Sonnets to Orpheus I.3 (Rainer Maria Rilke)

Ein Gott vermag's. Wie aber, sag mir, soll
ein Mann ihm folgen durch die schmale Leier?
Sein Sinn ist Zweispalt. An der Kreuzung zweier 
Herzwege steht kein Tempel für Apoll. 
Gesang, wie du ihn lehrst, ist nicht Begehr, 
nicht Werbung um ein endlich noch erreichtes; 
Gesang ist Dasein. Für den Gott ein Leichtes. 
Wann aber sind wir? Und wann wendet er
an unser Sein die Erde und die Sterne?
Dies ists nicht, Jüngling, daß du liebst, wenn auch
die Stimme dann den Mund dir aufstößt,—lerne
vergessen, daß du aufsangst. Das verrinnt.
In Wahrheit singen, ist ein andrer Hauch.
Ein Hauch um nichts. Ein Wehn im Gott. Ein Wind.

A god can do it. But, tell me, how is
a man to follow him through the narrow lyre?
His mind is split in two. Where two heart-paths
are crossed, there stands no temple to Apollo.
Song, as you teach it, is not mere desire,
not wooing something finally attained;
song is existence. For the god, a trifle.
But when do we exist? And when does he
direct the earth and stars upon our being?
It is not that you love, boy, even if
your voice forces your mouth wide open—learn
to unlearn what you sang. That slips away.
True singing is another kind of breath.
A nothing-breath. A gust in God. A wind.

A slight change of pace - Thucydides at Gettsyburg

This isn't precisely in line with my other posts, but I hope it might be interesting to readers nevertheless. Rather than translating a foreign-language poem into English, I've translated an English masterpiece into Greek: Lincoln's Gettysburg Address as a Thucydidean funeral oration. Obviously, some of the concepts in the speech needed to be adapted ("nation" becomes "city-state," for example, and "four score and seven" becomes "four score and eight" in the Greeks' inclusive count of years), and in emulating Thucydides' style I have also borrowed and adapted some of his iconic phrases, so the speech is by no means translated word for word; I've included an English back-translation of my Greek for this reason.

The original text

ὀγδοήκοντα μὲν καὶ ὀκτὼ ἔτη ἐστὶν ἀφ' οὗ οἱ ἡμέτεροι πρόγονοι νέαν τε πόλιν καινήν τε πολιτείαν κατεστήσαντο ἐπὶ ταύτῃ τῇ γῇ, κρίνοντές τε τὸ ἐλεύθερον μέγιστον καὶ ἀξιοῦντες πάντας ἀνθρώπους κατὰ φύσιν ἐξισοῦσθαι. ἐν δὲ τῷ νῦν πολέμῳ πεῖραν ποιούμεθα εἰ οὐ μόνον ἥδε ἡ πόλις, ἣν οἱ πατέρες ἡμῖν μέχρι τοῦδε παρέδοσαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἡτισοῦν ἐλευθέρα καὶ ἰσόνομος πολιτεία δυνατή ἐστι πολὺν χρόνον ὑπομένειν. μεγάλης δὲ μάχης ἐνθάδε γενομένης ξυνερχόμεθα ἐν τῷδε τῷ πεδίῳ, ὅπως καθιερῶμεν τὸν τάφον τῶν κοινῇ τὰ σώματα ἐπιδόντων· δίκαιον γὰρ τοῖσδε καὶ πρέπον δὲ ἅμα τοιούτῳ τρόπῳ τιμᾶσθαι.
ἡμεῖς δὲ αὐτοὶ οὐχ οἷοί τ' ἐσμὲν οὔτε τιμᾶν οὔτε κοσμεῖν λόγῳ τοῦτον τὸν τάφον, ὃν ἔργῳ ἡ τῶν μαχεσαμένων ἀρετὴ ἤδη ἐς τὰ μάλιστα ἐκόσμησεν· οὐ γὰρ οἱ ἔπειτα μεμνήσονται τῶν ἐνταῦθα λεχθέντων μᾶλλον, ἀλλ᾽ ἡ τῶνδε ἀνδραγαθίας δόξα αἰείμνηστος καταλείψεται. οὓς νῦν ἡμεῖς ζηλώσαντες καρτερῶμεν τε καὶ ἐπιτελῶμεν τὸ ἔργον τὸ ὑπὸ τῶνδε γενναίως ὑπηργμένον· ζῶντες τε γὰρ διδασκόμεθα ὑπὸ τῶν ἀποθανόντων ἐρασταὶ γενέσθαι τῆς πατρίδος, πρὸς ἣν ἔδειξαν εὐσεβέστατοι ὄντες, καὶ ἀξιοῦμεν τούσδε μὴ ἀχρείως τεθνάναι, ἀλλὰ τὸ ταύτης τῆς πόλεως ἐλεύθερον αὖθις κατασταθήσεσθαι καὶ τήν δημοκρατίαν μήποτε ἀπολεῖσθαι.

It is fourscore and eight years since our forebears established a new state and a novel form of government on this earth, judging that freedom is the greatest of all and considering that all men are by nature equal. Now in this war we are testing whether not only this city, which our fathers have handed down to us up to the present time, but any free and fair government can long endure. A great battle has happened here, and we come together on this field in order to consecrate the tomb of those who sacrificed their bodies for the common good, for it is right and fitting too that they be honored in such a way.
But we ourselves cannot honor this tomb, nor adorn it with speech; the virtue of those who fought has already adorned it most highly in deed. For posterity will not remember the things that were said here, but the glory of their bravery will remain eternal in memory. Now, emulating them, let us stand firm and complete the task these men have nobly begun; for we the living learn from the dead to become lovers of the country to which they showed themselves most loyal, and we consider that they did not die in vain, but that the liberty of this city will be established once more and that democracy will never be destroyed.

101 (Catullus)

Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus
advenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias,
ut te postremo donarem munere mortis
et mutam nequiquam alloquerer cinerem.
Quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete abstulit ipsum.
Heu miser indigne frater adempte mihi,
nunc tamen interea haec, prisco quae more parentum
tradita sunt tristi munere ad inferias,
accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu,
atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale.

Borne across many lands and many seas,
I come to your pyre alone,
Brother, to give you death’s last gift, and speak
To silent ash and bone.
For fate has taken you away unjustly,
Poor brother, lost to me!
Yet since it is the custom of our fathers
To make this obsequy,
Let me do my sad duty to your grave;
Accept these gifts that I
Wash with a brother’s tears; and then forever
Hail, brother, and—goodbye.

16 (Catullus)

Put under a cut for obscenity. Catullus was very...effective with his invective.