File spoon-archives/phillitcrit.archive/phillitcrit_1998/phillitcrit.9802, message 65


Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 08:02:20 -0600
From: George Trail <gtrail-AT-UH.EDU>
Subject: Re: PLC: Enameled In Fire


>>
>>You are absolutely right, so what you do is give the poet the benefit of
>>the doubt, and assume that this is _not_ how he is using it, since, as I
>>said earlier, it would be redundant as well as trite.
>
>M.C.: *What* poet, ferchrissake? We are dealing with some nineteenth
>century translator of Plutarch, who may or may not have been able to
>distinguish poetry from his posterior. Might this stout gentleman, whoever
>he was, have been redundant or trite? You betcha!
>
>        In a sense this whole discussion is silly, redundant, and trite. It
>was not - I guess I must repeat - *Plutarch* who used the image "enameled
>in fire", but some translator. Why did he use it? Because he thought it
>sounded good; I suppose, but does anyone *really* care about the poetic
>intentions of some anonymous 19th-century  hack? Did he accurately render
>Plutarch's Greek original? No, if, as I continue to think, the passage in
>question is the one I posted from the Erotikos, where the word translated
>as "enamelled" simply means "mixed".
>
>      Are there no critical editions out there which actually *identify*
>Plutarch's citation? Until we find out *with certainty* what Plutarchean
>passage is being translated, we're just pissing in the wind.
>
>        Peevishly, Mike.
>
>Michael Chase

Yes, dear, whatever you say. But regardless of the, uh, weight, of the
translator, her work was sufficient to elicit the admiration of Mr.
Emerson, who, I suggest, would read it as having a surface coated with
fire. Puts me in mind of the Paterian oxymoron, "to burn always with this
hard gem-like flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life." (1873).

When one is dealing with a tranlation, after all, one ought to deal with
the translation. _If_ we had the text translated we might argue about the
aptness of the translation, but to that end I suggested that seeking some
variant of "enameld" was less likely of success that seeking some version
of "coated" or "covered" or, god knows (and she would),"painted."

Cheerfully,
g




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