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Hmmm.
The Wordsworth Classics of Modern Literature Aeneid is John Dryden's translation, which whilst very good fun might be a bit demanding, and is also not exactly the Aeneid... sample passage:
Arms, and the man I sing, who, forc'd by fate,
And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate,
Expell'd and exil'd, left the Trojan shore.
Long labors, both by sea and land, he bore,
And in the doubtful war, before he won
The Latian realm, and built the destin'd town;
His banish'd gods restor'd to rites divine,
And settled sure succession in his line,
From whence the race of Alban fathers come,
And the long glories of majestic Rome.
O Muse! the causes and the crimes relate;
What goddess was provok'd, and whence her hate;
For what offense the Queen of Heav'n began
To persecute so brave, so just a man;
Involv'd his anxious life in endless cares,
Expos'd to wants, and hurried into wars!
If everyone is up for 300 pages or so of that, we could go for it, but if you're not working from the Dryden you'd be reading a very different book...
The Wordsworth Classics translation by John Jackson is abridged, s I think we can happily discard that. There's a translation by Fitzegerald that I think Americans often go for, but I've always been slightly suspicious. Sample quote:
Roman, remember by your strength to rule
Earth’s peoples—for your arts are to be these:
To pacify, to impose the rule of law,
To spare the conquered, battle down the proud
If we want a verse translation I'd probably suggest either that or C. Day-Lewis, which also has the advantage of having a very good introduction by Jasper Griffin.
Prose translations - I've just finished Jackson Knight, which I enjoy and is my default translation of the Aeneid but might be a bit dry for general readers. I have heard that the David West prose translation, the most recent major translation, is very well spoken of - I could have a scout.
The other question is how familiar the clubsters are going to be with some of the earlier texts (the Iliad and the Odyssey, mainly), and also with the history of the time. We can probably muddle through on this as we go along. It *is* a pretty complex book sometimes, though - perhaps we should do it chapter by chapter, or would that slow things down too much? |
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