Horace, The Odes: New Translations by Contemporary Poets (Facing Pages) (Hardcover)

~ (Author), (Editor) "Maecenas, my protector, descendant of kings, Friend, fountain of honor-in this world different things Give different people joy..." (more)
Key Phrases: John Hollander, Field of Mars

Editorial Reviews

Review

Brilliant ideas can flop in execution. This one soars. . . . [As] close to the real Horace as we can come. -- Tom Payne, The Daily Telegraph

McClatchy's fellow poets have succeeded where many a scholar has failed. . . . The resulting collection is . . . a wonderfully varied tribute to the mercurial poet it honors. -- Review

Wonderfully varied tribute to the mercurial poet it honors. . . . McClatchy's fellow poets have succeeded where many a scholar has failed. -- Amanda Kolson Hurley, Times Literary Supplement

Review

McClatchy's fellow poets have succeeded where many a scholar has failed. . . . The resulting collection is . . . a wonderfully varied tribute to the mercurial poet it honors.
(Amanda Kolson Hurley Times Literary Supplement )

Many of the 35 poets here are well established--Charles Simic, Robert Bly, Anthony Hecht; others are known as distinguished translators; and the match with Horace tends to put them on top form. . . . But even the most brilliant ideas can flop in execution. This one soars. It brings us as close to the real Horace as we can come.
(Tom Payne The Daily Telegraph )

This book will help initiate--and re-initiate--modern readers to some of the best lyric poetry ever produced. . . . [T]he poems are rendered not by one hand, but by the best contemporary poets. . . . J. D. McClatchy has doled out his assignments wisely to the finest poets writing in English in England, America, and Ireland, and they've done their work well.
(Tracy Lee Simmons The Weekly Standard )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (August 26, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 069104919X
• ISBN-13: 978-0691049199
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #574,910 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Horace in the "Chaotic Age", April 15, 2003

By A Customer

This is one of the finest translations of Horace ever compiled, all done by modern poets. Each translation seem done with care, more for the spirit of the poem than its transliterative meaning. The method of approaching Horace, by distributing the odes among some forty poets, keeps the timeless beauty of his poetry fresh. This is also a bilingual edition of Horace, which is an indispensable condition. Harold Bloom concurs that this is the best English translation of Horace's Odes.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a good commentary---misleadingly presented by Amazon, November 9, 2005

By	David Lupher (Tacoma, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Horace: The Odes (Classical Series) (Spiral-bound)

Kenneth Quinn's edition of Horace's odes is the best edition and commentary in print aimed at undergraduate-level classes. I have taught it myself a number of times over the years and have found it perfectly acceptable. What I want to protest is Amazon's habit of pasting faulty information onto its books' websites. For instance, when one clicks on Quinn's edition of Horace, one gets a web-page that offers a bit of the translation of the first ode, some "editorial reviews," and one reader review---all of which refer not to Quinn's edition and commentary but to J.D. McClatchy's "Horace: The Odes: New Translations of Contemporary Poets." I have often noticed that when one clicks on a particular translation of, say, Homer or Vergil, the Amazon site will shower one with blurbs and reader reviews of some *other* translation, a fact that can easily confuse the unwary. In this case, a prospective reader who wants to know more about a particular edition (i.e. Latin text, with no translation) and commentary of Horace is being treated to all sorts of information about a very different bird entitely: a *translation* of the odes. This is getting silly. Please fix this, Amazon!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just wonderful, January 6, 2006

By	Stanley Hauer (Hattiesburg, MS USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you love poetry, treat yourself to this spelendid collection. Horace's Latin is too difficult for most of us whose high school education is distant. These translations are never less than readable and often beautiful. This may be a book that reminds us of why Horace has been read and loved for two thousand years.