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INEDITO NEOGRECO
di Wolfgang David Cirilo de Melo
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William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure
(Act 3, Scene 3)
(The outwardly austere Duke Angelo has condemned Claudio to death, but then offers to spare him if his sister Isabella becomes the Duke’s mistress.) Isabella: Dost thou think, Claudio, If I would yield him my virginity, Thou mightst be freed. Claudio: O heavens, it cannot be! Isabella: Yes, he would give’t thee, from this rank offence, So to offend him still. This night’s the time That I should do what I abhor to name; Or else thou diest tomorrow. Claudio: Thou shalt not do’t. Isabella: O, were it but my life, I’d throw it down for your deliverance As frankly as a pin. Claudio: Thanks, dear Isabel. Isabella: Be ready, Claudio, for thy death tomorrow. Claudio: Yes. – Has he affections in him, That thus can make him bite the law by th’ nose When he would force it? – Sure, it is no sin; Or of the deadly seven it is the least. Isabella: Which is the least? Claudio: If it were damnable, he being so wise, Why would he for the momentary trick Be perdurably fin’d? – O Isabel! Isabella: What says my brother? Claudio: Death is a fearful thing. |
Translation into Sophoclean trimeters  |
| Isabella: And shamed life a hateful. Claudio: Ay, but to die, and go we know not where; To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot; This sensible warm motion to become A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit To bath in fiery floods, or to reside In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice; To be imprisoned in the viewless winds And blown in restless violence round about The pendent world; or to be worse than worst Of those that lawless and incertain thought Imagine howling, – ‘tis too horrible. The weariest and most loathed worldly life That age, ache, penury and imprisonment Can lay on nature, is a paradise To what we fear of death. |
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NOTE
1 For ἄπιστος = ‘unbelievable’ cf. ἄπιστος … μῦθον in E. IT 1293.
2 Cf. ἒλυσας … ἃγνευμα σόν (E. Tr. 501), ‘you brought your chastity to an end.’
3 For this special kind of final clause, which presents an unintended event as the purpose of the action in the main clause, cf. R. Nisbet, Voluntas Fati in Latin Syntax, American Journal of Philology, 44, 1923, 27-43, which contains some Greek examples as well.
4 ψυχῆςἀπαλλαχθεῖσα = E. Hipp. 726.
5 Cf. E. El. 28: ἐξέσωσενΑἰγίσθουχερός.
6 ὦ σπέρμ’ ὅμαιμον = S. OC 330.
7 Cf. E. Ion 572: κἄμ’ ἔχει πόθος.
8 Cf. S. Ant. 183: τοῦτον οὐδαμοῦ λέγω.
9 Isabel says that, since all sins lead to damnation, they cannot be graded into more and less serious ones.
10 ὦ κασίγνητον κάρα = E. IT 983.
11 ἆρα μή occurs only twice in Sophocles.
12 Cf. E. Andr. 763: πρέσβυς περ ὤν.
13 ποῖ προβήσεται λόγος; = E. Hipp. 342.
14 For θεοστυγής cf. E. Tr. 1213.
15 Cf. S. Fr. 871.5: ἐξ ἀδήλου … ἔρχεται (sc. the moon).
16 Following Abbott, A Shakespearian Grammar, 1919, §375, I interpret ‘delighted’ as ‘that once took its delight in this world.’ For μάκαρ in the feminine gender cf. E. Hel. 375.
17 I regard ‘worse than worst’ as parenthetical. πῆμα πήματος πλέον = E. Hec. 1168.
18 For ξύνειμι = ‘live with’ cf. S. El. 264.
19 For φράζω with accusative and participle cf. E. Alc. 1012: οὐκ ἔφραζεζ … προκείμενον νέκυν.
20 αἰνικτά κἀσαφῆ = S. OT 439.
21 ταράσσομαι φρένας = S. Ant. 1095.
22 For σφε as feminine accusative singular cf. S. Ant. 772.
23 ‘What we fear of death’ refers to the punishment for sins.
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