Saturday 7 August 2021

Atela

Today we have… a hot mess of Ancient Greek called Atela. I haven't yet figured out what this title means… because I have two different interpretations for it. Yes, you heard that right. Where does this mess come from? Stari Most, an album by Stefano Saletti and Piccola Banda Ikona. In this album, every time they touch Ancient Greek, they make a disastrous mess. In the example at hand, they took a fragment by Archilochus, which reads:

Τοῖος γὰρ φιλότητος ἔρως ὑπὸ καρδίην ἐλυσθεὶς
Πολλὴν κατ' ἀχλὺν ὀμμάτων ἔχευεν
Κλέψας ἐκ στηθέων ἀπαλὰς φρένας
Such a craving for love, having coiled up close to [my] heart,
Poured down on [my] eyes a lot of mist
Stealing [my] fragile soul from [my] breast.

dropped random words, and stuck random other stuff to the beginning and end of the part they took. Then, they transcribed the result in a horrible way that doesn't even care to correctly space words, or match what they actually recorded for that matter:

Atela atela mu kale tukè
Atela atela sicur u se sè
E lu stè skartienpo ne kataklu
O ma donne exeun e mu kale tu ke

How did I find the fragment? Well, first I tried looking for τύχη in all of Archilochus (on Bibliotheca Augustana), because "mu kale tukè", and "mu kale tu ke" as well, were obviously μου καλὴ τύχη, and failed. Then, I listened to the video, and came up with the following transcription:

Atela atela mu kale tukè
Atela atela sikuruse sè
Elus ten kardien polle kataklun
Ommaton exeue mu kale tuke

Atela atela mu kale tukè
Atela atela sikuruse sè
Elus tes kardien pollen kataklun
Ommaton exeue mu kale tuke

Atela atela mu kale tukè
Atela atela sikuruse sè
Elus ten kardien pollen kataklun
Ommaton exeue mu kale tuke

Having already been exposed to their horrible pronunciation via Thalatta (Sea) and Paian (Paeana), I figured out the first two words of the last line were ὀμμάτων ἔχευε, Googled, and found the fragment. Anyone who thinks the following two are equivalent should be banned from touching Ancient Greek ever again :).

E lu stè skartienpo ne kataklu
O ma donne exeun e mu kale tu ke
Ἐλυσθεὶς καρδίην, πολλὴν κατ' ἀχλὺν
Ὀμμάτων ἔχευεν μου καλὴ τύχη

At this point, we have the first two lines. The title, first of all: what the heck is that word? It's now time to look at the site's translation:

Poiché poiché è una brama d'amore
Poiché poiché dentro il cuore cresce
Poi versa sugli occhi
Una densa nebbia
Che dal petto rapisce i molli sensi
Regalando il ristoro del dolce sonno
Because because it's a craving of love
Because because inside the heart it grows
Then it pours on the eyes
A dense mist
Which from the chest kidnaps the soft senses
Gifting the rest of sweet sleep

A very liberal interpretation of the fragment, with some made-up additions. Not at all matching the fragment. First of all, because there is no way at all to match "atela", however it is written, to "because". Second of all, because whoever translates "mu kale tuke" as "it's a craving of love" is a complete dumbo dingus. Third of all, because what the heck is "sicur use sè"? Well, let's start from "atela". So, I originally thought of connecting it with τέλος, "end" or "purpose", but that would be ἀτελής, not the *ἄτελος I'd have needed. With that out of the way, I fiddled with the spelling, and found άθελος as a Modern Greek word for "unintentional". I assumed they'd just taken it and used it even thought it wasn't Ancient, since it would probably be understandable even to Ancient Greeks. For "sicur use sè", I searched Perseus a lot, and was initially only able to come up with οὔση, leaving the rest a mystery. Then, I found ἔσῃ, and came up with:

Ἄθελα, ἄθελα! (Ἥ) μου καλὴ τύχη
- Ἄθελα, ἄθελα - (σικούρ' ὡς ἔσῃ)
Ἐλυσθεὶς (ὑπὸ) καρδίην, πολλὴν κατ' ἀχλὺν
Ὀμμάτων ἔχευέν μου καλὴ τύχη
Unintentionally, unintentionally! My beautiful fate
Unintentionally, unintentionally – (thus you will be sure)
Having snuck (into) [my] heart, a lot of mist
My beautiful fate poured over my eyes.

This is what I originally translated to Modern Greek on 6/8/21 at 0:34-0:39, to a wrong tune which caused an extra όχι to start l. 1. As I commented on LT, «As if a justification for something done out of the "mist in the eyes". […] My idea is that the singer tells the (female) addressee that whatever they have done was unintentional and due to this thing, and in this line they're saying that these are uttered so that she may be sure they're forgivable or something. That's the most sensible interpretation I could come up with. An alternative option is σ' ἰκοῦ, ῥοῦ σ' ἔσῃ, "come thou, of the stream thou wilt be", and I say, what stream?». Then I found ῥύσῃ "to the deliverance", and the following version was born, which is what I fixed the translation to reflect at 0:54:

Ἄθελα, ἄθελα! (Ἥ) μου καλὴ τύχη
- Ἄθελα, ἄθελα - (σ' ἰκοῦ ῥύσῃ σῇ)
Ἐλυσθεὶς (ὑπὸ) καρδίην, πολλὴν κατ' ἀχλὺν
Ὀμμάτων ἔχευέν μου καλὴ τύχη
Unintentionally, unintentionally! My beautiful fate
Unintentionally, unintentionally – (come to your salvation)
Having snuck (into) [my] heart, a lot of mist
My beautiful fate poured over my eyes.

Then at 12:10 I realized I had the wrong tune in mind, and fixed the translation of the above. Then, I thought of yet more versions, where I finally integrated ἀτελής into the picture:

Ἀτελ' ἀτελ' ἆ, μου καλὴ τύχη!
Ἀτελ' ἀτελ' ἆ, σ' ἰκοῦ, ῥύσῃ σέ!
(Ἔρως) ἐλυσθεὶς (ὑπὸ) καρδίην, πολλὴν κατ' ἀχλὺν
Ὀμμάτων ἔχευεν, (ὦ) μου καλὴ τύχη

Ἀτελ' ἀτελ', ἆ μου καλὴ τύχη!
Ἀτελ' ἀτελ', ἆ, σ' ἰκοῦ, 'ροῦσ' ᾖς, ἦ!
(Ἔρως) ἐλυσθεὶς (ὑπὸ) καρδίην, πολλὴν κατ' ἀχλὺν
Ὀμμάτων ἔχευέν μου καλὴ τύχη

Ἀτελ' ἀτελ', ἆ μου καλὴ τύχη!
Ἀτελ' ἀτελ', ἆ, σ' ἰκοῦ· 'ρως ἔσῃ
(Ὅς) ἐλυσθεὶς (ὑπὸ) καρδίην, πολλὴν κατ' ἀχλὺν
Ὀμμάτων ἔχευέν μου καλὴ τύχη
Forever forever ah, my beautiful fate!
Forever forever ah, come, save yourself!
(Love) having snuck (into) [my] heart, a lot of mist down
On [my] eyes poured, my beautiful fate!

Forever forever ah, my beautiful fate!
Forever forever ah, come, be my lover, may it be [thus]!
(Love) having snuck (into) [my] heart, a lot of mist down
On [my] eyes poured, my beautiful fate!

Forever forever ah, my beautiful fate!
– Forever forever ah, come, you'll be the love
(Which) having snuck (into) [my] heart, a lot of mist down
On [my] eyes poured, my beautiful fate!

Below, I will report all five versions, with their English translations on the right, and with Modern Greek below. Which means that, as of drafting this post on 7/8/21, I have three versions to translate, and I get started on them at 14:21 and finish at 14:35. Let's see what comes up! Or rather, let's see what came out of Kika's correction of my work between 3/7/23 and 5/7/23 (together with my correction Που στην καρδιά μου ήρθε -> Που στην καρδιά μού 'ρθε from 14/7/23 12:05:~30), and the other tab has the original version.
Ἄθελα, ἄθελα! (Ἥ) μου καλὴ τύχη
- Ἄθελα, ἄθελα - (σικούρ' ὡς ἔσῃ)
Ἐλυσθεὶς (ὑπὸ) καρδίην, πολλὴν κατ' ἀχλὺν
Ὀμμάτων ἔχευέν μου καλὴ τύχη

Ἄθελα, ἄθελα! (Ἥ) μου καλὴ τύχη
- Ἄθελα, ἄθελα - (σ' ἰκοῦ ῥύσῃ σῇ)
Ἐλυσθεὶς (ὑπὸ) καρδίην, πολλὴν κατ' ἀχλὺν
Ὀμμάτων ἔχευέν μου καλὴ τύχη

Ἀτελ' ἀτελ' ἆ, μου καλὴ τύχη!
Ἀτελ' ἀτελ' ἆ, σ' ἰκοῦ, ῥύσῃ σέ!
(Ἔρως) ἐλυσθεὶς (ὑπὸ) καρδίην, πολλὴν κατ' ἀχλὺν
Ὀμμάτων ἔχευεν, (ὦ) μου καλὴ τύχη

Ἀτελ' ἀτελ', ἆ μου καλὴ τύχη!
Ἀτελ' ἀτελ', ἆ, σ' ἰκοῦ, 'ροῦσ' ᾖς, ἦ!
(Ἔρως) ἐλυσθεὶς (ὑπὸ) καρδίην, πολλὴν κατ' ἀχλὺν
Ὀμμάτων ἔχευέν μου καλὴ τύχη

Ἀτελ' ἀτελ', ἆ μου καλὴ τύχη!
Ἀτελ' ἀτελ', ἆ, σ' ἰκοῦ· 'ρως ἔσῃ
(Ὅς) ἐλυσθεὶς (ὑπὸ) καρδίην, πολλὴν κατ' ἀχλὺν
Ὀμμάτων ἔχευέν μου καλὴ τύχη



Δεν τ' ήθελα! Η τύχη μου η καλή -
Λέω τώρα τούτο για να 'σαι σίγουρ' εσύ -
Στην καρδιά μου ήρθε, αντάρα πολλή
Μ' έχυνε στα μάτια η τύχη μου η καλή!

Δεν τ' ήθελα! Η τύχη μου η καλή –
(Δεν τ' ήθελα! Έλα στην σωτεριάν εσύ! –
Στην καρδιά μου ήρθε, αντάρα πολλή
Μ' έχυνε στα μάτια η τύχη μου η καλή!

Πάντοτε, πάντα, ω τύχη μου καλή!
Πάντοτε έλα, σώζε εσένα εσύ!
Στην καρδιά μου ήρθε, αντάρα πολλή
Στα μάτια μ' έχυνε η αγάπη, ω τύχη μου καλή!

Πάντοτε, πάντα, ω τύχη μου καλή!
Πάντοτε έλα και μ' αγάπα εσύ!
Στην καρδιά μου ήρθε, αντάρα πολλή
Στα μάτια μ' έχυνε η αγάπη, ω τύχη μου καλή!

Πάντοτε, πάντα, ω τύχη μου καλή!
Πάντοτε έλα· ο έρως θα 'σαι 'σύ
Που στην καρδιά μου ήρθε, κι αντάρα πολλή
Μ' έχυνε στα μάτια ω τύχη μου καλή!
Unintentionally, unintentionally! My beautiful fate
Unintentionally, unintentionally – (thus you will be sure)
Having snuck (into) [my] heart, a lot of mist
My beautiful fate poured over my eyes.

Unintentionally, unintentionally! My beautiful fate
Unintentionally, unintentionally – (come to your salvation)
Having snuck (into) [my] heart, a lot of mist
My beautiful fate poured over my eyes.

Forever forever ah, my beautiful fate!
Forever forever ah, come, save yourself!
(Love) having snuck (into) [my] heart, a lot of mist down
On [my] eyes poured, my beautiful fate!

Forever forever ah, my beautiful fate!
Forever forever ah, come, be my lover, may it be [thus]!
(Love) having snuck (into) [my] heart, a lot of mist down
On [my] eyes poured, my beautiful fate!

Forever forever ah, my beautiful fate!
– Forever forever ah, come, you'll be the love
(Which) having snuck (into) [my] heart, a lot of mist down
On [my] eyes poured, my beautiful fate!



Den t' í̱thela! I̱ týkhi̱ moy i̱ kalí̱ -
Léō tṓra toýto gia na 'sä sígoyr' esý -
Sti̱n kardiá moy í̱rthe, antára pollí̱
M' ékhyne sta mátia i̱ týkhi̱ moy i̱ kalí̱!

Den t' í̱thela! I̱ týkhi̱ moy i̱ kalí̱ -
(Den t' í̱thela! Éla sti̱n sōterián esý! –
Sti̱n kardiá moy í̱rthe, antára pollí̱
M' ékhyne sta mátia i̱ týkhi̱ moy i̱ kalí̱!

Pántote, pánta, ō týkhi̱ moy kalí̱!
Pántote éla, sṓze eséna esý!
Sti̱n kardiá moy í̱rthe, antára pollí̱
Sta mátia m' ékhyne i̱ agápi̱, ō týkhi̱ moy kalí!

Pántote, pánta, ō týkhi̱ moy kalí̱!
Pántote éla kä m' agápa esý!
Sti̱n kardiá moy í̱rthe, antára pollí̱
Sta mátia m' ékhyne i̱ agápi̱, ō týkhi̱ moy kalí!

Pántote, pánta, ō týkhi̱ moy kalí̱!
Pántote éla: o érōs tha 'sä 'sý
Poy sti̱n kardiá moy í̱rthe, ki antára pollí̱
M' ékhyne sta mátia, ō týkhi̱ moy kalí̱!
Ἄθελα, ἄθελα! (Ἥ) μου καλὴ τύχη
- Ἄθελα, ἄθελα - (σικούρ' ὡς ἔσῃ)
Ἐλυσθεὶς (ὑπὸ) καρδίην, πολλὴν κατ' ἀχλὺν
Ὀμμάτων ἔχευέν μου καλὴ τύχη

Ἄθελα, ἄθελα! (Ἥ) μου καλὴ τύχη
- Ἄθελα, ἄθελα - (σ' ἰκοῦ ῥύσῃ σῇ)
Ἐλυσθεὶς (ὑπὸ) καρδίην, πολλὴν κατ' ἀχλὺν
Ὀμμάτων ἔχευέν μου καλὴ τύχη

Ἀτελ' ἀτελ' ἆ, μου καλὴ τύχη!
Ἀτελ' ἀτελ' ἆ, σ' ἰκοῦ, ῥύσῃ σέ!
(Ἔρως) ἐλυσθεὶς (ὑπὸ) καρδίην, πολλὴν κατ' ἀχλὺν
Ὀμμάτων ἔχευεν, (ὦ) μου καλὴ τύχη

Ἀτελ' ἀτελ', ἆ μου καλὴ τύχη!
Ἀτελ' ἀτελ', ἆ, σ' ἰκοῦ, 'ροῦσ' ᾖς, ἦ!
(Ἔρως) ἐλυσθεὶς (ὑπὸ) καρδίην, πολλὴν κατ' ἀχλὺν
Ὀμμάτων ἔχευέν μου καλὴ τύχη

Ἀτελ' ἀτελ', ἆ μου καλὴ τύχη!
Ἀτελ' ἀτελ', ἆ, σ' ἰκοῦ· 'ρως ἔσῃ
(Ὅς) ἐλυσθεὶς (ὑπὸ) καρδίην, πολλὴν κατ' ἀχλὺν
Ὀμμάτων ἔχευέν μου καλὴ τύχη



Δεν τό ‘θελα! Η τύχη μου η καλή -
Λέω τώρα τούτο για να 'σαι σίγουρη -
Στην καρδιά μου ήρθε, αντάρα πολλή
Μού ‘χυνε στα μάτια η τύχη μου η καλή!

Δεν τό ‘θελα! Η τύχη μου η καλή –
(Δεν τό ‘θελα! Έλα στην σωτηρίαν εσύ! –
Στην καρδιά μου ήρθε. Αντάρα πολλή
Μού ‘χυνε στα μάτια η τύχη μου η καλή!

Πάντοτε, πάντα, ω τύχη μου καλή!
Πάντοτε έλα, σώσου τώρα εσύ!
Στην καρδιά μου ήρθε, αντάρα πολλή
Στα μάτια μού ‘χυνε η αγάπη, ω τύχη μου καλή!

Πάντοτε, πάντα, ω τύχη μου καλή!
Πάντοτε έλα, να μ’ αγαπάς εσύ!
Αφού στην καρδιά μού ‘ρθε, αντάρα πολλή
Στα μάτια μού ‘χυνε η αγάπη, ω τύχη μου καλή!

Πάντοτε, πάντα, ω τύχη μου καλή!
Πάντοτε έλα· ο έρως θα 'σαι 'σύ
Που στην καρδιά μού 'ρθε, κι αντάρα πολλή
Μού ‘χυνε στα μάτια, ω τύχη μου καλή!
Unintentionally, unintentionally! My beautiful fate
Unintentionally, unintentionally – (thus you will be sure)
Having snuck (into) [my] heart, a lot of mist
My beautiful fate poured over my eyes.

Unintentionally, unintentionally! My beautiful fate
Unintentionally, unintentionally – (come to your salvation)
Having snuck (into) [my] heart, a lot of mist
My beautiful fate poured over my eyes.

Forever forever ah, my beautiful fate!
Forever forever ah, come, save yourself!
(Love) having snuck (into) [my] heart, a lot of mist down
On [my] eyes poured, my beautiful fate!

Forever forever ah, my beautiful fate!
Forever forever ah, come, be my lover, may it be [thus]!
(Love) having snuck (into) [my] heart, a lot of mist down
On [my] eyes poured, my beautiful fate!

Forever forever ah, my beautiful fate!
– Forever forever ah, come, you'll be the love
(Which) having snuck (into) [my] heart, a lot of mist down
On [my] eyes poured, my beautiful fate!



Den tó 'thela! I̱ týkhi̱ moy i̱ kalí̱ -
Léō tṓra toýto gia na 'sä sígoyri̱ -
Sti̱n kardiá moy í̱rthe, antára pollí̱
Moý 'khyne sta mátia i̱ týkhi̱ moy i̱ kalí̱!

Den tó 'thela! I̱ týkhi̱ moy i̱ kalí̱ -
(Den tó 'thela! Éla sti̱n sōti̱rían esý! –
Sti̱n kardiá moy í̱rthe. Antára pollí̱
Moý 'khyne sta mátia i̱ týkhi̱ moy i̱ kalí̱!

Pántote, pánta, ō týkhi̱ moy kalí̱!
Pántote éla, sṓsoy tṓra esý!
Sti̱n kardiá moy í̱rthe, antára pollí̱
Sta mátia moý 'khyne i̱ agápi̱, ō týkhi̱ moy kalí!

Pántote, pánta, ō týkhi̱ moy kalí̱!
Pántote éla, na m' agapás esý!
Afoý sti̱n kardiá moý 'rthe, antára pollí̱
Sta mátia moý 'khyne i̱ agápi̱, ō týkhi̱ moy kalí!

Pántote, pánta, ō týkhi̱ moy kalí̱!
Pántote éla: o érōs tha 'sä 'sý
Poy sti̱n kardiá moý 'rthe, ki antára pollí̱
Moý 'khyne sta mátia, ō týkhi̱ moy kalí̱!

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