Customer Reviews

Ovid's Metamorphoses

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

 

 

It's a tragedy that as of this writing the other reviews for this work refer only to the audio edition, which is evidently crap. I assure you that the book itself is far from crap--that if you're looking for a different take on the classical world, a different voice that does not sound erudite and refined and prissy, Boer's translation is definitely worth a gander. I think of the narrator as an especially poetic caveman--alternately shouting and whispering language in its raw form, telling us many stories from classical mythology before a bonfire, omitting none of antiquity's horror or violence. This is not a dry encyclopedia of mythology ("Phaethon did this, and Phaethon did that after"), this is visceral beauty. Since the book is out of print and there's no preview availible, let me shut up and show you:

(Jove is tricking yet another beautiful maiden: he's turned himself into a bull)

Royal Girl Dares Climb Bull's Back!
(not knowing whom she rides); god dips
foot in water & drifts slowly from land & shore,
ambles further: then rushes his prey mid-sea:
scared seeing shoreline go, she clings
one hand to horns, one to his back; her dress
trembles & blows in the breeze

Many of the stories of the Metamorphoses are well-known and easily located online in duller formats, but this fiery translation has been utterly forgotten. Rare, unique, fun, and worthwhile.

Of course it is for Golding's translation ITSELF that this book is valuable. You might ask yourself, who is the author of this Metamorphosis, Ovid or Golding? Is the book less artistically important because it is Golding's vision of Ovid rather than an unprocessed Ovid? Just feel how nice and chewy Golding's language is. Resentful academic purists should read Ovid in the original Latin.

THIS REVIEW APPLIES TO THE EDITION EDITED BY MADELEINE FOREY (Hopkins, 2002)

I own two copies of this book and in both it is missing pages! Specifically, it is missing pages 251-98, or parts of book 8 and 10 and all of book 9. I don't know if other people are also missing pages, but as I say I own two and they're identical. I like this edition in every other way and so to have discovered this is a major disappointment. The book appears only to have been printed once and so it's conceivable that all existing copies are missing these pages. If so, it is impossible for me to recommend.

Here are the stories my copies are missing in whole or part:

THE EIGHTH BOOK
Althaea's revenge -- Achelous and the nymphs -- Baucis and Philemon -- The sacrilege of Erysicthon -- Etysicthon's daughter
THE NINTH BOOK
Achelous and Hercules -- The shirt of Nessus -- The death of Hercules -- The transformation of Galantis -- The transformation of Dryope -- Iolaus recovers his youth -- Caun and Byblis --The transformation of Iphis
THE TENTH BOOK
Orpheus and Eurydice

I've read two translations of Ovid's Metamorphoses and enjoyed them so much I wanted to hear them read out loud. The first shock was just how abridged this reading was, it fits on only one cassette. But the second shock is how beyond painful it was to listen to the narration which was less about Ovid's (or Boer's) words, and more about the overacting of the reader. It's the worst thing I've ever listened to, and if this stops even one person from buying the tape, I'll rest easier. Waste of money. Waste of beautiful poetry.

"I've never seen anything like it in my life," writes William Kotzwinkle in his back-cover blurb for Charles Boer's translation of The Metamorphoses, and I can only agree with him. This is a remarkable translation, one that has nothing in common with the more refined publications which bear Ovid's name. Boer's work is more comparable to Christopher Logue's "War Music" or Ted Hughes' "Tales from Ovid," in that it does not strive to mimic Ovid's words in their closest (and safest) English approximations. Instead this translation comes off like it's spouted from the lips of some prehistoric shaman, barking out a tale to his animal skin-garbed flock.

From Book III's "Semele and Jove:"

god wants to stop her mouth but she gets it
all out; he groans; no unwishing;
no unswearing; extremely sad, he climbs
sky, drags out obedient clouds, joining
storms & thunderclaps & can't-miss lightning;
tries, best he can, to control these powers:
does not put on firebolt used on
the polybrach giant Typhoeus - too cruel, that! -
instead: a lighter lightning, Cyclopean-made,
its fire not so bad, not so nasty
(the gods' `second force')

he takes this & enters Semele's house: her body,
mortal, can't stand meteorological banging
& burns in his sexual gifts

The entire book is this sort of primitive chant. Solomon Grundy gone poet. In his blurb Kotzwinkle calls Ovid "rock and roll," meaning the rhythm of the epic, and Boer for sure agrees. But this is what's lovingly known as dumb-dumb rock, like the Troggs or the "Funhouse"-era Stooges: repetitive and feral and dangerous. In what other Metamorphoses translation could you read the phrase "can't stand meteorological banging?"

Boer explains the reasoning for such an unusual approach in his introduction. Basically, he feels that the 1950s English translations undercut Ovid's vivid narrative and removed the epic's psychological ramifications. He also stipulates that his intention is not to produce a wholly faithful rendering, but to impart a side of The Metamorphoses which is usually neglected in English translations. Whether you appreciate the results or not, you must admit that he succeeds in his intention.

This book is unjustly forgotten and long out of print. Even the Ovid freaks are unaware; Benjamin Knox, in his introduction to Charles Martin's 2004 translation, doesn't even mention Boer's work in his rundown of the many recent Metamorphoses translations. But for me, this is the only Metamorphoses I've been able to read without losing interest.

I'll admit it: though I love ancient epics and poetry, the Metamorphoses has never done much for me. I always thought it was due to the ADD nature in which Ovid relates the stories, bouncing from one to another with little time for reflection or consideration. And that's partly still the case, but now I realize the fuller reason: no previous English translator ever made Ovid sound like THIS. Before discovering Boer's work the only Metamorphoses I enjoyed was Hughes', but his translation just covers 24 of the 200+ tales in Ovid's original. Even Martin's version - complete with the rapping P-Arides!! - did little for me. Boer however gives you the whole thing, and in a style that accelerates your pulse.

And finally - as others have mentioned, a few of the reviews here deal with the audio recording of this book. If it's as bad as claimed, I HAVE to hear it!

Ovid's Metamorphoses is wonderful, essential reading and gets 5 stars easily.. I like Mandelbaum's translation best.. However here I am reviewing the audio tape reading of the Boer translation with Noah Pikes as narrator. The quality of the recording is horrible, but even worse is the "performance" of the narrator. Because of the extreme histrionics (to put it mildly), poor diction, it is impossible to understand 90% of the words. and the reading is stilted and sounds like Tonto (yes, of the Lone Ranger) reading. It is only a few selections from the Metamorphoses, poorly choosen at that.. easily the worst puchase I've made at Amazon (of over 1500 items so far). 1 Star is too high a rating.. I threw in it the trash..