Δρᾶσον
do! , get it done!
Translated by Robert Dyer8 Mar 2002Vetting: high6 revisions
Translation
Aristophanes in Birds [writes]: "but do you know what [to] do?" In Attic [dialect]. "Hit the rock with your leg!"
Greek original · Adler’s text
Δρᾶσον· Ἀριστοφάνης Ὄρνισιν· ἀλλ' οἶσθ' ὃ δρᾶσον; Ἀττικῶς. τῷ σκέλει θένε τὴν πέτραν.
Betacode
*dra=son: *)aristofa/nhs *)/ornisin: a)ll' oi)=sq' o(\ dra=son; *)attikw=s. tw=| ske/lei qe/ne th\n pe/tran.
Notes
- The headword is the second person singular, aorist imperative active, of
dra/w , the verb for getting things done (delta 1488, delta 1489, delta 1507). It is here used in a subordinate clause, a construction impossible to reproduce in English, but common in Greek. The presentenceoi)=sq' o(\ "has beome a partially fossilized construction" (Smyth, Greek Grammar §1842 a, p.411), perhaps, as suggested here, only in the Attic dialect. Cf. psi 62.
The quotation, split in two by the observation "in Attic", is Aristophanes, Birds 54 (web address 1, cf. line 80).