For your consideration, here are some translations of the simile that T. E. Page described thus:
'Perhaps the most perfect simile in Virgil'.
Let us begin with a translation formed from Page's notes of 1900:
<They place the exquisite youth on a rustic bier>
(like) the flower of a tender violet or of a drooping hyacinth,
a flower new plucked by maiden fingers
from which neither brightness as yet nor native beauty has yet departed,
(though) no longer its mother earth nurtures it.
Now we have the translation as quoted by Williams (1973):
<They place the exquisite youth on a rustic bier>
like a blossom plucked by a maiden's hand,
of the gentle violet or the drooping hyacinth;
its brightness and beauty have not yet left it,
but mother earth no longer nourishes it and gives it life.
Next, D.A. West's Penguin (rather loose) translation of 1990, reads:
They laid the young warrior high on his bed of country straw.
There he lay like a flower cut by the thumbnail of a young girl,
a soft violet or a drooping lily,
still with its sheen and its shape,
though Mother Earth no longer feeds it and gives it strength.
Finally comes my own (working) version, whose intention is to reflect the Latin construction as closely as possible, but at the cost of other compromises.
(Just as when)
Mother Earth no longer nourishes and supplies strength,
when a flower,
whether the flower of the tender violet or of the drooping hyacinth,
has been plucked by a young girl's finger tip,
a flower from which as yet neither its brightness has departed
nor yet its own shape.
The Latin word qualem refers both to the iuvenem... sublimem and to the florem. That is the key difficulty of translation, to my mind.
To conclude, a fine meditation on the elements of the simile in the form of a reception in English, French, and German: Marlene Dietrich sings 'sag mir wo die Blumen sind?' (1962).
Note that French fleur, English blossom and bloom, and German Blume are all relatives of Latin flos, floris.
The last word belongs to the year 13s of 2018-2019.
'Perhaps the most perfect simile in Virgil'.
Let us begin with a translation formed from Page's notes of 1900:
<They place the exquisite youth on a rustic bier>
(like) the flower of a tender violet or of a drooping hyacinth,
a flower new plucked by maiden fingers
from which neither brightness as yet nor native beauty has yet departed,
(though) no longer its mother earth nurtures it.
Now we have the translation as quoted by Williams (1973):
<They place the exquisite youth on a rustic bier>
like a blossom plucked by a maiden's hand,
of the gentle violet or the drooping hyacinth;
its brightness and beauty have not yet left it,
but mother earth no longer nourishes it and gives it life.
Next, D.A. West's Penguin (rather loose) translation of 1990, reads:
They laid the young warrior high on his bed of country straw.
There he lay like a flower cut by the thumbnail of a young girl,
a soft violet or a drooping lily,
still with its sheen and its shape,
though Mother Earth no longer feeds it and gives it strength.
Finally comes my own (working) version, whose intention is to reflect the Latin construction as closely as possible, but at the cost of other compromises.
(Just as when)
Mother Earth no longer nourishes and supplies strength,
when a flower,
whether the flower of the tender violet or of the drooping hyacinth,
has been plucked by a young girl's finger tip,
a flower from which as yet neither its brightness has departed
nor yet its own shape.
The Latin word qualem refers both to the iuvenem... sublimem and to the florem. That is the key difficulty of translation, to my mind.
To conclude, a fine meditation on the elements of the simile in the form of a reception in English, French, and German: Marlene Dietrich sings 'sag mir wo die Blumen sind?' (1962).
Note that French fleur, English blossom and bloom, and German Blume are all relatives of Latin flos, floris.
The last word belongs to the year 13s of 2018-2019.
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