Monday 28 January 2019

The joys of friendship

Speaking of special company, we have today two fragments of Sappho showing some joys of friendship and affection.
  1. The first one is Bergk 18 Edmonds 120 Lobel-Page 138 Campbell 138. It is a quote from the Deipnosophistæ (oh how long it is since I last heard of that work!), which reads «Καὶ ἡ Σαπφὼ δὲ πρὸς τὸν ὑπερβαλλόντως θαυμαζόμενον τὴν μορφὴν καὶ καλὸν εἶναι νομιζόμενόν φησι· στᾶθι κἄντα φίλος καὶ τὰν ἐπ' ὄσσοις ὀμπέτασον χάριν», «And Sappho says to the man who is extravagantly admired for his figure and considered handsome: [quote]» (translation by Campbell). This is very problematic, as it is inmetrical and very hard to fit into a meter. Bergk, for some reason, switches στᾶθι and κἄντα and wants to see this as part of a Sapphic stanza. I believe an Alcaic stanza is more likely, given that from καὶ on we have a perfectly fine Alcaic hendecasyllabic, and fitting that to a Sapphic stanza would require a line end after that conjunction and a missing single syllable after this complete sentence. Edmonds (surprise surprise) is creative, and comes up with possibly a better completion than mine, «‹ὄ›σταθι κἄντα ‹θᾶ με φίλαν› φίλος», «Stand ‹up›, ‹look me› in the face ‹as friend to› friend». Campbell and Lobel-Page are more prudent (surprise surprise), and keep the κἄντα in cruces, though Campbell goes as far as reporting Fick suggested μ' ἄντα. I have my own creativity here, for translation's sake.
  2. The second one is apparently not in Bergk, and is Edmonds 89 Lobel-Page 48 Campbell 48. Curiously, I have an extra line w.r.t. LP and C. This is a two-part quote by Iulianus who, in a letter to Iamblichus, writes «Ἦλθες καὶ ἐποίησας ἦλθες γὰρ δὴ καὶ ἀπὼν οἷς γράφεις· ἐγὼ δέ σε μὰ ὤμαν· ἄν δ' ἐφύλαξας ἐμὰν φρένα καιομέναν πόθῳ [...] χαῖρε δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ἡμῖν πολλά, καθάπερ ἡ καλὴ Σαπφώ φησιν, καὶ οὐκ ἰσάριθμα μόνον τῷ χρόνῳ ὃν ἀλλήλων ἀπελείφθημεν, ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ ἀεὶ χαῖρε», which, after correcting μὰ ὤμαν to μαόμαν, should read «You came, and you did: for you came, even not being here, in your writing; and I was longing for you; and you guarded my heart which burnt with desire […] and you yourself be very well, as the beautiful Sappho says, and not only for as long as we've been parted, but be well forever too». At this point I'm really curious as to what LP and C did with the second part. But I don't have time to scan all Campbell to look for this. Now, semantically speaking, ἐφύλαξας is a little out of place IMO. Two options present themselves: Edmonds' ἔφλαξας=ἔφλεξας, "you burnt up", or Lobel-Page and Campbell's, or rather Thomas's, ἔψυξας, "you cooled down". I clearly followed my main source, Greek Wikisource, which to this day reads «ἦλθες, κάλ' ἐπόησας, ἔγω δέ σ᾿ ἐμαιόμαν, / ὂν δ᾿ ἔφλυξας ἔμαν φρένα καιομέναν πόθωι / χαῖρε πόλλα . . ἰσάριθμά τε τῶι χρόνωι», with the (non-existent?) verb I amended thanks to Rosati. I would still do so, because, while Edmond's idea does reflect the original better, the presence of a loved one should cool down a heart burning with desire, I mean, it's a pleasant experience to be around a friend, so it doesn't burn further, except when the friend leaves again of course, but that is not what is being discussed here. The creativity of Edmonds doesn't stop here, but I will stop discussing it. Except I need to mention the metrical issue. Since it's hard to split apart the quote from the surrounding words of Julian (cos quotation marks didn't exist back then, apparently), what meter is this? Well, we have (after the emendation just discussed) a nice full xx–uu–uu–uu–ux line, so that's the meter, of course. Definitely not "the same but with one dactyl less and obscure other lines interspersed" as Edmonds does, right? Back to splitting quote from surroundings. Is that καὶ ἐποίησας in the quote or not? Team Lobel-Page + Edmonds + Wikisource + Bibliotheca Augustana + The Complete Poems of Sappho keep it in, and team Campbell-only leaves it out. Edmonds (and "the doc") stick in an εὖ (turning καὶ -> κεὖ / εὖ δ' respectively), but why do so when you can follow all others (save for Lobel-Page and their cruces) and read κά‹λ'› with the same meaning? The other problem is the second part, i.e. the last line, where ἡμῖν, even Aeolicised, doesn't fit the meter, so we're left with χαῖρε πόλλα ... ἰσάριθμά ‹τε τῷ› χρόνῳ, which by the way already features a number of emendations. Let's start from the quote: «χαῖρε δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ἡμῖν πολλά, καθάπερ ἡ καλὴ Σαπφώ φησιν, καὶ οὐκ ἰσάριθμα μόνον τῷ χρόνῳ ὃν ἀλλήλων ἀπελείφθημεν, ἀλλὰ γὰρ καὶ ἀεὶ χαῖρε». Seems she might have said something like «χαῖρε (ἡμῖν) πολλά ἰσάριθμα τῷ χρόνῳ ὃν ἀλλήλων ἀπελείφθημεν». The best I can think of is take the Wikisource text, assume there is another line of which we have too little to reconstruct anything sensible, and fill the hole by σὺ κάλ' or similar, as I did back in the days, minus the extra line. Said line would contain «ὃν ἀλλήλων ἀπελείφθημεν» or similar. Perhaps «ἰσάριθμα χρόνῳ ‹ὅτῳ› / ἀλλάλαν ἀπέλειμμεν», if that verb form exists and fits in? Hm, that would be active, we need passive. More on this here. Welp, I can only give you what I actually translated, which is the σὺ κάλ' version with no extra line. Note that χρόνῳ is there taken as "the time of life", and would match the ἀεὶ in the quote which is explicitly not Sappho, so that couldn't be what Sappho wrote. Too bad I'm stuck with it :).
Let's see these poems!


[Σὺ] στᾶθι ‹τυίδε› κἄντα ‹ἐμοῦ›, φίλος,
καὶ τὰν ἐπ' ὄσσοις ὀμπέτασον χάριν.


Sta’ ‹qui› davanti ͜‹a me›, amico mïo,
E dentro gl’occhi fa’ brillar la gi͜oia.




ἦλθες, κά‹λ'› ἐπόησας, ἔγω δέ σ᾿ ἐμαιόμαν,
ὂν δ᾿ ἔ‹ψυ›ξας ἔμαν φρένα καιομέναν πόθῳ·
χαῖρε πόλλα ‹σὺ κάλ’› ἰσάριθμά ‹τε› τῷ χρόνῳ.


Tu venisti e bene facesti, bramavo te,
Il mi͜o cuor rinfrescasti (disì͜o lo bruciava, sì):
‹Beni› goditi molti per tutta la vita tua.
‹Hīc› āntĕ ‹mē›, ămīcĕ ămātĕ, stā,
Ēt īntŭs ōclīs ga͞udĭă fāc mĭcēnt.


Stay ‹here› in front ‹of me›, my darling friend,
And in your eyes make happiness well shine.




Vēnīstī, bĕn’ ăgēns, năm ĕg’ īpsă hĭēbām tē,
Ūrēns cōrquĕ cŭpīdĭnĕ frīgŏrĕ m’ āffēxtī:
Tōtām vītăm hăbē tĭbĭ plūrĭmă ‹bōnă tū›.


Coming well did you do, for I craved you with all my thought,
Down you coolèd my crave-burning heart, which some cooling sought:
May ‹you› all your life long lots of ‹good things› yourself enjoy.

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