Customer Reviews

Horace: Satires, Epistles and Ars Poetica (Loeb Classical Library No. 194) (English and Latin Edition)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Though this is not necessarily a book for the idle poetry reader, I loved this completely. If you enjoy reading the work of the ancient poets and writers, this is perfect. Since it has the original Latin text on the facing page to the translation, it is possible to see how the syntax and lines fit together to make the beautiful, if a bit idiosyncratic, poetry of Horace.

No one can be that presumptuous! All one can review is the translator, who is a little bit loose. I prefer translators that are more literal. But then, as Robert Frost said, poetry is that thing that gets lost in translation, if you know enough Latin, the original text can be appreciated in full. And Horace is one who gives you plenty of quotations, if you wish to impress your friends. In just the few pages of Ars Poetica, you have in medias res, laudatur temporis acti, quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus... Thanks to the translator for telling us that morbus regius was jaundice and that it was considered contagious, like scabies. Can you imagine? It took another 2,000 years to figure out that jaundice is caused by a (contagious) hepatatis virus.