"Thygater hemon, ..."

Textkit Community Open Board
1

I’d like to compose a birth blessing for my daughter.
I’m attending a parents’ lesson these weekends and on this coming Saturday I’m supposed to come with one, with which to practice the blessing.

It’s supposed to be written in Korean, but I’d like to make a greek version(OR translation), too.

What I’m having in mind is like this.(Okay you laugh at it, but please help me.) :slight_smile:

Our daughter,
Know that your life began with the stars over the sky,
And that your birth is not a mere coincidence,
And that the stars live in you, with the everlasting light,
And that we live in you forever, with our love.

This is my really really crude attempt. :laughing:
[size=150]
Θυγάτηρ ἡμων,
γνώθι ὁτι καὶ βίος σοὺ εἰσῆλθε μετα τὰ ἄστρα,
καὶ σοὺ γέννα οὒχ ἐκ συντεύξιδι,
και τα ἄστρα ἔν σοι βίουσι, μετα τοὺ φώτος αἰώνιου,
καὶ ἀεί ἔν σοι βιόομεν, ἄγαπε’μων τε.
[/size]

2

Please someone help me correct the errors and improve it. :bulb: :smiley:

3

Do you need the Greek by this weekend, or is this just for fun on the side?

I need to ponder this more. English to Greek is tricky.

I would say right away though that in the third line I don’t have the word you used for “coincidence” in any of my dictionaries, and I don’t know why it’s a dative after the ἐκ. I would be inclined to use the more basic “chance” here in any case. All the words I can find for “coincidence” in Greek really strongly imply several events happening at the same time, and that’s not quite what you’re saying here.

I like the Epic phrase ἐς αἰεί for “forever” for both sound and simplicity. Perhaps in the fourth line λάμποντα ἐς αἰεί[/size], with the participle agreeing with the stars. You could even use a figura etymologica, ἀστράπτοντα ἐς αἰεί[/size].

But my brain has fixed on this, probably for several days. :slight_smile:

4

Also, γνῶθι.

5

FYI, the greek is not in the emergency. But I’d like it if I can include it in the card. :slight_smile:

in the third line I don’t have the word you used for “coincidence” in any of my dictionaries

Well, the perseus word search gave it to me – I cannot have a confidence in its results though:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/enggreek?lang=greek&lookup=coincidence
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=#101009

and I don’t know why it’s a dative after the e)k.

my oops! :blush:

I would be inclined to use the more basic “chance” here in any case. All the words I can find for “coincidence” in Greek really strongly imply several events happening at the same time, and that’s not quite what you’re saying here.

Thanks, and the perseus English-Greek word search doesn’t give very clear results, either. :frowning:

Thanks very much for rest of the comments, too! :smiley:

6

For “by chance” will “[size=150]ἐκ τυχης[/size]” be okay?
I’m still not sure about the use of enclitic accents, too.

(frequent edits… :slight_smile:)

[size=150]
Θυγάτηρ ἡμῶν,
γνῶθι ὁτι καὶ βίος σοὺ εἰσῆλθὲ μετὰ τα ἄστρα,
καὶ σοὺ γέννα οὒχ ἐκ τύχης,
και τα ἄστρα ἔν σοι βίουσι, λάμποντα ἐς αἰεί
καὶ ἀεί ἔν σοι βιόομεν, ἄγαπε’μῶν τε.
[/size]

7

A few more random thoughts from pre-caffeinated William:

Daughter should be vocative! And maybe with an ὦ before it. Sounds silly in English, but there it is.

I am nervous about the definite articles. I spend most of my time in poetry, so an atticist should comment on this, but if feel if you’re going to use “the” then you need to say ὁ βίος σου, not just βίος σου. Same with σοῦ γέννα, which should probably have the genitive shifted after the noun, too.

8

Congratulations to the parents and welcome to the baby (It is the most beautiful baby in the world, it isn’t?)

“your life began with the stars” : I translate as if you mean that your daughter is made of the same matter as the stars (the famous “stardust”), or did you mean that the stars play a role in determining the birth of children (sort of astrological determination)? If so, replace ἅμα τοῖς ἀστράσιν τοῖς by ἀπὸ τῶν αστέρων τῶν



)=ω θύγατερ ἡμῶν,
ἴσθ’ ὁτι μὲν ὁ βίος σου ἅμα τοῖς ἀστράσιν τοῖς ὑπὲρ τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀρχὴν ἔλαβεν,
γεννηθῆναι δέ σοι οὐ τύχῃ τινὶ συνέβη
οἱ δ’ ἀστέρες εἴσω σου ζῶσι, μετα τοῦ αἰωνίου φωτός,
ἡμεῖς δὲ σ’ ἀγαπῶντες εἴσω σου ζήσομεν εἰς τὸν ἀεὶ χρόνον.

Please everybody, check carefully this text.

9

Thank you, and thank you!

Of course. Carl Sagan inspired me of the idea. :smiley: Most elements other than hydrogen are said to be made in the core of previous generation of stars. Of course those details are not necessary for my daughter for the time being. :sunglasses:

One question here: if I want to insert the name of my child, shall I put it before the [size=150]ὦ[/size] or between it and [size=150]θύγατερ[/size]:
[size=150]Ναυσικάα, ὦ θύγατερ ἡμῶν[/size] or [size=150] Ὦ Ναυσικάα, θύγατερ ἡμῶν[/size]?

10

the latter.

11

Thanks. And now methinks it’s more natural than the former. :wink:

Thanks to you all, I have put the words on a card, imitating one of the handwritings of the medieval scribes. And it looks great, though it’s not easy to read it since the epsilon looks like sigma and ai looks like ou, etc. I’ll have to get used to the handwritings before I can read it aloud fluently. :smiley:

12

Do you have a scanner? or a digital camera?

:slight_smile:

–
wm

13

My digital camera’s gone bad but I could manage to take a picture of it somehow, in a couple of days. :slight_smile:

14

I’ve taken the picture. :smiley:

http://blogimage2.hanmir.com/data2/sub71/mingshey/1070254337@thygater.jpg
(If you see a “Forbidden” message, try hitting key on the URL bar.
or try here)
It won’t look natural since I haven’t mastered the hand and ‘drew’ each character on a pencil draft.

15

:open_mouth:

Wow! That’s still a very good copy of that style of hand.

Very nice.

16

What an achievement ! :smiley:

17

indeed it is a work of art. what a steady hand writing!
is that something that all koreans have? :wink:

i wish my handwriting would be so good!
but on the other hand, i have a good chance of becoming a music teacher this way. all the ones i know have a writing thats sort of a different set of letters… :stuck_out_tongue:

18

Thanks, all! :smiley:
And special thanks to Skylax who have almost redone the composition for me.(I think I’ll add an acknowledgement list at the back cover ofthe card. :wink:)
I wish my greek is as good as my hand writing. :stuck_out_tongue:

You’ll be curious. Nobody else in the (pre-)parents lesson come up with a birth blessing(or they were shy?) and I decided to pretend neither did I. What a shame. :blush: (Many in these Asian countries are shy in the public.) But then again, it’s for my baby, anyway. :stuck_out_tongue: