Style exercises
Style exercises are the translation of modern-language texts into Latin and Ancient Greek as part of the study of Classical Philology . Its main purpose is the acquisition of ancient languages, since the active handling trains grammar and vocabulary more intensively and sharpens the sense of language for the analysis of original texts. Style exercises are also carried out as a creative task for their own sake. In the non-technical sense, any other literary achievement for training purposes is also referred to as a “style exercise”.
Translations into prose
Translation of individual sentences and stories in Latin and Greek prose belongs at most universities the curriculum in the study of Latin Studies and Greek Studies . Often a style task is also part of the intermediate exam or the final exam . In contrast, the style exercise that was common up until the mid-20th century has largely disappeared from school lessons .
In Germany, German translations from ancient authors are mostly translated back into the original language, whereby the aim is not to match the original wording, but rather to formulate grammatically, lexically and stylistically error-free. In the English-speaking world, native literary texts are generally used as a guide (“Prose Composition”).
Translations into verse
The translation of modern poetic texts, for example of sections from plays by Shakespeare , into Latin and Greek verses is a tradition that is practiced almost exclusively in Great Britain (“Verse Composition”). The most common meters in Latin are hexameters and elegiac distiches , in Greek iambic trimeters . Virgil , Ovid and the three classical Greek tragedians Aeschylus , Sophocles and Euripides serve as models .
At the beginning of the 20th century, such a task was still part of the entrance exams for Oxford and Cambridge universities - regardless of the chosen faculty. Nowadays, translation into Greek and Latin verse is only occasionally used as an optional subject or in academic competitions (e.g. the Gaisford Prize for Greek Verse).
A short poem by Schiller and his Latin adaptation (with an ancient Greek heading quoting Aristophanes ' “Clouds” v. 333) by Benjamin Kennedy serve as illustration :
- To the astronomers
- Do not talk to me so much about nebulous stars and suns;
- Is nature only great because it gives you something to count?
- Your subject is of course the most sublime in space;
- But, friends, the sublime does not live in space.
- ῎Ανδρας μετεωροφένακας
- Quid me tot nebulis, tot solibus usque fatigas?
- An nisi quod numeres est tibi grande nihil?
- Maxima quae capiat spatium, meteors, recenses,
- Sed spatium magni nil, meteors, capit.
Criticism and justification
The objection to exercise in style is that there is no meaningful purpose for translating into languages that are no longer used as mother tongue by anyone. The aim of studying classical literature is the understanding of ancient texts, not the artificial production of new texts in "dead languages".
In defense of the style exercises, however, the following arguments are put forward:
“An elementary requirement of philological interpretation, namely the task of recognizing stylistic intentions, can only be achieved if the interpreter is able to indicate how the thought in question would be pronounced in unpretentious, sober 'normal Latin'. As another nice fruit I think of the joy of active language handling: this joy, which the student of Latin could probably deny his neo-philological fellow students, would have an invigorating effect. "
If modern texts are also translated into the old languages, the following can be added:
"[Composition] involves comparison of two civilizations, our own and that of the ancient world, so that we may be sure we are not saying something that would be unintelligible or grotesque to a Roman reader. Verse Composition has this great merit and value that, instead of merely remembering things and reproducing them exactly, as he is constantly doing, the pupil for once produces something of his own that has an artistic shape. "
- “[Style exercises] involve comparing two civilizations, our own and those of the ancient world, so that we can be sure not to say anything that would have been incomprehensible or strange to a Roman reader. The translation into verse has its great merit and value in the fact that the pupil - instead of just memorizing things and reproducing them exactly, as is always the case - once creates something of his own that has an artistic form. "
proof
- ^ E.g. Raymond Queneau, Exercices de style , 1995
- ↑ Sabrinae Corolla in hortulis Regiae Scholae Salopiensis contexuerunt tres viri floribus legendis . Bell & Daldy, 3rd ed., London 1867. pp. 160 f.
literature
- Hermann Quantity: Review of Latin syntax and style . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt, 21st edition 1995.
- Gregor Maurach: Latin style exercises. A textbook for self-teaching . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt, 2nd edition 2006.
- Lothar Willms, Latin style exercises. A workbook with texts from Caesar and Cicero. Assignments and commented sample translations . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2017.
- WR Hardie, Latin Prose Composition . Edward Arnold, London 1908.
- David J. Califf, A Guide to Latin Meter and Verse Composition . Anthem Press, London 2002.
- CH St. L. Russell, Elegeia. Passages for Latin Elegiac Verse with Hints and English-Latin Gradus . MacMillian & Co., London 1907.
- Hermann Quantity, revision course on Greek syntax . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt, 10th edition 1999.
- Herwig Görgemanns, Manuel Baumbach, Helga Köhler: Greek style exercises. Exercise book for form theory and case syntax . Winter, 2nd edition, Heidelberg 2009.
- Arthur Sidgwick, Introduction to Greek Prose Composition with Exercises . Caratzas Brothers, New Rochelle 1976.
- Arthur Sidgwick, An Introduction to Greek Verse Composition with Exercises . Rivington's, London 1885.