Synopses & Reviews
This extraordinary new translation of Vergil's Aeneid stands alone among modern translations for its accuracy and poetic appeal. Sarah Ruden, a lyric poet in her own right, renders the classic poem in the same number of lines as the original work—a very rare feat that maintains technical fidelity to the original without diminishing its emotional power.
Ruden’s translation follows Vergil’s content faithfully, and the economy and fast pace she achieves are true to his own unflagging narrative force. With its central theme of national destiny versus. the destiny of individuals, the poem has great resonance in our own times, and Ruden adheres closely to the poet’s message. Her rendering of Vergil’s words gives immediacy to his struggling faith that history has beauty and purpose in spite of its pain. With this distinguished translation, modern readers can experience for themselves the timeless power of Vergil's masterpiece.
Review
“Robert Fagles, shortly before his death, set the bar very high for translating [Virgils]
Aeneid. Yet already the scholar-poet Sarah Ruden has soared over the bar. . . The translation is alive in every part. . . . This is the first translation since Drydens that can be read as a great English poem in itself.”—Garry Wills,
New York Review of BooksReview
"Grace and power reside in Sarah Rudens economical line-for-line translation of
The Aeneid. Like Vergils Latin, her English may easily be lifted off the page and given voice."—Janet Lembke, translator of Virgils
GeorgicsReview
"Sarah Ruden's translation is distinguished by the quality of its verse, the unrelenting propulsive force of its narrative drive, and the intelligence with which she has shaped Vergil to fit her pentameter lines."—Charles Martin, translator,
Metamorphoses: A New TranslationReview
“Toning down the magniloquence, Sarah Ruden gives us an
Aeneid more intimate in tone and soberer in measure than we are used to—a gift for which many will be grateful.”—J.M. Coetzee
Review
"By conveying the emotional force of the Latin, Ruden makes the
Aeneid newly vivid, exciting, and relevant. This translation proves why, for centuries, Virgil's remarkable epic has been required reading."—Mary Lefkowitz, author of
Greek Gods, Human Lives: What We Can Learn From MythsReview
"Fast, clean, and clear, sometimes terribly clever, and often strikingly beautiful. . . . For me, hers is the cleanest of modern verse translations."—Richard Garner, The New Criterion
Review
"Grace and power reside in Sarah Rudens economical line-for-line translation of
The Aeneid. Like Vergils Latin, her English may easily be lifted off the page and given voice."Janet Lembke, translator of Virgils
GeorgicsReview
“. . . The translation is alive in every part. . . . [T]he first translation since Drydens that can be read as a great English poem in itself.”— Garry Wills, New York Review of Books
Review
"Ruden's translation separates itself from others by using the same number of verses as Vergil does. She has produced a fresh poetic translation for contemporary English-speaking readers, one that speaks with its own voice."—David Quint, author of
Cervantes's Novel of Modern Times: A New Reading of "Don Quijote" Review
“. . . Ruden . . . a poet of considerable skill, has chosen boldly. Her work is . . . [a] rarity. . . . I cannot stress strongly enough Rudens skill with near-Swinburnean sound effects . . .” — Len Krisak, Translation and Literature, Volume 18
Review
"Ruden's version earns special praise for measuring up to the challenge set by Lattimore and Fagles and then going one better in her fidelity to the actual form of the poem, without sacrificing fidelity to the word to any greater extent than they. It deserves to be widely read and admired."--Joseph Farrell, Translation and Literature
Review
"Fast, clean, and clear, sometimes terribly clever, and often strikingly beautiful. . . . Epigrammatic statements that lose their punch in more diffuse translations are virtually always preserved by Ruden with immense profit to the impact in English. . . . Ruden has found ingenious solutions to echo some of Virgil's great sound effects—solutions I've not seen in other translations, prose or verse. . . . The tone is pitch perfect. Ruden's English remains remarkably free from convolution. What is happening, who is speaking, and who is doing what to whom is always clear. For me, hers is the cleanest of modern verse translations. . . . Many human achievements deserve our praise, and this excellent translation is certainly one of them."—Richard Garner, The New Criterion Mary Lefkowitz
Review
"An intimate rendering of great emotional force and purity. . . . The immediacy, beauty, and timelessness of the original Latin masterpiece lift off these pages with gem-like originality. . . . Highly recommended. All readers, all levels."—Choice Richard Garner - The New Criterion
Review
Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title of 2008. Choice
Review
Selected as one of the Favorite Books of 2008 on Mr. Wilson's Bookshelf/Books & Culture Choice
Review
"A welcome and interesting addition to the volumes of Virgil scholarship."—Chris Hedges, Philadelphia Inquirer Mr. Wilson's Bookshelf - Books and Culture
Review
“… pellucid and propulsive - limpidly austere in its diction and dynamic in its narrative speed … Ruden, not just an esteemed classicist herself, but a poet of considerable skill, has chosen boldly. Her work is that rarity: a line-for-line rendition of Virgils epic in English that declares ten syllables a fit match for the
Aeneids hexameters … [Rudens] diction is almost unfailingly chaste (as Auden described Frosts), and the great clarity and force this lends her translation are evident everywhere … I cannot stress strongly enough Rudens skill with near-Swinburnean sound effects … Ruden has taken the pentameter plunge and gambled that a line-for-line account of Virgils
Aeneid can be made … [She] has won her wager.” - Len Krisak,
Translation and Literature, Volume 18
Garry Wills - New York Review of Books
Review
"Just two years ago, Robert Fagles, shortly before his death, set the bar very high for translating Vergil's Aeneid. Yet already the scholar-poet Sarah Ruden has soared over the bar. She does this despite submission to a trying discipline. She decides to translate one-line-per-one-line, and she uses the iambic pentameter....The wonder of his poem is that it has a melancholy melodiousness while retaining a tight aphoristic ring. Fagles often achieved the former, but rarely the latter. Ruden gets both." Garry Wills, The New York Review of Books (read the entire New York Review of Books review)
Synopsis
This extraordinary new translation ofVergil'sAeneid stands alone among modern translations for its accuracy and poetic appeal. Sarah Ruden, a lyric poet in her own right, renders the classic poem in the same number of lines as the original work a very rare feat that maintains technical fidelity to the original without diminishing its emotional power.
Ruden s translation follows Vergil s content faithfully, and the economy and fast pace she achievesare true to his own unflagging narrative force. With its central theme of national destiny versus. the destiny of individuals, the poem has great resonance in our own times, and Ruden adheres closely to the poet s message. Her rendering of Vergil s words gives immediacy to his struggling faith that history has beauty and purpose in spite of its pain. With this distinguished translation, modern readers can experience for themselves the timeless power of Vergil's masterpiece."
About the Author
Sarah Rudens previous translations include Aristophanes Lysistrata and Petronius' Satyricon. She is a visiting scholar at Yale Divinity School.