3 reviews for:

The Odes of Horace

Horatius

3.99 AVERAGE

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced
cinnamoondeer's profile picture

cinnamoondeer's review

3.5
emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

jramm's review

4.0

In the Introduction, Translator David Ferry says that his translation seeks to emulate Horace's "formal variety by working in a variety ... of metrical lines...) Ferry seems to take this a step further than admitted in the Introduction with several poems exhurberant with exclamations, very modern informal phrasing and word choice (imho). The "volatility of tone" in Horace comes shining through.

An example:

To the Republic - Horace

O ship, O battered ship, the backward running waves
Are taking you out to sea again! Oh what to do?
Oh don't you see? Oh make for port! The wind's gone wild!
Your sails are torn! Your mast is shaking! Your oars are gone!
Your onboard gods gone overboard! How long, how long
Can the eggshell hull so frail hold out? Oh ship so proud,
Your famous name, your gilded stern, your polished decks,
Your polished brass, so useless now, O storm's play thing,
O ship my care, beware, beware the Cyclades!