Fortune has taken you ...

[lollardfish]

Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus
Avdenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias
Ut te postremo donarem munere mortis
Et mutam nequiquam alloquerer cinerem.
Quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete abstulit ipsum,
Heu miser indigne frater adempte mihi,
Nunc tamen interea haec, prisco quae more parentum
Tradita sunt tristi munere ad inferias,
Accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu,
Atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale.

Through many lands and many seas,
I have come, my brother, to this sad grave,
In order to render you Death's final duties,
And strive to converse with your ashes, though dumb.
Fortune has taken you, so undeservedly,
Alas my poor brother, stolen from me.
For now, as I furnish a dead man's last rite,
The funeral libation our fathers knew well,
Accept these fraternal tears at your gravesite.
My brother, Hail and Farewell.

(I lightly edited the translation from: Here. Too emotional to do it myself just now.)

Comments

[facilisfool.livejournal.com]

That's beautiful...where is it from?

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Catullus.

Hail and Farewell

[(Anonymous)]

A beautiful translation as well. Did you do it?

[facilisfool.livejournal.com]

I knew that sounded vaguely familiar! My Latin Prof was enamored of him, and had some odd theories about him actually having written more than he's credited with, under an assumed name...can't for the life of me remember the other name right now though...

Re: Hail and Farewell

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Nah. I edited it slightly though as I think the first line needs to follow Homer a little more closely. I'll post a link.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

It's my favorite mourning poem.

[facilisfool.livejournal.com]

Many apologies, I was appreciating it for it's style and beauty, and didn't realize that it was being used in a time of mourning...much sympathy for your loss, and if there's anything I can do, from being someone to vent at, to emergency whiskey deliveries, please don't hesitate to give me a call.

6 one 2 se7en four 3 sixty-three 7 nine

Re: Hail and Farewell

[(Anonymous)]

My thoughts are with you in your time of grief.

[creidylad.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry she's gone.

The poem is beautiful.

[90-percent-sure.livejournal.com]

Lovely.

[lollardfish.livejournal.com]

Appreciating it for its style and beauty is, to me, an entirely appropriate response.

I remember reading it for the first time and being moved to tears, my senior year of college (and first year of Latin). The process of word-by-word translation and comprehension can heighten the emotional response of literature, rather than dampen it.