| linguae |
|
QUESTIONS ARISING FROM 93rd MEETING – 20/9/18
(the record of earlier meetings can be downloaded from the main Circulus page as can the version of Ciceronis Filius with illustrations added. The illustrated text of Genesis is available on the Genesis page and of Kepler's Somnium on the Somnium page.)
Dishes ordered included carnēs variae assae (roast meat), daufum aureum (`golden tofu’), ova spongia cum squilla (omelette with prawns) and the standard carō dulcis et acida (gulo yuk, 咕嚕肉). As often before, we discussed the popularity of the last dish in Chinese restaurants in the West, leading to its being nick-named gweilo yuk (鬼佬肉). Tanya thought its prominence arose because if was the simplest thing Chinese immigrants without much previous catering experience could cook. Others, however, felt that it was not especially simple to prepare but that its taste made it a favourite with children in China and also with foreigners not acquainted with the full subtleties of Chinese cuisine.
Using as a guide the dialogue given below, we briefly discussed in Latin our own plans for Mid-Autumn Festival this year, which would fall on 24 September, and it emerged that not everyone would follow all the traditional rituals. Eugene also explained that placentae lūnārēs (moon cakes) in other regions of China were often savoury rather than the sweet concoctions of lotus seed paste, syrup and flour surronding an egg which are the standard filling in Cantonese culture (see https://food52.com/blog/11201-how-to-make-traditional-cantonese-mooncakes-at-home for one recipe)
http://www.huangkitchen.com/mini-baked-lotus-paste-mooncakes/
Another key feature of the festival is the use, particularly now by children, of lanterns in various decorative shapes.The commonest Latin word for lantern is lucerna, used 85 times in the corpus of classical and later texts at www.thelatinlibrary.com The synonym lanterna, from which the Engish word derives, occurs only five times and the reduced form laterna just once (in the Welsh bishop Asser’s 10th century biography of England’s King Alfred the Great)..
The central figure in the legends surrounding the festival is Seung Ngor (嫦娥, Putonghua pronunciation Chang E), the goddess of the moon, but, in contrast to Diana in Graeco-Mythology, portrayed as living on the moon rather thn actually being equated with it. The earliest reference to her is in a handbook on divination in the Warring States period (5th century A.D.), the Guizang (see Lihui Yang, Deming Au and Jerssica Anderson Turner, Handbook of Chinese Mythology, p.87-88, preview at
https://books.google.com.hk/books?id=Wf40ofEMGzIC&vq ). According to this text, Seung Ngor stole the elixir of immortality directly from Xiwangmu (西王母), Queen Mother of the West rather than from her husaband.
According to the Handbook, earliest references also give the goddess’s name as Heng E (Putonghua pronunciation) but the first element was changed to Chang (Cantonese `Seung’) because it also occurred in the personal name of one of the Han emperors and so its use was taboo,. The emperor referred to is presumably漢文帝,who reigned from 180 to 157 B.C., and whose original name was劉恆 (Lau Hong). If the original `Heng E’ was written姮娥, as stated at
http://www.china-expats.com/Holidays_Cn_MAF_Chang-e.htm, then the characters were not in fact identical. Possibly the original name for the goddess was 恆娥, this changed in Han times to either 姮娥 or嫦娥 and the latter finally won out.
Zhang Wei thought that the goddess’s current name means `Eternal Maiden’. A quick check later on the Internet suggested that 嫦 is used only as a proper noun, with no separate meaning on its own, whilst娥 means `beauty’ or `beautiful girl.’ The possibly origignal. 恆, well-known in Hong Kong as the first character in the name of the Hang Sang bank, means `regular’ or `consistent’.
An early Han text, the Huainanzi (淮南子) is the first source that introduces her husband, Hou Yi, and makes him the recipient of the elixir from the Queen Mother of the West,Seung Ngor then obtaining it from him. From around the 4th century A.D. the characterisation of Seung Ngor became more sympathetic so, as well as the original version which made her a simple thief, she is sometimes said to have swallowed the elixir to prevent a student of her husband’s from seizing it, or to have stolen it because she knew that otherwise Hou Yi, who had proved himself a harsh ruler despite initially benefiting mankind by shooting down the nine suns, would consume the drug himself and tyannize over the world for ever. In yet another account, Hou Yi had intended that both he and wife take one half of a pill each so that both could become immortal. He left this with her whilst on some other business and, overcome with curiosity, she ate the whole thing and floated up to the moon as a result of the overdose.(see https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chinese_Stories/Houyi_and_Chang%27e)
Another key feature of the festival is the use, particularly now by children, of lanterns in various decorative shapes.The commonest Latin word for lantern is lucerna, used 85 times in the corpus of classical and later texts at www.thelatinlibrary.com The synonym lanterna, from which the Engish word derives, occurs only five times and the reduced form laterna just once (in the Welsh bishop Asser’s 10th century biography of England’s King Alfred the Great)..
The central figure in the legends surrounding the festival is Seung Ngor (嫦娥, Putonghua pronunciation Chang E), the goddess of the moon, but, in contrast to Diana in Graeco-Mythology, portrayed as living on the moon rather thn actually being equated with it. The earliest reference to her is in a handbook on divination in the Warring States period (5th century A.D.), the Guizang (see Lihui Yang, Deming Au and Jerssica Anderson Turner, Handbook of Chinese Mythology, p.87-88, preview at
https://books.google.com.hk/books?id=Wf40ofEMGzIC&vq ). According to this text, Seung Ngor stole the elixir of immortality directly from Xiwangmu (西王母), Queen Mother of the West rather than from her husaband.
According to the Handbook, earliest references also give the goddess’s name as Heng E (Putonghua pronunciation) but the first element was changed to Chang (Cantonese `Seung’) because it also occurred in the personal name of one of the Han emperors and so its use was taboo,. The emperor referred to is presumably漢文帝,who reigned from 180 to 157 B.C., and whose original name was劉恆 (Lau Hong). If the original `Heng E’ was written姮娥, as stated at
http://www.china-expats.com/Holidays_Cn_MAF_Chang-e.htm, then the characters were not in fact identical. Possibly the original name for the goddess was 恆娥, this changed in Han times to either 姮娥 or嫦娥 and the latter finally won out.
Zhang Wei thought that the goddess’s current name means `Eternal Maiden’. A quick check later on the Internet suggested that 嫦 is used only as a proper noun, with no separate meaning on its own, whilst娥 means `beauty’ or `beautiful girl.’ The possibly origignal. 恆, well-known in Hong Kong as the first character in the name of the Hang Sang bank, means `regular’ or `consistent’.
An early Han text, the Huainanzi (淮南子) is the first source that introduces her husband, Hou Yi, and makes him the recipient of the elixir from the Queen Mother of the West,Seung Ngor then obtaining it from him. From around the 4th century A.D. the characterisation of Seung Ngor became more sympathetic so, as well as the original version which made her a simple thief, she is sometimes said to have swallowed the elixir to prevent a student of her husband’s from seizing it, or to have stolen it because she knew that otherwise Hou Yi, who had proved himself a harsh ruler despite initially benefiting mankind by shooting down the nine suns, would consume the drug himself and tyannize over the world for ever. In yet another account, Hou Yi had intended that both he and wife take one half of a pill each so that both could become immortal. He left this with her whilst on some other business and, overcome with curiosity, she ate the whole thing and floated up to the moon as a result of the overdose.(see https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Chinese_Stories/Houyi_and_Chang%27e)
A Ming dynasty portrait of Seung Ngor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e
Ellen Johnston Laing has made a study of the way the iconography changed to reflect Seung Ngor’s improving reputation: `From Thief to Deity: The Pictorial Record of the Chinese Moon Goddess, Chang E’, in Dieter Kuhn and Helga Stahls’s edited volume The Presence of Antiquity: Form and Function of References to Antiquity in the Cultural Centers of Europe and East Asia. Wuerzburg, 2001, pp. 437-54. Unfortunately, this is not available on the Internet.
Even before stories about Seung Ngor herself began to be told, there appears to have been a belief in a toad living on the moon and some later versions identify her as the woman herself, supposedly transformed as punishment for her crime. Eventually this notion was supplanted by the idea of a rabbit as Seung Ngor’s companion.
Seung Ngor’s human companion on the moon is Wu Gang (吳剛), who, according to the Asiawind site, was actually an historical personage from Shanxi in the Han dynasty. According to the 9th century anthology Youyang Zaxu (酋陽雜俎) he was banished to the moon after failing in an attempt to become immortal and sentenced to making endless attempts to cut down a self-regenerating cassia or osmanthus tree (see http://www.asiawind.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9756 ) Some of the anthology is translated in https://books.google.com.hk/books?id=-PZwAAAAMAAJ A Tang Miscellany: An Introduction to Youyang Jaju, but this does not include the Wu Gang story
China’s lunar probes have been named after Chang E and she previously figured in an exchange between groud control and Apollo 11, shortly before the 1969 moon landing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e):
Controller: Among the large headlines concerning Apollo this morning, is one asking that you watch for a lovely girl with a big rabbit. An ancient legend says a beautiful Chinese girl called Chang-O has been living there for 4,000 years. It seems she was banished to the Moon because she stole the pill of immortality from her husband. You might also look for her companion, a large Chinese rabbit, who is easy to spot since he is always standing on his hind feet in the shade of a cinnamon tree. The name of the rabbit is not reported.
Astronaut: Okay. We'll keep a close eye out for the bunny girl.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e
Ellen Johnston Laing has made a study of the way the iconography changed to reflect Seung Ngor’s improving reputation: `From Thief to Deity: The Pictorial Record of the Chinese Moon Goddess, Chang E’, in Dieter Kuhn and Helga Stahls’s edited volume The Presence of Antiquity: Form and Function of References to Antiquity in the Cultural Centers of Europe and East Asia. Wuerzburg, 2001, pp. 437-54. Unfortunately, this is not available on the Internet.
Even before stories about Seung Ngor herself began to be told, there appears to have been a belief in a toad living on the moon and some later versions identify her as the woman herself, supposedly transformed as punishment for her crime. Eventually this notion was supplanted by the idea of a rabbit as Seung Ngor’s companion.
Seung Ngor’s human companion on the moon is Wu Gang (吳剛), who, according to the Asiawind site, was actually an historical personage from Shanxi in the Han dynasty. According to the 9th century anthology Youyang Zaxu (酋陽雜俎) he was banished to the moon after failing in an attempt to become immortal and sentenced to making endless attempts to cut down a self-regenerating cassia or osmanthus tree (see http://www.asiawind.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9756 ) Some of the anthology is translated in https://books.google.com.hk/books?id=-PZwAAAAMAAJ A Tang Miscellany: An Introduction to Youyang Jaju, but this does not include the Wu Gang story
China’s lunar probes have been named after Chang E and she previously figured in an exchange between groud control and Apollo 11, shortly before the 1969 moon landing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e):
Controller: Among the large headlines concerning Apollo this morning, is one asking that you watch for a lovely girl with a big rabbit. An ancient legend says a beautiful Chinese girl called Chang-O has been living there for 4,000 years. It seems she was banished to the Moon because she stole the pill of immortality from her husband. You might also look for her companion, a large Chinese rabbit, who is easy to spot since he is always standing on his hind feet in the shade of a cinnamon tree. The name of the rabbit is not reported.
Astronaut: Okay. We'll keep a close eye out for the bunny girl.
http://monipag.com/lucas-delongeas/2017/02/10/my-hong-kong-semester-experience-week-06-of-2017-meaning-of-the-lantern-legend/
Growing up amidst the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, Zhang Wei does not remember anything about the festival and its stories other than the reference to the goddess and Wu Gang in Mao Tsetung’s poem on the deaths of his own wife, Yang Kaihui (楊開慧), executed by the Kuomintang in 1930, and of Liu Zhenxun (柳直荀), who was the husband of Yang Kaihui’s friend Li Shiyi (李淑一) and died in battle in 1932. .
The text below is taken from http://www.asiawind.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9756 with the translation very slightly adapted. The site uses the 1976 Beijing Foreign Language Press edition of Mao’s poems and provides additional background information. Mao’s poetic output, which was in classical rather than colloquial Chinese, seems to be regarded nowadays as competent but not outstanding. The most famous British translator of Chinese poetry, Arthur Waley, described the Chairman's verse as "not as bad as Hitler's paintings, but not as good as Churchill's."
蝶戀花 (答李淑一)
我失驕楊君失柳,----------Wo3 shi jiao Yang jun shi Liu,
楊柳輕颺直上重霄九.--- Yang Liu qing yang2 zhi2 shang4 chong2 xiao jiu3.
問訊吳剛何所有,----------Wen4 xun4 Wu Gang he2 suo3 you3,
吳剛捧出桂花酒.----------Wu Gang peng3 chu Gui Hua Jiu.
寂寞嫦娥舒廣袖,----------Ji4 mo4 Chang E shu guang xiu4,
萬里長空且為忠魂舞,--- Wan4 li3 chang2 kong qie3 wei2 zhong hun2 wu3,
忽報人間曾伏虎,----------Hu bao4 ren2 jian zeng fu2 hu3,
淚飛頓作傾盆雨.----------Lei4 fei dun4 zuo4 qing pen yu3.
The Butterfly loves the Flower (reply to Li Shiyi)
I lost my proud Poplar (i.e Yang Kaihui) and you your Willow (i.e Liu Zhenxun),
Poplar and Willow soar to the Ninth Heaven.
Wu Gang, asked what he can give,
Serves them osmanthus wine
The lonely moon goddess, spreads her ample sleeves
To dance for these loyal souls in the infinite space.
Earth suddenly reports the tiger (i.e Chiang Kaishek) subdued,
Tears of joy pour forth falling as mighty rain.
We next turned to the Latin epitaph for Xu Guangqi (徐光啓Paul Siu, 1562-1633), a Catholic convert and close collaborator of Matheo Ricci and his fellow Jesuits in the late 16th and early 17th century. One of Don’s students, who was from Shanghai, had copied the inscription from the restored tomb in that city and the text (with a couple of minor errors corrected) is as follows:
MAGNO SINARUM DOCTORI SIU PAULO IMPERATORIAE EJUSDEM REGNI MAJESTATIS A SECRETIS CONSILIIS VIRO OMNIUM REGNI PRIMATUM ILLUSTRISSIMO, ET OB SUSCEPTAM FIDEM. QUAM COLUIT, AMAVIT, AMPLIAVIT, ULTRA SAECULARES ANNOS CELEBERRIMO SOCIETAS UNIVERSA JESU, GRATI ANIMI AMORISQUE MONUMENTUM POSUIT.
ITA FEREBAT EPITAPHIUM ANNO MDCXLI A P. BRANCATI PAULO SIU DEDICATUM, NE PEREAT TANTI VIRI MEMORIA ANNO MCMIII, AB EJUS BAPTISMO CCC, CRUX ISTA ERECTA EST. CONCIVES TUOS, PAULE, E COELO OMNES AD DEUM TRAHE, POSTEROS TUOS QUI IN FIDE STETERUNT INCOLUMES SERVA. EOS QUI A FIDE DEFECERUNT CHRISTO REDDE.
Growing up amidst the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution, Zhang Wei does not remember anything about the festival and its stories other than the reference to the goddess and Wu Gang in Mao Tsetung’s poem on the deaths of his own wife, Yang Kaihui (楊開慧), executed by the Kuomintang in 1930, and of Liu Zhenxun (柳直荀), who was the husband of Yang Kaihui’s friend Li Shiyi (李淑一) and died in battle in 1932. .
The text below is taken from http://www.asiawind.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=9756 with the translation very slightly adapted. The site uses the 1976 Beijing Foreign Language Press edition of Mao’s poems and provides additional background information. Mao’s poetic output, which was in classical rather than colloquial Chinese, seems to be regarded nowadays as competent but not outstanding. The most famous British translator of Chinese poetry, Arthur Waley, described the Chairman's verse as "not as bad as Hitler's paintings, but not as good as Churchill's."
蝶戀花 (答李淑一)
我失驕楊君失柳,----------Wo3 shi jiao Yang jun shi Liu,
楊柳輕颺直上重霄九.--- Yang Liu qing yang2 zhi2 shang4 chong2 xiao jiu3.
問訊吳剛何所有,----------Wen4 xun4 Wu Gang he2 suo3 you3,
吳剛捧出桂花酒.----------Wu Gang peng3 chu Gui Hua Jiu.
寂寞嫦娥舒廣袖,----------Ji4 mo4 Chang E shu guang xiu4,
萬里長空且為忠魂舞,--- Wan4 li3 chang2 kong qie3 wei2 zhong hun2 wu3,
忽報人間曾伏虎,----------Hu bao4 ren2 jian zeng fu2 hu3,
淚飛頓作傾盆雨.----------Lei4 fei dun4 zuo4 qing pen yu3.
The Butterfly loves the Flower (reply to Li Shiyi)
I lost my proud Poplar (i.e Yang Kaihui) and you your Willow (i.e Liu Zhenxun),
Poplar and Willow soar to the Ninth Heaven.
Wu Gang, asked what he can give,
Serves them osmanthus wine
The lonely moon goddess, spreads her ample sleeves
To dance for these loyal souls in the infinite space.
Earth suddenly reports the tiger (i.e Chiang Kaishek) subdued,
Tears of joy pour forth falling as mighty rain.
We next turned to the Latin epitaph for Xu Guangqi (徐光啓Paul Siu, 1562-1633), a Catholic convert and close collaborator of Matheo Ricci and his fellow Jesuits in the late 16th and early 17th century. One of Don’s students, who was from Shanghai, had copied the inscription from the restored tomb in that city and the text (with a couple of minor errors corrected) is as follows:
MAGNO SINARUM DOCTORI SIU PAULO IMPERATORIAE EJUSDEM REGNI MAJESTATIS A SECRETIS CONSILIIS VIRO OMNIUM REGNI PRIMATUM ILLUSTRISSIMO, ET OB SUSCEPTAM FIDEM. QUAM COLUIT, AMAVIT, AMPLIAVIT, ULTRA SAECULARES ANNOS CELEBERRIMO SOCIETAS UNIVERSA JESU, GRATI ANIMI AMORISQUE MONUMENTUM POSUIT.
ITA FEREBAT EPITAPHIUM ANNO MDCXLI A P. BRANCATI PAULO SIU DEDICATUM, NE PEREAT TANTI VIRI MEMORIA ANNO MCMIII, AB EJUS BAPTISMO CCC, CRUX ISTA ERECTA EST. CONCIVES TUOS, PAULE, E COELO OMNES AD DEUM TRAHE, POSTEROS TUOS QUI IN FIDE STETERUNT INCOLUMES SERVA. EOS QUI A FIDE DEFECERUNT CHRISTO REDDE.
|
|
http://himetop.wikidot.com/xu-guangqi-s-tomb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xu_Guangqi
Siu, who now has the official title in the Catholic Church of `Servant of God’, was baptized in 1603 and the following year passed the top level imperial examination, thus becoming a進士 (roughly equivalent to a Ph.D) and then serving as a大學士 (literally `Great Scholar’), i.e. a senior advisor to the emperor, in 1604 . For additional details of his career see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xu_Guangqi
The Guangqi Park surrounding his tomb in Shanghai was established in 2003, presumably as part of Deng Xiaoping’s opening-up policy, though in official Chinese circles the emphasis appears to have been on his role in introducing Western technology (eg. irrigation systems) rather than his assistance to the Jesuits. The district of Shangai in which the park lies is still called after the Xu/Siu clan and Lady Xu, the mother-in-law of Charlie Soong (宋嘉樹 ), was a direct descendant of Xu Gungxi. Soong himself, who was a collaborator of Sun Yatsen and made his fortune printing Bibles, was the father of the famous Soong sisters.
Don explained that when the tomb was restored the Chinese translation of the epitaph was recovered but not the Latin text. This was reconstructed by a French Jesuit around 2006, using accounts in the writings of various Jesuit missionaries. The inscription in fact consists of tw separate epitaphs, the first written in 1633 by Father) Brancati and the second added in 1903, when the cross was erected. The language is realatively straightforward but John was a little puzzled by the phrase crux ista, since the adjective, originally meaning `that’ in the sense of near the listener and away from the speakler, often has an implication of contempt (`that…of yours!’) and, since cross and inscription were part of the same structure haec (`this’) would have been expected. The phrase prīmātus ā consiliīs secrētis, literally `primacy from secret counsels’ should probably be translated `pre-eminent confidential advisor’, indicating a position similar to that of a Privy Councillor in the days when the British monarch was an actual ruler. The use of the preposition ā to indicate someone’s function or responsibilities is found also in the titles of the various freedmen who formed the emperor Claudius’s closest advisors (for example, lībertus ā ratiōnibus, `freedman with responsibility for accounts’, `financial secretary’). Finally, the phrase posterōs tuōs, literally `your posterity’, `those who come after you’, might refer to Xu’s own clan but more likely to the Chinese in general.
We did not have time to cover all the lines from Book II of the Aeneid preciously circulated but did manage to read lines 250-273, in which Aeneas tells how on the night the Greeks entered Troy the ghost of Hector appeared to him. The text is given below, with notes originally prepared in 2012-13 to assist IGCSE candidates. These include comments on stylistic devices (in pink) and also colour coding to indicate noun-adjective phrases in which the constituents are separated by other words. In the text itself, elided syllables are printed in red and underlined.
We discussed in particular the example of hysteron proteron (putting last something that naturally comes last) im ` lines 258-9:
…. inclūsōs uterō Danaōs et pīnea furtim [Sinon furtively releases the Greeks enclosed
laxat claustra Sinōn. in the womb[of the horse] and the pine bolts]
Since laxat/release has a slightly different meaning when the object is something inside and when it is the actual fastenings, this could also be regarded as an example of zeugma. Clearer examples of ths figure of speech are provided by a line form Star Trak: the Next Generation; `You are free to execute your laws and your subjects.’ Probably best-known from English literature is Alexander Pope’s `Where thou, great Anna, dost counsel take and sometimes tea.’ We also noted the ambiguity of the expression prīma quiēs…incipit (l.268). The adjective should probably be taken adverbially (`When rest first begins…’) but might alternatively refer to a first stretch of sleep, since there is evidence that before the advent of gas or electric light people did not sleep right through the hours of darkness but woke up at some point and engaged in some activity before going to sleep again. Tanya mentioned an experiment in which people for a long time in darkened room did indeed sleep in this pattern.
Siu, who now has the official title in the Catholic Church of `Servant of God’, was baptized in 1603 and the following year passed the top level imperial examination, thus becoming a進士 (roughly equivalent to a Ph.D) and then serving as a大學士 (literally `Great Scholar’), i.e. a senior advisor to the emperor, in 1604 . For additional details of his career see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xu_Guangqi
The Guangqi Park surrounding his tomb in Shanghai was established in 2003, presumably as part of Deng Xiaoping’s opening-up policy, though in official Chinese circles the emphasis appears to have been on his role in introducing Western technology (eg. irrigation systems) rather than his assistance to the Jesuits. The district of Shangai in which the park lies is still called after the Xu/Siu clan and Lady Xu, the mother-in-law of Charlie Soong (宋嘉樹 ), was a direct descendant of Xu Gungxi. Soong himself, who was a collaborator of Sun Yatsen and made his fortune printing Bibles, was the father of the famous Soong sisters.
Don explained that when the tomb was restored the Chinese translation of the epitaph was recovered but not the Latin text. This was reconstructed by a French Jesuit around 2006, using accounts in the writings of various Jesuit missionaries. The inscription in fact consists of tw separate epitaphs, the first written in 1633 by Father) Brancati and the second added in 1903, when the cross was erected. The language is realatively straightforward but John was a little puzzled by the phrase crux ista, since the adjective, originally meaning `that’ in the sense of near the listener and away from the speakler, often has an implication of contempt (`that…of yours!’) and, since cross and inscription were part of the same structure haec (`this’) would have been expected. The phrase prīmātus ā consiliīs secrētis, literally `primacy from secret counsels’ should probably be translated `pre-eminent confidential advisor’, indicating a position similar to that of a Privy Councillor in the days when the British monarch was an actual ruler. The use of the preposition ā to indicate someone’s function or responsibilities is found also in the titles of the various freedmen who formed the emperor Claudius’s closest advisors (for example, lībertus ā ratiōnibus, `freedman with responsibility for accounts’, `financial secretary’). Finally, the phrase posterōs tuōs, literally `your posterity’, `those who come after you’, might refer to Xu’s own clan but more likely to the Chinese in general.
We did not have time to cover all the lines from Book II of the Aeneid preciously circulated but did manage to read lines 250-273, in which Aeneas tells how on the night the Greeks entered Troy the ghost of Hector appeared to him. The text is given below, with notes originally prepared in 2012-13 to assist IGCSE candidates. These include comments on stylistic devices (in pink) and also colour coding to indicate noun-adjective phrases in which the constituents are separated by other words. In the text itself, elided syllables are printed in red and underlined.
We discussed in particular the example of hysteron proteron (putting last something that naturally comes last) im ` lines 258-9:
…. inclūsōs uterō Danaōs et pīnea furtim [Sinon furtively releases the Greeks enclosed
laxat claustra Sinōn. in the womb[of the horse] and the pine bolts]
Since laxat/release has a slightly different meaning when the object is something inside and when it is the actual fastenings, this could also be regarded as an example of zeugma. Clearer examples of ths figure of speech are provided by a line form Star Trak: the Next Generation; `You are free to execute your laws and your subjects.’ Probably best-known from English literature is Alexander Pope’s `Where thou, great Anna, dost counsel take and sometimes tea.’ We also noted the ambiguity of the expression prīma quiēs…incipit (l.268). The adjective should probably be taken adverbially (`When rest first begins…’) but might alternatively refer to a first stretch of sleep, since there is evidence that before the advent of gas or electric light people did not sleep right through the hours of darkness but woke up at some point and engaged in some activity before going to sleep again. Tanya mentioned an experiment in which people for a long time in darkened room did indeed sleep in this pattern.
Achilles dragging Hector’s body around the walls of Troy
Finally, we touched on the origin of the surname of Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, whose ancestors include a Chinese immigrant. The story is that when arriving in Australia (or perhaps the Torre Strait islands) he did not have written proof of his real name but officials heard him referred to as A – Saam-jai (i.e. third son or brother) and this was transformed into `Assange’. The truth may be more prosaic, as one article on the internet claims the ancestor had aTaiwanese surname Au Sang http://indymedia.org.au/2012/06/02/rights-campaigner-julian-assange-acknowledges-his-torres-strait-islander-form-and-content.html).
Dē Festō Mediī Autumnī
Finally, we touched on the origin of the surname of Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, whose ancestors include a Chinese immigrant. The story is that when arriving in Australia (or perhaps the Torre Strait islands) he did not have written proof of his real name but officials heard him referred to as A – Saam-jai (i.e. third son or brother) and this was transformed into `Assange’. The truth may be more prosaic, as one article on the internet claims the ancestor had aTaiwanese surname Au Sang http://indymedia.org.au/2012/06/02/rights-campaigner-julian-assange-acknowledges-his-torres-strait-islander-form-and-content.html).
Dē Festō Mediī Autumnī
|
Quōmodo Honcongēnsēs Festum Mediī Autumnī celebrant ?
Multī sunt qui mōrēs veterēs adhūc sequantur. Tōta familia solet diē ipsō domī ūna cēnāre deinde, sī caelum serēnum est, hortum pūblicum adeunt aut collem proximum ascendunt ut omnēs lūnam plēnam spectantēs placentās lūnārēs edant et līberī lanternīs lūdant. Tū ipse Honcongō trigintā annōs habitās. Recordārisne prīmum festum Mediī Autumnī quod hīc dēgistī ? Ita vērō. Magister eram in schola secundāria et occupātissimus. Cum sōlus illō tempore habitārem, cōnstituī ad summum Montem Victōriānum pedibus ascendere ut celebrātiōnēs vidērem. Illōmodō nunquam anteā īveram, nam tantum nam tantum trāmine fūniculārī vectus ascenderam, sed semper sursum progressus ad summum montem sine difficultāte pervēnī. Clāriter recordor mē statim institōri cuidam incurrisse, quī, simulatque faciem umbrivirī cōnspexit, vās metallicum cervisiae ē cistā extractum mihi obtulit. Neque tamen accēpi nam valdē sitiēbam et primum necesse erat mihi potiōnem sine alcoholī bibere. Deinde familiās lanternāsque aliquamdiū spectāvī et domum sērius revertī. Difficultās nōn erat, nam quotannīs nocte Mediī Autumnī trāmina subterrānea per tōtam noctem hominēs vehunt et postrīdiē est fēria pūblica. Quid dē orīgine festī illīus scīmus ? Temporibus antiquissimīs Sīnēnsēs lūnam deam coluisse videntur, sub dynastiā Tangia prīmumnōbilēs deinde plebs coēpērunt sub dīvō sedentēs dum lūnam admīrantur convīvium participāre. Aevō Sungiō diēs decima quīnta mēnsis octāvī cōnstitūta est ad hanc cēlebrātiōnem quotannīs habendam. Dē hīs rēbus in hāc pāginā legere poteris : https://www.chinahighlights.com/festivals/mid-autumn-festival-history-origin.htm Et quid dē placentīs lūnāribus ? Trādunt cum Sīnēnsēs contrā dynastiam Mongoliānam rebelliōnem facere cōnstituissent ducēs mandāta in tālibus placentīs cēlāta ad populum mīsisse. Suntne aliae fābulae ad hoc festum pertinentēs ? Ita vērō. Dīcunt fēminam quandam, nōmine Seung Ngor (嫦娥, Chang E), potiōnem immortālitātis, ā Rēgīnā Caelī ipsā marītō eius datam, cōnsumpsisse et statim ad lūnam volāvisse. Seung Ngo ibi cum cuniculō ingentī et furciferō quōdam, quī arborem caedere semper frūstrā cōnātur, aeternō vīvit. Alii affirmant fēminam potiōnem ā marītō dolōsē abstulisse, aliī crēdunt illam bibisse nē medicīna ā discipulō marītī abriperētur. Videnda sunt hae pāginae : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e https://www.ancient.eu/article/894/most-popular-gods--goddesses-of-ancient-china/ Et quid tū ipse hōc annō faciēs ? Vesperī festī discipulōs docēre dēbēbō sed postrīdiē barbacoae tuae intererō neque, ut abhinc trigintā annōs, cervisiam recūsābō. |
How do Hong Kong people celebrate the Mid-Autumn festival?
There are many who still follow the old customs. On the day itself the whole family normally has dinner at home together, then, if the weather is goof, they go to a park or climb a nearby hill so that they can all eat moon cakes whilst looking at the full moon and the children can play with lanterns, You have been living in Hong Kong yourself for thirty years. Do you remember the first Mid-Autumn festival you spent here? Yes, indeed. I was a secondary school teacher and very busy. As at that time I was living on my own, I decided to go up to the top of Victoria Peak on foot so I could look at the celebrations. I had never before done it like that, as previously I had only gone up on the Peak Tram, but I just kept on going up-hill and I reached the top without any problem. I remember very clearly that I immediately came across a hawker, who, as soon as he saw a gweilo face, pulled out a can of beer from his box and offered it to me. However, I didn't take it because I was extremely thirsty and needed a non-alcoholic drink first. Then i spent some time looking at the families and the lanterns and returned home rather late. There was no problem with this because every year on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival the MTR trains keep carrying passengers right through the night and the next day is a public holiday. What do we know about the origin of the festival? In very ancient times the Chinese seem to have worshipped the moon as a goddess and under the Tang dynasty (618-907) first the nobles and then the common people started to sit outside and join in a party whilst they admired the full moon. In the Sung period (960-1279) the 15th day of the 8th month was fixed as the day for holding an annual celebration. You can read about this in the following page:https://www.chinahighlights.com/festivals/mid-autumn-festival-history-origin.htm And what about moon cakes? The traditional story is that when the Chinese had decided to rebel against the Mongol (Yuen) dynasty their leaders sent instructions to the people hidden in cakes of that kind. Are there other stories connected with this festival? Yes indeed. People say that a woman named Seung Ngor consumed the elixir of immortality given to her husband by the Queen of Heaven herself and then immediately flew to the moon. Seung Ngor lives there for ever in the company of a giant rabbit and of a criminal who is always trying in vain to cut down a tree.. Some state that the woman stole the elixir from her husband by a trick, others believe that she drank it to stop a student of her husband from stealing it. See the following pages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chang%27e https://www.ancient.eu/article/894/most-popular-gods--goddesses-of-ancient-china/ And what will you yourself do this year? I will have to teach students on the evening of the festival but the following day I'll be at your barbecue, and, unlike thirty years ago, I won't refuse a beer! |
AENĒIDOS LIBER II, 250 -271
|
Vertitur intereā caelum et ruit Ōceanō nox 250
involvēns umbrā magnā terramque polumque Myrmidonumque dolōs; fūsī per moenia Teucrī conticuēre; sopor fessōs complectitur artūs. et iam Argīva phalānx instructīs nāvibus ībat |
ā Tenedō tacitae per amīca silentia lūnae 255
lītora nōta petēns, flammās cum rēgia puppis extulerat, fātīsque deum dēfēnsus inīquīs inclūsōs uterō Danaōs et pīnea furtim laxat claustra Sinōn. illōs patefactus ad aurās [reddit equus] |
TRANSLATION
Meanwhile the sky turns and night rushes from the Ocean, enfolding in its great shadow earth, heaven and the treachery of the Myrmidons; sprawled across the city, the Teucrians fell silent and sleep embraces their weary limbs. And now the Argive force, with its ships in formation, started to move from Tenedos, amidst the friendly silence of the quiet moon, making for familiar shores, when the royal vessel raised up flames and, protected by the gods’ unjust fates, Sinon furtively releases the pine bolts and the Danaäns shut in [the horse’s] womb. Opened up, the horse restores them to the air
NOTES
250: ruō, ruere, ruī, rutum rush. vertō, -ere, vertī, versum turn. intereā meanwhile caelum, -ī n heaven, sky
vertitur: passive but equivalent to an intransitive verb (`turns’). The sky is seen as a revolving shell above the earth carrying darkness up from the Ocean surrounding the land
Ōceanō nox: prose would need ab before the ablative here. The monosyllable nox at the end of the line produces a stress pattern `di-DUM’ rather than the normal `DUM-di’ of the last foot, thus emphasising the abruptness of nightfall.
251: involvō, -ere, involvī, involūtum wrap (in), envelope, enfold. polus, -ī m. sky:
Spondees in this line represent night pressing heavily down
252: Myrmidonum: the Myrmidons were Achilles’ people, but here stand for the Greeks in general. dolus, -ī m. trick, treachery
fūsī : perf. partic.of fundō, fundere, fūdī, fūsum, pour out, scatter moenia, -ōrum n.plr. town walls, town, houses.
Teucrī; this word is often used as a synonymn for `Trojans’ because Teucer was an earlier king of Toy.
253: conticuēre : abbreviation for conticuērunt (from conticescō, -ere, conticuī, fall silent). sopor, sopōris m. sleep. fessus, -a, -um tired. complector, complectī, complexus sum, embrace. artus, artūs m. limb.
fessōs... artūs: the intertwining of these words with subject and verb (sopor..complectitur) emphasises how complete a hold sleep has upon the Trojans.
254: Argīvus, -a, -um Argive (ie. from Argos in southern Greece), Greek. phalanx, phalancis, f. soldiers in close formation, infantry. īnstruō, -ere, īnstrūxī, īnstrūctum, set in order. nāvis, nāvis f ship.
255: Tenedō: Tenedos was an island just off the Trojan coast where the Greeks had been hiding. tacitus, -a, -um silent. amīcus, -a, -um friendly. silentia, -ōrum n. pl. silence. This line reinforces the suggestion in lines 251-2 that nature itself was conspiring with the Greeks against the Trojans and it makes effective use of alliteration (initial `t’s of Tenedō and tacitae) and assonance (the `a’s and `i’s in the middle of the line). The predominance of dactyls in the line is perhaps meant to represent the ships gliding swiftly across the water.
256: lītus, lītoris, n. shore. rēgius, -a, -um royal. puppis, puppis f. stern, ship. petō, -ere, petīvī, peītum make for
nōta: the Trojan shores were well-known to the Greeks because they had been beseiging Troy for ten years.
257: efferō, efferre, extulī, ēlātum, carry out, raise. fātum –ī n. fate. inīquus, -a, -um unfair, unjust
cum…extulerat: subjunctive is not needed here as this cum clause contains the main idea, rather than just providing the background to the other part of the sentence. The pluperfect is used to emphasis that the signal had to be sent up and seen before Sinon (the Greek who persuaded the Trojan to bring the horse into the city) could act.
deum (as often in Vergil) is used instead of deōrum for the genitive and the fātīs deum (`fates of the gods’) really means `fates decreed by the gods.’
258: inclūdō, -ere, inclūsī, inclūsum shut in, enclose
uterus, -ī m. womb, belly (referring here to the inside of the horse). Danaī, -ōrum m.pl. Danaäns, Danai, Greeks (Danaus was an ancestor of the Greeks and supposedly migrated from Egypt and founded the city of Argos.)
pīneus, -a, -um made of pine. furtim furtively, like a thief
259 laxō, laxāre, laxāvī, laxātum loosen, release
claustrum, ī n. bolt pateficiō, pateficere, patefēcī, patefactum throw open, bring to light. aura, -ae f. air, breeze (used here in the plural with singular sense).
|
reddit equus laetīque cavō sē rōbore prōmunt 260
Thessandrus Sthenelusque ducēs et dīrus Ulixēs, dēmissum lāpsī per fūnem, Acamasque Thoasque Pēlīdēsque Neoptolemus prīmusque Machāōn et Menelāus et ipse dolī fabricātor Epēos. |
invādunt urbem somnō vīnōque sepultam; 265
caeduntur vigilēs, portīsque patentibus omnīs accipiunt sociōs atque agmina cōnscia iungunt Tempus erat quō prīma quiēs mortālibus aegrīs incipit et dōnō dīvum grātissima serpit. |
TRANSLATION
And joyfully there emerge from the hollow wood the chieftains Thessandrus and Sthenelus and terrible Ulysses, after sliding along the rope let down, and also Acamas and Thoas and Neoptolemus of Peleus’s line and Machaon, who was first, and Menlaus and Epeos, builder of the deceitful structure. They charge into a city deep in drunken sleep; the guards are cut down, and with the gates wide open they receive their allies and join forces with their accomplices.
It was the time when first sleep begins for weary mortals and creeps upon them most pleasingly as a gift of the gods.
NOTES
260: reddō, -ere, reddidī, redditum give back, render. cavus, -a, -um hollow. laetī: Latin uses an adjective here but the adverb (`happily’) would be more usual in English. rōbor, rōboris n. oak, hard wood.
cavō.. rōbore: prose would need ab before the ablative here.
prōmō, -ere, prōmpsī/prōmsī, prōmptum bring out.
261: dīrus, -a, -um terrible, fearful, awful, horrible
Thessandrus; a Greek not mentioned by Homer but a medieval source makes him brother-in-law of the leading Greek warrior Diomede. Sthenelus: a close friend of Diomede. Ulixēs: Odysseus or Ulysses (one of the Greek leaders, whose adventures on his journey home are the subject of Homer’s Odyssey).The individuals listed in lines 261-264 are all joint subjects of the verb prōmunt in line 260. Homer names only five of the men inside the horse (including two (Diomede and Anticlus) strangely omitted by Virgil) but other ancient sources claim there were 50 or 3,000!
262: dēmittō, -ere, dēmīsī, dēmissum let down, send down
lābor, lābī, lāpsus sum slide or fall down. fūnis, fūnis m.. rope. Acamas: son of Theseus (king of Athens who killed the Minotaur). Thoas: a Greek warrior who, like Acamas, later became one of Penelope when her husband Ulysses failed to arrive home
dēmissum lāpsī per fūnem: these spondees represent the Greeks slowing down as they slide down the rope.
263: Pēlīdēs: a patronymic meaning `descendant of Peleus’. Neoptolemos (`young warrior’):, the son of Achilles and grandson of Peleus. Macāōn : the Greek army doctor, who might have got out first to treat anyone injured coming down. Alternatively, prīmus might here mean `chieftain’ or `leader’. Epēos: this craftsman built the horse but Ulysses is usually credited for the original idea. Putting the builder at the end of the list makes an effective conclusion to it.
264: dolus, -ī m trick, (in this line) treacherous object fabricātor, fabricātōris m.f. maker, fashioner, deviser
Menelāus: king of Sparta and husband of Helen.
265: sepeliō, sepelīvī/sepeliī, sepultum bury
somnō vīnōque sepultam: literally, `buried in sleep and wine’ The slow, spondaic line represents Trojan inactivity
266: caedō, -ere, cecīdī, caesum cut, slaughter. vigil, vigilis m.f. guard. porta, -ae f gate pateō, patēre, patuī be open, be exposed
caeduntur : the passive emphasises how the guards were slaughtered in their slep with no chance to resist.
omnīs is plural accusative (Virgil normally uses this alternative -īs ending for i-stem nouns and adjectives and uses –ēs only for the nominative plural).
portīs patentibus : note the alliteration in this ablative absolute phrase.
267: socius, -ī m ally agmen, agminis n. column, body of troops. cōnscius, -a, -um in the know, guilty (Aeneas portrays the Greeks as accomplices in a crime).iungō, -ere, iūnxī, iūnctum join
268: tempus, temporis n time quō at which. quiēs, quiētis f rest, quiet, sleep. aeger, aegra, aegrum sick, weary: mortālis, -e mortal, human
269: incipiō, incipere, incēpī, inceptum begin. serpo, serpere, serpsī crawl, creep (the Latin serpēns (English serpent) means literally `crawling thing’. dōnum, -ī n gift
dōnō: dative expressing role or function (`as a gift’). grātus, -a, -um pleasing, grateful
dīvum: the –um is a shortened genitive plural termination -ōrum (`of the gods’)
grātissima: another adjective which can be translated as an adverb. Virgil carefully builds up a picture of quiet and calm to contrast with the horrors of war about to begin.
|
in somnīs, ecce, ante oculōs maestissimus Hector
vīsus adesse mihī largōsque effundere flētūs, 271 |
raptātus bīgīs ut quondam, āterque cruentō
pulvere perque pedēs traiectus lōra tumentīs. |
TRANSLATION
Behold, in a dream saddest Hector seemed to be before my eyes and to be shedding abundant tears, as once when dragged by the chariot, both black with bloody dust and pierced with the thongs through his swelling feet.
NOTES
270: somnus, -ī m sleep (plural used here for singular nd really equivalent to `in a dream’). oculus, -ī m eye.maestus, -a, -um sad.
Hector was the eldest son of Priam and was killed by Achilles, who then dragged his body around the city.
271:.effundō, -ere, effūdī, effūsum pour out, shed
largus, -a, -um plentiful, abundant. flētus, -ūs m weeping, tears.
vīsus: here meaning `seemed’ rather than `seen’
272: raptō, -āre, raptāvī, raptātum drag off violently.
bīgae, bīgārum f.pl. two-horse chariot. ut as.
quondam once. ater, atra, atrum black
cruentus, -a, -um bloody
273: pulvis, pulveris m dust pēs, pedis m foot
trāiciō, trāicere, trāiēcī, trāiectum transfix, thrust through.
lōrum, -ī n strap, thong. tumeō, tumēre swell.
trāiectus; the perfect participle, which would normally mean `pierced’, is here equivalent to `pierced with’ and so can take lōra as a kind of direct object.
Note the alliteration with p- at the start of the line.
Behold, in a dream saddest Hector seemed to be before my eyes and to be shedding abundant tears, as once when dragged by the chariot, both black with bloody dust and pierced with the thongs through his swelling feet.
NOTES
270: somnus, -ī m sleep (plural used here for singular nd really equivalent to `in a dream’). oculus, -ī m eye.maestus, -a, -um sad.
Hector was the eldest son of Priam and was killed by Achilles, who then dragged his body around the city.
271:.effundō, -ere, effūdī, effūsum pour out, shed
largus, -a, -um plentiful, abundant. flētus, -ūs m weeping, tears.
vīsus: here meaning `seemed’ rather than `seen’
272: raptō, -āre, raptāvī, raptātum drag off violently.
bīgae, bīgārum f.pl. two-horse chariot. ut as.
quondam once. ater, atra, atrum black
cruentus, -a, -um bloody
273: pulvis, pulveris m dust pēs, pedis m foot
trāiciō, trāicere, trāiēcī, trāiectum transfix, thrust through.
lōrum, -ī n strap, thong. tumeō, tumēre swell.
trāiectus; the perfect participle, which would normally mean `pierced’, is here equivalent to `pierced with’ and so can take lōra as a kind of direct object.
Note the alliteration with p- at the start of the line.
