Seamus Heaney (1939-2013)

[johncorrigan]

Sir Ian reads Seamus' translation of the 'Aeneid' on Book of the Week on R4 next week.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b072j0mn

[Tevot]

Hello there,

Here's a piece from yesterday's Guardian about Heaney's translation of The Aeneid Book VI.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/11/the-guardian-view-on-seamus-heaney-virgilian-farewell

Best Wishes,

Tevot

[Lat-Literal]

Sir Ian reads Seamus' translation of the 'Aeneid' on Book of the Week on R4 next week.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b072j0mn

This is a bit of a vague and not very erudite comment but I did listen to some of the programme yesterday. My mind went to Heaney's long-term standing. Given also the Beowulf work etc, etc, it seems to me that in the decades and more ahead, he could be seen as one of the literary giants. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Heaney.......that sort of thing!

[johncorrigan]

This is a bit of a vague and not very erudite comment but I did listen to some of the programme yesterday. My mind went to Heaney's long-term standing. Given also the Beowulf work etc, etc, it seems to me that in the decades and more ahead, he could be seen as one of the literary giants. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Heaney.......that sort of thing!

I am no classics' scholar, Lat, having failed my 'O' Grade prelim in Latin, but I loved the Heaney version of the Aeneid Book VI this week. Perhaps Sir Ian is a wee bit actorly, but the clarity of the prose made it such a wonderful listen, and I loved it that Heaney considered it a piece of required homework in honour of his old Latin teacher.

[Padraig]

I loved it that Heaney considered it a piece of required homework in honour of his old Latin teacher.

That is certainly a telling feature of the translation in my book too, John. I suspect, though. that there are those who would quibble at Heaney's distinction between the inner literalist that he was, and the literary translator that he so brilliantly is. I well remember trying a bit of free translation with that same Latin teacher only to be brought to literal earth and exposed as the chancer I was.

What to choose to capture a flavour of Book VI?

Aeneas startled at this unexpected sight
And in his bewilderment asked what was happening,
What was the river drifting past beyond them,
Who were the ones in such a populous throng
Beside it?
'Spirits,' Anchises answered,
'They are spirits destined to live a second life
In the body; they assemble here to drink
From the brimming Lethe, and its water
Heals their anxieties and obliterates
All trace of memory. For a long time now
I have looked forward to telling you about them,
Letting you see them face to face'...........

'Are we to believe then, father, there are souls
Who rise from here to the sky of the upper world
And re-enter the sluggish drag of the body?
What possesses the poor souls? Why this mad desire
To get back to the light?'

Virgil's Aeneid Book VI translated by Seamus Heaney lines 954 - 974

I should say that the slim hard-back volume is lovely to hand and eye, with its grey textured cover 'refulgent with gold'.

[Padraig]

'Are we to believe then, father, there are souls
Who rise from here to the sky of the upper world
And re-enter the sluggish drag of the body?
What possesses the poor souls? Why this mad desire
To get back to the light?'

'O pater, anne aliquas ad caelum hine ire putandumst
sublimis animas iterumque ad tarda reverti
corpora? quae lucis miseris tam dira cupido?' (liber sextvs 719 - 721}


P. Vergili Maronis
AENEIS
In usum scholarum
recognovit
OTTO RIBBECK
Lipsiae
In aedibus B.G. Teubnerl
MDCCCLXXVIII

Title page of the edition from which I took the Latin quote. I have only just noticed these details, having quite recently bought the book just to read the Latin words occasionally.

[Globaltruth]

P. Vergili Maronis
AENEIS
In usum scholarum
recognovit
OTTO RIBBECK
Lipsiae
In aedibus B.G. Teubnerl
MDCCCLXXVIII

Google Translate gives us:

Virgil
AENEIS
The use of schools
recognized
Otto Ribbeck
New York
In the house B.G. Teubnerl

bit better than the first part

'O pater, anne aliquas ad caelum hine ire putandumst
sublimis animas iterumque ad tarda reverti
corpora? quae lucis miseris tam dira cupido?'

via Google Translate becomes

O father, did he suppose that some go to heaven, hine
slow to return to the high life again
bodies? so dire a lust for the light? '

they have a distance to go...seems as if the software has no 'sense of sense' built into it. And i thought Hine was a cognac but apparently can also mean
A servant; a farm labourer; a peasant;

I'm glad you made the point earlier about I.McKellen being too actorly, I found his voice distracted from the meaning

[Padraig]

Thanks for reading it all Global! I didn't really think anyone would. They might now - if only to correct any noticeable mistakes. I see one - Lipsiae is Leipzig.
It was John who referred to the actorly reading - I did not get round to it - but I get his drift.

[jean]

'O pater, anne aliquas ad caelum hine ire putandumst...'

'O father, did he suppose that some go to heaven, hine...'

I'm not surprised Google gave up on that - the word is hinc, surely? (From here, as Heaney has it.)

[Padraig]

Of course Jean. Thank you.

[Globaltruth]

changing hine to hinc, Google Translate gives us

'O father , did he suppose that some go to heaven, on this side,
slow to return to the high life again
bodies ? so dire a lust for the light ? '

Not a great improvement....

[jean]

No, but at least they tried.

You'd have thought that whoever did the programming would have realised that hinc means from this side rather than on this side.

[Padraig]

No, but at least they tried.

You'd have thought that whoever did the programming would have realised that hinc means from this side rather than on this side.

Heu Jean, neither were they students of Fr.Michael McGlinchey nor are they poets.

[Globaltruth]

http://gu.com/p/4tvhg?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

[Padraig]

http://gu.com/p/4tvhg?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I saw that in Sunday's Observer thanks, Global.
North is a strange one! For a man who's quoted for 'whatever you say, say nothing', Heaney certainly suggests much in this book which bears close consideration.
I'm going to have to read it again.
Aunt Mary Heaney is the dedicatee of 'Sunlight', not S.H.'s wife Marie.