5 X 1773
21 VII 2013
21 VII 2013
CLACH NA BAN-RIGH
“We passed by a place where there is a very large stone, I may call it a ROCK;—'a vast weight for Ajax'. The tradition is, that a giant threw such another stone at his mistress, up to the top of a hill, at a small distance; and that she in return, threw this mass down to him. It was all in sport. Malo me petit lasciva puella.”
Boswell, 5 October
Boswell is decribing two glacial erratics, one near the top, the other on the lower slopes of Ben Hogh; the higher one is named Clach na Ban-righ, Stone of the Queen, a huge stone perched on three very much smaller ones. He (slightly mis-) quotes Virgil; the full text reads
Malo me petit Galatea, lasciva puella
Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri
Virgil, Eclogues, iii, ll.64-5
That wanton girl Galatea
throws apples at me and runs
to hide in the willow bushes,
hoping I’ve seen her first.
translated by Barriss Mills
Clach na Ban-righ, after Virgil
for Tim & Jane
(I)
On Coll
the hungry wind
seeks apple and sallow
in vain
(II)
Galatea’s apple
ripens in the sun
(III)
placed like an apple
on a shelf of rock
stone, you have the bal-
ance of our attention
(IV)
bless the day
Galatea chucks
her golden delicious
my way
Bibliography
Mills, Barriss (trans.); The Eclogues of Virgil (1980)
Grandsen, K.W. (ed.); Virgil in English (1996)
Boswell, 5 October
Boswell is decribing two glacial erratics, one near the top, the other on the lower slopes of Ben Hogh; the higher one is named Clach na Ban-righ, Stone of the Queen, a huge stone perched on three very much smaller ones. He (slightly mis-) quotes Virgil; the full text reads
Malo me petit Galatea, lasciva puella
Et fugit ad salices, et se cupit ante videri
Virgil, Eclogues, iii, ll.64-5
That wanton girl Galatea
throws apples at me and runs
to hide in the willow bushes,
hoping I’ve seen her first.
translated by Barriss Mills
Clach na Ban-righ, after Virgil
for Tim & Jane
(I)
On Coll
the hungry wind
seeks apple and sallow
in vain
(II)
Galatea’s apple
ripens in the sun
(III)
placed like an apple
on a shelf of rock
stone, you have the bal-
ance of our attention
(IV)
bless the day
Galatea chucks
her golden delicious
my way
Bibliography
Mills, Barriss (trans.); The Eclogues of Virgil (1980)
Grandsen, K.W. (ed.); Virgil in English (1996)