Virtue

Umělec: Simonides of Kea
Song: Ἀρετή
Překlad Koine Greek → Angličtina
Submitted by evfokas on Pá, 01/06/2012 - 21:09

Koine Greek

Ἀρετή

Ἐστί τις λόγος τὰν Ἀρετὰν ναίειν
δυσαμβάτοισ' ἐπὶ πέτραις,
ἐγγὺς δέ μιν θεῶν χῶρον ἁγνὸν ἀμφέπειν·
οὐδὲ πάντων βλεφάροισι θνατῶν
ἔσοπτος, ᾧ μὴ δακέθυμος ἱδρὼς
ἔνδοθεν μόλῃ,
ἵκῃ τ' ἐς ἄκρον ἀνδρείας.

Angličtina

Virtue

There is a saying that virtue lies
upon inaccessible rocks
and is all around near the holy place of gods themselves:
it is not visible to all mortals’ eyes,
but only to those whose heart-eating sweat¹
is coming from within,
leading them to the summit of manliness²

Author's comment:

¹indicating hard effort. This effort is spiritual and mental rather than physical as indicated by "coming from within"
²In ancient Greece there was the meaning "καλός κἀγαθός (beautiful 'n'virtuous)". Beautiful doesn't mean just physical beauty, but inner beauty as well and thus they added the virtuous part so that the meaning becomes clearer and not confused with physical beauty alone. It actually meant a man cultivated physically, morally, scholarly, artistically, aesthetically and socially and all these proven by his actions. So manliness here means καλός κἀγαθός because these had to be the attributes of a good man.

thanked 1 time