Customer Reviews

Jerusalem Delivered (Gerusalemme liberata)

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Mr. Esolen has done the english-bound reader a fine service: we are drowning in Dantes, up to our eyeballs in Homers and Virgils and Ovids, but where are the compulsively readable and poetically enjoyable modern translations of Pulci, Boiardo, Ariosto, and not least of all Camoes, who has written the most neglected major epic in Western literature, "The Lusiads"! Most thankfully, Mr. Esolen has given us Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered," which in his magnificent translation is quite simply a pleasure to read--I could not put it down! If you are intimidated by "classic literature," don't be--this english Tasso is just a jolly good adventure/love story. If you enjoy this, and you will, then let's hope Mr. Esolen will favor us with his rendition of Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso" in the not-to-distant-future!!!

Most every reader of literature in English is familiar with Arthurian romance and legend, from Malory's medieval masterpiece "Mort d'Arthur" to Tennyson's "Idylls of the King" to contemporary writers like Mary Stewart and Marion Zimmer Bradley.

But how many of these readers are aware that there exists in Western literature another, parallel stream of myth and legend called Carolingian, which celebrates the exploits and heroes of the Age--not of Arthur--but of Charlemagne?

Carolingian epic and romance may safely be said to begin with "The Song of Roland" (available in W.S. Merwin's excellent translation in the Modern Library volume "Medieval Epics"), but the tradition includes scores if not hundreds of contributors--and three of these constitute together a magnificent achievement: Pulci's "Morgante," Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso," and Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered."

Maybe due to the hyper-popularity of Arthurian material, these three major authors and their respective masterpieces have a shockingly undistinguished and short list of english translations. Happily, Anthony Esolens has supplied us with a truly superb, vivid, and beautiful rendering of Tasso's neglected epic. It is so good, in fact, that I second the reviewer below in hoping for a future translation of Ariosto. For what it's worth, Bernard Knox wrote a highly favorable review of this edition in the New York Times Book Review, in which he called Esolen's work "a triumph." Don't hesitate.

This magical epic poem tells the story of the First Crusade, led by Godfrey of Bouillon and other European noblemen and warriors. The story is full of supernatural characters and events. It develops during the bloody siege of Jerusalem, against the Moors and their famous leader, Soliman. The story is violent and erotic, especially the torrid love affair between Tancred, the bravest of the Christians, and Clorinda, a fierce but beautifl warrioress. Written in the XVI century, this book captures the spirit and ideology of the Middle Ages, specifically the XI century. Like in "Curial and Guelfa", Christian symbols mix with Greco-Roman ones, in a tale of war and sex. Tasso's images are powerful and the poem is anything but childish or naive. As I said, it is violent and full of action. It contains no boring digressions or reflections, but pure action.

Anthony Esolen does it again to bring us a powerfully translated and edited poem, originally in Latin, now for the modern reader. This is a dark and brooding poem that was written by Torquato Tasso when he was slowly going mad. His fixation was on the subject of the first Crusade to free Jerusalem from the Moslems, which was led by Godfrey of Bouillon and the peers of France. This was a subject of Tasso's interest since he was an 18 year old boy,who published a poem about Rinaldo, one of the key figures in the current story. Tasso eventually extensively revised "Gerusalemme liberata", removing its amorous portions to publish "Gerusalemme conquistada" at age 49. The darkness of the original poem is tempered by the love stories, but it remains a violent story with a concentration on the horrors of war and of love also. For example, in the middle of the story of an intense battle, Soliman, the powerful Turkish sultan, sees his young page cut down: "Sees how the trembling eyes so gracefully shut, and the neck falls limp, as if in sleep; so sweet the whiteness of his face, so sweet the pity his dying semblance breathes, that deep in his then-stony heart something grew soft and the spring burst through his anger: he must weep. You, Soliman weeping...who stood by while your realm was destroyed, and your eyes dry. But when he sees the enemy's sword still slick and steaming with the blood of the young lad, pity gives way to anger boiling quick and all the tears within his heart are dead"(Canto 9, #86-87). The contrast of darkness and jumping-out vividness in the story cause Esolen to refer to Tasso as a Caravaggio of poetry, an apt comparison. Although the story gets off to a traditionally slow start, it builds to a fever pitch and you suddenly are hit by what makes this a great poem. The poem is divided into 20 songs or Cantos for a total of 396 pages, complemented by an erudite Introduction and a discussion at the end of the book about the use of allegory, a list of the cast of characters, and 47 pages of notes that help to put the story into literary perspective. I recommend just reading the poem first, and then consulting the notes, since sometimes too much of the overall plot is revealed in a brief description of the characters or in the notes.

The original must be an astonishing work! Fierce battles, passionate romance, stirring orations, even scenes of cosmic splendor succeed one another; there's the sense of real genius here, of an artist who is fulfilling his intention. This translation reads very, very well indeed. A remarkably satisfying book.

C. S. Lewis relished this epic poem -- see his essay "Tasso" in his book of essays on medieval and Renaissance literature. I wonder if Tolkien also had read it, as a number of scenes reminded me of the Siege of Minas Tirith, etc. For those who want to move on from the authors and works that everyone knows influenced and/or impressed Lewis (and Tolkien?) such as Chesterton, George MacDonald, et al., Tasso may be recommended. I wonder if Lewis didn't get the idea for the severed head, of the criminal Alcasan, who seems to speak, but is really manipulated by a devil, and which the heroine of That Hideous Strength sees in a dream, from Tasso, where a Fury from hell makes a severed head talk (deceivingly) in a dream to one of the Christian warriors. The gruesome descriptions are similar, and Lewis even calls Alcasan "the Saracen"; and Alcasan certainly could be the name of one of the Saracen knights in Tasso. Who knows...?

I am perplexed at the negative reviews of this translation (if they were even about this translation). I find it remarkable. A verse translation of an epic in ottava rima is obviously a difficult thing, and I think that Esolen does a fantastic job. The poem itself, while horrendously inappropriate as a template for international relations in the twenty-first century, is a stunning accomplishment. Tasso's painterliness is first class, and his skill as an allegorist is sublime. In good Miltonian fashion he makes the evil and wayward figures the most appealing. As for the wizardry...Tasso is the best thing since Merlin.

A terrific poem! Just read: --
A felon in his wrath, Argante rides
trampling the fighter's breast like a bare street,
shouting, "Let every one who loves his pride
end up like him who lies beneath my feet!"
But now, disgusted by this cruel deed,
Tancred who never yet had known defeat
charged -- hoping his once-bright courage would yet make
illustrious amends for his mistake --
charged, and called to the pagan, "Soul of a coward!
Scandalous even in your victory!"

Or this:
Each man has wings to his feet, wings to his heart,
yet no one marks how quickly the miles fly.
But when the sunlight strikes the stubble fields
with rays now bright and rising in the sky,

behold, they see Jerusalem appear!
Behold, Jerusalem is drawing nigh!
And behold, a thousand voices now acclaim
As one the promised land -- Jerusalem!
Lovers of poetry and the Renaissance, Christians, and especially Catholics, ought to rediscover this great epic.

The fame of Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata was known far and wide during the Renaissance but sadly, it is far from everyday reading today. This work, describing in twenty masterful cantos the taking of Jerusalem during the first crusade, is one of the masterpieces of epic poetry; in the same lofty realms as Paradise Lost and Dante's Inferno.

The poem is largely fantasy, although it draws many of its characters from the historical record, along with some of the geography and a modicum of history. While the modern view of the crusades is that of a dark hour in church history, full of bigotry and inhumanity, Tasso paints it as a glorious adventure, in the full romantic, chivalric tradition. Surprisingly, however, he makes the characters of the Islamic defenders of Jerusalem very human, rendering them in a remarkably (for the time) sympathetic light. While the poem has strong religious overtones, it is clear that Soliman, Argante, Clorinda and Armida are all characters who are motivated by chivalry and love, and not necessarily by religion. The poem was written in the Renaissance, but it still contains numerous strong female characters. from Clorinda, the Muslim warrior princess who is slain by Tancred during a battle in which neither recognizes their lover, to Armida, the sorceress who steals Rinaldo away from the Christians in Circe-like fashion, loving him and hating him all at once.

The fantastical breathes throughout the poem, with enchanted woods that bleed when cut, secret fortresses, hermits with magical staffs, and the Islands of the Blessed. In spite of the wide-ranging plot, the depth of character and the integration of the story are modern in their effect. I literaly hung on every line and read it the way I might have read Tolkien in my youth. (Indeed, I suspect Tolkien may have used Tasso as source material). There is, of course, a vast wash of blood shed with helm-splitting, dismembering accounts of medieval combat, told as if it were a children's tale. The descriptions of siege warfare are rendered with an eye that seems to have been intimately familiar with the craft, each tower, tortoise and mangonel exquisitely described. The geography of the Holy Land and the coast of North Africa seem likewise familiar to the author, although he becomes a little confused beyond Gibraltar. There is a paen to Columbus, the discoverer of the New World, included as a prophecy in Canto Fifteen, but the New World seems to consist largely of heavenly islands. One disconcerting factor is that Tasso's patronage by the house of Este places repeated effusive passages concerning the house's future greatness in the mouths of the crusaders. This patronage is responsible for the central role played by Rinaldo, a scion of the house of Este.

The book itself is a fine trade paperback on high quality paper. The translation, by M. Esolen is at once high-sounding, noble and very readable. Each stanza is rhymed but there is little or no sense of hatchet-made versification. Esolen eschews the use of archaic language and inverted grammar for the sake of rhyme, delivering a steady cadence and dependable style that lend grace and dignity to the poem. Poetic translation can be tough but Esolen pulls this off nicely. I haven't read the original Italian so I can't speak to the veracity of the language but it reads very well in English. The book also contains brief notes on the translation, an introduction, presumably by the translator, the "Allegory of the Poem" presumably by Tasso - although the text does not say, and a terminal scholarly apparatus including a dramatis personae, extensive end notes, a bibliographic essay and an index.

I can not give too high a praise to this book. It is probably the most exciting and interesting piece of literature I have read from prior to the 17th century. I read it as I would a novel, racing forward to try to catch the plot. Now, after being left breathless, I feel the need to read it again, immediately; to savour its many heroic moods and revel in its beautiful metaphors. Alas, I have too much else to do, but I am sure that I will one day return and spend some enchanted time with Godfrey, Tancred, Clorinda and company.

I am just about to finish this translation of Tasso's venerable crusade and I just had to express how wonderful I think it is. I have to admit I experienced a slight bit of trepidation before beginning this work, but I was found to be foolish. Not only is the work readable, it loses none of its beauty in the translation. I have found myself reading page to page hungrily. Who needs mass market paperback best sellers when oen has such a unique and beautifully translated work at one's fingertips. I wholeheartedly recommend this translation.

Tasso's wonderful story of adventure and romance is rendered poorly by translator Esolen. While everyone realizes that prose translation is a difficult task, when the literature is written originally in meter, the task becomes daunting. Should the translator attempt to capture the meter of the poetry -- the song -- and give less attention to a strict rendering of the words? Or should the translator render the story as accurately as possible and be less concerned with the "song"?

Esolen has chosen a middle road strategy that leads to both a mediocre rendering of the story and a mediocre use of English poetry to capture the song. Esolen's translation reads slowly and has a many, awkward, stilted, English rhymes. I would advise potential readers to seek another translation.