While I was pleasing for you,
Any more able youth was giving their arms to the bright neck,
More blessed than a king of the Persians I flourished.
'while you were not more in love with another woman, and Lydia was not second to Chloe,
I, Lydia of more better names, clearer than Roman Ilia flourished.'
Now Thracian Chloe rules me,
Taught with sweet poetry and knowing the lyre,
On behalf of which, I shall not fear to die,
If the Fates spare the surviving soul.
'Calais, the son of Ornytus of Thurini,
Burns me with a mutual torch,
On behalf of which, twice I shall suffer to die,
If the Fates spare the surviving boy.'
What if Venus returns
And forces the splits with a bronze yoke,
If golden Chloe is being banished,
And the door is open for rejected Lydia ?
'Although that man is more beautiful than a star,
You, lighter than a cork and more angry than the unruly Adriatic,
I would love to live with you, I, willing would meet with you.'
This poem is a conversation between what seems to be Horace and Lydia, there is no particular setting in the poem. It is composed in second Asclepiadean verse.
At any rate how is it that a potential subjunctive should be translated? I took it as a "would" because that seemed to show potentiality to me, but is there another way that it should be translated?
Interestingly enough, in this poem there is what seems to be another wine reference, which has been common in Horace to this point, as he refers to himself as a "cork." And one that is thrashing around in the sea. Is this symbolic for him in some way? That his wine bottle has been opened, does that equal anger?
While I was pleasing for you,
ReplyDeleteAny more able youth was giving their arms to the bright neck,
AND NO MORE PREFERRED (nec quisquam potior) YOUTH WAS PUTTING HIS ARMS AROUND YOUR BRIGHT NECK
More blessed than a king of the Persians I flourished.
'while you were not more in love with another woman, and Lydia was not second to Chloe,
I, Lydia of more better names, FLOURISHED MORE FAMOUS THAN than Roman Ilia .'
Now Thracian Chloe rules me,
LEARNED IN sweet poetry and knowing the lyre,
On behalf of whOM, I shall not fear to die,
If the Fates spare the surviving soul.
'Calais, the son of Ornytus of Thurini,
Burns me with a mutual torch,
On behalf of which, twice I shall suffer to die,
If the Fates spare the surviving boy.'
What if Venus returns
And forces thOSE WHO HAVE SEPARATED with a bronze yoke,
If golden Chloe is being banished,
And the door is open for rejected Lydia ?
'Although that man is more beautiful than a star,
You, lighter than a cork and more angry than the unruly Adriatic,
I would love to live with you, I, willing would meet with (DIE WITH) you.'
"Would" is a good way to translate the potential subj. in this context. Sometimes "might" or "should" sound better idiomatically in English.
Cork was used to seal wine jars, though other materials were used as well, so this could be a wine reference. It was also used to make fishing floats, so this may be a reference to that-- remember the poem in which he compares himself, having escaped from a love affair, as a shipwrecked sailor who makes an offering to the gods of the sea?