Lots of different styles, and very inventive with metre. These two are in different metres: the first one is in quite rumbustious rhythm ('trochaic tetrameter catalectic'). The rhythm has been imitated in an excellent translation by former British PM Boris Johnson:
Not for me some strapping general with his drill-ground straddling air,
And his silly waxed moustaches and his teased pomaded hair!
Give me one so small you’d think your knees were roughly by his nose,
Hunched and runty, full of heart and like a cat upon his toes.
He’s very funny 😹
I forgot to add, Armand, that your versions are fine. Bojo's isn't bad either, mind you!
Thanks! I agree, his is very good.
Ah, the anti-heroic mode....many years ago I liked this translation so much I learnt it:
'Some Saian wears my good shield now -
I had no choice, I left it in a wood -
Ah, well, I saved my skin, so let it go;
a new one's just as good.'
I like that version - not completely sure
that I’d have known it once (likely I would).
Ah well, I’ve published mine, so there’s one more;
I hope you’ll think my new one’s just as good.
Never heard of him before. Thank you for the introduction. Did he write in different styles or use one type of metre for his poetry?
Lots of different styles, and very inventive with metre. These two are in different metres: the first one is in quite rumbustious rhythm ('trochaic tetrameter catalectic'). The rhythm has been imitated in an excellent translation by former British PM Boris Johnson:
Not for me some strapping general with his drill-ground straddling air,
And his silly waxed moustaches and his teased pomaded hair!
Give me one so small you’d think your knees were roughly by his nose,
Hunched and runty, full of heart and like a cat upon his toes.
Who would have thought… about bojo.