I’ve forgotten my high school Latin but thoroughly enjoyed this. Not only does it sound wonderful, it illustrates the choices and challenges that face the translator.
A very minor point, but I’m curious as to why you use the term dactyl for long, short, short (I can’t do the symbols!) but don’t use the term spondee for long, long.
Sure. ‘Spondee’ was an old metrical term for long-long, based on the characteristic metre of a spondeion (libation, or toast to the god). But the term is out of place in the dactylic hexameter, which simply consists of six dactyls, some of which may be contracted to - -.
So I avoid it in this context, since it adds nothing to the analysis other than (extraneous) terminology.
And what a fitting poem to be elevated to Latin grandeur.
I’ve forgotten my high school Latin but thoroughly enjoyed this. Not only does it sound wonderful, it illustrates the choices and challenges that face the translator.
Thank you. Yes, this one was particularly hard to translate appropriately!
A very minor point, but I’m curious as to why you use the term dactyl for long, short, short (I can’t do the symbols!) but don’t use the term spondee for long, long.
Sure. ‘Spondee’ was an old metrical term for long-long, based on the characteristic metre of a spondeion (libation, or toast to the god). But the term is out of place in the dactylic hexameter, which simply consists of six dactyls, some of which may be contracted to - -.
So I avoid it in this context, since it adds nothing to the analysis other than (extraneous) terminology.
Thank you. My schoolteachers obviously weren’t fully versed (!) in these matters! Or were just passing on what their teachers had taught them.
This is wonderful, thank you. Was excluding the third stanza an editorial choice?
The recap of ‘Flanders fields’ at the end of the second stanza felt like a good place to stop! But a third verse may well emerge...
Great explanation of the formation of hexameter. Your recordings help to follow the flow of the meter.
Wonderful. Thank you. A Greek version, like Simonides?