Translation: Oh worthy spring of Bandusia, more splendid than glass,
more splendid than sweet unmixed wine, not without flowers,
tomorrow, you will be presented with a young goat, whose forehead is swollen with horns just beginning to grow, and is destined for love and battle, in vain:
for the offspring of the playful herd
will stain your cold streams
with red blood.
The dreadful hour of the blazing Dog Star
does not know to touch you, you give friendly (pleasant?) cold
to the bulls tired from the plow
and the wandering herd.
You will become the most famous fountain
with me singing of the oak placed
over hollow stones, from which your talkative
waters jump down the stream (waves? water?)
Are you supposed to distribute the slendidior in the first line, like I put in the translation, or just leave it for the glass? I thought it made more sense in english to distribute it, but I wasn't sure.
What is a casual ablative absolute? The note talks about it when referring to line 14, the me dicente. Do you translate a casual ablative absolute differently than a regular one?
I like the emphasis and repetition of "you" in this ode. The emphasis adds to the personification of the spring and makes the poem more personal with respect to the relationship between it and Horace. I also like the contrast among the comparisons Horace uses: how the young goat is destined for love and for battle and then the contrast between the streams running with blood and the talkative, more serene waters by the oaky rock.
GOOd job, Alison. A few corrections below:
ReplyDeleteOh spring of Bandusia, more splendid than glass,
WORTHY OF sweet unmixed wine, not without flowers,
tomorrow, you will be presented with a young goat, whose forehead is swollen with horns just beginning to grow, and DESTINES (HIM, i.e., the kid) for love and battle, in vain:
for the offspring of the playful herd
will stain your cold streams
with red blood.
The dreadful hour of the blazing Dog Star
does not know to touch you, you give friendly (pleasant?) cold
to the bulls tired from the plow
and the wandering herd.
You TOO will become [one of] the most famous fountains
with me singing of the oak placed
over hollow stones, from which your talkative
waters jump down )--NO OTHER NOUN HERE
In answer to your questions: 1) Don't distribute splendidior. You want to distribute it because of the other ablative, mero, but that is going with digne. 2) The note refers to a "causal" ablative absolute-- you can translate it w/ "because" The idea is that the spring will become famous because Horace will sing about it.
You are right, the contrasts in the poem are remarkably vivid, with the cool transparent burbling waters of the spring vs. the blazing dog-star, heat of summer, blood of the victim.