The Persians by Aeschylus

by Brandon Brown

Poetry. " The Persians , an ancient play by Aeschylus, shows the Persian court during the time of the war between the Persians and the Greeks. It depicts the Persians learning of their massive defeat at the hands of the Greek army. I believed that the text which proceeded from my body should report on my total experience of reading The Persians by Aeschylus, not simply report on the 'meanings' of the 'words' of that work. This was an obviously impossible project. To help myself out, I tried to include many collaborators to intervene in the translation, especially including Edward Said, Jane Austen, Walter Benjamin, my Arabic class, the Clash, e-mail correspondence with a translator recruiter from the U.S. Army, and Rumi; also all the things I ate and drank and wore and said and did are in the translation; and most especially I tried to pay attention to the terrific war and the terrific language that the war made that completely infiltrated all of my food and beverages and clothes and words and actions, and I let that get in the way of the translation too. In this way, THE PERSIANS BY AESCHYLUS transmits numerous a report of a reading, a toxological report of the reading and the writing; those latencies did not lie down"—Brandon Brown.

Genres: Poetry

78 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 2011

Reviews

[Rowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really fucking good.

[jo · Rating 1 out of 5]

lots of general lamenting - xerxes compared to his father Darius who is summoned from the dead to berate his silly son. his mother atossa exists to be a widow and make sacrifices. maybe am bored of classical lamenting from studying virgil's aeneid book VI the death of pallas??

[Moira McPartlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a play in poetic form telling of the Persian Court learning of their defeat at the hands of the Greeks at the Battle of Salamis, a battle the author, Aeschylus, fought in. The chorus is made up of old men and the main message is don't mess with the Greeks or they'll slaughter you. I enjoyed this even thought my limited knowledge of poetic form prevents me understanding the full potential.