I thought that I would have a go at getting a piece by Methodius into English. I’ve placed an advertisement on www.peopleperhour.com (not appeared yet, tho).
The Old Slavonic text of Methodius has never been published. Rather reluctantly, therefore, I think we must work from the German translation of it, which is interspersed with Greek from the extant Greek fragments. So I’ve advertised for a native English speaker with good German and good Greek.
It will be interesting to see if I get any takers, and if so, whether any are at a reasonable price.
The PDF of the piece is here: Methodius_de_lepra_gcs_27. It’s about 24 pages, ca. 5,000 words.
UPDATE: The advert is here. I’ve already had two bids; once from a “native Greek speaker” who evidently couldn’t read the advert, which asked for a “native English speaker” and also emailed me asking for the complete Greek text; and one from someone in Bulgaria, with a Bulgarian name, offering translation from German but no indication of being a native English speaker or ability with Greek. Both have been declined, needless to say.
The PDF seems missing. And I can’t locate the ad.
My German tutor knows Old Church Slavonic and she has a Master degree from the University of Vienna. Perhaps she can help.
Oops. I’ve fixed that. For some reason WordPress truncated my post.
I daresay that Peopleperhour haven’t posted my job yet. There seems to be a delay in so doing.
I need people who are native English speakers, I should add. Translating into a language not your own is very hard; when it is something which is not actually your own language either, almost impossible.
Need to say that it’s harder to find NATIVE SPEAKER who can read both German and Ancient Greek PATRISTIC texts. It’s kinda utopia. I mean who can really read, with complete understanding of all aspects of that text, all allusion on previous tradition, on Origenes, Apostolic fathers etc.
Well, here is my translation of 1st paragraph of your Methodius.
1. Where from, Eubulius? It is obvious that not from hunting on character of understanding of God’s scripture?
Early in the morning knocked in my door one of Sistelius’ people, and when slave opened, he said, that Sistelius was calling us. And because I already awoke, I prepared to go immediately. And when we came nearer to his house, Sistelius himself went to meet me, embraced me and said: While you were coming to us, you took away our understanding of scripture. When clouds come in sky it is impossible to see the sun clearly; in such a way soul is darken and understanding is obscure, when good instruction is stealing away. And I said him: It is good words you said.
As we entered the house, we took our seat, and Sistelius said: Well, let us look for wisdom in very scripture. We can heal that bad leprosy with medical herbs, with words as well as with medicaments diminishing the harm, saying: Wake up, you who are sleeping; rise from dead, and behold, Christ will illuminate you!
Now it is time to rise your voice loudly, he said, that is to give us an explanation on leprosy that one can find in the Law… for the Lord commands to make clear many allegorically expressed things in the Law… to give a free gift to one who craves for God’s gift.
Many thanks indeed for having a go. But I think we need a professional job for this.
I don’t really agree that a native English speaker who is fluent in German and patristic Greek is a big ask. Any US or UK patristic scholar, or PhD student, should be fluent in patristic Greek; will be a native English speaker. And if they can’t read German fluently (and French, and Italian), how on earth can they do their job? For much of the literature is in those languages.
That said, I greatly fear that it IS indeed unusual, and that a lot of people in that line of work are bluffing.
OK,You should know better. Anyway, good luck.
Thanks!