Poems from the Greek Anthology

by Dudley Fitts (translator)

Poems from the Greek Anthology

Genres: Poetry, Greece, Anthologies

143 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1938

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of epigrams from the Greek of roughly 700 BC to 1,000 CE. Fitts writes that he has translated them rather freely, avoiding:

regularity of stanza form and rime. I find it impossible to equal the delicate balance of the elegiac couplet, and I have deliberately chosen a system of irregular cadence, assonance, and the broken line…I have simply tried to restate in my own idiom what the Greek verses have meant to me.

Since it’s Dudley Fitts, you end up with wonderful poetry, even if you don’t get the Greek form. The rythym of the line breaks is perfect.

The subject matter ranges from friendly jabs at friends and local characters, to rather vicious smears, to touching farewells to dead children and sailors who drowned far from home. There is nothing terribly deep here, but it makes a nice companion for a glass of port after dinner.

Dedication of a Mirror

I Lais whose laughter was scornful in Hellas,
Whose doorways were thronged daily with young
lovers,
I dedicate my mirror to Aphrodite:

For I will not see myself as I am now,
And can not see myelf as once I was.

Plato


Fortunatus the portraint-painter got twenty sons
But never one likeness

Nikarchos


Epitaph of a Courtesan

Here lies Archeanassa of Kolophon, whose face
Even when scored by age was sweet Love’s throne.
Ah lovers, lovers,
You of her young days, gathering those flowers
In their first beauty,
through what a fire you passed!

Asklepiades

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

but the world, Stranger,
Is one country to us all: out of one Chaos
Were all men born.

[Daniel Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

if growing a beard means acquiring wisdom, any old goat can be plato

[Mejix · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a mixed bag for the most part but the final section includes some very moving epitaphs.