War Music: An Account of Books 1-4 and 16-19 of Homer's Iliad
by Christopher Logue
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I've been told by a very reliable source that Logue is the best American poet right now.
UPDATE:
I don't know much about poetry. But this is pretty sweet. Logue does his take on a couple chapters from the Iliad. Here's a snippet from Achilles chastising Kind Agamemnon for bringing a plague onto the Greeks rather than returning the priest's daughter:
"Heroes, behold your King-
Slow as an arrow fired feathers first
To puff another's worth,
But watchful as a cockroach of his ow...more
UPDATE:
I don't know much about poetry. But this is pretty sweet. Logue does his take on a couple chapters from the Iliad. Here's a snippet from Achilles chastising Kind Agamemnon for bringing a plague onto the Greeks rather than returning the priest's daughter:
"Heroes, behold your King-
Slow as an arrow fired feathers first
To puff another's worth,
But watchful as a cockroach of his ow...more
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2 comments
Read in January, 2003
A revelation. As though I was indeed opening Homer for the first time. Christopher Logue has a lot of guts. He's gotten into the ring with the likes of Fagles, Lattimore, Fitzgerald, Pope, and most courageously, Homer himself - and acquitted himself well. Mr. Logue has pulled "The Iliad," into the 21st Century with less a translation than a re-write -- by a great poet. A sample line, "Ajax, grim underneath his tan as Rommel after `Alamein..." lifts the story from some myth...more
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Read in January, 2006
Christopher Logue has a lot of guts. He's gotten into the ring with the likes of Fagles, Lattimore, Fitzgerald, and most courageously, Homer himself - and acquitted himself well. Mr. Logue has pulled "The Iliad," into the 21st Century with less a translation than a re-write. It appears there are numerous volumes containing sections of Mr. Logue's work, and it's a little hard to keep track, but two editions offered on Amazon.com's website, "War Music," and the wondrously title...more
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It's like reading a movie. On the back it is compared to a Kurosawa film, and I can see that. Bloody battle scenes portrayed beautifully. A quirky, contrarian, renaissance man wrote this book. Instead of translating Homer's Illiad word-for-word from the Greek, he worked from English translations and tried to re-imagine it into an English form that would most resemble what Homer was trying to do.
Excerpt:
Cut to the Fleet:
Then to the strip between the rampart and the ditch.
The air ne...more
Excerpt:
Cut to the Fleet:
Then to the strip between the rampart and the ditch.
The air ne...more
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Read in June, 2008
Blue heaven above, Mount Ida's snow behind, Troy in between
And what pleasure it was to be there! To be one of that host!
Greek, and as naked as God! naked as bride and groom!
Exulting for battle!
There is beauty and ferocity and music in it. Every age can be written in myth and write myth. This is all the poetry that was missing from the bombast of 300.
And what pleasure it was to be there! To be one of that host!
Greek, and as naked as God! naked as bride and groom!
Exulting for battle!
There is beauty and ferocity and music in it. Every age can be written in myth and write myth. This is all the poetry that was missing from the bombast of 300.
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1 comments
A poetic retelling of Homer which made me realise for the first time what an extraordinary story teller the Greek was. I've read lots of translations of the Illiad. Now, having read Logue's translation, I finally "get it".
Logue is not exactly linear in his translation work; I'm hoping he'll fill in the gaps and publish as a single volume soon.
Logue is not exactly linear in his translation work; I'm hoping he'll fill in the gaps and publish as a single volume soon.
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Read in July, 2008
recommended to Donald by:
Ginnie Jonesrecommends it for: Lovers of The Iliad/Lovers of Sophia/Lovers of Poetry
A great book. Deserves to be read everywhere like that marvel of translation Heaney's `Beowulf'. A complete re-imagining of `The Iliad', a fierce grappling with the text that sends the reader to the nearest Dictionary to grab as many hyperbolic descriptions as can be found. Psychologically deep, poetically acute, spiritually rich.
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4 comments
holy crap this is so great. pull a spear through your chest, yo.
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Read in September, 2007
Gorgeous retelling of Books 1-4 and 16-19 of the Iliad. Logue mixes the modern with the ancient. And he refers to Achilles as "Wondersulk".
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I really like this "adaptation." The language is modernized, an absolutely "updated" version of Homer's Iliad. Also has a good introduction.
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Read in January, 2006
dazzling, the work of someone who takes what he wants from the very altar. And eats it. It's great.
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