<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Lively, vigorous translation with a contemporary feel
Review: Catullus is one of the poets who first kindled my love of poetry, and I was delighted to discover this excellent recent translation. Martin beautifully conveys Catullus' many faces and moods, from the mock-sweet lyric about his mistress' dead sparrow, to the spare, anguished syllables of odi et amo...much recommended...
Rating: 
Summary: Odi et Amo
Review: This is a blisteringly vitriolic, tawdry, funny and love-induced forray into modern poesy. The catch is that it was written by an ancient Roman poet. Although his historical background is a bit sketchy, it is believed that the poet was an established member of Rome's high culture and a son of wealth who had even come in contact with the great Caesar. One would never know this from the bawdy lyrics or the heart-wrenching songs one rarely equates with the unfeeling elite. 51 Godlike the man who
sits at her side, who
watches and catches
that laughter
which (softly) tears me
to tatters: nothing is
left of me, each time
I see her,
...tongue numbed; arms, legs
melting, on fire; drum
drumming in ears; head-
lights gone black. Coda Her ease is your sloth, Catullus
you itch & roll in her ease: former kings and cities
lost in the valley of her arm. As is evidenced in the above selection, Catullus was one of the great love poets of his or any age. These often beautiful and forlorned sentiments were mostly written for "Lesbia", a woman believed to have been married to a diplomat or some man of high rank whom Catullus never fully ensnarled with his wit and passion but seemingly had a long-tryst and/or tumultuous affair with. But just as soon as you think that Catullus is E. E. Cummings you are shocked into the realization that this man was as multi-faceted and prone to "juvenilia" and sensationalistic raunchiness as say a Bukowski or Ginsberg. 88 What, Gellius, of the man
who itches with sister & mother
naked in night-vigils,
who 'lies-in' for his uncle,
what stain does he lay on himself?
Such, that not Tethys to far limits
no Ocean, father of Nereids, can cleanse:
no fouler brand (Gellius)
even supposing
one were to lower his head to his own loins
and swallow himself. Just as well he could be straight-laced and political and silently thoughtful in the same way as he was exuberant and confessional. 93 Utter indifference to your welfare, Caesar,
is matched only by ignornace of who you are. 102 If, Cornelius, we entrust our secrets
only to those whom we know we can trust,
here is Catullus,
devoted to secrets & secrecy
a finger ever to his lips,
as mute as Harpocrates! Another aspect of these translations by Peter Whigham, as witnessed above in "51", is the tendency to modernize the poems and language. "head-lights gone black." is one such example. Some scholars(http://www.classics.und.ac.za/reviews/94-2whig.html) say this is to their detriment as are Whigham's liberties with words being fitted to his artistic credo moreso than the original Latin texts. I'm no scholar, but have read several different translations thought to be more true to the original Latin and I must say that they are tedious and rubbery bores. They hold none of the lively magic or smart humor of the Whigham translations. To read the others is like reading Nietzsche by any translator other than Walter Kaufmann, you lose a bit of the modern scholarship and interpretation and lively poetry for stale accuracy's sake. This is one of the few books I have used to excess, marking, creasing and breaking the spine open searching and re-learning these invaluable and poignant texts. Behind Jeffers, no poet other than Catullus is revered more by me.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent translations; excellent commentary...
Review: When one first meets Catullus, he is likely to be stunned by the man's salacious venom. In his ODI Et AMO arsenal,the "Odi/I hate" elements often overwhelm the sensitive artist who...as true poet...profoundly masters language,irony, multiple entendre and meter. Poem 101 ("Ave atque Vale")expresses unashamed grief at death of a beloved brother with bitterness before ("nequiquam alloquerer cinerem) NOTHINGness:the never-answering DUST; rivaling any Post-Modernist formulation in existential despair. Yet the chapbbook of poems to his notorious mistress Clodia Pulcher, answers despair by Love with his elegant:"vivamus atque amemus", LET US LIVE AND LOVE.(Poem 5) Catullus died at the age of 30. The 116 poems comprising this work are primarily about personal love and hate amid a time of great political tumult. Four Civil Wars,in fewer than four score years,would destroy a Roman Republic that had long endured for 500. Catullus personally...intimately in some cases...knew great men and women of his day. Yet his thematic focus--so modernly SELF-CENTERED--is mundane and occasionaly petty. Here is a man with startling technical virtuosity. That a man would squander talent on invectively "perverse verse" might astonish unless today's reader gazes out the window...beyond TV...and back into the mirror that's his "daily poem" reflection. Catullus was a genius who may or may not have "reached beyond his
grasp" (to compose epic like Virgil, or epic satire like Petronius).What is manifest is he was a great,epigrammatic poet who did not hesitate to employ viciously scatalogical metaphors(and wicked,"single-entendre")when it consummated his verse. These translations by James Michie are,in my estimate, excellent.The introduction by Andrew Felderr is informative; as are addenda-pages of editorial commentary. This is fascinating study for students of literature and classical history. If you've never read Catullus, fasten your seat belts. If you have, the translators have provided you with an exciting journey down SPQR's Catullus(i)Via......
<< 1 >>
| 
