Fitzgerald, following his original, really given us a convincing narrative poem in the language and rhythms of the late 20th century? Hardly, but what examples are there of such a poem, original or translated? The blank verse is that of a practiced hand, better than that of the recent version of the Aeneid by Allen Mandelbaum but not nearly as good as that of Longfellow's Dante (however pedestrian that version may now be considered to be). But what about the English which, rather than the Latin, is the point in which most verse translators fail? Has Mr. Fitzgerald has had the support and advice of his Harvard colleagues.
The scholarship of the version is sufficiently guaranteed Mr. Fitzgerald succeed? The proof of the pudding is in the eating and each reader must try for himself. The translator has to take account of preconceptions other than our own and to adopt a tone and an idiom in which the old story can be told with conviction. What are heroic poems to us? What do we care for the Roman Empire? Such things are miles from consumerism, individual self- expression and so much more that is now taken for granted - and therefore from the language we ordinarily use. With Virgil the difficulty is great indeed. With a great poet belonging to a relatively remote culture, the problem is most intense. Listen to our podcast: Featuring conversations with leading figures in the literary world, from Colson Whitehead to Leila Slimani, the Book Review Podcast helps you delve deeper into your favorite books.That got us wondering: What is the best book that was published during that time? Nominate a book: The New York Times Book Review has just turned 125.See what’s new in October: Among this month’s new titles are novels by Jonathan Franzen, a history of Black cinema and a biography by Katie Couric.Learn what you should be reading this fall: Our collection of reviews on books coming out this season includes biographies, novels, memoirs and more.Want to keep up with the latest and greatest in books? This is a good place to start. In any language there is a whole world of tones and conceptions for which no exact equivalent can be found. tering of any language other than his own will understand that translation is a matter not of finding one word for another, but one way of saying things for another way of saying them. Sisson is an English poet whose translations include ''The Poem on Nature'' of Lucretius and ''The Divine Comedy'' of Dante. If we know some Latin, we are less at the mercy of translators than those who do not, but our inmost thoughts still run in our native language and our conceptions are formed in it. Virgil finds re-translators in every age and that is as it should be, for whether we are scholars or not, we have to re-engage with him in the language of our own time.
Dryden, whose Virgil is still the most readable in English, although it is 300 years old, knew that the rhythms, the ''richness'' and even the imagery cannot be tipped from one language into another like that even by a great poet, and he was far from reckoning himself Virgil's equal. Given that record, it is hardly suprising that Random House should slightly lose its head, claiming that the new version of the Aeneid ''captures all the superb rhythm, imagery, richness and narrative force of Virgil's original.'' It would be no disgrace to do less well than that, as Mr. His translation of the Odyssey has sold nearly a million copies. What is remarkable is that the translator should qualify for the Guinness Book of Records by becoming, as his publisher says, the first poet to have translated the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Aeneid. No wonder that Robert Fitzgerald, the emeritus Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard should turn his attention to Virgil. More than any other, he is the central poet of the West, honored and even read from the first days of the Roman Empire. VIRGIL is the poet everyone used to read at school a few still do, and, as Virgil said about farmers, they are fortunate if only they knew it.
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