Last April I submitted three poems for the Certamen Poeticum Sarbievianum. As you can easily guess I did not win.
I had a hard time finding the news of the award. I did not receive any email and there were no updates on the website of the Certamen. I had to plumb the depths of the Miejskie Centrum Kultury website to find it.
W tym roku po raz szósty konkurs organizowany był w języku łacińskim. Na konkurs wpłynęło 9 zestawów. Jury w składzie: Marcin Loch (przewodniczący), Cecilie Koch, dr Catharina Ochman przyznało nagrodą w tej kategorii Stephano Victori z Włoch.
This year the competition was organized in Latin for the sixth time. 9 sets were submitted to the competition. The jury composed of: Marcin Loch (chairman), Cecilie Koch, Dr. Catharina Ochman awarded a prize in this category to Stefano Vittori from Italy.
Apparently only nine persons participated and, of course, Stefano won, so after all I am happy with the final result.
Today I just want to show one of the three poems I sent, because I think that it turned out well. It’s a translation in hexameters of Roy Batty’s iconic final words.
“Tears in rain” monologue
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe… Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion… I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain… Time to die.
Quae non vos homines possetis credere vidi: Naves ardentes procul Orionis ab armo, Caeruleos radios portam ad Tanhuserianam Per tenebras atras fulgere. Ut fletus in imbre, Nam moriendi hora est, haec tempore cuncta peribunt.
Orionis armus: the exact translation for shoulder of Orion would be humerus Orionis. It’s not clear whether it is the right shoulder (Betelgeuse i.e. α Orionis) or the left one (Bellatrix i.e. γ Orionis).
Radii caerulei: C-beams according to fans are either cutter-beams or caesium-beams. I opted for the second one. For metrical reasons I used caeruleus instead of caesius.
Tanhuserianus: Tannhaüser was a German poet who lived in the Middle Ages. His name in Middle High German is Tanhûser, which in Latin becomes Tanhuserus. Again, for metrical reasons I invented the adjective Tanhuserianus.
Mors in spatio
To be thorough I’ve discovered1 that in the elegy Mors in spatio vv. 55-68 (F. Bandini 2000) there’s a section that recalls Batty’s monologue.
Jampridem generi patuit Via Lactea nostro;
Sidera nacti, hominum saecula multa, sumus.
Stirps Adae vidit miracula Cassiopeae
Astris implosis quae violenta rubet,
Andromedae vidit nebulosa enormia pasci
Priscae caelestis pulvere materiae
Et somnurna velut phantasmata nare cometas
Per Cephei vacuas horriferasque plagas.
Nos in visceribus taetri gelidique planetae
Ut talpae fossas incolimus latebras
Jamque diu nostrae torpentes frigore naves
Sub nivis aggeribus sub glacieque iacent!
A Terra venit speratus denique jussus
Tendere in ignotam praecipimurque Lyram.
G. Furnari, “La poesia neolatina in Italia nell’ultimo trentennio: alcuni esempi”, L’Ulisse, 23, 2020, pp. 556-583 «Non è troppo peregrino credere che il titolo Mors in spatio sia una riformulazione di 2001: Odissea nello spazio di Stanley Kubrick o che l'anafora del verbo videre nel monologo del comandante (in particolare nei vv. 57-62) sia determinata dal richiamo a un altro celebre monologo, parimenti intriso di umanità, in cui si celebrava la visione di prodigi fra le stelle, cioè quello di Roy Batty in Blade Runner di Ridley Scott». It is no wonder that Gianluca Fornari was also the promoter of Certamen Poeticum Nubicentauricum.
It's beautiful.