Homer, Odyssey a1-27 (spoken in reconstructed ancient Greek pronunciation)

text start: 00:51 text end: 04:14 -- English Tell me, O Muse, of the man of many devices, who wandered full many ways after he had sacked the sacred citadel of Troy. Many were the men whose cities he saw and whose mind he learned, aye, and many the woes he suffered in his heart upon the sea, seeking to win his own life and the return of his comrades. Yet even so he saved not his comrades, though he desired it sore, for through their own blind folly they perished—fools, who devoured the kine of Helios Hyperion; but he took from them the day of their returning. Of these things, goddess, daughter of Zeus, beginning where thou wilt, tell thou even unto us. Now all the rest, as many as had escaped sheer destruction, were at home, safe from both war and sea, but Odysseus alone, filled with longing for his return and for his wife, did the queenly nymph Calypso, that bright goddess, keep back in her hollow caves, yearning that he should be her husband. But when, as the seasons revolved, the year came in which the gods had ordained that he should return home to Ithaca, not even there was he free from toils, even among his own folk. And all the gods pitied him save Poseidon; but he continued to rage unceasingly against godlike Odysseus until at length he reached his own land. Howbeit Poseidon had gone among the far-off Ethiopians—the Ethiopians who dwell sundered in twain, the farthermost of men, some where Hyperion sets and some where he rises, there to receive a hecatomb of bulls and rams, and there he was taking his joy, sitting at the feast; but the other gods were gathered together in the halls of Olympian Zeus. -- Italian Musa, quell’uom di multiforme ingegno Dimmi, che molto errò, poich’ebbe a terra Gittate d’Ilïòn le sacre torri; Che città vide molte, e delle genti L’indol conobbe; che sovr’esso il mare Molti dentro del cor sofferse affanni, Mentre a guardar la cara vita intende, E i suoi compagni a ricondur: ma indarno Ricondur desïava i suoi compagni, Ché delle colpe lor tutti periro. Stolti! che osaro vïolare i sacri Al Sole Iperïon candidi buoi Con empio dente, ed irritâro il nume, Che del ritorno il dì lor non addusse. Deh! parte almen di sì ammirande cose Narra anco a noi, di Giove figlia e diva. Già tutti i Greci, che la nera Parca Rapiti non avea, ne’ loro alberghi Fuor dell’arme sedeano e fuor dell’onde; Sol dal suo regno e dalla casta donna Rimanea lungi Ulisse: il ritenea Nel cavo sen di solitarie grotte La bella venerabile Calipso, Che unirsi a lui di maritali nodi Bramava pur, ninfa quantunque e diva. E poiché giunse al fin, volvendo gli anni, La destinata dagli dèi stagione Del suo ritorno, in Itaca, novelle Tra i fidi amici ancor pene durava. Tutti pietà ne risentìan gli eterni, Salvo Nettuno, in cui l’antico sdegno Prima non si stancò, che alla sua terra Venuto fosse il pellegrino illustre. Ma del mondo ai confini e alla remota Gente degli Etïòpi (in duo divisa, Ver cui quinci il sorgente ed il cadente Sole gli obbliqui rai quindi saetta) Nettun condotto a un ecatombe s’era Di pingui tori e di montoni; ed ivi Rallegrava i pensieri, a mensa assiso. In questo mezzo gli altri dèi raccolti Nella gran reggia dell’olimpio Giove Stavansi. -- Deutsch Sage mir, Muse, die Taten des viel sich wendenden Mannes, Welcher so viel geirrt, nach der heiligen Troia Zerstörung, Vieler Menschen Städte gesehn, und Sitte gelernt hat, Und auf dem Meere so viel’ unnennbare Leiden erduldet, Seine Seele zu retten, und seiner Freunde Zurückkunft. Aber die Freunde rettet’ er nicht, wie eifrig er strebte, Denn sie bereiteten selbst durch Missetat ihr Verderben: Toren! welche die Rinder des hohen Sonnenbeherrschers Schlachteten; siehe, der Gott nahm ihnen den Tag der Zurückkunft, Sage hievon auch uns ein weniges, Tochter Kronions. Alle die andern, so viel dem verderbenden Schicksal entflohen, Waren jetzo daheim, dem Krieg’ entflohn und dem Meere: Ihn allein, der so herzlich zur Heimat und Gattin sich sehnte, Hielt die unsterbliche Nymphe, die hehre Göttin Kalypso, In der gewölbeten Grotte, und wünschte sich ihn zum Gemahle. Selbst da das Jahr nun kam im kreisenden Laufe der Zeiten, Da ihm die Götter bestimmt, gen Ithaka wiederzukehren; Hatte der Held noch nicht vollendet die müdende Laufbahn, Auch bei den Seinigen nicht. Es jammerte seiner die Götter; Nur Poseidon zürnte dem göttergleichen Odysseus Unablässig, bevor er sein Vaterland wieder erreichte. Dieser war jetzo fern zu den Aithiopen gegangen; Aithiopen, die zwiefach geteilt sind, die äußersten Menschen, Gegen den Untergang der Sonnen, und gegen den Aufgang: Welche die Hekatombe der Stier’ und Widder ihm brachten. Allda saß er, des Mahls sich freuend. Die übrigen Götter Waren alle in Zeus’ des Olympiers Hause versammelt.