Search results for ""Author David R. Slavitt""

This elegant new translation at last restores the poetry to one of the greatest and most influential poems in the Western tradition. "De Rerum Natura" is Lucretius' majestic elaboration of Greek Epicurean physics and psychology in an epic that unfolds over the course of six books. This sumptuous account of a secular cosmos argues that the soul is mortal, that pleasure is the object of life, and that humanity has free will, among other ideas. Renowned author, translator, and poet David R. Slavitt has captured Lucretius' elegance as well as his philosophical profundity in this highly readable translation of a poem that is crucial to the history of ancient thought.

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There are seven surviving tragedies by Sophocles. Three of them form the Theban Plays, which recount the story of Thebes during and after the reign of Oedipus. Here, David Slavitt translates the remaining tragedies - the "other four plays:" Ajax, Women of Trachis, Electra, and Philoctetes. Punchy and entertaining, Slavitt reads Athena's opening line in Ajax as: "I've got my eye on you, Odysseus. Always." By simplifying the Greek and making obscure designations more accessible - specifying the character Athena in place of "aegis-wearing goddess," for example - his translations are highly performable. The Other Four Plays of Sophocles will help students discover underlying thematic connections across plays as well. Praise for David R. Slavitt: "Slavitt's translation is ...lively and sometimes witty." (Times Literary Supplement, reviewing Slavitt's translation of Seneca). "The best version of Ovid's Metamorphoses available in English today...It is readable, alive, at times slangy, and actually catches Ovid's tone." (Philadelphia Inquirer, reviewing Slavitt's translation of The Metamorphoses of Ovid). "Slavitt's ability is clearly in evidence...These translations are rendered in lucid, contemporary English, bringing before us the atrocities, horrors, and grotesqueries of Imperial Rome. " (Classical Outlook, reviewing Slavitt's translation of Seneca). "Excellent translations that suit the ear and strengthen the feeble spirit of the time...One will do well to read these hymns, these poems, and find nourishment in them in Slavitt's translations." (Anglican Theological Review, reviewing Slavitt's translation of Hymns of Prudentius).

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The Penn Greek Drama Series presents original literary translations of the entire corpus of classical Greek drama: tragedies, comedies, and satyr plays. It is the only contemporary series of all the surviving work of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Menander.

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The Penn Greek Drama Series presents original literary translations of the entire corpus of classical Greek drama: tragedies, comedies, and satyr plays. It is the only contemporary series of all the surviving work of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Menander. This final volume of the tragedies of Aeschylus relates the historic defeat and dissolution of the Persian Empire on the heels of Xerxes disastrous campaign to subdue Greece, the struggle between the two sons of Oedipus for the throne of Thebes, the story of fifty daughters who seek asylum from their uncle, the king of Egypt, because of his demand that they marry his sons, and the well-known tale of the proud and unrepentant Prometheus, who is chained to a massive rock for revealing fire and hope to humankind. Translations are by David Slavitt (Persians), Stephen Sandy (Seven Against Thebes), Gail Holst-Warhaft (The Suppliants), and William Matthews (Prometheus Bound).

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The twelve “lays” of the mysterious medieval poet Mariede France are here presented in sprightly English verse by poet andtranslator David R. Slavitt. Traditional Breton folktales were the rawmaterial for Marie de France’s series of lively but profoundconsiderations of love, life, death, fidelity and betrayal, and luckand fate. They offer acute observations about the choices that womenmake, startling in the late twelfth century and challenging even today.Combining a keen wit with an impressive technical bravura, the lays area minor treasure of European culture. … It was with some shame that he explained how, in the wood, he lived on whatever prey he could capture and kill. She digested this and then inquired of him what his costume was in these bizarre forays. “Lady, werewolves are completely naked,” was his reply. She laughed at this (I can’t guess why) and asked him where he hid his clothes— to make conversation, I suppose.

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There is more to classical literature than just the classics. Here David Slavitt expands the canon by presenting vivid, graceful, and amusing translations of two neglected fragmentary works of Latin literature. The first is Publius Papinius Statius's first-century epic Achilleid, an extraordinary fusion of epic and New Comedy sentiments and humor that may represent the earliest literary imagining of the charm of adolescence. It relates the story of the education of Achilles under the centaur Chiron, his adopting the disguise of a girl during his sojourn at the court of Lycomedes in Scyros, his love affair with Deidamia, his detection by Ulysses and Diomedes, and his departure for Troy. The second work is Claudius Claudianus's unfinished fourth-century epic version of the rape of Proserpine. The two works together make a delightful pair. The afterword by David Konstan explores the traditions in which—and against which—Statius and Claudian composed their versions of these well-known stories.

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Giovanni Boccaccio is famous for his masterpiece The Decameron, but his Latin Eclogues are relatively unknown. David R. Slavitt's English translation makes these important pieces accessible to a new audience of readers. Elegant and engaging, these pastoral poems address the great issues of Boccaccio's Italy, including the political and military intrigues of the day. Boccaccio modeled his poems on Petrarch's eclogues and, before him, those of Virgil and Theocritus. Slavitt's impeccable translations are highly readable, while his editorial interjections both elucidate the poet's intended meaning and frame the poems for the reader. These charming works offer wonderful insight into daily life in Renaissance Italy. A prolific and award-winning translator, Slavitt turns the Eclogues into vibrant modern English, capturing not only the words of Boccaccio but the flavor of the original language. The availability of The Latin Eclogues in English is a major contribution to the study of the literature and history of the Italian Renaissance.

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The Penn Greek Drama Series presents original literary translations of the entire corpus of classical Greek drama: tragedies, comedies, and satyr plays. It is the only contemporary series of all the surviving work of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Menander. Aristophanes wrote most of his comedic masterpieces during the Peloponnesian War, parodying the tumultuous politics and society of that time with trademark innuendoes and bawdy stagings and dialogue. In these plays, Aristophanes brings every rhetorical strategem into play to treat the reader to stories of one man's attempt to create a "war-free zone," the rescue of the imprisoned Peace on the back of a giant dung beetle, a satire of Euripides's sympathies for women, and the hustling and healing of a blind and destitute Wealth in order to redistribute the world's riches. Translations are by Jack Flavin (Acharnians), Fred Beake (Peace), David Slavitt (Celebrating Ladies), and Palmer Bovie (Wealth). The volume includes an introduction by Ralph Rosen, Professor of Classics at the University of Pennsylvania.

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The Penn Greek Drama Series presents original literary translations of the entire corpus of classical Greek drama: tragedies, comedies, and satyr plays. It is the only contemporary series of all the surviving work of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Menander. The translations in this volume are by Sheila D'Atri, Palmer Bovie, and Richard Elman.

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"The works of Plautus," writes Palmer Bovie, "mark the real beginning of Roman literature." In these lively new translations, which effectively communicate the vitality and verve of the originals, the plays of Plautus are accessible to a new generation. Plays and translators: Volume 1: Amphitryon, Constance Carrier. Miles Gloriosus, Erich Segal. Captivi, Richard Moore. Casina, Richard Beacham. Curculio, Henry Taylor Volume 2: Rudens, Constance Carrier. Aulularia, Palmer Bovie. Bacchides, James Tatum. Mercator, George Garrett. Truculentus, James Tatum

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There are seven surviving tragedies by Sophocles. Three of them form the Theban Plays, which recount the story of Thebes during and after the reign of Oedipus. Here, David Slavitt translates the remaining tragedies - the "other four plays:" Ajax, Women of Trachis, Electra, and Philoctetes. Punchy and entertaining, Slavitt reads Athena's opening line in Ajax as: "I've got my eye on you, Odysseus. Always." By simplifying the Greek and making obscure designations more accessible - specifying the character Athena in place of "aegis-wearing goddess," for example - his translations are highly performable. The Other Four Plays of Sophocles will help students discover underlying thematic connections across plays as well. Praise for David R. Slavitt: "Slavitt's translation is ...lively and sometimes witty." (Times Literary Supplement, reviewing Slavitt's translation of Seneca). "The best version of Ovid's Metamorphoses available in English today...It is readable, alive, at times slangy, and actually catches Ovid's tone." (Philadelphia Inquirer, reviewing Slavitt's translation of The Metamorphoses of Ovid). "Slavitt's ability is clearly in evidence...These translations are rendered in lucid, contemporary English, bringing before us the atrocities, horrors, and grotesqueries of Imperial Rome. " (Classical Outlook, reviewing Slavitt's translation of Seneca). "Excellent translations that suit the ear and strengthen the feeble spirit of the time...One will do well to read these hymns, these poems, and find nourishment in them in Slavitt's translations." (Anglican Theological Review, reviewing Slavitt's translation of Hymns of Prudentius).

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The Penn Greek Drama Series presents original literary translations of the entire corpus of classical Greek drama: tragedies, comedies, and satyr plays. It is the only contemporary series of all the surviving work of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Menander. This volume presents fresh versions of Sophocles's Theban plays, which include the most famous of the ancient Greek tragedies, King Oedipus. Sophocles reveals the history of Oedipus from the fulfillment of the oracle that foretold he would kill his father, outwit the Sphinx, marry his mother, and have a family, through his banishment and tortured death as a blind man and the attempted redemption of the family by his daughter, Antigone. Translations are by Jascha Kessler (King Oedipus), George Garrett (Oedipus at Colonus), and Kelly Cherry (Antigone).

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The Penn Greek Drama Series presents original literary translations of the entire corpus of classical Greek drama: tragedies, comedies, and satyr plays. It is the only contemporary series of all the surviving work of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Menander. This volume includes translations by Richard Moore (Hippolytus), John Frederick Nims (Suppliant Women), Rachel Hadas (Helen), Elizabeth Seydel Morgan (Electra), and Palmer Bovie (Cyclops).

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Widely praised for his recent translations of Boethius and Ariosto, David R. Slavitt returns to Ovid, once again bringing to the contemporary ear the spirited, idiomatic, audacious charms of this master poet. The love described here is the anguished, ruinous kind, for which Ovid was among the first to find expression. In the Amores, he testifies to the male experience, and in the companion Heroides—through a series of dramatic monologues addressed to absent lovers—he imagines how love goes for women. “You think she is ardent with you? So was she ardent with him,” cries Oenone to Paris. Sappho, revisiting the forest where she lay with Phaon, sighs, “The place / without your presence is just another place. / You were what made it magic.” The Remedia Amoris sees love as a sickness, and offers curative advice: “The beginning is your best chance to resist”; “Try to avoid onions, / imported or domestic. And arugula is bad. / Whatever may incline your body to Venus / keep away from.” The voices of men and women produce a volley of extravagant laments over love’s inconstancy and confusions, as though elegance and vigor of expression might compensate for heartache.Though these love poems come to us across millennia, Slavitt’s translations, introduced by Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Dirda, ensure that their sentiments have not faded with the passage of time. They delight us with their wit, even as we weep a little in recognition.

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La Vita Nuova (1292–94) has many aspects. Dante’s libello, or “little book,” is most obviously a book about love. In a sequence of thirty-one poems, the author recounts his love of Beatrice from his first sight of her (when he was nine and she eight), through unrequited love and chance encounters, to his profound grief sixteen years later at her sudden and unexpected death. Linked with Dante’s verse are commentaries on the individual poems—their form and meaning—as well as the events and feelings from which they originate. Through these commentaries the poet comes to see romantic love as the first step in a spiritual journey that leads to salvation and the capacity for divine love. He aims to reside with Beatrice among the stars.David Slavitt gives us a readable and appealing translation of one of the early, defining masterpieces of European literature, animating its verse and prose with a fluid, lively, and engaging idiom and rhythm. His translation makes this first major book of Dante’s stand out as a powerful work of art in its own regard, independent of its “junior” status to La Commedia. In an Introduction, Seth Lerer considers Dante as a poet of civic life. “Beatrice,” he reminds us, “lives as much on city streets and open congregations as she does in bedroom fantasies and dreams.”

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The Penn Greek Drama Series presents original literary translations of the entire corpus of classical Greek drama: tragedies, comedies, and satyr plays. It is the only contemporary series of all the surviving work of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, and Menander. This volume includes translations by Eleanor Wilner with Inés Azar (Medea), Marilyn Nelson (Hecuba), Donald Junkins (Andromache), and Daniel Mark Epstein (The Bacchae).

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The plays translated in this volume represent everything one would not expect either from the third-century B.C. playwright Plautus or from Roman comedy in general. A common theme in all three comedies is the triumph of women over men. In Truculentus, prostitutes snare all of the men in the play; in Bacchides, the victims include fathers and sons. In Casina, Plautus creates a fantasy that turns traditional social and sexual roles upside down. The plays' mordant, cynical treatment of the normal plots and casts of Roman comedy, their dark humor rooted in homosexuality, oedipal encounters, cruelty, larceny, and prostitution, and their pervasive lack of romance or sentimentality have alternately puzzled and offended the few audiences that have seen them since the Renaissance. Now these unusual plays have been rescued from obscurity in the best possible way-through performance. James Tatum's translations, revised from actual productions, demonstrate that these are among the most entertaining and theatrically effective of Plautus's comedies. The speakable, performable scripts, along with Tatum's introduction, notes, and critical essays summarizing his own experiences in producing them, make this a gold mine for troupes wishing to produce these classics on the contemporary stage as well as for students of classical drama.

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The appearance of David R. Slavitt’s translation of Orlando Furioso (“Mad Orlando”), one of the great literary achievements of the Italian Renaissance, is a publishing event. With this lively new verse translation, Slavitt introduces readers to Ariosto’s now neglected masterpiece—a poem whose impact on Western literature can scarcely be exaggerated. It was a major influence on Spenser’s Faerie Queene. William Shakespeare borrowed one of its plots. Voltaire called it the equal of the Iliad, the Odyssey, and Don Quixote combined. More recently, Italo Calvino drew inspiration from it. Borges was a fan. Now, through translations of generous selections from this longest of all major European poems, Slavitt brings the poem to life in ways previous translators have not. At the heart of Ariosto’s romance are Orlando’s unrequited love for the pagan princess Angelica and his jealous rage when she elopes. The action takes place against a besieged Paris, as Charlemagne and his Christian paladins defend the city against the Saracen king. The poem, however, obeys no geography or rules but its own, as the story moves by whim from Japan to the Hebrides to the moon; it includes such imaginary creatures as the hippogriff and a sea monster called the orc. Orlando Furioso is Dante’s medieval universe turned upside down and made comic. Characterized by satire, parody, and irony, the poem celebrates a new humanistic Renaissance conception of man in an utterly fantastical world. Slavitt’s translation captures the energy, comedy, and great fun of Ariosto’s Italian.

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