Hareios Poter kai h tou philosophou lithos
[I originally wrote this entry on my phone during class--not the most academic thing I could have done, but I had thoughts in my head and wanted to get them out. Unfortunately for us all, when I attempted to post this entry, it was eaten. I don't know if the fault is my phone's, or LJ's mobile site, or something else entirely, but the fact remains--I lost the whole thing. And am not happy. But I will do my best to reconstruct it from memory.]
Saturday night I was bored. I had been placed in the sector where the least happens. It's the further away while still technically being part of the River Campus itself. It is full of suites full of upperclassmen. Only two kinds of things ever happen there. The first and more frequent is the noise complaint. Basically, some in-suite party goes on past 2:00 AM and someone else doesn't appreciate the noise. The less-frequent but slightly more exciting is the fire alarm.
Needless to say, neither of those happened on Saturday. So I was bored. I attempted to alleviate the boredom by browsing the internet on my phone. I was in the midst of reading an article about how many languages Harry Potter has been translated into when I stumbled onto something quite genuinely exciting. There is an Ancient Greek edition of the first book.
An Ancient. Greek. Edition.
What.
I'm not on my laptop (or phone) right now, so I can't give you the title in the actual Greek text. But the transliteration is the title of this entry. And the translation of the title (of the translation) is, I assure you, Harry Potter and the Stone of the Philosopher (and that only if you want to be a stickler for conveying genetive of possession with "of ___.")
It exists.
I followed some links and soon found myself browsing the website of the man who translated it. I have found myself drawn there repeatedly over the past few days, even though I have already read all of the Harry Potter-relevant information there multiple times (and most of the non, besides).
This morning I realized why it is I'm so excited about this. It's not just geeking out over Harry Potter, or Greek, or the combination thereof. It's because it's just made me realize something, namely-- This is what I want to do.
Not translate Harry Potter necessarily, but bear with me.
For years and years I've known that I wanted to be a writer--or rather, that I AM a writer, and wanted to make my living being such. But recently in college I've gotten more and more into Greek and the Classics and trying to figure out what I might do with all of this. Earlier this semester, I started getting interested in Greek composition and conversation, and had lots of idle ideas about focusing on it and stuff. But I was never sure how to reconcile this Greek focus with the still-extant part of me that really, really wants to be a novelist.
Well.
Harry Potter was translated into Ancient Greek. According to the internet, it's the longest work of Ancient Greek composed since some stuff in the, like, 3rd century. Or possibly the longest work of fiction, I'm not positive--but still. I'm amazed that this has been accomplished... but also astounded that a translation of a not-very-long novel should have that distinction.
So... this is what I want to do. I want to focus on Greek composition (somehow). I want to be able to write in Greek. I have gained the (absurd) life goal of writing a novel... in Greek. An original novel in Ancient Greek.
Crazy. Insane. There's no way I'll get good enough at Greek to be able to do that. And it frightens me how much this was basically foreshadowed by all the jokes made when I was first starting out with my then-intended academic plan. But... there you have it.
[Incidentally, today is my birthday. I mention this mostly because I received in the mail, today, the electronic edition of the only available/useful Attic Greek to English dictionary, thereby making my goal that much more likely to happen. 'Twas a gift from my parents, who had no way of knowing they were inadvertently supporting a revelation of today, but are still all the more awesome for it.]
Saturday night I was bored. I had been placed in the sector where the least happens. It's the further away while still technically being part of the River Campus itself. It is full of suites full of upperclassmen. Only two kinds of things ever happen there. The first and more frequent is the noise complaint. Basically, some in-suite party goes on past 2:00 AM and someone else doesn't appreciate the noise. The less-frequent but slightly more exciting is the fire alarm.
Needless to say, neither of those happened on Saturday. So I was bored. I attempted to alleviate the boredom by browsing the internet on my phone. I was in the midst of reading an article about how many languages Harry Potter has been translated into when I stumbled onto something quite genuinely exciting. There is an Ancient Greek edition of the first book.
An Ancient. Greek. Edition.
What.
I'm not on my laptop (or phone) right now, so I can't give you the title in the actual Greek text. But the transliteration is the title of this entry. And the translation of the title (of the translation) is, I assure you, Harry Potter and the Stone of the Philosopher (and that only if you want to be a stickler for conveying genetive of possession with "of ___.")
It exists.
I followed some links and soon found myself browsing the website of the man who translated it. I have found myself drawn there repeatedly over the past few days, even though I have already read all of the Harry Potter-relevant information there multiple times (and most of the non, besides).
This morning I realized why it is I'm so excited about this. It's not just geeking out over Harry Potter, or Greek, or the combination thereof. It's because it's just made me realize something, namely-- This is what I want to do.
Not translate Harry Potter necessarily, but bear with me.
For years and years I've known that I wanted to be a writer--or rather, that I AM a writer, and wanted to make my living being such. But recently in college I've gotten more and more into Greek and the Classics and trying to figure out what I might do with all of this. Earlier this semester, I started getting interested in Greek composition and conversation, and had lots of idle ideas about focusing on it and stuff. But I was never sure how to reconcile this Greek focus with the still-extant part of me that really, really wants to be a novelist.
Well.
Harry Potter was translated into Ancient Greek. According to the internet, it's the longest work of Ancient Greek composed since some stuff in the, like, 3rd century. Or possibly the longest work of fiction, I'm not positive--but still. I'm amazed that this has been accomplished... but also astounded that a translation of a not-very-long novel should have that distinction.
So... this is what I want to do. I want to focus on Greek composition (somehow). I want to be able to write in Greek. I have gained the (absurd) life goal of writing a novel... in Greek. An original novel in Ancient Greek.
Crazy. Insane. There's no way I'll get good enough at Greek to be able to do that. And it frightens me how much this was basically foreshadowed by all the jokes made when I was first starting out with my then-intended academic plan. But... there you have it.
[Incidentally, today is my birthday. I mention this mostly because I received in the mail, today, the electronic edition of the only available/useful Attic Greek to English dictionary, thereby making my goal that much more likely to happen. 'Twas a gift from my parents, who had no way of knowing they were inadvertently supporting a revelation of today, but are still all the more awesome for it.]