Verse Translation
Lucas dedicated much of his time to making classical poetry accessible to modern readers through verse translations. His Greek Poetry for Everyman (1951, Everyman Library 1966) and Greek Drama for Everyman (1954) (many reprints) were praised for their grace and fidelity, and were hailed by reviewers as "Cambridge’s single-handed answer to the Oxford Book of Greek Verse in Translation". With introductions and notes the two volumes were an ambitious project – nothing on this scale had been attempted by a single translator before, or has since. His versions pre-suppose, however, an understanding of metre and the caesura, and a taste for a poetic style closer to Morris than to Pound.
Read more about this topic: F. L. Lucas
Famous quotes containing the words verse and/or translation:
“No far-fetched sigh shall ever wound my breast,
Love from mine eye a tear shall never wring,
Nor in Ah me’s my whining sonnets dressed,
A libertine, fantastically I sing.
My verse is the true image of my mind,
Ever in motion, still desiring change;”
—Michael Drayton (1563–1631)
“Any translation which intends to perform a transmitting function cannot transmit anything but information—hence, something inessential. This is the hallmark of bad translations.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)