length

here are some interesting numbers to crunch:

the epic of gilgamesh: over 3000 lines

beowulf: over 3000 lines

paradise lost: over 10000 lines

the aeneid: over 10000 lines (incomplete)

metamorphoses: over 12000 lines

the odyssey: over 12000 lines

divina commedia: over 14000 lines

the iliad: over 15000 lines

the canterbury tales: over 17000 lines (theres prose inside, though. no idea how they count that. incomplete)

ok theres relli no basis for comparison, especially for the translated works. but owell, if you've ever wondered how epic the epics are.. here are... some interesting numbers!

as a sidenote, maybe i should go read the nibelungenlied...

sophistication on translation

well, maybe that's an exaggeration. but in any case, its better than my take on it i think. i quote from All the Fun's in How You Say a Thing by Timothy Steele: 

"In chapter 62 of part 2 of Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote, the hero falls into converstaion with a bookseller and remarks of translation:

[I]t appears to me that translating from one language to another, unless it be from one of those two queenly tongues, Greek and Latin, is like gazing at a Flemish tapestry with the wrong side out: even though the figures are visible, they are full of threads that obscure the view and are not bright and smooth as when seen from the other side. 

We call a literary work a "text", and Cervantes' simile about translations may remind us that "text" comes from the Latin texere, meaning "to weave". Lovers of verse will find this etymology appropriate, because excellent poetry has a texture as palpable as that of beautifully woven cloth. Poets do not literally interlace lines warp-and-woof fashion, but they do draw them together into a single verbal fabric. And this process contributes, no less than does the modulation of individual lines, to the distinctive rhythms of a poem."

well ok, pretty cool stuff. well that's still better than "translation is betrayal" so... 

anyway i wonder why only Greek and Latin are "queenly tongues". and for that matter, why "queenly"? hm. and i maybe im just ignorant, but y Flemish tapestry? they're the best in the world? or is it jus don quixote being... don quixote. uh. 

well the metaphor of poetry as fabric, or tapestry, rather, is interesting. i'm not sure if it fully encapsulates it, but its an interesting comparison to draw. and of course, i think that the analogy for translation is quite well expressed. well, better than my attempts earlier on in the year... hm. mebbe there'll be better still.

hospitals

hm, i seem to be coming into contact with hospitals quite abit recently. and no, not as a patient. well tt observation is probably just a pretext for me to um, talk about them some.

the etymology of "hospital" probably comes from something to the effect of "hospice" rather than "hospitable" (although "hospice" does also have something of "hospitable" in its own etymology). "patient" on the other hand, comes from a word meaning "to suffer". in that sense, the patient in the hospital is a more accurate use of the word's root than say the virtue "patience". i suppose "patience" is the figurative use of it, since "patience" is often replaced by "longsuffering", which makes perfect sense. 

several contemplative (? thought? logic?) experiments later (or maybe the word is just "musings" which is amusing, admittedly..) and there r several things of interest (well at least to me). 1- a patient goes to a hospitable hospital. 2- a patient goes for hospice care in a hospital. 3- a patient patient goes to hospital. now i guess consider all the inverse situations, and all the possible permutations and combinations and... u get something very trivial! ah well, i thought it was funny to think about the etymologies...

lets see, on the figurative level, what does a hospital represent/ symbolize? a caring institution of healing and convalescence? a hell hole of sickness and disease? a warm, sensitive environment? or a cold, sterile corporation only thinking of turning a profit? is a hospital a refuge of hope or a stockade of despair (well, an exaggeration unless u hv a terminal illness or something i guess..) 

well sensibly, u dun go to a hospital for superficial problems. for that a visit to the clinic would suffice. so i guess the hospital in a sense is a weightier institution. but i guess u can still be a patient anywhere, and theres very little to identify u; perhaps u'd identify yourself as either a hospital patient or a clinic patient. heh. owell..

well i guess for most part, the operation (ahahahaha) of a hospital isnt particularly fascinating, but its interesting how it finds its way into art as a symbol or a setting. well ok, i dont think this consideration is complete, but, ive kinda run out of the obvious ideas. another time then.