This volume represents the most ambitious project of distinguished poet David Ferry’s life: a complete translation of Virgil’s Aeneid. Ferry has long been known as the foremost contemporary translator of Latin poetry, and his translations of Virgil’s Eclogues and Georgics have become standards. He brings to the Aeneid the same genius, rendering Virgil’s formal, metrical lines into an English that is familiar, all while surrendering none of the poem’s original feel of the ancient world. In Ferry’s hands, the Aeneid becomes once more a lively, dramatic poem of daring and adventure, of love and loss, devotion and death.
The paperback and e-book editions include a new introduction by Richard F. Thomas, along with a new glossary of names that makes the book even more accessible for students and for general readers coming to the Aeneid for the first time who may need help acclimating to Virgil’s world.
David Ferry is the author of a number of books of poetry and has translated several works from classical languages. He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, was awarded the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement, and won the 2012 National Book Award for Poetry. Richard F. Thomas is the George Martin Lane Professor of the Classics at Harvard University.
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CHAPTER 1
I sing of arms and the man whom fate had sent To exile from the shores of Troy to be The first to come to Lavinium and the coasts Of Italy, and who, because of Juno's Savage implacable rage, was battered by storms At sea, and from the heavens above, and also By tempests of war, until at last he might Bring his household gods to Latium, and build his town, Can anger like this be, in immortal hearts?
• * *
There was an ancient city known as Carthage Fearful of this and remembering the old War she had waged at Troy for her dear Greeks, So formidable the task of founding Rome.
• * *
Sicily was still in sight behind them As, with joyous sails spread out, their brazen prows Sped through the foaming waters, and Juno said, Thus, burning with resentment, in her mind Turning these matters over and over, the goddess Made her way to the spawning place of storms, • * *
So Juno said to Aeolus, entreating, • * *
Having said this, Aeolus takes his spear And with its blunt end bashes open a hole In the hollow mountain's side, and then, at once, As Aeneas cries out thus, a sudden violent Burst of wind comes crashing against the sails, • * *
Then Neptune, god of the sea, became aware Of the loud commotion of the waves upsurging From the still foundations down below; and deeply Troubled within raised up his placid face Above the roiling waters and looked across And saw Aeneas's scattered ships and saw The Trojans overpowered by the waves, • * *
Exhausted by the terrible storm at sea, There is a long deep inlet there that is A port and shelter in whose mouth an island Breakwater pacifies incoming waves, His followers get themselves onto the welcome beach, • * *
Meanwhile Aeneas climbs to a high cliff, so He can look far out, over the open ocean, "O my companions, O you who have undergone, The others ready the prizes for the feast to come: • * *
And now the day was coming to its end. The father smiled upon her with the look That clears the sky of storms and brings fair weather. • * *
It is thus he speaks, and sends the son of Maia Down from the place of the gods to make it so That Carthage, with its streets and towers, should open To let the Teucrians in, and so that Dido Would grant them gracious welcome to her lands,
Preface A Note on Meter A Note on the Translation The Aeneid Book One Book Two Book Three Book Four Book Five Book Six Book Seven Book Eight Book Nine Book Ten Book Eleven Book Twelve Acknowledgments
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J. M. Coetzee
Robert Fagles gives the full range of Virgil's drama, grandeur, and pathos in vigorous, supple modern English. It is fitting that one of the great translators of The Iliad and The Odyssey in our times should also emerge as a surpassing translator of The Aeneid.
