Ὁ Μεγάλος Γάτσβιος

[dbmiller]

The beginning of a Greek translation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel.

The original is available here: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200041h.html

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Opening Quote:

Φόρει οὖν τὴν χρυσῆν κυνῆν, ἤν αὐτὴν κινῇ·
ἤν πηδᾶν ἔχῃς, καὶ πρὸ ἐκείνης οὖν πῆδα,
ἵνα βοᾷ «χρυσῆν κυνῆν ἔχων ἐραστά,
ὦ πηδῶν ἐραστά, χρή με σ’ ἔχειν!»

Θωμᾶς Πάρκης τοῦ Ἰνυιλιέρου

I’m not 100% satisfied with this, but it’s hard to translate the English original without being too literal. Also, Thomas Parke D’Invilliers is a fictional character, so I follow my convention: fictional names get Hellenized, whereas real names like Φ. Σκὸτ Φιτζγέραλδ don’t.

Beginning of Chapter 1:

Ἐν τῇ γυμνῇ ἡλικίᾳ ὁ πατήρ μοι βουλὴν ἔδωκεν, ἥν διανοῦμαι ἐξ οὗ μ’ ἐβούλευσε.

— Ὅταν τινὰ κρίνειν βούλῃ, ἦ δ’ ὅς, μιμνήσκου πάντας τὰς σὰς ὠφελίας οὐκ ἔχειν.

Πλεῖον μὲν οὐκ ἔλεξεν, ἀλλὰ δ’ ἀήθως ἐξ ἀεὶ ἡσυχώτερον πρὸς ἀλλήλους διαμυθογοῦμεν· ὑπέλαβον οὖν αὐτὸν πλεῖον σημαίνειν. Οὐ μὴν κρίνω· τὸ αὐτὸ ἔθος καί μοι τὰ πολλὰ ἤθη φαίνει καὶ μ’ οὐκ ὀλιγάκις ἐνοχλεῖ. Ὁ παράλογος νοῦς τὸν αὐτὸν ἔθον τὸν τῷ συντρόφῳ ἀνθρώπῳ γιγνόμενον ταχέως αἰσθάνεται· συνέβη μοι τῷ πανεπιστήμιῳ ἡ τοῦ ῥήτορος δόξα, ὅτι τὰς τῶν ἀφανῶν ἀκράτων κρυπτὰς λύπας ἠπιστάμην. Ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολύ, τὰς πίστεις οὐ ζητῶ· προσποιῶ πολλακὶς ἢ καθεύδειν ἦ πολυπραγμονεῖν ἦ ἐναντίως εὔθυμος εἶναι ὅταν τὸν τῆς προσερχομένης ὁμολογίας σύμβολον αἰσθάνομαι, ὅτι αἱ τῶν νεανιῶν ὁμολογίαι, αἱ γὲ αὐτῶν λέξεις, πολλακὶς καὶ μιμήσεις εἰσὶ καὶ δῆλον ὅτι διακλεπτομένων. Οὐ κρίνειν ἀπείρως ἐλπίζειν ἐστιν. Φοβοῦμαι μὴ τινὸς με λανθάνῃ τὴν κυρίαν εὐπρέπειαν ἀνίσως ἐξ ἀρχῆς νεμηθῆναι ἀμνημονεῖν· τοῦτο δὲ ὑψηλῶς λέγω μετὰ τὸν πατέρα.

Note that τῷ πανεπιστήμιῳ is a back-borrowing from Modern Greek: “at university”.

Happy to take all criticism, suggestions, corrections, etc. I am just an amateur after all, and there are probably errors in here (some of them just silly mistakes, most likely). I am aware that some of the sentences are a little baroque, which I’m OK with. Also, I’ve adopted the modern typographic conventions, instead of the classical ones: this choice was intentional.

[jeidsath]

Some minor typos:

ἡλικὶᾳ (accent)
ἥν (accent)
καὶ μοι (accent)
σύντροφῷ (accent)
συμέβη
ἤ (accent)
Οὐκ κρίνειν

I had trouble understanding good chunks of it, even after a few read throughs. For whatever that’s worth (maybe not too much).

[dbmiller]

I had trouble understanding good chunks of it, even after a few read throughs. For whatever that’s worth (maybe not too much).

Thanks for the corrections — fixed the typos. What do you think makes it hard to understand, and what might make it a slightly easier read, then?

[jeidsath]

I couldn’t say – I don’t read many modern novels in ancient Greek. And maybe the fault is all on my side. But did you mean τὸ ἔθος instead of ὁ ἔθος?

[dbmiller]

I couldn’t say – I don’t read many modern novels in ancient Greek. And maybe the fault is all on my side. But did you mean τὸ ἔθος instead of ὁ ἔθος?

Yes, I did. And you can hardly be blamed for not reading many such novels, considering how few exist. Is there even another complete one besides the first Harry Potter, itself modeled on Lucian’s style?

[dbmiller]

Correction: it should also be τὸ αὐτὸ ἔθος; I wasn’t thinking so clearly when I was writing! The next paragraph I’ll post soon-ish.

[jeidsath]

There’s still a τὸν αὐτὸν ἔθον that has poked its way through.

[dbmiller]

There’s still a τὸν αὐτὸν ἔθον that has poked its way through.

Yes, that’s what I was remarking: I can’t edit the original post anymore. That may be a forum setting.

[jeidsath]

Ah, I misunderstood. There is a time limit. Feel free to PM me with any changes and I can put them in.