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I have highlighted my language difficulties in this stanza: Έσπειρα στον κήπο σου χορτάρι να ’ρχονται το βράδυ τα πουλιά τώρα ποιο φεγγάρι σ’ έχει πάρει κι άδειασε τού κόσμου η αγκαλιά. Why is there an accent on τού and not on άδειάσε; Also why, as all my translations say, is “the moon”...

Σε ευχαριστώ, Νείκο. Νομίζω πως δε θα μπορούσα να βγάλω άκρη με το ποίημα. Ελπίζω να διαβάσει ο Σαραντάκος τη μετάφρασή μου. :(

The meaning of Sarant's grandfather's poem eludes me. (The translation of Euripides in modern Greek also clinches it.) All I can make of the modern poem is:- O eye of heaven,/who beholds us all en masse/and my unhappy heartache/--from the bitter north, you have also humiliated me./We have...

Thank you for the two papers quoted which I have found very instructive and the very useful word τσάκισμα.:) I'm following it up right now.

Thanks, SBE. Two terms well worth memorising. To go back to the original thread, I see that in the Penguin book of Greek verse, Constantine A. Trypanis translates καλοκυράδες as 'mermaids' and στρατί στρατί as 'slowly'. I would like to ask if the term καλοκυράδες means 'noblewomen' in any other...

Θεγξ, Νείκο.:)

You could rewrite it, Pontios, as Nickel suggested, but that doesn't address the question. 'I don't like him laughing' is the more common and indeed correct way of saying it. 'I don't like his laughing' sounds like someone trying to speak grammatically and not idiomatically. 'I don't like him...

Thanks, Neikos. The answer to your second question is because Earion described it as 'a filler'. 'My son', otherwise, presupposes that a mother or father is speaking, does it not'?

That makes it clear, 'Man. The translators clearly found this idiom difficult:- 'slowly'/ 'one by one' is how they seem to have translated it.:)

Thanks, all. I suppose, then, για μ' is untranslatable. Do I translate βάσανα που ’χεις αγάπη as 'where you suffer pain, my love'. Why in the present tense? Or is it 'where you suffer pain, love' i.e. love in general?

Thanks, Neikos. I think the ΛΚΝ entry seemed puzzling because I took it to mean 'to state the course of direction on the road'. What does that mean? 'They took the path track by track', is how I translated it. The picture in my mind is of a path going somewhere where people from side tracks...

I quite like this song but have encountered some difficulties. They are highlighted. I need some help:- Πήρα τη στράτα, το στρατί, πάν’ τα ματάκια μου βροχή /I am weeping? γιε μ’, στρατί το μονοπάτι, βάσανα που ’χεις αγάπη. / my son, a path? Το μονοπάτι μ’ έβγαλε, η αγάπη μου με τρέλανε/ what...

In standard English (and my two grammar books support this; one other I have does not) both forms are acceptable. 'Our entering' is more formal but purists will (wrongly) insist on it as the only correct usage, because it means 'our entrance into the shop'. They quote examples like 'they didn't...

Thanks, SBE. I will follow up what you have written. Neikos, here is the translation of Margaret Sparshott:- One by one they took the path The princesses and ladies fair, Upon their horses gallant knights, And king's from far off lands were there. Who knows what songs they sang to her As...

For the etymology of "holler" and its use in the USA, see https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=holler (v.). The first counting song thus probably comes from the US.

BTW, as a boy we learnt for tiger, lion, fishy [the present common version in these parts [a fish with a toe!?] and the other many variations the n- word, which goes back to nineteenth century America. In one book I had as a child, there was actually an illustration of someone doing this to a...

An excellent reply, SBE, to my thread! The sonnets that you referred me to have been well worth reading and studying but, as you and others have seen, Adès translation here led me astray. And Margaret Sparshott's reference to the 'angel's wings' should have been 'the Archangel's [Michael's]...

Πομπή και γάνα means, does it not, "an immoral and unethical person"? Thanks. The rest is pretty clear. Here is another translation of the sonnet by Margaret Sparshott...

Thanks to all three! I am not exactly sure what Neikos means by the words τσίφτης και καραμπουζουκλής. The dictionary doesn't give anything but vague equivalents and μάγκας is one such translation. I would like a simple explanation, since both terms are often used together, as in Neikos's...

Ha ha ha! Ο ανπαίκταμπλ Δαέμανος...:)