A beautiful sunrise. We only seem to get those in Los Angeles when there are brush fires that throw a lot of smoke into the air.
I have long loved the Ode to Joy, and have long promised myself to read Schiller from whose poetry it is taken, although I have yet to do so. And I love these "flash mob" performances. They remind me of musical …
A beautiful sunrise. We only seem to get those in Los Angeles when there are brush fires that throw a lot of smoke into the air.
I have long loved the Ode to Joy, and have long promised myself to read Schiller from whose poetry it is taken, although I have yet to do so. And I love these "flash mob" performances. They remind me of musical numbers in old movies, where "spontaneously" breaking into song to express something seems perfectly natural and normal.
I at first thought you were being facetious when you said that in those situations your mind goes back to book five of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. Checking my version (from the Harvard Classics, translated by George Long (1800-1879)) it reads much less memorably. I figure I need a more modern translation. I have seen recommendations of four different modern translations of the Meditations, those being by Gregory Hays, Robin Hard, Scot and David Hicks, and Martin Hammond. Do you have a preferred translation and is it one of these, or another?
The flu in the Antarctic group is quite fascinating. If that can happen then there really is no defense other than a robust immune system.
Thanks for the heads-up on the new Gary Taubes book.
Which brings up the question, when is your book coming out?
I have three translations of "Meditations." One by Gregory Hays, one by Maxwell Staniforth from 1964, and one by Robin Waterfield. Of the three, the one by Hays is by far and away the most readable. And it's the one from which the quote I posted was taken. The Waterfield version is pretty literal, so not as easy to read. And the Staniforth one is really clunky. Here's how the Stanisfield starts the quote I posted:
"At day's first light have in readiness, against disinclination to leave your bed, the thought that "I am arising for the work of man." Must I grumble at setting out to do what I was born for, and for the sake of which I have been brought into the world?"
My advice is to go for the Hays.
A robust immune system is the best defense against most anything.
If I hadn't spent so much time writing The Arrow, the book would already be in bookstores. A fact of which my lovely wife never tires of reminding me.
I'm sure your book will make you more money than The Arrow, but I don't see how it will match the density of interesting stuff that you put in The Arrow every week.
Thanks for the Hays recommendation. It's interesting how much of a difference the choices of the translator make not only in readability but in meaning. Almost makes me wish I had studied Latin. Almost.
I think the Gregory Hays version is by far the most widely preferred. My Hays' version was printed by the "Modern Library."
Unfortunately, unless things have changed recently, Amazon doesn't bother to identify translations. You can't even rely on the photograph of the book to match the correct translator to that edition. Caveat emptor.
Agreed re Amazon. I read a review by a scholar of Russian lit on the best translations of Anna Karenina. I had already read the Pevear and Volokhonsky version, so wanted to give the prof's version a try, so I bought it on Kindle. What I got was a completely different translation. This has happened a few times on other books, so buyer beware.
I tried to read a lot of translations, but only managed to read one from Sam Torode. It’s not real translation but his version of it without a lot of duplicates in original text. I have his version of Epictetus Enchiridion too which is also very easy to read.
I've never heard of that one. I'll have to give it a look. I'll have to admit that I wasn't just blown away by Meditations in any form. I came onto it late in adulthood, by which time I had already learned many of its lessons the hard way. I think it is much more appealing to younger people. I was just struck by the part about getting out of bed early. I was always one who loved to marinate in the warmth of a good bed and a good wife, so I hated to get up and get going. So the early morning part was not something I had internalized by the time I first read it.
A beautiful sunrise. We only seem to get those in Los Angeles when there are brush fires that throw a lot of smoke into the air.
I have long loved the Ode to Joy, and have long promised myself to read Schiller from whose poetry it is taken, although I have yet to do so. And I love these "flash mob" performances. They remind me of musical numbers in old movies, where "spontaneously" breaking into song to express something seems perfectly natural and normal.
I at first thought you were being facetious when you said that in those situations your mind goes back to book five of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations. Checking my version (from the Harvard Classics, translated by George Long (1800-1879)) it reads much less memorably. I figure I need a more modern translation. I have seen recommendations of four different modern translations of the Meditations, those being by Gregory Hays, Robin Hard, Scot and David Hicks, and Martin Hammond. Do you have a preferred translation and is it one of these, or another?
The flu in the Antarctic group is quite fascinating. If that can happen then there really is no defense other than a robust immune system.
Thanks for the heads-up on the new Gary Taubes book.
Which brings up the question, when is your book coming out?
I have three translations of "Meditations." One by Gregory Hays, one by Maxwell Staniforth from 1964, and one by Robin Waterfield. Of the three, the one by Hays is by far and away the most readable. And it's the one from which the quote I posted was taken. The Waterfield version is pretty literal, so not as easy to read. And the Staniforth one is really clunky. Here's how the Stanisfield starts the quote I posted:
"At day's first light have in readiness, against disinclination to leave your bed, the thought that "I am arising for the work of man." Must I grumble at setting out to do what I was born for, and for the sake of which I have been brought into the world?"
My advice is to go for the Hays.
A robust immune system is the best defense against most anything.
If I hadn't spent so much time writing The Arrow, the book would already be in bookstores. A fact of which my lovely wife never tires of reminding me.
I'm sure your book will make you more money than The Arrow, but I don't see how it will match the density of interesting stuff that you put in The Arrow every week.
Thanks for the Hays recommendation. It's interesting how much of a difference the choices of the translator make not only in readability but in meaning. Almost makes me wish I had studied Latin. Almost.
I think the Gregory Hays version is by far the most widely preferred. My Hays' version was printed by the "Modern Library."
Unfortunately, unless things have changed recently, Amazon doesn't bother to identify translations. You can't even rely on the photograph of the book to match the correct translator to that edition. Caveat emptor.
Agreed re Amazon. I read a review by a scholar of Russian lit on the best translations of Anna Karenina. I had already read the Pevear and Volokhonsky version, so wanted to give the prof's version a try, so I bought it on Kindle. What I got was a completely different translation. This has happened a few times on other books, so buyer beware.
I tried to read a lot of translations, but only managed to read one from Sam Torode. It’s not real translation but his version of it without a lot of duplicates in original text. I have his version of Epictetus Enchiridion too which is also very easy to read.
I've never heard of that one. I'll have to give it a look. I'll have to admit that I wasn't just blown away by Meditations in any form. I came onto it late in adulthood, by which time I had already learned many of its lessons the hard way. I think it is much more appealing to younger people. I was just struck by the part about getting out of bed early. I was always one who loved to marinate in the warmth of a good bed and a good wife, so I hated to get up and get going. So the early morning part was not something I had internalized by the time I first read it.
One of the reasons it has taken so long for PP 2.0 is that I want it to be as interesting as The Arrow, and not just another diet book.