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The Aeneid (Oxford World's Classics), by Virgil
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- Extract One: Book 5, from line 362 (MP3 format, 8:17, 15 MB)
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"Arms and the man I sing." So begins one of the greatest works of literature in any language. Written more than two thousand years ago, The Aeneid tells the story of Aeneas' seven-year journey from the ruins of Troy to Italy, where he becomes the founding ancestor of Rome. Virgil's supreme achievement is not only to reveal Rome's imperial future, but to invest it with both passion and suffering for all those caught up in the fates of others.
Frederick Ahl's new translation captures the excitement, poetic energy, and intellectual force of the original in a way that has never been done before. Ahl has used a version of Virgil's ancient hexameter, a swift-moving six-beat line varying between twelve and seventeen syllables, to reproduce the original poetry in a thrillingly accurate and engaging style. This is an Aeneid that the first-time reader can grasp and enjoy, and whose rendition of Virgil's subtleties of thought and language will enthrall those already familiar with the epic. Unlike most translators, Ahl has chosen to retain Virgil's word-play, the puns and anagrams and other instances of the poet's ebullient wit. "To shear away Virgil's luxuriance," Ahl writes, "is not to separate the painting from a (superfluous) gilded frame, but to lacerate the canvas. Like Shakespeare and the Greek tragedians, Virgil grasped that humor and earnestness are not mutually exclusive in art any more than they are in life. One should read the Aeneid not in solemn homage, but for enjoyment."
Enhanced by Elaine Fantham's Introduction, Ahl's comprehensive notes, and an invaluable indexed glossary, this lively new translation brings readers closer to the original and the myriad enjoyments to be found there.
- Sales Rank: #1727201 in Books
- Published on: 2007-10-25
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 5.50" h x 1.90" w x 7.80" l, 1.43 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 468 pages
Review
"Frederick Ahl captures the pathos..to splendid effect. His version reproduces the fierce, hurtling momentum of the original...he is acutely sensitive to the intricate texture of Virgil's Latin. No pun or anagram or play on words escapes his attention; the subtlety as well as the stateliness of the original shines through in every line. In maintaining this difficult balance, Mr. Ahl has produced the finest translation of the Aeneid in recent memory." --New York Sun
About the Author
Frederick Ahl is a professor of classics and comparative literature at Cornell University. His books include Sophocles' Oedipus, Seneca's Phaedra, Lucan: An Introduction, and Metaformations: Soundplay and Wordplay in Ovid and Other Classical Poets. He lives in Ithaca, NY.
Most helpful customer reviews
43 of 44 people found the following review helpful.
Frederick Ahl's outstanding translation of the Aeneid
By Joe Kenney
Three translations of the Aeneid have appeared in rapid succession over the past two years: Robert Fagles's overhyped commercial bomb, Sarah Ruden's terse, Stanley Lombardo-esque treatment, and this one, the best of the bunch, Frederick Ahl's. Professor Ahl spent over a decade working on his translation, even longer than Virgil took to write the original. Ahl has produced not only the best translation of the Aeneid in English, but also a work that can stand on its own as a piece of high-quality literature.
Fagles apparently churned out his translation because it was expected of him; he was still riding the crest of his Iliad and Odyssey translations, both of which were critically and commercially praised, and his publisher figured a Fagles Aeneid would follow suit. It didn't. Ruden produced her Aeneid after her translations of Lysistrata and Satyricon, amidst a marketing hoopla of her being "the first woman to translate the Aeneid" and etc. Only, Ruden has gone on the record several times in the past, stating that she thinks the Aeneid is "boring" and that it's "hard to understand." Not the sentiments one would wish to hear from a translator.
Ahl, on the other hand, is a lifelong lover of the Aeneid, an enjoyer of Virgil's puns and anagrams and wordplay - things which previous English translators have purged from their translations. And, most importantly, Ahl is that rare case of a professor who is capable of poetry. Before reading Ahl's version I read the first half of Fagles, which seemed bland; more like the outline, if you will, that Virgil might have worked off of while writing the real thing. Ahl's translation however is a flash of lightning, filled with the fire and grandeur of the Latin original. And sure, some of it may come off as a bit TOO "this is poetry, people," but overall its merits far outweigh any drawbacks.
An example of the three translations should give a better example. Here is how each of them handles the opening lines of the epic:
Fagles translation:
Wars and a man I sing - an exile driven on by Fate,
he was first to flee the coast of Troy,
destined to reach Lavinian shores and Italian soil,
yet many blows he took on land and sea from the gods above -
thanks to cruel Juno's relentless rage - and many losses
he bore in battle too, before he could found a city,
bring his gods to Latium, source of the Latin race,
the Alban lords and the high walls of Rome.
Ruden translation:
Arms and a man I sing, the first from Troy,
A fated exile to Lavinian shores
In Italy. On land and sea, divine will -
And Juno's unforgetting rage - harassed him.
War racked him too, until he set his city
And gods in Latium. There his Latin race rose,
With Alban patriarchs, and Rome's high walls.
Ahl translation:
Arms and the man I sing of Troy, who first from its seashores,
Italy-bound, fate's refugee, arrived at Lavinia's
Coastlands. How he was battered about over land, over high deep
Seas by the powers above! Savage Juno's anger remembered
Him, and he suffered profoundly to establish a city,
Settle his gods into Latium, making this land of the Latins
Future home of the Elders of Alba and Rome's mighty ramparts.
Now, anyone can come up with a pretty good first seven lines (though it takes Fagles eight); the meat of the epic itself will tell the final tale. Yet in these short intros one can see that where Fagles and Ruden sacrifice Virgil's grandeur for brevity, Ahl has attempted to infer some of the epic into English. Fagles and Ruden have basically given us prose in poetic format. Ahl has attempted to give us actual poetry. This is more apparent when he brings in the puns and anagrams with which Virgil littered the Aeneid. Wordplay which, when read aloud, provides an aural approximation of the things and events which the words describe. This is more easily shown by example. Here is Ahl's rendering of the famous scene of Laocoon's demise at the tentacles of a sea creature; note the many s's, implying those slithering serpents:
Neptune's priest, Laocoon, chosen by lot for this honour,
Stood sacrificing a victim, a monstrous bull, at the altars.
Look! Across tranquil depths, out of Tenedos, writhing and coiling,
Big orbs swishing a course, twin serpents - I shudder, recalling -
Slither the sea's surface, stretch for the shore in their parallel lunges.
Now, amid surf, chests standing erect, crests mane-like, in aspect
Blood-red, up they surge on the swell, bodies skimming the water,
Spiralling measureless tails in whiplash whirls of propulsion.
You can hear those tentacles slithering from the sea for poor Laocoon. You can taste the fear and panic instilled by those "spiralling measureless tails."
Here's how Fagles renders the scene:
Laocoon, the priest of Neptune picked by lot,
was sacrificing a massive bull at the holy altar
when - I cringe to recall it now - look there!
Over the calm deep straits off Tenedos swim
twin, giant serpents, rearing in coils, breasting
the sea-swell side by side, plunging toward the shore,
their heads, their blood-red crests surging over the waves,
their bodies thrashing, backs rolling coil on mammoth coil
and the wake behind them churns in a roar of foaming spray
Gone is the terror those serpents instill in Ahl's translation. And gone are those delicious s's which play on the reader's tongue, dripping with the oncoming threat of a serpentine death.
Here's how Ruden translates the sequence:
Laocoon, the chosen priest of Neptune,
Was at the altar, slaughtering a large bull,
When over the calm sea from Tenedos
Came two huge, coiled snakes - even now I shake.
Breasting the waters, paired, they sought the beach.
They reared among the waves, their blood-red crests
Towering, while their bellies trailed the surface.
Their backs were flowing in enormous spirals.
Exactly the sort of translation you'd expect from someone who finds the Aeneid "boring." Notice too the absence of any puns or wordplay; even Fagles hinted at them in his otherwise bland translation.
There are problems with Ahl's translation, however. Several lines bleed over into the next, resulting in the capitalization of undeserving letters, which is a bit jarring. More jarring are the asterisks which litter the text, referring to notes in the back. This is an unsightly blemish on an otherwise fine production; asterisk after asterisk clogging up the poetry only serves to throw off the reader's attention. Fagles has the better idea, leaving the text unaffected, with notes residing by themselves in the back, unattested to; leaving it up to the reader to hunt for them, if something in the text throws him into confusion. As reader-unfriendly as this is, it still serves for a better reading experience when it comes to the epic itself.
But a minor quibble. This is the best English translation of the Aeneid you can buy. It retains a power, force, and majesty which is lacking in most English versions, and it's been slaved over by a man who so loves this epic that he's spent the past fourteen years working on it, resulting in this fine book which you can now place in your cart within a matter of seconds.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Outstanding! The best translation!
By Marc
Mandelbaum's translation is a classic, not to mention very useful to any Latin student who wishes to read an English text that precisely suggests the original Latin. However, Frederick Ahl's translation does what Mandelbaum's does not: express the text with character and poetry that truly conveys the heart and spirit of the original work. While there is the occasional awkward line here and there, this has to be the best translation of the Aeneid presently in print. A wonderful read, not to be missed!
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Electronic Aeneid
By Amazon Customer
I needed a copy for backup of a substitute class and it came easy and efficient. I don't have a tablet yet so I brought it to my computer. It satisfied my needs and worth the money. Thanks for service.
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