In AD 8 Ovid's brilliant career was abruptly ruined when the Emperor Augustus banished him, for reasons never satisfactorily explained, to Tomis (Constanta) on the Black Sea. The five books of Tristia (Sorrows) express his reaction to this savage and, as he clearly regarded it, unjust sentence. Though their ostensible theme is the misery and loneliness of exile, their real message, if they are read with the care they deserve, is one of affirmation. With a wit and irony that borders on defiance, Ovid repeatedly asserts the injustice of his sentence and of the preeminence of the eternal values of poetry over the ephemeral dictates of an earthly power. In technical skill and inventiveness these elegies rank with the Art of Love or the Fasti. For this new translation Alan Melville has reproduced, in rhyming stanzas, the virtuosity, wit, and elegance of the original.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Melville has added another excellent translation of Ovid's poetry to his two earlier renditions--of the Metamorphoses and Love Poems....He has given the reader of whatever background a real taste of the Ovid who has delighted generations of readers....The translation is an unqualified desideratum for anyone who wants to enjoy Ovid's poetry and his frame of mind in his last unhappy years of exile."--Choice
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Latin
Original Language: Latin
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For exiles everywhere in anytime,
By maclusky@cinema.usc.edu (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Sorrows of an Exile: Tristia (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)
Of maximum comfort to anyone forced to live away from home; exquisite rendition of homesickness, will give solace to fellow exiles. Essential read for those who live with foreigners.
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