How the hell do you make this sound good in dactyilic hexameter? I don't understand this meter at all

How the hell do you make this sound good in dactyilic hexameter? I don't understand this meter at all.

Can anyone explain this to me- how is it supposed to sound so that it's musical and "good"?

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Yeah it's almost as if it were written in another language or something

>2016
>reading verse translations

That is irrelevant. Tons of martial and folk music from lots of cultures, including a lot of country & western music from America, is based on the dactylic hexameter- LONG short-short. It's the galloping rhythm of a horse at a steady trot.

I recorded how it's supposed to sound.

vocaroo.com/i/s1HnZAObUEtF

BOOM-chika BOOM-chika BOOM-chika BOOM-chika BOOM-chika BOOM BOOM

Or it can also be done like Stars and Stripes Forever:

vocaroo.com/i/s15sSJtBr2xa

Because it simply doesnt work in english.

You cant have a translation that fits a meter of two completely different languages. For example in ancient greek ανθρωπος (anthropos) is three syllables so can be a single dactyl in a line. Whereas translated would be man. Which is only one syllable and therefore wont fit the metrical foot.

Translation is so difficult as you cant get the true feel of the text in prose but you cant have an accurate verse translation trying to force into a metrical foot.

Dactyilic hexameter isn't a greek meter. There has been lots of native english poetry written in dactylic hexameter:

This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of old, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.

Evangeline by Henry Longfellow

Read Charge of the Light brigade by tennyson.

This isnt dactylic hexameter its dactylic dimeter but its easy to fall into reading the dactyls.

My point is it is rare in english as it is a complex meter for our language due to syllable count being quite low word by word.

Greek and latin have longer syllables so it fits the meter better.

>vocaroo.com/i/s1HnZAObUEtF
nice voice mang

>Opens vocaroo
>Expecting to hear a dude singing a bit of the Iliad
>Boom chika boom

>My point is it is rare in english as it is a complex meter for our language due to syllable count being quite low word by word.

This characteristic is a great advantage for the composition of poetry in English.

My mother tongue is Portuguese. Our words are long, many having three or four syllables. Filling a verse with ten poetic syllables does not allow us to develop as much thought and complex metaphors as in possible in English. A sonnet, where 14 verses are the norm, allows, in English, much more substance than in Portuguese. In my view this naturally enable English poets to create more complex poetry, a poetry more
Pregnant and adorned with exuberant details.

In Portuguese the most consecrated meters are the ones with 7 and 10 syllables. Translating Shakespeare and Iambic Pentameter more faithfully would mean using the 10-syllable verse, but with only this space in Portuguese the translator can never say as much as Shakespeare.

The solution is usually to use the 12-syllable verse, the so-called Alexandrin. The problem is that, in the tradition of the Portuguese language, this meter is seen as very long, too similar to prose and not very sonorous. But if you want to use the 10-syllable verse then you will have much less space available.

Trust me when I say that a language with many monosyllables is a good aid for the invention.

>Dactyilic hexameter isn't a greek meter. There has been lots of native english poetry written in dactylic hexameter:

That's not the point. The point is that when you translate it from the original to English, there will always be something lost. You can maintain the rhythm but it will not be the "same" poem. You can maintain the "vibe" but might lose the rhythm, etc., etc.

The poem you posted would not be the "same" if someone translated it to ancient Greek, even if you maintained the rhythm.

Your question literally boils down to "why does this poem sound different when it is different." You are not reading "the poem," you are reading an attempt at recreating the poem. All translations will at least somewhat fall short of the original, simply by fact of not being the actual original.

youtube.com/watch?v=qI0mkt6Z3I0

Expected cringe, but that was actually pretty neat

What translation are you reading?

Holy shit that's a badass cover.

I've gotta stick with this fucking thing. Don't even get me started on the shitty American translation of a British translation of an ancient Greek epic sold in Britain.

The most annoying thing is that it doesn't match the current Lattimore Odyssey at all.

youtube.com/watch?v=ZYRKzOl_hV8

It doesn't even rhyme.

WHAT
CHIKA BOOM
THE
F*CK

I have another Lattimore edition, paperback with his introduction. I got it used. There's a baroque (I'm guessing) painting on the cover. It's pretty nice for what it is.

so apparently 80's rap music is in dactyilic hexameter

English and greek are completely different.
When you say long, what you're actually referring to are stressed syllables, while greece actually have long vowels.

Oy vey...

Man, how do I even understand metres? Is there any book about this aspect of poetry, you guys would advise in particular?

I think stephen fry's book might be best for what you're looking for.
But The Art of Poetry by Shira Wolosky is hands down the best book about poetry.

Also, you could try looking up words in the dictionary to get a feel for it. Stressed syllables are often in bold (or they'll use something else to signify it).

James Fenton introduction to engkish poetry

It's not too hard, just read the wiki articles about it and read a few examples, exaggerating the stress on syllables. There's only usually one or two ways to stress a line without it sounding awkward, so by trial-and-error you can kind of figure out what the metre is.

But then also don't read too much into it. Metric stress isn't always so clear-cut as da-DUM-da-DUM-da-DUM-da-DUM. Sometimes a stress will just really light. Lastly, some of this stuff is dialect dependent.

>That is irrelevant.

No, it's not, it is in fact the most relevant answer to the question, "why doesn't this sound musical and good". The reason it does not sound musical is it was written it ancient Greek and you are reading it in modern English.

You're both missing the really key point, which is that Classical Greek is a mora-timed language and English is a stress-time language. The "same" meter will flow differently because the two languages don't permit the same rhythms.