To Himself | While you tell the events of Thebes

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possibly by Anacreon (c582BCE - c485BCE)

Translation © by Fengrui (Sophia) He

Εις εαυτον

Language: Greek (Ελληνικά)

Our translations: ENG

Σὺ μὲν λέγεις τὰ Θήβης,
ὃ δ᾽ αὖ Φρυγῶν ἀυτάς,
ἐγὼ δ᾽ ἐμὰς ἁλώσεις.
οὐχ ἵππος ὤλεσέν με,
οὐ πεζός, οὐχὶ νῆες,
στρατὸς δὲ καινὸς ἄλλος
ἀπ᾽ ὀμμάτων με βάλλων.

Notes on the authorship, provided by Laura Prichard: Anacreontea (Ἀνακρεόντεια) is the title given to a collection of ancient Greek poems on the topics of Dionysian worship (wine, beauty, love). Although long attributed to Anacreon, they are now considered to be imitations of his style. Cf. Elegy and Iambus, being the remains of all the Greek and Iambic Poets from Callinus to Crates with The Anacreontea, London: William Heinemann, The Loeb Classical Library, numbered p. 1, but actually p. 374 of the complete collection.

Show a transliteration: DIN | ISO 843

Note on Transliterations

Text Authorship:

possibly by Anacreon (c582BCE - c485BCE), "Εις εαυτον", appears in Odes, no. 16?17 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

[ None yet in the database ]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in French (Français), a translation by Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle (1818 - 1894) , "Sur lui-même" ; composed by Albert Roussel.
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Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

ENG English (Fengrui (Sophia) He) , "To Himself", copyright © 2022, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Researcher for this page: Guy Laffaille [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2010-04-21
Line count: 7
Word count: 30

To Himself

Language: English after the Greek (Ελληνικά)

While you tell the events of Thebes,
And he tells the cries of the Trojans,
I (tell of) my conquests.
No horse has destroyed me,
Nor those on foot, 
nor those on ships,
Nor an unforeseen army striking me.

Translator's notes: The narrator is writing this poem to him/herself to create distance from the war and warlike thoughts.
Line 7: βáλλω is the Greek word for “to hurl an object towards a target and strike it.”

Text Authorship:

Translation from Greek (Ελληνικά) to English copyright © 2022 by Fengrui (Sophia) He, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:

a text in Greek (Ελληνικά) possibly by Anacreon (c582BCE - c485BCE)
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2022-09-05
Line count: 7
Word count: 39