An Induction and Explanation

Oh, dear, I seem to have created a blog.

I have spent the last few years avoiding this very thing, but at last I have succumbed. I justify this creation by its purpse- not to be an egocentric altar to my personal life and thoughts, but a place for me to cultivate my classicism/nerdiness.
The mission of this blog is to investigate what is in my opinion the central debate of translation, the conflict between literal and free translations. Which is better? Impossible to say, for each have merits and drawbacks. Naturally, the best reading is the untranslated, but that often requires more effort that one is willing to invest. Presented with this predicament, I have decided to investigate the two types of translation with this blog. I will post a piece of Latin text and provide my own fairly literal and more loose translations of it. If this method works as I hope it will, the juxtaposition of the three texts will provide insight into the meaning and structure of the original by giving a fuller (literal and loose) reading of it in English.

To get myself accustomed to this newfangled world of blogging, as well as to accomodate my schedule, I will begin with translations I have done already, and subsequently move on to new ones done in whatever spare time I can find. I will try to avoid posting translations from classes that I am currently enrolled in.
This blog is pretty much for my own enrichment, and I highly doubt that anyone will actually read it. This is fine. However, if any other Latin lovers do find this, I welcome your comments on my translations and, most importantly, any corrections you have. I do not cast myself as an infallible expert on Latin translation. Far from it. I have been studying the language for seven years, but I am certainly not a perfect or even great translator. To sum up, take my translations cum grana sale, though they will be as accurate as I can make them.

And now, having spewed pretension and caveats for several paragraphs, I can begin.