Q. The three of us have
a question about the Latin motto "equitare, arcum tendere, veritatem dicere".
We have looked...and looked...and can not find any info on this motto.
Can you find us a translation and most importantly,
the importance of it to the author?
The motto appears on the flyleaf of Out
of Africa.
A.
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Source: Tacitus
(c. AD 55-117), Roman historian. His Latin translation of Herodotus
(1.136.2), Greek historian of the fifth century BC, who detailed the Persian
wars.
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Literal translation: "To ride, to shoot
[a bow], to tell the truth."
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History: poetic description of the ideal
education of a Persian noble, especially a king.
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Heroic interpretation: "To go forth, to
engage, to report." As a literary ideal, "To venture, to experience, to
describe."
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Significance to Karen Blixen:
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As prelude to Out of Africa (1937), the
motto presents Karen Blixen's overview of what she achieved. She ventured
out to Africa, she experienced life as a settler, and in this work she
is reporting on her experience.
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The motto fulfills the Romantic ideal: "To accept
a challenge, to participate in life, and to render the experience as myth."
She presents not the literal truth but the poetic truth.
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Literally in this book, Karen Blixen does ride
a horse, learn to shoot, and retell her story of living in Africa. Symbolically,
she risked adventures, came to terms with the ensuing difficulties, and
relates the lessons of her experience.
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It is possible to consider the motto as a dedication
of the book to Denys Finch Hatton, a classics scholar, as she was not.
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Describing the education of a noble, the motto
echoes Karen Blixen's use of the name Daniel for the child she hoped to
have with Denys Finch Hatton: in Biblical terms, "a chosen youth...widely
read in many fields, well-informed, alert and sensible, with enough poise
to look good around the palace" [Daniel 1:3-4]. In a sense, the story
Out
of Africa may be interpreted as the child of their liaison.
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In Karen Blixen's imagery, shooting is equivalent
to orgasmic experience. ("The shot was a declaration of love...an affair
of perfect harmony, of deep, burning, mutual desire..."[Shadows on the
Grass, p. 442]. Therefore in sexual terms, the motto may be interpreted
as, "To mount, to realize, and to produce fine fruit." From this standpoint,
the motto becomes the recipe for seduction--in this case, seduction of
the reader. Karen Blixen uses the terminology of seduction to describe
the artist's achievement (as in "Ehrengard").
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The motto appealed to Karen Blixen because it
echoes the philosophy of the great Nordic sagas (and reiterates the story
of the Odyssey), that one must venture forth, confront tragedy, and render
it as literature in order to become immortal.
Nietzschean interpretation:
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The motto was popularized by Nietzsche (1844-1900)
in his work Thus Spoke Zarathustra. He believes that moral values
are specific to cultures and uses four examples as illustrations:
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ancient Persian, where action was most important,
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classical Greek, where personal excellence was
most important,
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Old Testament Hebrew, where family obligation
was most important,
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and medieval North European, where loyalty was
most important.
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Nietzche's work was promoted in Denmark by the
great critic, Georg Brandes (1842-1927), one of Karen Blixen's literary
heroes. She alludes to the Persian motto and Nietzsche in "On Mottoes of
my Life" (1960) (Daguerreotypes. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1979.): "I have bent a Masai bow and have felt in a moment of rapture
a kinship with Odysseus...Nietzsche has written: I am a yea-sayer..." (p.
14). [Note: Traditionally, the Masai hunt with spears; however, they use
bows to protect themselves from enemies and to guard their herds.]
Copyright © 2001 by Linda
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