What did Jed Bartlet (The West Wing) buy at the bookstore?

    The highly spiritual catholic Bartlet chooses a very strange book for his daughter (at about 1'30'' in the link!) Wink wink ? :D

    Quote

    The nature of things, a didascalic poem, translated from the Latin of Titus Lucretius Carus: accompanied with commentaries, comparative, illustrative, and scientific; and the life of Epicurus. Published under the express auspices of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent; and dedicated to The Right Honourable Lord Grenville ... by Thomas Busby ... In two volumes. Vol. I.

    Thomas Busby?

    The Nature of Things, A Didascalic Poem, Translated from the Latin of Titus Lucretius Carus; Accompanied with Commentaries, Comparative, Illustrative, and Scientific; and the Life of Epicurus. Published under the Express Auspices of His Royal Highness…

    Vol 1 (DRN Book 1 & extra content)

    https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Nature_of_Things_a_Didascalic_Poem_T/cfkrBTsdjdIC

    Vol 2 (includes DRN Books 2-6)

    https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Nature_of_Things_a_Didascalic_Poem_T/wigrq2-xWtIC

    And it is poetic version! Would be interesting to compare this to the William Emery Leonard translation and see which seems more clear:

    (Edit: Arranging these side by side, Busby may in fact be more clear, but maybe at the cost of leaving out significant detail. Reviewing these reinforces my view that poetic versions may sound good and be useful for emphasizing certain points, but can never substitute for a more literal word-by-word translation.)

    BusbyLeonard
    Too long to bondage Reason was consigned,
    Chained by Religion, tyrant of the mind :
    From heaven itself she showed her baleful head,
    With aspect horrible and menace dread,
    Frowned on mankind : but a bold Grecian rose ,
    To face her terrors, and her reign oppose.
    Nor Gods could awe, nor their immortal fame,
    Nor Jove's dread thunder, nor his forky flame.
    In vain his purpose heavenly wrath reproves,
    His dauntless soul no sacred murmur moves.
    By Nature's bounds he scorns to be confined ,
    And calls forth all his energy of mind ;
    His vivid powers awakes ! and soaring flies
    Beyond the flaming portals of the skies ;
    In might of thought the vast expanse surveys,
    Returns triumphant, and to man displays
    What beings may , what beings ne'er shall rise ,
    And where their power's eternal limit lies.
    Hence stern Religion, our dismay before,
    By him subjected, and our plague no more ,
    Humbled in turn , beneath our feet is driven,
    And his brave victory equals us to heaven .    		 Whilst human kind
    Throughout the lands lay miserably crushed
    Before all eyes beneath Religion- who
    Would show her head along the region skies,
    Glowering on mortals with her hideous face-
    A Greek it was who first opposing dared
    Raise mortal eyes that terror to withstand,
    Whom nor the fame of Gods nor lightning's stroke
    Nor threatening thunder of the ominous sky
    Abashed; but rather chafed to angry zest
    His dauntless heart to be the first to rend
    The crossbars at the gates of Nature old.
    And thus his will and hardy wisdom won;
    And forward thus he fared afar, beyond
    The flaming ramparts of the world, until
    He wandered the unmeasurable All.
    Whence he to us, a conqueror, reports
    What things can rise to being, what cannot,
    And by what law to each its scope prescribed,
    Its boundary stone that clings so deep in Time.
    Wherefore Religion now is under foot,
    And us his victory now exalts to heaven.


    Another famous section rendered by Busby:

    Her life the purchase of a wind for Troy.
    Such mighty evils holy phrenzy brings !
    Such direful outrage from religion springs !

    Quote from Cassius

    Wow this was posted because it is funny but it has led me to a great PDF through Don of which I was totally unaware. THANK YOU!


    Busby is pretty strong in his criticism of Creech:

    Some strong wording indeed!

    Quote from Cassius

    poetic versions may sound good and be useful for emphasizing certain points, but can never substitute for a more literal word-by-word translation.

    The poet in me rises up. 😉


    First, poetry communicates differently than prose – or it would be prose. Translating poetry into prose in an attempt to achieve more clarity is to attempt something that the poet wasn’t doing to begin with (and this includes didactic – or didascalic – poetry). And Lucretius was, in a sense, translating Epicurean principles from received prose into poetry – as well as into Latin.

    Second, all translation is interpretive, even attempts at some literal word-for-word (which may not capture all the nuance of the original – I recall that Buber and Rosenzweig’s translation of the Torah into German was several times longer than the original, as they tried to capture all the meaning-nuance of polysemous classical Hebrew).

    So, even working with the original Epicurean corpus, I suspect that clarity and detail will always be subject to multiple perspectives and options, although the major points might be settled. (We see that on here.)

    "We must try to make the end of the journey better than the beginning, as long as we are journeying; but when we come to the end, we must be happy and content." (Vatican Saying 48)

    I’m not sure how I came to this, but I get some notifications from Academia.edu:

    Wallace Stevens' Epicurean Emperor - proof
    Wallace Stevens' Epicurean Emperor - proof
    www.academia.edu

    Maybe it has some small side interest here.

    Stevens has never been a favorite of mine, though I have his Collected Poems. I’m not sure what his criticism of Lucretius was – but I suspect that Stevens just thought himself a better poet (even allowing for the centuries between them).

    "We must try to make the end of the journey better than the beginning, as long as we are journeying; but when we come to the end, we must be happy and content." (Vatican Saying 48)

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