Week I

      For my Senior Project this year, I'll be working on a translation of Book I of The Annals by Tacitus, which is a history of the Roman empire under Tiberius. I often read books of Greek and Roman myths when I was younger, and I recently became more interested in secular writing. Throughout eighth grade and high school, I found translations of authors like Aristophanes, Plato, Tibellus, and Petronius online, and I loved reading them over and over. However, I only became interested in translation when my grandmother, who is a classicist, told me how important it is to understand these texts in their original languages. Translators can choose which subtleties in word order, vocabulary, sentence structure, and tone are important (or coherent) enough to keep in English, and this can often influence a reader's experience. I remember reading The Odyssey in ninth grade English, and one of the reasons I disliked it so much was the representation of women in the book. Then I learned about Emily Wilson, the fist woman to translate The Odyssey, who brought attention to how male translators had generously inserted their own misogyny despite the original meaning. I though about how much more I might have appreciated this epic if I had been able to read a version that was not only more linguistically egalitarian, but more historically accurate- and how many girls and women might have been turned away from classics as a discipline because men have made them believe these sexist translations are genuinely representative of the past. Even my grandmother faced a lot of hostility, and one male superior even told her outright that "we don't have women in this department."

My grandmother teaching at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome, around 1977

In order to appreciate the original meaning and context of the books, plays, and poetry I loved, I have now been studying Latin for about two years. After the pandemic interrupted my ability to continue meeting with my tutor, I asked one of my grandmother's colleagues who teaches Classics what texts I might continue to study on my own. At that point, I had been translating mostly poetry, so I wanted to choose something in prose. He recommended The Annals, which would combine challenging language with historical background. However, it's been difficult to find time during the school year to work on translating, so I thought pursuing it as my Senior Project would provide more structure and accountability. Because working on this for five hours every day might become difficult, I also plan to set aside a few of those five hours for doing grammar exercises and drills from my textbook or extra research on Tacitus or this era. I am working with Bill Ouellette, who studied Latin in high school and college and is also continuing to practice grammar and vocabulary with me. I've collaborated with Bill in the past for a Diversity Summit workshop, and because of our combined interest and experience with this subject, I reached out to him around March asking if he would be my faculty advisor. Bill also encouraged me to follow any interesting historical facts I learned and incorporate that research into this project. 

My goals over the next few weeks are to finish translating most of Book I, about 30 pages; to study and recognize literary devices and rhetorical constructions, as well as their function in the text, and to understand Tacitus as a writer; lastly, to gain a deeper understanding of the translator's role in making choices that accurately represent the style and content, while being readable and aesthetically pleasing. As part of this goal, it's also important to recognize my own biases that might affect how I interpret the text, and become aware of how they may impact the integrity and accuracy of my translation. 

Here is an image of some of my annotations so far, using strategies I learned from my tutors, which are an extremely important part of my process! 

One of the most important things I've kept in mind while learning Latin is to prioritize grammar. Latin does not have a fixed word order the way other languages do, and so the most difficult part is often deciphering the construction of a passage. Because of this, I like to mark the main verbs, the subjects or objects, and any words, like a noun and an adjective, that would go together. After I've done that, I use the margins to keep track of unfamiliar words. Using an edition of the text that includes notes has not only been extremely helpful with this, but also in identifying literary and rhetorical devices and understanding Tacitus' style.

See you next week!