Friday, 2 May 2025

The stars, the moon, and the official languages of Europe

So, today we have a Sappho fragment. We've already seen it here and also here, as well as in the various editions: it's the one about the stars around the moon, LP 34. Alongside the idea described at the sister post of this titled «Le stelle, la luna, e i dialetti italiani», I had the idea of making an episode for every continent, translating this thing to one official language per country of that continent. So let's see what I got for Europe:
  1. German from , dated «around 19 on 5/3/21, with the corrections suggested around 19:45 by this comment;
  2. Italian from the edition:
    • First two lines at 20:07 on 25/3/21;
    • At 20:08 «Or che più che mai...», changed to «Or che, piena, lei più che mai la terra / Riempie di luce.», then «... più che mai d'argento / Illumina il mondo.»;
    • At 21:58 «Or che, piena, argentea, brilla più che / Mai sulla terra», with the later annotation «=>splende»;
    • Finally at 22:03 «Or che, piena, argentea, più di tutto / Splende sul mondo.»;
  3. English from the post with the German, dated to «the night between 28 and 29/3/21, specifically around 1:25»;
  4. Albanian, dated 8/4/25 14:13-14:37;
  5. French, dated 9/4/25 8:43-8:45;
  6. Hungarian, dated 10/4/25 13:24-15:03, an actual Sapphic stanza;
  7. Spanish, dated 10/4/25 20:39-20:47 with plata suggested 23:37;
  8. Czech, dated 11/4/25 11:04-13:34, an actual Sapphic stanza;
  9. Slovak, dated 24/4/25 16:21-17:20, another actual Sapphic stanza; I hoped to quickly Slovakify the Czech, but no luck, kolem -> okolo just didn't fit the meter, and měsíc becoming mesiac too, and more such changes.
As you can see, still a long way to go.

Greek:

Ἄστερες μὲν ἀμφὶ κάλαν σελάνναν
ἂψ’ ἀπυκρύπτοισι φάεννον εἶδος,
Ὄπποτα πλήθοισα μάλιστα λάμπῃ
ἀργυρία γᾶν.



German:

Um den schönen Mond ihr Gesicht verdecken
Und ihr Licht noch wieder die Sterne, wie er
Voll und silberfarben, mit Strahlen Lichtes
Füllet die Erde.



French:

Les étoiles autour de la lune si belle
Cachent une autre fois leurs radieux visages
Maint'nant qu'elle est pleine et d' rayons d'argent em-
plit toute la terre.



Hungarian:

Újra minden csillag a Hold körül most
Rejti fényét míg a csodálatos Hold
Á, telik megtölti ezüsttel ezt a
Földet az égről.



Czech:

Hvězdy opět teď všechny kolem měsíce
Své schovávají světlo, teď kdy, krásný,
Úplněk svět náš zaplnit se stříbr-
ným světlem, ó, svým.
Italian:

Ogni stella attorno alla bella luna
La brillante faccia nasconde ancora,
Or che, piena, argentea, più di tutto
Splende sul mondo.



English:

All around the beautiful moon, the stars
Once again their bright shining faces hide
As it, full and silver, more than them all
Lights up the Earth.



Spanish:

Cada estrella toda su luz esconde
Si la linda luna le está cercana,
Llena, mientras que todo el mundo llena
Con luz de argento(/plata?).



Albanian:

Yjet t' gjith' përreth hënës shum' së bukur
Prap' tani fytyrën të ndritsh'm e fshehin,
Esht' e plot' ajo, edhe Tok'n e mbush me
Rreze t' argjendtë.



Slovak:

Hľa, schovávajú všetok jas teraz svoj
Hviezdy blízko splnu zatiaľ čo, krásny
I streborný, on naplni svet, ó, svo-
jím svetlom jasným.

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