Customer Reviews

Dances for Flute and Thunder

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I picked up this book of translations because I'd read one of the poems on Poetry Daily and was instantly captivated. The poems don't read like translations--they are vital, graceful, funny, bleak--and in that sense they certainly feel contemporary. But I wouldn't say that they are ever contemporary at the expense of the classic originals--instead they remind us that perceptions and emotions rendered this sharply and cleanly centuries ago still have the power (when translated by the right person) to reach us in the here and now. This volume doesn't read like a set of translations; the voice is compelling, it's range is considerable, and each time I open it a different poem becomes my favorite. (It's probably also worth saying that the production values on this book are impressive--it's a beautiful object to keep around.)

The beauty of these words is above my comment. I'm thankful that Mr. Haxton chose these selections for the reader's pleasure and enlightenment. The book is a lyrical survey of the ancient Greek world view. I am the better for having read it.

Perhaps I was too put off by the comment in the forward that early Greek poetry was being neglected because it wasn't kept alive by be scriptural as the Rg Veda, the Psalms, etc. to give this book a fair chance. I can too easily identify other early and neglected poetry - Egyptian, Tamil, Sumerian, or the Avestan.

The selection of poems makes a nice mix -Archilochos, Alkman, Sappho, Alkaios, Erinna, Stesichoros, Ibykos, Anakreon, Solon, Mimnermos, Timokreon of Rphodes, Simonides, Phokylides, Praxilla, Socrates, Plato, Kallimachos, Theokritos ...

Unfortunately, as it doesn't suit my taste, so poems are made from multiple fragments, some poems which survived intact are given only a fragment here. The poems are decent poetry, but unlike Barnhard's translation of Sappho, I feel that I am reading a modern mind's interpretation of the ancient mind rather than reading a translation of a poem by an ancient.

Still, the book serves a real purpose as an introduction to early Greek poetry without being scholarly or obtuse.