tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post5550436848804909057..comments2024-03-29T07:50:15.957+00:00Comments on Poul Anderson Appreciation: Gratillonius' Beloved AeneidKetlanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08588156788583883454noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-59481869666915459452015-05-17T08:41:51.300+01:002015-05-17T08:41:51.300+01:00Kaor, Paul!
Exactly, you have to KNOW a language ...Kaor, Paul!<br /><br />Exactly, you have to KNOW a language to truly appreciate it. And it takes hard work and great effort to learn a language which was not the one one we grew up with. And I did recall how St. Augustine had trouble with Greek, for very similar reasons.<br /><br />And I certainly agree with you about the rich and wide ranging vocabulary of Poul Anderson!<br /><br />SeanSean M. Brookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13973738112230622557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-6407917524727895352015-05-17T07:56:19.369+01:002015-05-17T07:56:19.369+01:00Sean,
Yes, at school we hated Caesar and Virgil al...Sean,<br />Yes, at school we hated Caesar and Virgil although our teachers told us it was good. They understood it and we didn't. In Latin, St Augustine wrote that he and his class mates hated Greek although their teachers said it was good! Initially, he could not understand this contradiction but then realized the obvious explanation. Now, my experience of Latin is that I want to read and understand it but still find it almost impenetrable and am certainly not motivated enough to make it a full time study. Look how much more we can accomplish with a language that is virtually transparent to us, although even here I am continually googling Anderson's rich vocabulary.<br />Paul.Paul Shackleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04180596532266581425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-36872704904277666372015-05-17T06:56:17.883+01:002015-05-17T06:56:17.883+01:00Kaor, Paul!
I know this is a painfully obvious po...Kaor, Paul!<br /><br />I know this is a painfully obvious point, but a native speaker and reader of Latin like Gratillonius would have little or no difficulty reading Virgil's AENEID. Or, for that matter, Rufus, the immortal Latin speaking companion of Hanno in THE BOAT OF A MILLION YEARS. We see him still speaking Latin in the 1800s.<br /><br />Oddly enough, perhaps, I'm reminded of Pope Leo XIII (who died in 1903). He loved Latin so much and was so learned in it that he wrote much poetry in that language.<br /><br />I'm also reminded of how ENGLISH will change so much that in time many works we can now read with ease would have to be translated into the succeeding forms of that language. An idea we see in Poul Anderson's A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS. That novel mentions how Dominic Flandry once read, in TRANSLATION, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poem "A Musical Instrument." English had changed so much, becoming Anglic, that 19th century works needed to be translated into the Anglic of the Terran Empire a thousand years from now.<br /><br />SeanSean M. Brookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13973738112230622557noreply@blogger.com