#hello-delicious-tea

[elucubrare]

What grows in your imaginary garden (which you do not have to tend and where nothing dies unless you want it to)?

it might be wall-to-wall irises

maybe some pansies, and a bunch of wildflowers

also rosemary, and roses for the scent; and pear, peach, cherry, and apple trees

this is such a good question tbh 

[icryyoumercy]

hello-delicious-tea replied to your post “¦ apparently, thermal underwear or whatever it’s called properly comes...”

I have electric orange ones. They are awful, but at least I only have to see them briefly. And my husband and I can both wear them.

!

okay, electric orange sounds /hilarious/

but, like, i just don’t get it? i mean, if someone absolutely wants colour coded clothes to fit their gender, that is totally cool, and i hope they find clothes that allow them to do that, but. there is no need to actually brand anything for that purpose?

*grumbles*

i am increasingly annoyed with this whole gendered versions of things stuff that tells you nothing whatsoever about what the actual thing does. like, is it a difference in colours? shape? weight? material? function?

if i buy a thing, i need to know what it does, and what the other available alternatives do, not whether it’s being marketed for men or for women!

[elucubrare]

I have a question! I don't speak Greek, ancient or modern, so I don't know, despite the amount of time I spend with it - how full of Jokes and Witticisms is the Odyssey? The translations I've read tend to be - glossy and serious, though I think Fitzgerald does fairly well, but I don't think anyone sits through 12100 lines of oral poetry with no jokes. And the more I think about Odysseus's character, the more suspicious I get that I am Missing The Jokes. Is this true?

that is a super interesting question that I don't have a definitive answer to! There isn't a lot of comedy in the Iliad, for sure – I'd say the closest is Thersites passages; the Odyssey is in a slightly lower register than the Iliad, so there probably are funny parts, though I'd say probably more situational than verbal (it's hard to joke in dactylic hexameter!). The best example I've got is that it probably would be amusing to "see" Odysseus trying to hide his nakedness from Nausicaa. 

Also, I doubt people would sit through it in one night – 12000 lines takes a long time to recite! so maybe it would be like the tragedies, where you'd have the three tragic ones and then a satyr play: you'd hear a book or two of the serious stuff, and then have a mock-epic (I think there's one about a battle between the frogs and the mice?) or some light epigrams or something. 

Also, Odysseus' cleverness is, in the Odyssey at least, a little bit of an Informed Attribute, to use TV Tropes terminology – the closest you really get to cleverness is hiding under the sheep to escape the Cyclops (which, again, might be situational comedy). Most of the other "plans" are Athena's idea, if I recall correctly, or another of the gods. 

Also Odysseus is a good liar, according to Homer, but not necessarily a joker.

again, a lot of words to say "I don't really know"!  

[elucubrare]

⚔️!

Wise Mentor! sry 2 say, that means you're getting killed off in Book 2.

[elucubrare]

Least favorite trope: the messenger who gasps out half a message and dies, telling just enough of what's going on to make everyone really confused. Why can't people just write things /down/ before or during their journey? Or take snack breaks? If you die of exhaustion and hunger before you've fucking delivered your message, it was a waste of time.

The Cardinal's soldiers went out to bring the exhausted messenger into the city on their fastest horses. It was clear that the man hadn't eaten or slept much, and the side of his tunic was stained dark brown. The soldiers brought him to the Cardinal immediately, along with water and a loaf of bread. 

"Tyern has fallen,"  said the messenger, and took a bite of bread, and fell over, dead, at the Cardinal's feet. 

[elucubrare]

Lines for Winter by Mark Strand

And you will be ablefor once to lie down under the small fireof winter stars.

I could have gone to a Strand reading a few weeks before he died, and I didn't, and I'm still kicking myself.

[elucubrare]

Apologia Pro Poemate Meo by Wilfred Owen

oh wow: 

                                     These men are worthYour tears: You are not worth their merriment.

[elucubrare]

hello-delicious-tea replied to your photo: Ok, Emily Wilson is about 1200% more qualified...

I find her translation highly readable, accessible, and fun, and am going to use excerpts with my students next year, because Fitzgerald’s syntax fucks with their reading comprehension, but I think Fitzgerald is significantly more beautiful, more poetic, and more accurate. I very much enjoy Wilson’s version and I love her explanations for why she does things, but - I think different audiences.

oh, yeah, it totally depends on what you're reading it for! I feel like Fitzgerald's syntax is much less esoteric than Lattimore's (my bff and I had an in-joke about him stranding "illustrious" at the end of a line with no apparent antecedent in a way that would have worked in Greek but absolutely did not in English), but yes, more poetic, for sure. 

Disclaimer: I looked at the incipits of about ten translations on Wiki and hated them all for various reasons, so I am not actually qualified to talk about this - the best most translations are going to get from me is probably "readable" or "I see where you're going [but you didn't quite get there]"