The Complete Elegies of Sextus Propertius
The Roman poet Propertius is best known as the writer who perfected the Latin love elegy, a technical as much as a psychological and cultural feat. Propertius has been admired for both his metrical genius and the modernity of his narrative flow. Many of the poems here pay tribute to Cynthia, Propertius's romantic obsession, but the scope of these 107 elegies is broad. Propertius's poetry offers a fascinating look into life in the Augustan age, addressing social, political, and historical subjects. A contemporary of Virgil and Horace, Propertius has influenced scores of poets--from Ovid to Housman to Pound. His poetry appears here for the first time in a dual-language edition with the translations facing the original Latin. Rendered into English by a poet who is also one of the nation's pre-eminent Propertius experts, the volume brings Propertius's difficult mix of vernacular and high literary allusion into contemporary language. Cynthia was the first. She caught me with her eyes, a foolwho had never before been touched by desires. Love cast down my look of constant pride, and he pressed on my head with his feet, until he taught me to despise chaste girls, perversely, and to live without plan. Already, it's been a whole year that the frenzy hasn't stopped, when, for all that, the gods are against me
Electronic books
1 online resource (521 pages)
9781400884131, 9780691115818, 1400884136, 0691115818
953659521
Cover; Title; Copyright; Dedication; CONTENTS; Acknowledgments ; Preserving the Metaphor: Translating Propertius ; BOOK ONE ; 1.1 "Cynthia was the first. She caught me with her eyes" ; 1.2 "nude Love doesn't love artifice in beauty" ; 1.3 "although a pair commanded me, gripped with lust." 1.4 "Cynthia is tried by no curse more gravely / than when grace abandons her" 1.5 "she comes with a price" ; 1.6 "I wasn't born to praise or fighting" ; 1.7 "This is how my life's used up" ; 1.8 A "Can your tender feet brave the frosts?" ; 1.8 B "Rare Cynthia is mine!" 1.9 "I told you how love would be, and you laughed" 1.10 "not light is the medicine in my words" ; 1.11 "in the Bay of Naples no love is safe" ; 1.12 "Cynthia was the first, Cynthia will be the last" ; 1.13 "She will be punishment for the despised pain of all of them." 1.14 "I'll despise Alcinous' gifts" 1.15 "be whatever you want, just not alien" ; 1.16 "Once I was opened to great triumphs" ; 1.17 "God damn him! who first prepared ship and sail" ; 1.18 "let the rocks be full of your name." 1.19 "There, whatever I'll be, I'll always be called your image" 1.20 "You've been warned, Gallus: protect your love" ; 1.21 "Gallus ... / tried to escape unknown hands-but was not able" ; 1.22 "What class I am and from where" ; BOOK TWO ; 2.1 "The girl alone erects my genius."
2.2 "Love got the better of me."
English
