I just consulted Lewis and Short, and even in classical Latin "silva" had
the tropological sense of "a crowded mass, abundance, or quantity." Plautus
speaks of a " silva rerum, sententiarumque" and Cicero of a "silva virtutum
et vitiorum." Strangely, however, the "Gloassarium mediae et infimae
latinitatis" does not list any but the literal sense of "silva" or, rather,
"sylva." --For what it's worth.
-----Original Message-----
From: d.p.medve...@gmail.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2018 4:40 PM
To: 'Lute List'
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Meaning of title "Silva de Sirenas"
I understand that the title is poetic. I only suggested that "forest" is
actually a metaphor for "collection".
Another example (which combines both meanings):
"Silva de varia lección" by Pero Mexía was translated into English in the
16th century as "The foreste or Collection of histories..."
Dmitry
-----Original Message-----
From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu <lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu> On Behalf Of
Roman Turovsky
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2018 6:38 PM
To: d.p.medve...@gmail.com; 'Lute List' <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Subject: [LUTE] Re: Meaning of title "Silva de Sirenas"
Definitely not.
Stephen Fryer is correct -
A Forest of Sirens, a poetic title.
RT
On 4/11/2018 5:10 PM, d.p.medve...@gmail.com wrote:
I am not an expert in Spanish but, as far as I understand, "silva"
means simply "collection" (primarily of poetry, but in this case of
music).
It probably derives from the Latin word for "forest" (as a
"collection" of trees), but I would not translate it literally.
There are a number of similar titles from about the same period:
"Silva de varios romances"
"Silva de poesía"
etc.
So, I would translate the title as "A collection [of songs] of the
sirens".
Dmitry
-----Original Message-----
From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu <lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu> On Behalf
Of Jurgen Frenz
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2018 4:36 PM
To: Lute List <lute@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Subject: [LUTE] Meaning of title "Silva de Sirenas"
Hello there,
another thread on this list motivated me to ask - the title of
Valderrabano's publication "Silva de Sirenas" renders if latin was the
source language "Arctic Forest" which I would find hard to believe and
_nothing_ when setting Google translate to Spanish as source.
artic google.png
Hence my suspicion that 500 year old Spanish was using words
differently. But what does the title mean in English (German/French)
today? Would anybody know?
Thanks for helping, best wishes
Jurgen
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"There is a voice that doesn't use words. Listen."
JalÄl ad-DÄ«n Muhammad Rumi
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