Poems
Published on 27. September 2018
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-78410-651-5 (ISBN)
Description
The Poetry Book Society Autumn 2018 Recommended Translation.
Asked to name the great Latin love poets, today's reader is likely to offer Catullus, Ovid, Virgil, Horace. Propertius, a successor of the first and influential peer to the others, has not been blessed by posterity. Yet at their best his poems match any of the period. They are poems of love, of desire, of insecurity and obsession: of struggle, too, as they resist the Augustan Empire's attempts to turn its love poets into propagandists. The result is a highly refined irony, a subtlety of tone and humour that is unique. Patrick Worsnip's translations bring out Propertius' playfulness and his psychological acuity, reinstating his poems at the heart of Latin literature's golden age.
Asked to name the great Latin love poets, today's reader is likely to offer Catullus, Ovid, Virgil, Horace. Propertius, a successor of the first and influential peer to the others, has not been blessed by posterity. Yet at their best his poems match any of the period. They are poems of love, of desire, of insecurity and obsession: of struggle, too, as they resist the Augustan Empire's attempts to turn its love poets into propagandists. The result is a highly refined irony, a subtlety of tone and humour that is unique. Patrick Worsnip's translations bring out Propertius' playfulness and his psychological acuity, reinstating his poems at the heart of Latin literature's golden age.
Reviews / Votes
`Propertius is perhaps the most enigmatic of the great poets from the golden age of Latin literature [...] Patrick Worsnip's vibrant contemporary translation will bring him to a new generation of discerning readers.' - Peter Heslin, from the IntroductionMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Carcanet Press Ltd
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 212 mm
Width: 134 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
324 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78410-651-5 (9781784106515)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Sextus Propertius | Patrick Worsnip
Poems
E-Book
09/2018
Carcanet Classics
€12.47
Available for download
Persons
Sextus Propertius (c. 55 - 15 BC) was an elegiac poet of the Augustan age, born and raised in Umbria. Little biographical detail survives beyond what can be inferred from his poems. He published his first book of verse around 30 BC, and at least three more in his lifetime. He was in the circle of the influential patron of the arts Maecenas. A successor of Catullus and rough contemporary of Vergil, Ovid and Horace, he is perhaps best known today through Ezra Pound's experimental `homage' of 1919.; After reading Classics and Modern Languages at Merton College, Oxford, Patrick Worsnip worked for more than forty years as a correspondent and editor for Reuters news agency, with postings in Italy, Russia, Poland, Iran, Lebanon, the us and the UK. Since retiring in 2012, he has devoted himself to translation from Italian and Latin, and to magazine articles on Italian poetry. He divides his time between Cambridge and Umbria, Italy. He is married, with one son.