So we all had to translate a poem from any language into English and make it sound decent, which is so much harder than it sounds! As a translator, I tend to be incredibly literal and precise about translation, partially because some mark schemes are that way, but also because I don’t want to lose any of the original meaning. Of course, my translation ends up as a completely meaningless jumble of strangely misplaced cases that the author probably used just for fun.
I translated a poem by Seneca the Younger, a known philosopher of Stoicism and advisor to Nero.
Starving time devours all worlds,
All things it will seize away.
Disturbing all from its rest-
Nothing permitted to be still forever.
Rivers run dry, whilst a runaway sea
Is swallowed by its shores.
Mountains sink themselves to the ground,
Mighty ridges are ruined.
What is so small that I speak of?
The most glorious parts of all the heavenly sky
Will burn with time’s fires suddenly;
Death demands all.
It is the law, not a punishment to die- in another time-
This world will be nothing.
This is my first run-through, so hopefully I’ll be able to vastly improve it. I chose to do it in sonnet format, with an octet and a sestet, because I found that the subject matter of the poem neatly divided into two sections- a descriptive beginning and a more philosophical ending. The sonnet also is meant to be romantic, contrasting with this brutal description of time’s power. I wanted to write the poem in iambic pentameter, to fit with the sonnet, but that was very difficult considering the short length of the Latin stanzas; the rhythm is something that I still need to sort out. I used simple language, reflecting the Latin’s unadorned vocabulary.
thephoebeofknowledge 