This is essentially two books: the first includes translations of Sappho other Greek lyric poets'including Alcman, Anacreon, Archilochus, and Ibycus'presented with encyclopedic discussions of their cultural and formal contexts. The second is an extended critique of Greekless 'poet-translators,' for instance, a long polemic against many modern versions of Homer. Unifying them is the problem of capturing the tenora of the original, the flavor of its 'structural and dictional formality.'
Duban, a practicing lawyer, holds a PhD in classics (Johns Hopkins) and was a poetry editor for the journal Classical Outlook. Underlying his thesis is what he takes to be the negative influence of the modernists, exemplified by Ezra Pound and others. For Duban, an inadequate command of classical languages and philology, coupled with an imperative to be relevant to modern sensibilities, has distorted if not lost the purpose of the original poets.
Verdict'Rich and gracefully written, this work is by turns insightful, provocative, and grumpy, good in its parts but diffuse as a whole. Accessible to the general reader, though most interesting to those concerned with questions of translation.a
'Thomas L. Cooksey, formerly with Armstrong Atlantic State Univ., Savannah
A humanities degree between two covers. Brilliant.a
'David Dubal, The Juilliard School
There are few scholars who possess the innate ability to translate ancient Greek poetry into fittingly refined English. Jeffrey Duban, in The Shipwreck Sea, masterfully encapsulates all that is Greek poetry language, inflection, ethos, drama.a
'Constantinos Yiannoudes, Founder and Director, Kyrenia Opera
Jeffrey Duban wears his profound knowledge of the ancient world and its languages less as erudition, more as immediate breathing presence of deeply rooted instinct and resonant cultural descent. Whether as translator of Sappho, Horace, and others, or as poet in his own right, his work lyrically and evocatively fulfills the urgent need of our souls for affirmation of whence we come.a
'Christopher Lyndon-Gee, Composer, Conductor, and Author, New York & Vilnius