Everyman's Library
“Your value rests in your body, mine in my mind. As much as the one who directs the ship is greater than the one who rows it and as much as the general excels the common soldier, I am greater than you. For in our bodies the mind is of more value than the body, and our real strength is our mind.”
--from METAMORPHOSES by Ovid
Ovid’s famous mock epic—a treasury of myth and magic that is one of the greatest literary works of classical antiquity—is rendered into fluidly poetic English by world-renowned translator Allen Mandelbaum. Roman poet Ovid’s dazzling cycle of tales begins with the creation of the world and ends with the deification of Caesar Augustus. In between is a glorious panoply of the most famous myths and legends of the ancient Greek and Roman world—from Echo’s passion for Narcissus to Pygmalion’s living statue, from Perseus’s defeat of Medusa to the fall of Troy. Retold with Ovid’s irreverent flair, these tales are united by the theme of metamorphosis, as men and women are rendered alien to themselves, turned variously to flowers, trees, animals, and stones. The closest thing to a central character is love itself—a confounding, transforming, irrational force that makes fools of gods and mortals alike. The poem’s playful verses, both sensually earthy and wittily sophisticated, have reverberated through the centuries, inspiring countless artists and writers from Shakespeare to the present. Frequently translated, imitated, and adapted, The Metamorphoses has lost none of its power to provoke and entertain. READ an excerpt here: http://knopfdoubleday.com/book/226926/the-metamorphoses/
British Museum
This etching illustrating Ovid’s Metamorphoses is by artist Salvator Rosa, born #onthisday in 1615 http://ow.ly/ObyGxRosa worked in Naples, Florence and Rome. He achieved great success with his landscape paintings of wild and mountainous scenery populated with travellers and bandits. His one hundred or so etchings, which have always been admired for their inventive figure groupings, reflect his desire to be known as more than a landscape painter.
Ovid Is Not a Safe Space, and Other News
May 18, 2015 | by Dan Piepenbring
Deucalion and Pyrrha in an engraving by Virgil Solis for Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book I.
British Museum
Born #onthisday in 43 BC: Roman poet Ovid. These works depict stories from his Metamorphoses http://ow.ly/KdpxT
(這本《變形記》2010，台北書林另有一翻譯本。 以後再說。)
#變形記（第二版）
《變形記》是 #奧維德 的代表作，全詩十五卷，結構可分為序詩、宇宙的開創、神的故事、男女英雄的故事、歷史人物的事跡、結尾。內容取材於 #古希臘羅馬神話，根據古希臘哲學家畢達哥拉斯的「靈魂輪迴」理論，用變形，即人由於某種原因被變成動物、植物、星星、石頭等這一線索貫穿全書，包括大小故事共250多個(其中以愛情故事為主)。
本書特色
※集希臘羅馬神話之大成，是上古歐洲史詩傳統絕響之作，為後代藝術家源源不絕提供創作的靈感。
從開天闢地到羅馬皇帝奧古斯都登基，奧維德以變形主題貫串希臘神話與羅馬歷史，藉細膩的心理描寫鋪陳眼界宏偉的宇宙演化過程，揭露人類行為的動機與執迷，多視角呈現人面臨壓力時的反應。奧維德擷取歷代作家的神話創作為個人創作的素材，成就一部西洋神話的「易經」，在無常的生命世界闡明永恆的真理：現象無常是宇宙唯一的常道。
※透過獨樹一幟的「#陰性書寫」筆觸，多方面揭露普受忽視的女性世界與心理。
舉凡現代媒體有機會看到的社會新聞，甚至小說家以及八卦與非八卦讀者咸感興味盎然的故事，在他筆下樣樣不缺。他把時間意識引入神話舞台，描寫形體變化同時啟迪因心性蛻變而提昇精神境界的可能。
※第一本繁體中文全譯本。
譯者累積翻譯西洋古典詩三十年的經驗，亦步亦趨揣摩奧維德宏觀的視野、細膩的觀察和練達的機鋒，佐以深入淺出的序文、要言不繁的注釋、詳盡的細目結構和詞彙索引，以及希臘羅馬專有名詞對照表，全方位呈現詩人慧心所見的變形神話。
※第二版新增九萬字〈引論〉。
完整介紹奧維德的變形史觀所見的變形現象，並透過神話史識有系統分析古今人類心靈共通的結構成分—譯者稱之為變形基因，總共十一種：藝術變形、自然化生、性情變形、文化變形、成因變形、隱喻變形、獎懲變形、隱匿變形、性別變形、故事變形、幻化變形。
作者： #奧維德
譯者： #呂健忠
出版社：#書林出版有限公司
定價：600元（書店取書85折）
I. Calvino《為什麼讀經典》中的『變形記』之變形記
I. Calvino《為什麼讀經典》中很少引所介紹之經典之內文，因此這些多為他們的文學傳統。所以引經典之文時，翻譯最好待之敬之如經典，翻譯儘量要保持原汁。我舉Ovid的『變形記』的翻譯為例，說明如下：
「高空中有一條路，天空無雲的時候，可以看到這條路。它被稱為銀河，因為它的白而聞名。眾神要前往偉大宙斯的王宮時，總會從這裡經過。路的兩旁是較尊貴的 神明的門廊，門是開著的，裡面總是門庭若市。地位較低的神祇則四散住在各地。有名有勢的神將祂們的家神安置在這裡，直接面向道路（……）。如果作比較不會 顯得不敬的話，那麼我會說這個地方是偉大天界中的貴族領地。」
（伊塔羅．卡爾維諾（ Italo Calvino）《為什麼讀經典》( Why Read the Classics? 1991 ) 李桂蜜譯，台北：時報出版（網路「時報悅讀」有相關簡介），2005， p.25）
In the high heavens there is a roadway, which can be seen when the sky is clear. It is called the Milky Way, and it is famous for its whiteness. Here the gods pass by on their way to the palace of the great Thunderer. On the right and left side of the road, with their doors open. Stand the entrance halls of the nobler gods, always filled with crowds. The more plebeian deities live scattered about elsewhere. The more powerful and famous gods have settled their own household gods here, given directly onto the road(… a fronte potentes / caelicolae clarique suos posuere penates). If the comparison didn’t seem irreverent, I would say that this place is the Palatine area of the mighty heavens.
----
「天上有一條路，天空晴朗時可以看得很清楚，它的名字叫銀河*，以潔白著稱。天上諸神都是沿著這條大路來到偉大的雷君**的王宮大殿的。在王宮的左邊和右 邊是品位高的神的府邸，大門動開，賓客絡繹不絕。平民神則散居其他各處。而在這一邊，那些有權勢的天上居民和顯赫的神祇安了家宅，這一段，恕我斗膽說一 句，我可以毫不猶疑地叫做天堂裡的帕拉提亞區***。
* Via lacteal 或 orbis lacteus，意為”奶路”。
**指朱庇特
***帕拉提烏姆（Platium）為羅馬七山之一，奧古斯都在此造了宮殿，稱帕拉提亞。」（奧維德『變形記』楊周翰譯，北京：人民文學出版社，1984/2000，pp. 3-4）
楊周翰譯的『變形記』，根據Loeb 之拉丁- 英文對照本和幾本英文翻譯本（包括我有的企鵝版--這本有他的特色，如上文中之whiteness 為 brightness—這樣翻譯有得有失：更清楚，可不對應Milky Way） 。
楊周翰先生是著名的譯家，可供我們學習。李桂蜜譯本很不講究，包括將Thunderer直接用一希臘神取代之，殊不知道『變形記』的他處都用「朱庇特」。
我無意責某人翻譯能力，因為這是一本困難的書。不過，我指出或許專業翻譯者的標準要很高。
最重要的，一本談經典的書要想翻譯完善，必須依靠許多前輩在經典翻譯的貢獻。
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