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[Tanka] Tenere myrti

Updated: Jan 22, 2021


Imaginem pinxit Ioannes Guilelmus Waterhouse ("My Sweet Rose), )https://i.pinimg.com/originals/da/a2/ed/daa2ed8b24e0248374b7e5d0f53bad26.jpg


Tenère myrti

Germèn rosaè pulchrùmque

Florèm gaudèbat.

Eí comaé cervìcem

Obùmbrabànt dorsùmque(1)


She used to take delight

In holding a myrtle's shoot

And a flowering rose,

Her shoulders and back

Shaded by her hair


Gioiva, mentre in mano

Un ramo di mirto teneva e

Una rosa fiorita.

Sulle spalle, sulla schiena

L'ombra dei suoi capelli


- Logodaedalus -


(1) LAT -- Hac hebdomada noster Logodaedalus sodalis non haicu conscripsit; verum imagines, quas in carmine eius praeclarissimi Archilochi offendit, per formam "tanka" vel "waka" Latine voluit interpretari: quod quidem lepidissime atque elegantissime perfecit, metro praeterea iambico servato.

"Tanka" (vel "waka") genus fuit Iaponiae poeticum sane antiquissimum, cuius ex prima stropha haicu originem partim duxit (quamvis, re apse, quaestio originis generis haicualis paulo sit implicatior): nam prima stropha carminis "tanka" tribus versibus constat 17 divisis in syllabas, quae idem, quod autem haicua, sequuntur schema metricum. Altera quidem stropha duobus componitur versibus, qui singuli 7 ita innituntur syllabis, ut solidum "tanka" 31 constet syllabis.


ENG -- This week our friend Logodaedalus did not write a haiku,; but instead, he decided to represent in Latin the images found in a poem by the famous Greek writer Archilocus, by using the form of a "tanka" or "waka". He did so most elegantly and by maintaining unaltered the iambic metre.

The "tanka" (alternatively "waka") is an ancient Japane poetic genre, whose first strophe can partly be accounted for the origin of the haiku (though the matter is actually a bit more complicated than this): indeed the first strophe of the "tanka" is composed by 3 verses of 17 syllables, divided by the same scheme as the haiku. The second strophe is instead composed by two verses of 7 syllables each, therefore making a total of 31 syllables.


Carmen autem Archilochi, quo quidem perlecto hoc lepidum exaravit "tanka" Logodaedalus, en hic apponimus / This is Archilocus' poem, which Logodaedalus drew his inspiration from:


ἔχουσα θαλλὸν μυρσίνης ἐτέρπετο

ῥοδῆς τε καλὸν ἄνθος.

                     ἡ δέ οἱ κόμη

ὤμους κατεσκίαζε καὶ μετάφρενα.


She took delight in holding a myrtle's shoot

and a pretty flowering rose.

Her shoulders

and back shaded by her hair.


Si compiaceva di tenere un ramo di mirto

e un bel fiore di rosa.

                   E a lei la chioma

adombrava le spalle e la schiena.


- Archilocus, frr. 31, 32 W -


http://www.poesialatina.it/_ns/Greek/tt2/Archiloco/Frr31_32.html


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