Sometimes my degree is full of awesome

[cleflink]

Reading the Thesmophoriazusae, a play by the ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes and I'm coming across some very interesting verbs. Like these:

βινεῖσθαι - to get fucked

λαικάζει - he wenches or, as my translation puts it, he sucks cock.

The fact that both verbs are being used in reference to a man only makes it more awesome, if you ask me (I actually get to read this stuff for school!).

Comments

[ciceqi]

♥ I'm pretty sure I have all of Aristophanes' plays, because he is hysterical and fabulous, but reading him is, I think, what made me a snob about my translators. Because I am a big enough geek to read multiple translations of the same thing (I think I currently own six different translations of the Aeneid), and just. Some people reaaaaally like to clean up their classics for their perceived audience. *facepalm* Like, there's one guy in particular whose name currently escapes me, except that every time I see he's done the translation, I immediately put it down, because he a) nicens up the language until you might as well be reading a completely different book, and b) is a failed poet or something, because my god does he go overboard on making the translation "his own." And also purple. (A quick hit of Amazon suggests to me that the man I have a hate-on for is Robert Fitzgerald, who is sadly something in the way of being very, very popular. *sighs*)

Some of the funniest reading when it comes to unexpected language lessons, if you're into Russian, is The Gulag Handbook, wherein I learned that "you're not being fucked; there's no need to wiggle your ass" is another way of saying "mind your own business," and also how to say it in Russian. ♥

[cleflink]

I'm doing a graduate seminar on Aristophanes this term and I gotta say I feel really bad for all the students translating Demosthenes instead. There's nothing quite like reading articles about crossdressing for class (unless it's reading articles about eunuchs which was one of my courses last year *sparkles*).

And yeah, some of the translations are pretty ugh. This one is actually the official Loeb translation and it, kind of surprises me, really, that the translation is so engaging. Though a check in the front of the book says it was only translated in 2000, rather than like 1921 or something, by a Jefferey Henderson who seems to have done a pretty good job. Much better than one of the other translation's I've got where the whole damn thing is written in rhyming couplets. Agh.

I'm pretty sure we're using Fitzgerald's translation of the Iliad for the class I'm TAing and it, is at least written in verse? But yeah, not the snazziest (the best part is probably the cover, which is a photo of the D-Day landings).

Russian is one language I have not yet tried to learn, but that is quite possibly the best saying I have ever heard. ^__^