The Latin lines Michael quotes to Hanna are "Quo, quo scelesti ruitis? Aut cur dexteris/aptantur enses conditi?" These are the opening lines of Horace's 7th Epode, a short poem where he expresses outrage at the fact that his countrymen are still engaged in civil war. "Villains, where are you rushing to? Why are your hands/Grasping those swords that were sheathed?" (translation A.S. Kline). The Greek lines he quotes are the opening stanza of Sappho's 16th fragment: (transliterated) "Oi men ippeon stroton, oi de pesdon,/oi de naon phais' epi gan melainan/emmenai kalliston, ego de ken' ot-/to tis eratai". "Some say a host of horsemen, others of infantry, and others of ships, is the most beautiful thing on the dark earth: but I say, it is what you love." (translation Denys Page).
Scritto da il
05-03-2025 alle ore 08:57