Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Archilochus Iambic fragment #42 : my translation

...through an embrasure
...gonna slip with stealth
--(for I already know and have had
enough of such a plant of another kind)
thinking this deed arises from my nature:
my parsley stalk...
thinking on slipping it to you...
...sprung from under my chlamys...
eager to penetrate...

from this Greek text:
ἰητρ ]τομῆι
]λήσομαι
ἐσθλὴν γὰρ ἄλλην οἶδα τοιοὐ του φυτοῦ
ἰη σιν ]δοκεω·
]κακά·
ἐ]πίφρασαι·
]ησομαι
]ου λίνου
]ταθη
]ν μενοινιω[
].εισιω[
]....εͺ.[

Prof.J.M.Edmonds in his 1931 Loeb edition translated Fragment 42 as:
"For I know of another good cure for such a growth." But his text was:

ἐσθλὴν γὰρ ἄλλην οἶδα τοιούτου φυτοῦ
ἴησιν. (Toup : εἴκασιν) He this prefaces with:
"Sch. Theocr. 2. 48 [ἱππομανές]· . . λέγες γὰρ καὶ Ἀρχίλοχος τὸ φῦμα φυτόν.

Now, according to my reading of Theocritus' verse, τὸ φυτόν refers to an herb
there that acts as a sexual stimulant on horses. I read Archilochus as using this
as a figure for his speaker's penis in his poem.
Prof. Henry Harmon Chamberlain in his 'Late Spring: A Translation of Theocritus',
Harvard, 1936, translates the stanza:

"In Arcady there grows a bitter spurge;
Stallions that crop it and swift mares run wild
Over the mountains; may like madness urge
Delphis, of reason utterly beguiled.
So let him run madly about my door,
So let him quit the gleaming wrestling floor!
O magic wheel! bring my man home to me!"

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