Success in Latin translation competition

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At the end of the last term, members of the Classics department entered the Sam Hood translation competition, run by Omnibus magazine. The competition invites students to translate a passage of Greek or Latin prose or poetry, with judges looking for both accuracy and creativity. Entrants can choose from a selection of passages by classical authors, including Homer, Sophocles, Virgil and Horace, and are encouraged to produce translations that are as elegant and stylish as they are faithful to the original. The competition offers an exciting opportunity for students to develop their translation skills and engage creatively with unadapted classical literature.

This competition is usually entered by sixth-formers. However, with a particularly able and motivated Year 10 cohort this year, we were delighted to enter some of our top Latinists a few years early!  Pupils worked on one of Horace’s Odes (Book 1 Poem 9), a dramatic monologue on making the most of life whilst young, and the contrast between the quiet of rural living and the excitement of life in the city. This Latin was far beyond what is usually expected of a Year 10 student (this poem would not look out of place in an unseen translation at the end of Year 13) but the group rose to the challenge remarkably well.

Over several sessions together, we worked through the Latin, discussed the poem in detail, and looked at how other translators had approached the
text. We then considered how we could make our own translations as elegant, creative and stylish as possible. The students submitted their entries over the summer and we are currently waiting to hear back from the judges. We wish them the very best of luck!

Here are excerpts from some of the students’ translations; the same few lines of Latin, translated in a variety of clever ways: 

donec virenti canities abest
morosa. nunc et Campus et areae
lenesque sub noctem susurri
composita repetantur hora

Seek the Campus Martius or public squares and after light
let the night reveal its soft secrets, live in the now
and follow where the hushed whispers linger, exclaiming gently through the night.
- Aahan 

While youthful strength remains and age is far,
Do not refuse the dances or the love,
Now seek the open fields and games,
In gentle evening time.
- Sachin 

While pale hair avoids your youthful vigour.
Now is your time for strutting and sauntering,
For secret whispers at twilight.
- Sam 

While health’ you yet stay: traces devoid of wear,
Of grey; all old griefs, wailed but in mock; pursue
Squares and murmurs soft beneath hush
Shining of moon, then assured, of apt-time
- William

While gloomy grey hairs are absent from all of your
Youth; let the Campus and squares and the soft whispers,
Heard in the night at the hour so appointed, be
Sought for and eagerly claimed by you once again.

- Krish 

Gloomy gray hairs have yet to plague your youth.
You must make for the fields of the Campus Martius,
And under the moonlit night, listen to the secret whispers of truth.
- Aneeish