1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910809898903321

Autore

Ovid <43 B.C.-17 or 18 A.D.>

Titolo

Love poems, Letters, and Remedies of Ovid / / translated by David R. Slavitt

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge, Mass., : Harvard University Press, c2011

ISBN

0-674-06122-5

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (384 p.)

Altri autori (Persone)

SlavittDavid R. <1935->

Ovid <43 B.C.-17 or 18 A.D.>

Disciplina

871/.01

Soggetti

Love poetry, Latin

Epistolary poetry, Latin

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- CONTENTS -- TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE -- INTRODUCTION / Dirda, Michael -- Love Poems (Amores) -- Letters (Heroides) -- Remedies (Remedia Amoris)

Sommario/riassunto

Widely praised for his recent translations of Boethius and Ariosto, David R. Slavitt returns to Ovid, once again bringing to the contemporary ear the spirited, idiomatic, audacious charms of this master poet. The love described here is the anguished, ruinous kind, for which Ovid was among the first to find expression. In the Amores, he testifies to the male experience, and in the companion Heroides-through a series of dramatic monologues addressed to absent lovers-he imagines how love goes for women. "You think she is ardent with you? So was she ardent with him," cries Oenone to Paris. Sappho, revisiting the forest where she lay with Phaon, sighs, "The place / without your presence is just another place. / You were what made it magic." The Remedia Amoris sees love as a sickness, and offers curative advice: "The beginning is your best chance to resist"; "Try to avoid onions, / imported or domestic. And arugula is bad. / Whatever may incline your body to Venus / keep away from." The voices of men and women produce a volley of extravagant laments over love's inconstancy and confusions, as though elegance and vigor of expression might compensate for heartache.Though these love poems come to us across



millennia, Slavitt's translations, introduced by Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Dirda, ensure that their sentiments have not faded with the passage of time. They delight us with their wit, even as we weep a little in recognition.