About this item
Highlights
- Virgil's great lyrics, rendered by the acclaimed translator of The Odes of Horace and Gilgamesh The Eclogues of Virgil gave definitive form to the pastoral mode, and these magically beautiful poems, which were influential in so much subsequent literature, perhaps best exemplify what pastoral can do.
- About the Author: David Ferry, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry for his translation of Gilgamesh, is a poet and translator who has also won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, given by the Academy of American Poets, and the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, given by the Library of Congress.
- 128 Pages
- Poetry, Ancient & Classical
Description
Book Synopsis
Virgil's great lyrics, rendered by the acclaimed translator of The Odes of Horace and Gilgamesh
The Eclogues of Virgil gave definitive form to the pastoral mode, and these magically beautiful poems, which were influential in so much subsequent literature, perhaps best exemplify what pastoral can do. "Song replying to song replying to song," touchingly comic, poignantly sad, sublimely joyful, the various music that these shepherds make echoes in scenes of repose and harmony, and of hardship and trouble in work and love. A bilingual edition, The Eclogues of Virgil includes concise, informative notes and an Introduction that describes the fundamental role of this deeply original book in the pastoral tradition.Review Quotes
"Mr. Ferry is a gifted poet and much-admired translator . . . Those to whom the original is a sealed book will enjoy much of its charm through the medium of the author's accomplished translation, while those who, like Shakespeare, have 'small Latin' can experience the additional pleasure of savoring, with Mr. Ferry's help, the musical perfection of Virgil's lines." --Bernard Knox, The Washington Times
"Ferry has achieved a high degree of fidelity to what Virgil wrote . . . Simple, luminous clarity." --Richard Jenkyns, The New Republic "Fresh-minted and sparkling . . . Ferry's translation wonderfully preserves the exquisite harmonies of the mode while giving it a vigorous edge of reality." --Robert Taylor, The Boston GlobeAbout the Author
David Ferry, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry for his translation of Gilgamesh, is a poet and translator who has also won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, given by the Academy of American Poets, and the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, given by the Library of Congress. In 2001, he received an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2002 he won the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award. Ferry is the Sophie Chantal Hart Professor of English Emeritus at Wellesley College.