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English to Latin: Virginia Woolf, The Common Reader, Ch. 16, Dr. Bentley
Source text - English As we saunter through those famous courts where Dr. Bentley once reigned supreme we sometimes catch sight of a figure hurrying on its way to Chapel or Hall which, as it disappears, draws our thoughts enthusiastically after it. For that man, we are told, has the whole of Sophocles at his finger-ends; knows Homer by heart; reads Pindar as we read the Times; and spends his life, save for these short excursions to eat and pray, wholly in the company of the Greeks. It is true that the infirmities of our education prevent us from appreciating his emendations as they deserve; his life’s work is a sealed book to us; none the less, we treasure up the last flicker of his black gown, and feel as if a bird of Paradise had flashed by us, so bright is his spirit’s raiment, and in the murk of a November evening we had been privileged to see it winging its way to roost in fields of amaranth and beds of moly. Of all men, great scholars are the most mysterious, the most august. Since it is unlikely that we shall ever be admitted to their intimacy, or see much more of them than a black gown crossing a court at dusk, the best we can do is to read their lives—for example, the Life of Dr. Bentley by Bishop Monk.
There we shall find much that is odd and little that is reassuring. The greatest of our scholars, the man who read Greek as the most expert of us read English not merely with an accurate sense of meaning and grammar but with a sensibility so subtle and widespread that he perceived relations and suggestions of language which enabled him to fetch up from oblivion lost lines and inspire new life into the little fragments that remained, the man who should have been steeped in beauty (if what they say of the Classics is true) as a honey-pot is ingrained with sweetness was, on the contrary, the most quarrelsome of mankind.
Translation - Latin
Accidit enim non numquam in hac porticu, ubi nunc deambulamus, ubi etiam Bentleius inter omnes doctores summam habebat auctoritatem, ut species nobis alicuius hominis obiciatur, quae cum in quoddam sacellum vel aulam properans confugerit, totam animi intentionem et cogitationem in se convertat. Nam ille homo omnes dicitur Sophoclei fabulas, omnesque Homeri libros edidicisse et tamquam in procinctu paratos habere; ita et in Pindaricis versibus legendis pollere ut nemo hodie ne in actis quidem diurnis, et non solum omnem industriam in Graecis litteris conlocavisse, sed brevibus illis ad edendum precandumque intermissionibus exceptis etiam totam vitam in eis esse versatus. Disciplina tamen et eruditio nobis sane desunt; ea vero quae in libris corrigendis emendavit, non tantidem quanti debetur aestimare possumus; vel potius omnia quae ille fecit vivus, occulta nobis et penitus abdita sunt, tamquam in Sibyllinis libris reclusa. Quae cum ita sint, postea quam extremitatem eius vestium evanescere vidimus (quod quidem in animo tamquam in thesauro recondimus), tanto tamen fulgore iam splendet animi et ingenii eius vestimentum, ut ita dicam, ut splendidissimam nobis et versicolorem volucrem prospexisse videamur, quae fingendi et construendi nidi causa tenebroso obscuroque hiemali vespere ad nitidissimos et illo Homerico ac fere divino μῶλυ amarantoque viridissimos advolet campos. Quam secretum, quamque honestum genus omne doctissimorum! Qua re, quod parum veri simile est ut nos umquam aut in eorum societatem et amicitiam recipiamur aut, ut verius loquar, vesperascente iam die plura quam minimam eorum vestimentorum partem adspiciamus, nihil aliud facere possumus quam vitas resque gestas eorum evolvere et legere diligenter. Quorum quidem si exemplum licet adferre, eum nominamus librum, quem episcopus ille, qui Monachus nuncupatur, de Bentleii vita scripsit.
Sed parum in hoc gratum nimiumque mirabile! Etenim ex eo libro ipse ille Bentleius, omnium eruditorum princeps et gloria, tametsi et Graece sic sciebat quemadmodum etiam peritissimi nunc Anglice legunt, non modo tanta comprehensione ut artem grammaticam verborumque significationem intellegeret, verum etiam tanta tamque subtili et recta Graeci sermonis cognitione ut veram vim, veramque rerum disponendarum rationem facillime perspiceret, et tametsi veterum poetarum versus iam longius deletos et perditorum librorum vestigia ab oblivione vindicare atque in pristinam formam redigere poterat, tamen hic optimus litterarum doctor, qui sicuti olla, ut hoc utar, dulcissimi mellis impletur, omni pulchritudine et decore ornatus esse debebat (si verum est quod de litterarum antiquarum studio dicitur), quod vix credi potest et mei lacrimantis maxime confiteri piget, vir difficillimus et acerbissimus, immo etiam omnium nostrorum et universorum hominum molestissimus ac severissimus fuisse demonstratur.
English to Greek (Ancient): Daniel Webster, Hayne-Webster Debate, Second Reply
Source text - English We approach, at length, Sir, to a more important part of the honorable gentleman's observations. Since it does not accord with my views of justice and policy to give away the public lands altogether, as a mere matter of gratuity, I am asked by the honorable gentleman on what ground it is that I consent to vote them away in particular instances. How, he inquires, do I reconcile with these professed sentiments,my support of measures appropriating portions of the lands to particular roads, particular canals, particular rivers, and particular institutions of education in the West? This leads, Sir, to the real and wide difference in political opinion between the honorable gentleman and myself. On my part, I look upon all these objects as connected with the common good, fairly embraced in its object and its terms; he, on the contrary, deems them all, if good at all, only local good. This is our difference. The interrogatory which he proceeded to put at once explains this difference. "What interest," asks he, "has South Carolina in a canal in Ohio?" Sir, this very question is full of significance. It develops the gentleman's whole political system; and its answer expounds mine. Here we differ. I look upon a road over the Alleghanies a canal round the falls of the Ohio, or a canal or railway from the Atlantic to the Western waters, as being an object large and extensive enough to be fairly said to be for the common benefit. The gentleman thinks otherwise, and this is the key to his construction of the powers of the government. He may well ask what interest has South Carolina in a canal in Ohio. On his system, it is true, she has no interest. On that system, Ohio and Carolina are different governments, and different countries; connected here, it is true, by some slight an ill-defined bond of union, but in all main respects separate and diverse. On that system, Carolina has no more interest in a canal in Ohio than in Mexico. The gentleman, therefore, only follows out his own principles; he does no more than arrive at the natural conclusions of his own doctrines; he only announces the true results of that creed which he has adopted himself, and would persuade others to adopt, when he thus declares that South Carolina has no interest in a public work in Ohio.
Sir, we narrow-minded people of New England do not reason thus. Our notion of things is entirely different. We look upon the States, not as separated, but as united.We love to dwell on that union, and on the mutual happiness which it has so much promoted. and the common renown which it has so greatly contributed to acquire.
Siena, Italy and Berkeley, California-based translator specializing in academic translation in the fields of classical studies, history, linguistics, archaeology and anthropology. Available for translation of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance texts of all types.
Currently completing doctoral programs in Classics at the University of California, Berkeley and Anthropology of the Ancient World at the Universita' degli Studi di Siena, with experience in numerous modern and ancient languages including Sanskrit, Arabic and Coptic.
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