- Columbia students believe that Ovid’s Metamorphoses should come with trigger warnings—the myths of Persephone and Daphne, after all, include rape. “But the core [curriculum] is not a form of therapy; it’s a form of exposure to diverse ideas, and it should not have the aim of making people feel ‘safe.’ In fact, that’s precisely the opposite of its aim.”
This etching illustrating Ovid’s Metamorphoses is by artist Salvator Rosa, born #onthisday in 1615 http://ow.ly/ObyGx
Rosa worked in Naples, Florence and Rome. He achieved great success with his landscape paintings of wild and mountainous scenery populated with travellers and bandits. His one hundred or so etchings, which have always been admired for their inventive figure groupings, reflect his desire to be known as more than a landscape painter.
Ovid Is Not a Safe Space, and Other News
May 18, 2015 | by Dan Piepenbring
Deucalion and Pyrrha in an engraving by Virgil Solis for Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book I.
British Museum 新增了 4 張新相片。
Born #onthisday in 43 BC: Roman poet Ovid. These works depict stories from his Metamorphoses http://ow.ly/KdpxT
(這本《變形記》2010，台北書林另有一翻譯本。 以後再說。)
I. Calvino《為什麼讀經典》中的『變形記』之變形記
I. Calvino《為什麼讀經典》中很少引所介紹之經典之內文，因此這些多為他們的文學傳統。所以引經典之文時，翻譯最好待之敬之如經典，翻譯儘量要保持原汁。我舉Ovid的『變形記』的翻譯為例，說明如下：
「高空中有一條路，天空無雲的時候，可以看到這條路。它被稱為銀河，因為它的白而聞名。眾神要前往偉大宙斯的王宮時，總會從這裡經過。路的兩旁是較尊貴的 神明的門廊，門是開著的，裡面總是門庭若市。地位較低的神祇則四散住在各地。有名有勢的神將祂們的家神安置在這裡，直接面向道路（……）。如果作比較不會 顯得不敬的話，那麼我會說這個地方是偉大天界中的貴族領地。」
（伊塔羅．卡爾維諾（ Italo Calvino）《為什麼讀經典》( Why Read the Classics? 1991 ) 李桂蜜譯，台北：時報出版（網路「時報悅讀」有相關簡介），2005， p.25）
In the high heavens there is a roadway, which can be seen when the sky is clear. It is called the Milky Way, and it is famous for its whiteness. Here the gods pass by on their way to the palace of the great Thunderer. On the right and left side of the road, with their doors open. Stand the entrance halls of the nobler gods, always filled with crowds. The more plebeian deities live scattered about elsewhere. The more powerful and famous gods have settled their own household gods here, given directly onto the road(… a fronte potentes / caelicolae clarique suos posuere penates). If the comparison didn’t seem irreverent, I would say that this place is the Palatine area of the mighty heavens.
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「天上有一條路，天空晴朗時可以看得很清楚，它的名字叫銀河*，以潔白著稱。天上諸神都是沿著這條大路來到偉大的雷君**的王宮大殿的。在王宮的左邊和右 邊是品位高的神的府邸，大門動開，賓客絡繹不絕。平民神則散居其他各處。而在這一邊，那些有權勢的天上居民和顯赫的神祇安了家宅，這一段，恕我斗膽說一 句，我可以毫不猶疑地叫做天堂裡的帕拉提亞區***。
* Via lacteal 或 orbis lacteus，意為”奶路”。
**指朱庇特
***帕拉提烏姆（Platium）為羅馬七山之一，奧古斯都在此造了宮殿，稱帕拉提亞。」（奧維德『變形記』楊周翰譯，北京：人民文學出版社，1984/2000，pp. 3-4）
楊周翰譯的『變形記』，根據Loeb 之拉丁- 英文對照本和幾本英文翻譯本（包括我有的企鵝版--這本有他的特色，如上文中之whiteness 為 brightness—這樣翻譯有得有失：更清楚，可不對應Milky Way） 。
楊周翰先生是著名的譯家，可供我們學習。李桂蜜譯本很不講究，包括將Thunderer直接用一希臘神取代之，殊不知道『變形記』的他處都用「朱庇特」。
我無意責某人翻譯能力，因為這是一本困難的書。不過，我指出或許專業翻譯者的標準要很高。
最重要的，一本談經典的書要想翻譯完善，必須依靠許多前輩在經典翻譯的貢獻。