Tuesday, April 14, 2015

The Hobbit in Ancient Greek, paragraphs 10-11



Καὶ εἶπεν Βίλβος· Καλόν πρωΐ! καὶ ἐλάλησεν ἐν εἰλικρινείᾳ. ἔλαμπεν ὁ ἥλιος καὶ χλωρός ὁ χόρτος. Γανδάλφος δὲ ἠτενίσεν εἰς αὐτὸν κάτωθεν ὀφρύων δάσεῖων ὧν ἐξετείναν πέραν χεῖλου τῆς θολίας αὐτοῦ τῆς σκιεράς. ὁ δὲ εἶπεν· τὶ σημαίνεις; θέλεις με ἔχειν καλόν πρωΐ , ἤ σημαίνεις ὅτι καλὸν ἔστιν τὸ πρωΐ εἴτε θέλω εἴτε οὐ θέλω, ἤ ὅτι ἔχεις καλῶς τοῦτο τὸ πρωΐ, ἤ ὅτι ἔστιν πρωΐ  ἐν ᾧ εἶναι καλός;
 
["Good morning!" said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat. "What do you mean?" he said. "Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is morning to be good on?"]
Βίλβος δὲ εἶπεν· Πάντα τούτων ἅμα. σφόδρα δὲ καὶ καλόν πρωΐ ἐν ᾧ καπνίζειν ἔξω αὐλόν αὐλοφύλλων. ἐάν ἔχῃς αὐλόν ἐν τοῖς κτήμασίν σου κάθισας γεμίσαι ἐκ τῶν ἐμῶν! οὐ δεῖ σπούδαζειν ὅτι ἔχομεν πᾶσαν τὴν ἡμέραν διατρίβειν. Βίλβος οὖν ἕκηλος κάθισας ἐπὶ καθέδρας τῆς πρὸς τῇ θύρᾳ ἐξεφύσησεν κύκλον ὡραῖον φαίον καπνοῦ πλήσαντα ἄνω μετεώρως μὴ ἐκλείποντα ἀποφερόμενα δὲ ὑπὲρ Τὸ Ὄρος.

["All of them at once," said Bilbo. "And a very fine morning for a pipe of tobacco out of doors, into the bargain. If you have a pipe about you, sit down and have a fill of mine! There's no hurry, we have all the day before us!" Then Bilbo sat down on a seat by his door, crossed his legs, and blew out a beautiful grey ring of smoke that sailed up into the air without breaking and floated away over The Hill.]

Translation notes:
  • αὐλοφύλλος = pipeweed, tobacco (αὐλός = pipe; φύλλος = herb, leaf)
  • Καλόν πρωΐ = Good morning. I have never seen a phrase that means "good morning" in ancient Greek (it is καλημέρα in modern Greek). 
  • I have kept using καλός throughout the passage even when ἀγαθός might be slightly better, in order to preserve the wordplay.

1 comment:

  1. The German protestant church launched the Lord's Prayer challenge on the website reformaction2017.de

    There is already a klingon version. Would you like to do Sindarin?

    Yours Regina

    ReplyDelete

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