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Edward Lear's One Hundred Nonsense Pictures and Rhymes (1872)

FF edition, p.190:

There is an old man of Hong Kong,
Who never did anything wrong;
He lay on his back, with his head in a sack,
That innocuous old man of Hong Kong.

香港在十九世紀的大英帝國裡, 似乎多少有點名氣.

Preface to Amores

Ovid

AD Melville trs.

We who before were Ovid's five slim volumes / Are three: he thought it better to compress. / Though reading us may still give you no pleasure, / With two removed at least the pain is less.

Peter Green trs.

We are our author’s book. Before, we comprised five sections, / Now we’re cut down to three. The decision was his. / You still may derive no pleasure from reading us---but remember, / With two of us gone, your labour is that much less.

Met., Book 14 (Acmon)

Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 14

2022 McCarter, 522--531, p.421

"What's left, men, that our mettle now refuses? / What more can Venus do, if she desires? /

As long as there is worse to fear, prayer has / a place. But when the worst is done, fear must / be trampled. All is safe when woes have peaked. /

Though she should hear and hate all Domedes' / men, as she does, still we would scorn her haterd, / even if her great power costs us greatly!"

Pieuronian Acmon goads the wrathful Venus / with talk like this. His goads revive her wrath.

1986 Melville, p.340a

"What's left, you men, / That your endurance will refuse to bear? / What else, what more can Venus do --- suppose / She means to?

While we fear things worse, there's room / For wounds, but when the worst has happened, fear / Is underfoot: the sum of suffering / Finds us serene.

Though she herself should hear / And hate (as she does hate) all those who serve / With Diomede, yet all of us despise / Her hate: her mighty power means naught to us."

So Acmon taunted Venus, goading her, / And rousing up afresh her former rage.

1993 Mandelbaum, p.474b (Everyman)

"But is there anything at all / that you, my friends, cannot withstand! If Venus / should seek to heap still greater woes on us, / can she outdo what she's already done? /

As long as one fears even greater hurt / is yet to come, he’s vulnerable --- but / when fate already has unleashed the worst, / then dread can be dismissed: when our ill luck / is at its height, despair can be packed off. /

Though Venus hear my words and show her hate / for all of Diomedes' men --- no matter: / to scorn her hate is our best shield against her."

The bitter words of Acmon only serve to anger Venus, / to revive her hurt.

1916 Miller (Loeb), p.345

"What is there left, men, for your long-suffering to refuse to bear? What is there left for Venus to do further, supposing she wishes it?

For, so long as we fear worse fortunes, we lie open to wounds; but when the worst possible lot has fallen, then is fear beneath our feet and the utmost misfortune can bring us no further care.

Though she herself should hear and, as indeed she does, should hate all the followers of Diomede, still do we all scorn her hatred; and much we reck of her mighty power!"

With such insulting words did Pleuronian Acmon rouse Venus and revive her former anger.

2004 Martin, 686--708, p.501

"Is there still something you have not endured," / he asked, "some grief you might decline to bear? / What is there that is left for her to do, / if she should wish to do more than she has? /

As long as we fear something worse may come, / prayer has its place --- but when the short straw's drawn, / we put our fears behind us and below, / and hopelessness releases us from care. /

So let her hear me saying this --- so what? / So what if she despises, as she does, / all of the men who serve with Diomedes, / since all of us despise her attitude: / her high-and-mightiness seems scarcely high, / as far as we're concerned!"

Provocative, / those words of Acmon, and they angered Venus, / and brought her old anger back to life again.

Met., Book 14 (Diomedes)

Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 14

2022 McCarter, p.420

Such labours I endured / at sea, such labours on the battlefield, / that I would often call them lucky whom / the storm or dangerous Caphereus / sank in the waters, I'd wish I were among them.

1986 Melville, p.340a

Such tragic toils / I endured on ocean's waves, such toils in war / On land, that often I counted fortunate / Those whom shared storms and ruthless Caphereus / Had drowned, and wished that I were one of them.

1993 Mandelbaum, p.474b (Everyman)

So, in sum, / I suffered such great grief on the high seas / and, in my wars on land, such miseries, / that I would often deem most happy those / the deadly tempest drowned at Cape Caphareus.

1916 Miller (Loeb), p.345

So great toils did I endure on the high seas and so great toils of war on land that often did I call those blessed of heaven whom the storm, which all had suffered, and cruel Caphereus drowned beneath the waves; and I wished that I, too, had been one of them.

2004 Martin, p.501

and so oppressive were / the toils at sea and wars on land I bore / that often I would call men fortunate / who had been drowned in the storm we all endured / or had been shipwrecked on Caphereus, / and wished myself to have been one of them.

Mary Shelley

科學怪人的作者.

Oxford English Reference Dict:

Shelley¹, Mary (Wollstonecraft)(1797--1851), English writer. The daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, she eloped with the poet Shelley in 1814 and married him in 1816. She is chiefly remembered as the author of the Gothic novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (1818). Her other works include ...

1. second name: Wollstonecraft, 以母姓為名
2. 私奔似乎是他平生的頭等大事
3. 故事原來沒有那麼簡單

Shelley², Percy Bysshe (1792--1822), English poet. He was a leading figure of the Romantic movement, with radical political views which are oftern reflected in his work. After the collapse of his first marriage in 1814, he eloped abroad with Mary Godwin and her stepsister, marrying Mary in 1816; they settled permanently in Italy two years later. Major works include ... Shelley was drowned in a boating accident.

1. collapse
2. abroad
3. and her stepsister
4. 雪萊之死似乎也很著名, 值得壓軸一筆.