01 - Translating Apuleius’ Metamorphoses: two examples

1. Sic immensum procedit in dies opinio; sic insulas iam proxumas et terrae plusculum provinciasque plurimas Fama porrecta pervagatur.

Apuleius is known for his florid style - alliteration, rhyme, isocola, etc. Not all translators replicate this central feature of his style, yet we lose much by omitting it, especially since the euphuism peaks at emphatic moments - style linked to content. The following passage from Cupid and Psyche aims to mimic Apuleian stylistic features and to bring out the voice of the old slavewoman narrator.

4.29. "And so this belief spread widely. Through nearby islands, distant domains, and provinces aplenty wandering Rumor roamed. Now many mortals came flocking from afar to this glorious spectacle of the century. No one sailed to visit Venus' shrines: Paphos: no one; Cnidos: no one. Not even her birthplace, Cythera. Her rites were discarded, her temples disfigured, her sacred couches disrespected, her ceremonies discontinued. Her statues went without garlands, her lonely altars were defiled by cold ash. It was the girl they prayed to; they aimed to appease the godhead of the great divinity in the guise of a human face. As the girl walked forth in the morning, Venus' name (not Venus) was propitiated with sacrifices and banquets. . . . This rash transference of celestial honors to the cult of a mortal girl violently inflamed the anger of the real Venus.

2. Vehementer iterum ac saepius beatos!

Another issue in Apuleian translation is the degree to which the narrators of the inset tales are differentiated from each other and from Lucius-auctor. In this passage, the slavewoman describes Cupid's palace as a poor enslaved person would, with emphasis on gold and silver and precious stones, exclaiming how fortunate the wealthy are. This passage attempts to bring out her amazed voice and her vivid second-person address to Charite.

5.1

"In the very center of the middle of the grove, near where the spring descends in a waterfall, was a royal palace, built not by human hands, but by divine arts. You'll know from the moment you enter that you are seeing some god's pleasant, light-filled retreat. For under the high ceilings, carved in citrus-wood and ivory, stand columns of gold. All the walls are covered in silver reliefs, so that wild beasts and every sort of animal meets your eye as you enter. Absolutely wondrous was the man - or rather a demi-god, or a god surely - who brought such beasts out of silver with the delicacy of his great art. And in fact even the floors were sectioned off into different pictured scenes, made of finely cut precious stones. - I tell you, those people are exceedingly fortunate, and fortunate again and so very many times over, who trample on gems and jewelry! - Now, the other parts of the house, extending far and wide, were so precious as to be priceless, and all the walls were firmed up with lumps of solid gold which gleamed with a luster of their own.

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Presenters

Ellen Finkelpearl, Scripps College

  SCS-27