Customer Reviews

The Aeneid of Virgil: A Verse Translation By Rolfe Humphries

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I bought the Scribner Library edition of Humphries' translation of the AENEID for $1.95 around 1970. On the back cover, W.H. Auden and Dudley Fitts praise it highly. It's too bad that this beautiful and engaging translation does not sit on the bookstore shelves today at a reasonable price alongside of those of Fitzgerald and Mandelbaum. Here is Humphries' rendition of the last few lines of Book 12, where Aeneas "exacts his vengeance": "... the blade went deep/And Turnus' limbs were cold in death; the spirit/Went with a moan indignant to the shadows." A friend, upon reading these lines, suggested that Vergil could not possibly have done better in the original. Get a copy of this translation, if you can find it. The poetry has a moving rhythm, and it will move you.

I'm a huge fan of Rolfe Humphries' translation of the Aeneid. I don't believe I've ever come across a better in English, although I own several.

My Latin is more or less good enough to read Virgil in the original, although that always means a lot of work. So sometimes I just want to sit down and read it without having to use a lexicon. When I do, this is the edition I turn to, definitely. F. Dryden!

What I like about Humphries is that his version retains the remote, cold dignity and fluid grace of the original.

I will admit to having issues with some of this word choices, but on balance I have never seen Humphries beaten at conveying the stateliness, the high import, and the gravitas of what's going on.

It's more of a feel issue rather than an accuracy of translation issue.

I'm not sure if I'm expressing myself well, but I'll say this: if you get good enough to read Virgil in the original, your respect for this will be increased.

I also picked up the scribner library soft cover edition- have to say it's a handsome book. This is my first time reading Aeneid- I brought this edition for a reading copy to bring the rome. Nothing is going to blow a sophisiticated reader a way in terms of the analysis, but it was fine to read.

This epic is definitely a fun story. This verse translation was very accessible. It was easy to understand. This story should be read just as much as the Iliad.