Thomas G. Rosenmeyer Greek Translation Prize
Established in 1995
Description. The Thomas G. Rosenmeyer Greek Translation Prize is awarded to a graduate or undergraduate for the best translation of classical English into an appropriate classical Greek style. Appropriate styles include those of Plato and of the classical Attic orators, but other styles appropriate to the content are not excluded, such as the style of Herodotus, or even verse composition. The selection will normally be formal English prose and will be 350 to 500 words in length. The Rosenmeyer Prize Passage for 2011-12 is posted below. The passage will also be available at the Classics Department from the Student Affairs Officer in 7228 Dwinelle Hall. For complete information, please read the General Rules.
Prize Amounts. The prize is $500. Federal financial aid regulations require that all awards received by a student can not exceed their financial aid need as determined by a congressional formula. It is possible, therefore, that the cash award for a prize could reduce some component of a needy student’s package of financial aid awards. In these cases, the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office attempts first to reduce loan or work aid; fellowships, grants, or scholarships are only reduced as a last resort.
Deadline. Submissions must be hand-delivered by the author to the Undergraduate Scholarships, Prizes, and Honors Office, 220 Sproul Hall, no later than 4 p.m. on Friday, January 27, 2012. The author's name must not appear on the entry.
Thomas G. Rosenmeyer Greek Translation Prize Passage 2011-12
[From Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1 (University of California Press, 2010), page 273, describing the group discussions held in the Hartford institution known as the Monday Evening Club, and commenting on the fact that most members always closed their allotted ten minutes of response to the evening’s topic with some pious remarks.]
Franklin was a bluff old soldier. He was a West Pointer and, I think, had served in the Mexican war. He commanded one of McClellan’s armies in the Civil War at the time that McClellan was commander-in-chief. He was an ideal soldier, simple-hearted, good, kind, affectionate; set in his opinions, his partialities and his prejudices, believing everything which he had been taught to believe about politics, religion, and military matters; thoroughly well educated in the military science—in fact I have already said that, because I have said he was a West Pointer. He knew all that was worth knowing in that specialty, and was able to reason well upon his knowledge, but his reasoning faculty did not shine when he was discussing other things. Johnson was a member of Trinity [College], and was easily the most brilliant member of the Club. But his fine light shone not in public, but in the privacy of the Club. and his qualities were not known outside of Hartford.
I had long been suffering from these intolerable and inexcusable exudations of misplaced piety, and for years had wanted to enter a protest against them, but had struggled against the impulse and had always been able to conquer it, until now. But this time Perkins was too much for me. He was the feather that broke the camel’s back. The substance of his wandering twaddle—if by chance it had substance—was that there is nothing in dreams. Dreams merely proceed from indigestion—there is no quality of intelligence in them—they are thoroughly fantastic and without beginning, logical sequence, or definite end. Nobody, in our day, but the stupid or the ignorant attaches any significance to them. And then he went on blandly and pleasantly to say that dreams had once had a mighty importance, that they had had the illustrious honor of being used by the Almighty as a means of conveying desires, warnings, commands, to people whom He loved or hated—that these dreams are set down in Holy Writ; that no sane man challenges their authenticity, their significance, their verity.
I followed Perkins, and I remember with satisfaction that I said not one harsh thing, vexed as I was, but merely remarked, without warmth, that these tiresome damned prayer-meetings might better be adjourned to the garret of some church, where they belonged.
2010-11: 4 entries; Tom Recht and Michael Zellmann-Rohrer ($500 each)
2009-10: 3 entries; 1st prize: Tom Recht ($1,000)
2008-09: 3 entries; 1st prize: Boris Rodin ($750); Honorable Mention: Joel Street ($250)
2007-08: 3 entries; Nardini Pandey ($500)
2006-07: 2 entries; Boris Rodin Maslov ($500)
2005-06: 1 entry; Boris Rodin Maslov ($500)
2004-05: 2 entries; Boris Rodin ($500)
2003-04: 2 entries; William Michael Short ($500)
2002-03: 3 entries; Jon Christopher Geissmann ($500)
2001-02: 2 entries; W. H. Shearin ($500)
2000-01: Dylan Sailor ($500)
1999-00: Dylan Sailor ($500)
1998-99: 3 entries; winner Dylan Sailor ($500)
1997-98: 2 entries; winner Dylan Sailor ($500)