Hi Eleanor. Always good to see a new video from your channel. I would like to try and read Lucretius one day. Thanks so much for your wonderful introduction. Will watch your video here in parts over the next few days. So great to have your grandfather's copy of this book. You are also inspiring me to want to talk about poems/poetry more perhaps, in possible videos in the future.
i love your discussion of why you're reading lucretius. i was already thinking to myself early in the video, "hmm, i should perhaps read of the nature of things," and then you really clinched it. i'll check if it's in my own grandfather's books :) re poetry on booktube et al.: i'm always trying to wrap my head around how i want to share or even catalogue my reading, my thoughts, my citations (i was in fact writing about this just this morning... a text i may or may not publish on the internet...), and a lot of my handwringing comes from the imperfection and incompletion of whatever thing i decide to create. i have to think of my reading as this ever-changing mosaic, and that's not easily digestible
I love how you put it - "ever-changing mosaic." By the way, Anne Truitt mentions in her journals so many names of artists, critics, gallery directors, authors both ancient and modern .... I kept thinking of you each time I followed a thread. Like a literary treasure hunt. I wonder if our respective grandfathers are looking down and shaking their heads in bemusement trying to figure out what BookTube is lol. My mother reminded me recently that my grandpa would dip in and out of his books more than read them cover to cover, so that has allowed me to view my own reading with a bit less urgency. E x
I first read Lucretius's book last year and I loved it. I read it because my favorite poet Richard Howard once compared my other favorite poet A.R. Ammons to Lucretius while discussing my favorite book by Ammons, "Sphere: The form of a Motion". So yes, I love "On the Nature of Things". I personally do not approve of prose translations of poems. But I've always been that person. Don't become like me, Eleanor.
In the third part of this video you've exactly hit on an issue (poetry vs other) I've been wrestling with myself. I may do a video response to keep the conversation going.
You've actually made me curious about the Jenkins translation as well with his forward. I'd noticed that he was using what struck me as anglo-saxon verse techniques in the lines of the poem you'd read. Then his noting that it's a combo of epic and didactic... Just makes me curious what he did with it, if he changes modes as Lucretius changed modes. I think Lucretius also used poetry because metaphor and simile were the best way to get his point across.
Oh yes - totally forgot about metaphor and simile lol. By the way, Jenkyns didn't translate, he only wrote the foreword to Stallings' translation. The other two translators are Frank O. Copley and William Ellery Leonard. It's very confusing. Thanks for your comments, they make my day. E x
You're totally allowed to approve or disapprove. I will back your disapproval with my disapproval even though I'm also no one of account. I could totally read Stallings version as well. I don't seek out Stallings' books of poetry myself but I do respect how she experiments with form. This translation, however, seems to be making the best of her abilities both as a classicist and a poet. I could her Lucretius I'm not sure I will but it sounds doable with this translation. Thanks for sharing all three translations.
We love your confidence lol
Hi Eleanor. Always good to see a new video from your channel. I would like to try and read Lucretius one day. Thanks so much for your wonderful introduction. Will watch your video here in parts over the next few days. So great to have your grandfather's copy of this book. You are also inspiring me to want to talk about poems/poetry more perhaps, in possible videos in the future.
i love your discussion of why you're reading lucretius. i was already thinking to myself early in the video, "hmm, i should perhaps read of the nature of things," and then you really clinched it. i'll check if it's in my own grandfather's books :)
re poetry on booktube et al.: i'm always trying to wrap my head around how i want to share or even catalogue my reading, my thoughts, my citations (i was in fact writing about this just this morning... a text i may or may not publish on the internet...), and a lot of my handwringing comes from the imperfection and incompletion of whatever thing i decide to create. i have to think of my reading as this ever-changing mosaic, and that's not easily digestible
I love how you put it - "ever-changing mosaic." By the way, Anne Truitt mentions in her journals so many names of artists, critics, gallery directors, authors both ancient and modern .... I kept thinking of you each time I followed a thread. Like a literary treasure hunt.
I wonder if our respective grandfathers are looking down and shaking their heads in bemusement trying to figure out what BookTube is lol. My mother reminded me recently that my grandpa would dip in and out of his books more than read them cover to cover, so that has allowed me to view my own reading with a bit less urgency. E x
I did also love ship-clad sea - and the use of 'Lady'.
I first read Lucretius's book last year and I loved it. I read it because my favorite poet Richard Howard once compared my other favorite poet A.R. Ammons to Lucretius while discussing my favorite book by Ammons, "Sphere: The form of a Motion". So yes, I love "On the Nature of Things".
I personally do not approve of prose translations of poems. But I've always been that person. Don't become like me, Eleanor.
You are my role model and inspiration -- we shall voice our disapproval as one.
In the third part of this video you've exactly hit on an issue (poetry vs other) I've been wrestling with myself. I may do a video response to keep the conversation going.
Oh please do!!!
You've actually made me curious about the Jenkins translation as well with his forward. I'd noticed that he was using what struck me as anglo-saxon verse techniques in the lines of the poem you'd read. Then his noting that it's a combo of epic and didactic... Just makes me curious what he did with it, if he changes modes as Lucretius changed modes. I think Lucretius also used poetry because metaphor and simile were the best way to get his point across.
Oh yes - totally forgot about metaphor and simile lol. By the way, Jenkyns didn't translate, he only wrote the foreword to Stallings' translation. The other two translators are Frank O. Copley and William Ellery Leonard. It's very confusing. Thanks for your comments, they make my day. E x
You're totally allowed to approve or disapprove. I will back your disapproval with my disapproval even though I'm also no one of account. I could totally read Stallings version as well. I don't seek out Stallings' books of poetry myself but I do respect how she experiments with form. This translation, however, seems to be making the best of her abilities both as a classicist and a poet. I could her Lucretius I'm not sure I will but it sounds doable with this translation. Thanks for sharing all three translations.
You, Sebastian and I shall disapprove as one. I"m in very good company!