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Narrated by LibriVox Community
Euripides— 1 hours, 45 minutes
Narrated by LibriVox Community
Euripides— 1 hours, 45 minutes
The old songs will have to change.
No more hymns to our faithlessness and deceit.
Apollo, god of song, lord of the lyre,
never passed on the flame of poetry to us.
But if we had that voice, what songs
we'd sing of men's failings, and their blame. History is made by women, just as much as men.
Medea has been betrayed. Her husband, Jason, has left her for a younger woman. He has forgotten all the promises he made and is even prepared to abandon their two sons. But Medea is not a woman to accept such disrespect passively. Strong-willed and fiercely intelligent, she turns her formidable energies to working out the greatest, and most horrifying, revenge possible.
Euripides' devastating tragedy is shockingly modern in the sharp psychological exploration of the characters and the gripping interactions between them. Award-winning poet Robin Robertson has captured both the vitality of Euripides' drama and the beauty of his phrasing, reinvigorating this masterpiece for the twenty-first century.
Accessible, but not prosaic, vivid but not overstated, poetic but not inflated...Rudall has done an excellent job.
Rudall features a sharp, vivid precision edge...immediate and accessible.
A spare, contemporary translation.
Rudall's text...admirably recasts Euripides' play in modern American English.... Rudall avoids all the annoying, dusty Victorianisms of 19th century translators.
The language of Medea is full of vacillation.
Accessible, but not prosaic, vivid but not overstated, poetic but not inflated...Rudall has done an excellent job.
Rudall features a sharp, vivid precision edge...immediate and accessible.
Euripides’s influential and provocative Medea continues to be read, performed, adapted, and reinterpreted in multiple contexts across the globe. Taplin’s accessible and performable, yet vivid and poetic translation makes the play available to a modern audience while doing justice to both its complexities and its horrific power.
Taplin’s volume offers the raw bones of a brilliant production.
Taplin translates Medea into clear and contemporary English while reflecting well the different registers and tones that create the subtle texture of Greek tragedy. His version is eminently speakable, but also highly faithful to the original Greek, making it ideal for instructors and readers who want to study closely the specific metaphors and terms that carry the classic themes of this influential drama.
Taplin’s eminently readable version of this harrowing tragedy justifies his reputation as one of our foremost experts in dramatic criticism, whose pioneering efforts in illuminating ancient stagecraft remain indispensable today.
Lively. . . . Tragedy's (and comedy's) alternation of speech and song provide the . . . fundamental rhythmic dynamic, and a good translator will use different registers to capture this alternation. Here, Taplin is very successful, and many passages in the odes convey both the intensity of the lyric mode and the contrast with the spoken rhythm that precedes and follows.
"The purpose of translation is to set a play free. This is just what Robin Robertson does. In his lucid, free-running verse, Medea's power is released into the world, fresh and appalling, in words that seem spoken for the first time." — Anne Enright, winner of the 2007 Man Booker Prize
"This version of Medea is vivid, strong, readable, and brings triumphantly into modern focus the tragic sensibility of the ancient Greeks." — John Banville, winner of the 2005 Man Booker Prize
"Robertson is master of the dark and wounded, the torn complexities of human relations, and Medea offers a perfect match for his sensibilities. This is an urgent, contemporary,and eloquent translation." — A.L.Kennedy, winner of the 2007 Costa Book of the Year
"Robin Robertson has given us a Medea fit for our times; his elegant and lucid free translation of Euripides' masterpiece manages the trick of sounding wholly contemporary but never merely 'modern' — and will be an especially lucky discovery for those encountering the play for the first time." — Don Paterson, winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award
"[O]ne of the main virtues of this fine translation is Robertson's ear for the verbal brutality committed by the estranged Medea and Jason on one another during their confrontations....closer examination reveals how much thought has gone into its making...These subtleties support Robertson's claim, in the introduction, that his main concern was 'to provide an English version that is as true to the Greek as it is to the way that English is spoken now'.... [Robin Robertson's translation] certainly deserves to be staged. It would provide a more attractive basis for a performance text of the original play than anything else currently on offer." — Edith Hall, Times Literary Supplement
A spare, contemporary translation.
— Julie York Coppens
The language of Medea is full of vacillation.
— Michael Kuckwara
| BN ID: | 2940169421415 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | LibriVox |
| Publication date: | 08/25/2014 |
| Sales rank: | 486,830 |
EURIPIDES' MEDEACharacters
Nurse
Creon, King of Corinth
Children of Medea
Tutor
Jason
Chorus of Corinthian Women
Aigeus, King of Athens
Medea
Messenger
(The scene is a street in Corinth. Medea’s house is in the background. An elderly
female, Medea’s “Nurse”—that is, personal maid—steps out of the front door and
addresses the audience.)
NURSE
I wish that the ship Argo had never flown
Through the dark, Clashing rocks to the land of Colchis,
That in the forest glens of Mt. Pelion the pine
Had never been cut for her, had never been made
Into oars for the hands of excellent sailors who hunted 5
The Golden Fleece for Pelias. My lady,
Medea, would never have sailed to Iolkos’ towers,
Her spirit struck senseless with love of Jason.
She wouldn’t have persuaded Pelias’ daughters to kill
Their father; she wouldn’t have settled here in Corinth, 10
With her husband and children. She tried to please
The people to whose land she had come, an exile,
And for her part to fit in with Jason in everything.
This, to my mind, is a woman’s greatest safety:
Not to take the opposite side from her husband. 15
But now—everything’s hateful, her love is sick.
Jason betrayed his children and my mistress
For the marriage-bed of a royal bride; he’s married
The daughter of Creon, the ruler of the country.
And Medea – poor woman! – treated with dishonor, 20
Shouts “Where are the oaths? Your right hand given
In trust?” She calls upon the gods to witness
What kind of return she has received from Jason.
She doesn’t eat, surrenders to her sorrows;
Her life has been turned into a river of tears 25
Since realizing the wrong her husband does her;
She keeps her gaze fixed on the ground, never
Looking up. She listens to friends’ advice
No more than a rock or wave of the sea.
Oh, sometimes she’ll turn her white cheek away 30
To herself, and let out a wail for her dear father,
Her country, her home, which she betrayed to come
With her husband, who has now so dishonored her.
She understands, poor woman, from what has happened
How important it is not to leave one’s homeland. 35
She hates her children, does not enjoy seeing them.
I’m afraid she may be planning something rash.
Her mind is dangerous. She will not endure
Mistreatment. I know this woman and fear her; 39
She’s a frightening woman: not easily will someone 44
Engage with her in hatred and win the prize. 45
(Medea’s two young sons rush in, accompanied by their “tutor,” or attendant slave.)
But here come the boys who have just finished
Their running. They’re not thinking about their mother’s
Troubles. For young minds aren’t used to suffering.
Listen kids: don’t go evil. I shouldn’t have to say it, but just in case, do not attempt any of the crimes contained in this article at home. Do not blackmail people. Do not try to kill them. Do not invade and devour planets. When you grow up, try to avoid murdering your own children. Do […]
