On a separate sheet of paper, make a transcription of the text below. You might want to view a Sample Transcription, and read a discussion of the issues involved in a creating a transcription.

You may want to look each of the words in this passage up in the Glossary and create your own "literal" translation of the passage. Having gone to the trouble to create your own literal translation of the passage, you will find writing the essay below easier.

Click here to open a fill-in form in which you will type the translation of these same lines from an acceptable text. (For a list of translations, click here to go to the Links page.) In the dialog box, you will find enough space to write a 3-5 paragraph essay on one of the issues this particular passage and its translation raises. Some of these issues might include:

1. use of mid-line caesura
2. prose vs. poetry
3. archaic language vs. modernized language
4. use of invocatory word (or words)
5. contorted syntax

Be sure to remember to turn in your transcription exercise to the instructor after you've submitted the essay assignment electronically.