The Tune
Above the lyrics (transcribed here in modern Greek font) is a line with letters and signs for the tune:
Translated into modern musical notation, the tune is something like this:
Seikilos epitaph Tune performed on a computer |
The following is the Greek text (in the later polytonic script; the original is in majuscule), along a transliteration of the words (which are sung to the melody), and a (somewhat free) English translation:
- Ὅσον ζῇς, φαίνου,
- Hoson zês, phainou,
- While you live, shine,
- μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ·
- mêden holôs su lupou;
- have no grief at all;
- πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν,
- pros oligon esti to zên,
- life exists only for a short while,
- τὸ τέλος ὁ xρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.
- to telos ho chronos apaitei.
- and time demands its toll.
Read more about this topic: Seikilos Epitaph
Famous quotes containing the word tune:
“... our lives are like soap operas. We can go for months and not tune in to them, then six months later we look in and the same stuff is going on.”
—Jane Wagner (b. 1935)
“When Satan makes impure verses, Allah sends a divine tune to cleanse them.”
—George Bernard Shaw (18561950)