The other evening I decided to translate a Greek backcard story, armed with nothing but some memories of once studying Ancient Greek, a love of fiddling with languages, and a small dictionary. I was pleased with the result and decided to share! Apologies if it's already been done.
Here's the backcard I used:
http://mylittlewiki.org/wiki/File:Blue-greek-sunlight-backcard.jpg (not my picture, somewhat obviously)
Backcard Story!:
Once upon a time, in the fairytale land of PONY, there lived in the Castle of the Heavens, the Princess [Moondancer] with her little dragon.
The Castle of the Heavens was the colour of roses while the turrets were the deep blue of a spring sky.
When the Princess threw a party, the little dragon gave the order to open all the gates of the castle, to lower the drawbridge and let the trumpets announce the great celebration. Immediately, the joyous news spread to the ends of the earth. And then, all the Fairytale Ponies and the Pony Stars, looking their best, with their long hair beautifully combed, stunning in their beauty and grace, came to the Castle of the Heavens to honour the Princess.
The Star Ponies adorned the festivities with their dazzling beauty, while the unparalleled grace of the Fairytale Ponies made it all the more brilliant.
Sunbeam wore the sun in her hair, Twilight was adorned by stars, and Firefly came to the party with her beautiful blue mane streaming as she flew through the clouds.
Melody, the most coquettish of the Pony Stars, wore her beautiful notes as she went to the party with Glory, shining with grace and beauty.
Skydancer, the fastest of all the ponies, always reached the party first, unlike Parasol, who was always late.
Sunlight came with her excellent colours to brighten the party, while Starshine, together with Windy, brought to the celebrations happiness and high spirits.
Some notes:
1) Prigkipopaula, meaning 'princess', is Moondancer's Greek name, implying that Moondancer is the resident of the castle. Majesty, you've been usurped!
2) The castle's name is Kastro tou Ouranou. Ouranou comes from Ouranos, meaning heaven or sky. So Castle of Heaven, Sky Castle....whatever, we all know it's Dream Castle they're talking about!
3) Melody is said to be "naziara", which means she is full of affectation, putting on a cutesy act, something like that. It sounds a bit unkind! 'Coquettish' seemed the kindest translation I could come up with.
4) Starshine and Windy actually bring three things to the party, eutuchia (happiness, contentment; comes from an Ancient Greek word meaning good luck), kephi (merriment, high spirits, good humour) and drosia (coolness, dewiness - I think implying that Windy brings a cool breeze? I wasn't sure how to translate this so as not to ruin the flow of the English).
5) The word translated as party is "giortê", meaning celebration, feast day, festival, that sort of thing.
The Ponies' Names:
Glory is Augerinos, the Morning Star. Since in Greek folklore Augerinos is a boy who is turned into a star, Glory is probably meant to be male: that's perhaps why she goes to the party as the companion of 'coquettish' Melody!
Sunbeam is Chryssomallousa, "golden hair"
Firefly is Pêgasos, "Pegasus"
Moondancer is Prigkipopaula, "Princess"
Melody is Melodia (pretty obvious)
Twilight is Astrophengia, "starlight"
Starshine is Neraida, "fairy"
Skydancer is Astrapê, "lightning"
Windy is Anemos, "wind" or "air"
Moonstone is Ouranos, "heaven" or "sky"
Sunlight is Anatolê, "sunrise"
Parasol is Protobrochi, "first rain of autumn"
Hope you enjoyed my linguistic ramblings, and apologies for any inaccuracies, I'm not a linguistic genius, I'm just having fun