Arma virumque cano…
The first line of Vergil’s Aeneid, similar to Caesar’s “Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres…,” is a line constantly referenced throughout my time studying Latin. It’s a line that I don’t have to translate in order to understand because it is so prevalent, often discussed. Perhaps this level of familiarity is why it’s important to take another look at the line and what it means, especially the way that women present the line in their translations. Similar to Odysseus in Emily Wilson’s Odyssey, recent versions of Aeneas, those portrayed in women’s translations, complicate Aeneas in new ways.
In new translations, Aeneas becomes a refugee, fleeing his war torn land, carrying his household gods and accompanied by a few of his family members and many of the soldiers who fought for Troy alongside him. Robert Fagles translates Aeneas as an exile. This may be a subtle difference, but the connotation of these words is different, and this difference strikes me as important. A refugee is someone who must flee from danger in a country. An exile is someone who is forced to leave, although there is often an opportunity for someone in exile to return to his home country later. There is no returning to Troy later on. There is no Troy left. Of course Aeneas’ journey results in a new place to live, but not without finding many places where he cannot place his household gods permanently. Refugee is a word that is in the news often, especially now. Calling Aeneas a refugee reframes the story of his journey, and makes it relatable and relevant to current readers.
Translations of the first line of Vergil’s Aeneid show some of the ways that women deviate and remain faithful to the Latin text. Both Sarah Ruden and Patricia Johnston render the famous line in the same way: “Arms and a man I sing…” (3, in both Johnston and Ruden). Bartsch approaches the translation a little differently: “My song is of war and a man: a refugee by fate” (3). Fagles translates the line as: “Wars and a man I sing – an exile driven on by Fate” (47). Fitzgerald writes: “I sing of warfare and a man at war” (3). Ruden and Johnston both show their faithfulness to the original Latin in several ways. Their English translations reflect the Latin word order, which is not always possible or easy to do in English, they begin the line with the words in the accusative case and end with the verb. They also preserve the metonymy by using the word “arms” (arma) instead of “war” or “warfare” as Fagles and Fitzgerald do. Ruden’s and Johnston’s first lines also reflect the visual presentation of the Latin, separated halfway through by a comma, and introducing Troy in first line (the city and war from which Aeneas is coming from). The faithfulness that Ruden and Johnston display in this first line show a certain commitment to rendering translations that are faithful to the originals in visual presentation, and even in word order and rhetorical figures. While Fagles and Fitzgerald might write lines that sound somewhat more poetic and introduce the overarching themes in the poem, namely war and fate, they are lengthier and do not strive to create their ethos as translators around the idea of faithfulness to the Latin, but rather to their interpretations of the originals. Bartsch’s approach is similar to Fagles and Fitzgerald, but with a twist. While her word order more naturally reflects English word order, she characterizes Aeneas as a refugee, which is not the same thing as an exile, and, like Fagles, introduces the idea of Fate in the first line. Women on the other hand create their ethos as translators through faithfulness to visual presentation, line number, and meter, as Ruden and Johnston do, but deviate in some key ways in their interpretations, like Bartsch.
Sources:
Vergil. The Aeneid. Translated by Shadi Bartsch. Random House. 2021.
—. The Aeneid. Translated by Robert Fagles. Penguin. 2010.
—. The Aeneid. Translated by Sarah Ruden. Yale University Press. 2008.
—. The Aeneid. Translated by Sarah Ruden. Yale University Press. 2021.
—. The Aeneid. Translated by Patricia Johnston. University of Oklahoma Press. 2012.
—. The Aeneid. Translated by Robert Fitzgerald. Vintage Classics. 1983.
Alexandra Sladky 