I"ve left behind teaching Latin and started a new tech-y future in which I analyze all of the data ever and come up with 42. Well, maybe not that last part. I definitely won't be doing Latin on a daily basis anymore, though, so in an effort to keep up my language skillz, I'm trying to sit down once a week and translate a little bit. This week, I found Horace's Epode 1.3, in which he expresses his dislike of one of my favorite foods: Garlic. Seriously, how can you not love garlic?? Well, Horace didn't, as you shall see below. (Latin friends, please let me know if you find any egregious mistranslations! Even though I'm not getting graded, I'd still like to get my translation right).
If anyone will have broken
the old throat of their parents with an evil hand,
let him eat garlic, more harmful than hemlock.
Oh hard guts of the harvesters [of this plant]!
What is this poison that rages in my belly?
Surely the blood of a viper,
boiled with these herbs has not slipped by me? Or,
has Canidia tragged out an evil banquet?
When Medea admired,
before all the Argonauts, their shining leader,
she rubbed this all over Jason,
about to fasten the yolks unknown to the bulls;
With the gifts having been smeared with this stuff,
she fled, having punished her rival, on a winged serpent.
And not ever has such a steam of the stars
sat upon parched Apulia,
nor has a burning gift ever scalded
the shoulders of capable Hercules.
But if ever you long for something so funny,
Maecenas, I pray,
your girl puts up her hand up in front of your kiss,
and lies down on the other side of the bed.
Parentis olim siquis inpia
manu
senile guttur fregerit,
edit cicutis alium nocentius.
o dura messorum ilia.
quid hoc veneni saevit in praecordiis?
num viperinus his cruor
incoctus herbis me fefellit? an malas
Canidia tractavit dapes?
ut Argonautas praeter omnis candidum
Medea mirata est ducem,
ignota tauris inligaturum iuga
perunxit hoc Iasonem,
hoc delibutis ulta donis paelicem
serpente fugit alite.
nec tantus umquam Siderum insedit vapor
siticulosae Apuliae
nec munus umeris efficacis Herculis
inarsit aestuosius.
at siquid umquam tale concupiveris,
iocose Maecenas, precor,
manum puella savio opponat tuo,
extrema et in sponda cubet.
senile guttur fregerit,
edit cicutis alium nocentius.
o dura messorum ilia.
quid hoc veneni saevit in praecordiis?
num viperinus his cruor
incoctus herbis me fefellit? an malas
Canidia tractavit dapes?
ut Argonautas praeter omnis candidum
Medea mirata est ducem,
ignota tauris inligaturum iuga
perunxit hoc Iasonem,
hoc delibutis ulta donis paelicem
serpente fugit alite.
nec tantus umquam Siderum insedit vapor
siticulosae Apuliae
nec munus umeris efficacis Herculis
inarsit aestuosius.
at siquid umquam tale concupiveris,
iocose Maecenas, precor,
manum puella savio opponat tuo,
extrema et in sponda cubet.
(source: The Latin Library)
