KOHD

KOHDKOHDThe hunt for lost sayings:Parallels and translation technique in Syriac and Arabic gnomologia

Ute Pietruschka (Gttingen / Halle)

The importance of Syriac translations for reconstructing Greek texts

Syriac texts sometimes older than theoldest extant Greek mss.

Syriac translation may represent an otherwise totally lost Greek textual family or tradition. Ms. (10th cent.) containing the Syriac translation of Aristotles Organon

al-Farbs (d. 950/51) account on the transmission of Greek philosophy and medicine to the Arabs

The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in the 8th-10th centuriessupported by the elite of Abbasid society

commissioned by Abbasid caliphs

al-Mansr (754-775)al-Mahd (775-785) al-Mamn (813-833)

Main goals of the CASG projectTransmission ofgnomologiaGreekArabicSyriac detecting lines of transmission

approach of the compiler

sources (original works, other collections of sayings)

Greek gnomic material translated into Syriac / Arabic:

material of political nature associated with mirrors of princes going back to Byzantine manuals of the 6th/7th cent. pagan and Christian material of ethical character going back to Greek gnomologia (8th/9th cent.)

Different versions of a saying:

Arabic collections:Diogenes saw a woman who was carried away by the flood. He said: The evil is destroyed by the evil. (unayn 9)

Diogenes saw a woman who was carried away by the flood. He said: "She adds to the nuisance a nuisance. The evil is destroyed by the evil. (Ibn Hindu 480) Diogenes saw a woman who was carried away by the flood. He said: Let the evil destroy the evil. (Ibn Hindu 509 = griech.Cod. V 8 (Giannantoni, Socratis et Socraticorum reliquiae), 206)

Example for simple rewording of the Arabic traditionor another translation?translation technique Greek-Syriac / Syriac-Arabic

Diogenes saw a woman who was carried away by the flood. He said: The evil is destroyed by the evil.

Names/ persons as placeholdersKeyword: quintessence of the saying

Names, persons, content as an unstable elementthe gnome itself as a stable elementA saying as a construction kit

Laments of philosophers over AlexanderGreek philosophers uttering wise sayings at Alexanders deathbed

great popularity both in the East and in the West, translated from Arabic

translation into Latin:

Petrus Alphonsus Disciplina Clericalis (early 12th century)interpolated into the Historia de preliis (a Latin translation from the 10th cent. of Pseudo-Callisthenes The history of Alexander the Great, recension I)

Christian translator and physician (Syrian origin)unayn ibn Isq (d. 873/77) and his school

Nawdir al-falsifaMuslim versions:

Mubashshir ibn Ftik (11th cent.)El Libro de los Buenos proverbios Los Bocados de OroThe Muslim tradition of the Laments

a-afad (d. 1363) on translation technique

The translators use two methods of translation. One of them is that of Yuann b. al-Barq, Ibn an-Nima al-ims and others. According to this method, the translator studies each individual Greek word and its meaning, chooses an Arabic word of corresponding meaning and uses it. Then he turns to the next word and proceeds in the same manner until in the end he has rendered into Arabic the text he wishes to translate. This method is badThe second method is that of unayn ibn Isq, al-Jauhar and others. Here the translator considers a whole sentence, ascertains its full meaning and then expresses it in Arabic with a sentence identical in meaning, without concern for the correspondence of individual words. This method is superior, and hence there is no need to improve the works of unayn ibn Isq.

(F. Rosenthal, The Classical Heritage in Islam, London 1975.)

Syriac lamentspreserved in a late ms. from the beginning of the 20th cent.

Christian Arabic tradition:

Eutychius, Annales (ed. L. Cheikho, Eutychii Patrirchae Annales, Paris 1906)Al-Makn, ed. E.A.W. Budge, The Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great, Cambridge 1896)

Ab Shkir (Ethiopic version)

The Christian tradition of the Laments

Syr. 1: mr rswlys: npq mn lwtn lksndrws mll w-hpk lwtn tyq

Eutychius 3: wa-qla Arisls al-akm: adara ann al-Iskandar niqan wa-qadama alayn mitan

Say.PRF=3SG.M Aristoteles: go out.PRF=3SG.M from being with-us.PERSPRN= 1PL Alexander speak.PART ACT=SG.M and-return.PRF=3SG.M being with-us.PERS PRN=1PL silent.PART ACT=SG.M

Aristotle said: Alexander departed from us speaking, but returned to us silent.

Syr 6: mr Lws pylswp : l ttdmrwn b-mn d-l rtyn b-ywhy d-h b-yd mwth mrtn ln.

And-say.PRF=3SG.M Loas philosopher: NEG wonder.IMPER=PL.M ETHPA at-from of-NEG admonish.PERF=3SG.M APH-PERSPRN.1PL. in-life-his.PERSPRN=3SG.M for behold by death-his.PERSPRN=3SG admonish.PART ACT.SG.M PREP=ACC-us.PERS PRN=1PL

And the Philosopher Loas (Philotas?) said: Do not wonder at him who did not admonish us in his lifetime, for behold he admonishes us by his death. Eut. 9: wa-qla Las al-faylasf: l tuib mimman lam yuaimn f aytih umma qad ra bi-mawtih lan wian.

Syr. 2: mr Twn km: mr l-rnh d-lksndrws: ywmn ry mryt l-ryh.Say.PRF=3SG.M Theon wise.ADJ: say to-flock.CST of-Alexander: today shepherd.PRF=3SG.M flock.NOM to.PREP=ACC-shepherd-his.PERSPRN.3SG.M

The wise Theon said: Say to Alexanders sheep: Today the flock shepherds its shepherd.

Eut.4: qla Nrn al-akm: qul li-rayat al-Iskandar h yawm tar ar-raya rih.

mirror type as the norm for translations translation reflects as many details of the Greek source text as possible:many loan words particles ! > r > dn > gyr > yw > malon

ideal of formal equivalence is extended to syntax as well

exact representation of Greek sentence structure

later applied to translations into Arabic (from Greek or Syriac)Syriac translation technique in the 7th cent.

Ideal for the Greek textual critic and reconstruction of lost sayingsare the mirror-translations into Syriac and/or Arabic:

almost every detail of the underlying Greek text can be observed: syntactical re-use

sequence alignment usable in order to partially automate comparative methods

Semantical re-use has to take into account the unstable elements of a saying (names, persons, context) depending on the linguistic / religious background of the translator / compilerfurther research

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