- Paperback
- Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0801847982
- ISBN-13: 978-0801847981
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 522 g
- Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Bodies, I have in mind, and how they can change to assume new shapes-I ask the help of gods, who know the trick: inspire me now, change me, let me glimpse the secret and sing, better than I know how, of the world's birthing, the creation of all things from first to the very latest. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Bodies, I have in mind, and how they can change to assume new shapes-I ask the help of gods, who know the trick: inspire me now, change me, let me glimpse the secret and sing, better than I know how, of the world's birthing, the creation of all things from first to the very latest. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
The Worst English Translator of the Twentieth Century,
By Richard Bradley (MO United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Metamorphoses of Ovid (Paperback)
Whenever you see David Slavitt's name on a translation, look elsewhere. He's a third-rate poet who has made a career of destroying the great works of other poets. This translation is a good example of that. At various points he goes off on tangents, commenting--shallowly, I might add--on the contents of the poem he is supposed to be translating. You read things such as "What is Ovid doing here with this boring passage?" But it won't be a footnote, it will be inserted into the body of the poem. For this one, read Mandelbaum's translation. Stay away from Slavitt.
1.0 out of 5 stars
A poor translation,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Metamorphoses of Ovid (Paperback)
If you are interested in Slavitt, read this translation. If you are interested in Ovid, do not.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.8 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews) 8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
an honest, earnest translation,
By I X Key "burningfield" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Metamorphoses of Ovid (Paperback)
Slavitt's free translation of Ovid is generally very true to the tone of the original, & only sometimes slightly awkward. Slavitt's understanding of Ovid & of translation is great. The Ovid he presents modern English-speaking readers with is much more human & easily flowing than the Ovid of many other translators. Ovid's Metamorphoses is one of the greatest classics of western literature, Ovid one of the most significant writers of our thousands of years of literature, & Slavitt does the man, the book, & readers a good service with this translation.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
For the less scholarly among us,
By J. Houston "book lover" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Metamorphoses of Ovid (Hardcover)
I can see why, if you are a Latin scholar, or very serious about Ovid, you might be put off by this free translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Slavitt writes, in the middle of Book Seven, that "any sensible poet would lay (the background story) out somehow", and that Ovid has written "footnotes without a text, a quiz, or a gazetteer of distractions, its only sense in what it refuses to say." Useful, interesting opinions, of the sort typically encountered while reading an author's note. But these comments (and others like them) are inserted directly into the text. So yes, I could see how purists would not like that. Although, I have to admit that I loved it. The tone was very conversational, making the translation easy to understand. And now I feel like I have a good grasp of many of the Greek/Roman myths. In my opinion, this is a very approachable translation of one of those books you've always meant to read.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ovid in the Hands of a Master Poet and Translator,
By Okla Elliott - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Metamorphoses of Ovid (Paperback)
So many translations suffer one of two fates: either the translator has a wonderful grasp of the foreign language in question but is not a very talented poet in his own, or he is a wonderful poet but a terrible linguist. David R. Slavitt is both an extremely prolific and talented poet, novelist, and essayist in his own native English, and an excellent linguist. This translation of a classic that is so often translated may seem unnecessary. Why have one more translation of Ovid's "Metmorphoses"? Read this version and you'll see why.
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