On Translating the Homeric Epithet and Simile into Twi

Africa ◽  
1960 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-45
Author(s):  
L. H. Ofosu-Appiah
Keyword(s):  
African Language ◽  
Greek Poetry ◽  
Book Viii ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphI do not know if anyone has ever tried to see if classical Greek poetry can be translated into any African language, but I had always felt that such an experiment would be worth trying. Some years ago, therefore, I made my first attempt by translating the Antigone of Sophocles into Twi, one of the principal languages in Ghana. It was then that I discovered the possibilities of the Twi language as a medium for translating a classical Greek poet. I accordingly decided to embark on a more ambitious enterprise by translating the whole of the Odyssey into Twi prose, with a view to publishing either the whole or part of the translation. I chose for this purpose the story of the wanderings of Odysseus from Book VIII, line 461, to the end of the twelfth book. This was published in 1957, and the rest of the work was completed in 1958.

“For peace sake” : African language and xenophobia in South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 87-102
Author(s):  
M.C. Kgari-Masondo ◽  
◽  
S. Masondo ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
African Language

Caribbean French-African Creole and African Metaphysics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanétha Vété-Congolo
Keyword(s):  
African Language ◽  
The West ◽  
French Empire ◽  
African Languages ◽  
The World ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Per Se

The Euro-enslavement enterprise in America expanded the European geography temporarily, and, more lastingly, its culturo-linguistic and philosophical influence. The deportation of millions of Africans within that enterprise similarly extended the African presence in this part of the world, especially in the Caribbean. Africans deported by the French Empire spoke languages of the West Atlantic Mande, Kwa, or Voltaic groups. They arrived in their new and final location with their languages. However, no African language wholly survived the ordeal of enslavement in the Caribbean. This signals language as perhaps the most important political and philosophical instrument of colonization. I am therefore interested in “Pawòl,” that is, the ethical, human, and humanist responses Africans brought to their situation through language per se and African languages principally. I am also interested in the metaphysical value of “Pawòl.”

scholarly journals Bodies Out of Time: Sculpting Queer Poetics and Queering Classical Sculpture in the Poetry of C. P. Cavafy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. L. Watson
Keyword(s):  
Raw Material ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Greek Poetry ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
The Past ◽  
Greek World

AbstractTwo major themes dominate the poetry of the Alexandrian poet, C. P. Cavafy: homosexual desire and Greekness, broadly defined. This paper explores the interconnectivity of these motifs, showing how Cavafy’s poetic queerness is expressed through his relationship with the ancient Greek world, especially Hellenistic Alexandria. I focus on Cavafy’s incorporation of ancient sculpture into his poetry and the ways that sculpture, for Cavafy, is a vehicle for expressing forbidden desires in an acceptable way. In this, I draw on the works of Liana Giannakopoulou on statuary in modern Greek poetry and Dimitris Papanikolaou on Cavafy’s homosexuality and its presentation in the poetry. Sculpture features in around a third of Cavafy’s poems and pervades it in various ways: the inclusion of physical statues as focuses of ecphrastic description, the use of sculptural language and metaphor, and the likening of Cavafy’s beloveds to Greek marbles of the past, to name but three. This article argues that Cavafy utilizes the statuary of the ancient Greek world as raw material, from which he sculpts his modern Greek queerness, variously desiring the statuesque bodies of contemporary Alexandrian youths and constructing eroticized depictions of ancient Greek marbles. The very ontology of queerness is, for Cavafy, ‘created’ using explicitly sculptural metaphors (e.g. the repeated uses of the verb κάνω [‘to make’] in descriptions of ‘those made like me’) and he employs Hellenistic statues as a productive link between his desires and so-called ‘Greek desire’, placing himself within a continuum of queer, Greek men.

The Age of Grace: Charis in Early Greek Poetry

Phoenix ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 260
Author(s):  
Sylvia Barnard ◽  
Bonnie MacLachlan
Keyword(s):  
Greek Poetry

BOOK VIII

2013 ◽  
pp. 100-117
Author(s):  
William Morris ◽  
May Morris
Keyword(s):  
Book Viii

The Hausa System of Social Status

Africa ◽  
1959 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. G. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Great Stress ◽  
Illustrative Material

Opening ParagraphIn this discussion of the forms of Hausa social placement I wish to direct attention to the important sociological problems connected with status distribution. The Hausa afford excellent illustrative material for this purpose since their society, which lays great stress on status, is neither tribal nor modern but roughly midway between these extremes.

The religious significance of women's scarification among the Tiv

Africa ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Lincoln
Keyword(s):  
Basic Pattern ◽  
Religious Significance ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphAn elaborate and exceedingly beautiful pattern of scarification is found on the stomachs of Tiv women (see Figs. 1–8). These scars are applied around the time of puberty, and the same basic pattern is placed on the stomach of each girl. Occasionally these scars are referred to as ‘the circumcision of women’, but for the most part they are said to be meaningless, having only an aesthetic significance. Such statements need not necessarily be accepted at face value, though, as deeper meanings may be forgotten, deliberately concealed, or so commonly known as to be thought unworthy of mention. It is the purpose of this paper, written by a historian of religions, rather than an anthropologist or Africanist, to explore the possibility that these patterns carry some greater importance than is commonly recognized.

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