
μακαρίζω σε πλουτοῦντα.
ἐκ γὰρ τῶν θεῶν ὁ πλουτός.
τὰ οὖν χρήματα λαβὼν μὴ ἄφες!
Comments/corrections are welcome.
To be continued…
It is rather a Modern Greek expression. You had better say εἰς πολλὰ ἔτη.
Thanks, this is a good Ancient equivalent. When I finish the whole album, I intend to do some editing.
New car, caviar, four star daydream.
Think I’ll buy me a football team.
ἅμαξαι! συμπόσια! ἐπιθυμίαι!
ἀνθρώπων ὠνητὴς εἴην.
Comments/corrections are welcome.
To be continued…
Money, get back.
I’m all right, Jack. Keep your hands off of my stack.
Money, it’s a hit.
Don’t give me that do goody good bullsh-t.
I’m in the high-fidelity, first class traveling set
and I think I need a Lear jet.
τὰ χρήματα, ὦ τᾶν, ἔχω.
καλῶς οὖν ἔχω.
μὴ μόλε μηδὲ τὰ ἐμὰ λαβέ.
ὦ χαῖρε πλοῦτε! ἐν σοι γάρ εὐδοκῶ.
καλῶς μὲν ἔχω, τὸ δὲ καλὸν οὐ ποιῶ.
χρήματα ἔχω. καὶ τριήρας ἔχοιμι.
Comments/corrections are welcome.
To be continued…
A typo: μηδὲ
εὐχαριστῶ σοι. νεωστί δὲ τοῦτο ἐποίησα.
Last edited by Markos on Mon Feb 16, 2015 10:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ἀσμένως, ὦ βέλτιστε Μᾶρκε. Ἆρα δ’ ᾄσῃ ταῦτα ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν; 
μὴ γένοιτο! 
Money, it’s a crime.
Share it fairly, but don’t take a slice of my pie.
Money, so they say,
is the root of all evil today;
But if you ask for a raise, it’s no surprise
That they’re giving none away
Away, away, way
(Away, away, away, away.
ὑβρίζει τὰ χρήματα.
τοῖς μὲν πτωχοῖς δοτέον, παρὰ δὲ τῶν ἐμῶν οὔ.
τὰ γὰρ χρήματα, φασίν, ῥίζα πάντων τῶν κακῶν ἐστι.
τὰ δὲ χρήματα οὐ προσδίδοται.
Comments/corrections are welcome.
To be continued…
φησίν → φασίν 
πρόσδοται → προσδίδοται
εὐχαριστῶ.