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Gail White 04-15-2012 06:13 PM

Question on Seneca
 
Can any of our classicists tell me who has done a good modern translation of Seneca's tragedies? My college library had plenty of copies -- if I wanted Latin or Elizabethan English. Thanks!

David Mason 04-15-2012 07:53 PM

Gail,
My friend Dana Gioia did a masterful version of Hercules Furens. It was published I think in a U of PA Press series, and was the crown jewel of that series. Dana's superb intro on Seneca was published, if memory serves, in two parts in New Criterion. Or was it Dark Horse. Memory isn't serving as well as it used to. But I followed that work through drafts, and I admire it tremendously. Mr Wilbur said it was the best translation from classical Latin he had ever seen. Dana is a born translator. If you can't find it, my beloved wife has my copy in Oregon and we can try to get it to you somehow.

Dave

Christopher ONeill 04-16-2012 05:29 AM

Ted Hughes did a version of Seneca's Oedipus; though it is something between a translation and an adaptation.

I used to have an e-friend to argue with about translations of Seneca. He kept telling me that the Dana Gioia was better than the Hughes - though we both liked both versions.

I may be slightly jaundiced against the Gioia version, simply through having lost so many arguments about it.

Gail White 04-16-2012 07:38 AM

Thank you, Dave and Ted! I appreciate your help. (Dana's name was somewhere on the periphery of my mind, but I couldn't link it to anything). I expect I can find these on Alibris. There's also a full-length Medea on line - not really up to date but better than nothing.

The Sphere always comes through.


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