R.J. Dent's Blog, page 13
August 16, 2012
Alcaeus: Poems & Fragments book launch – 7.45pm-9.30pm on Friday 31st August…
Authors R J Dent, Kay Green and Joe Fearn cordially invite you to the official book launch of:
Alcaeus: Poems & Fragments, translated into modern English by R J Dent: (www.rjdent.com and http://www.circaidygregory.co.uk/alcaeus.htm)
and
The Hastings Modern Art Beach Book by Kay Green and Joe Fearn and illustrated by Katherine Reekie
(http://www.earlyworkspress.co.uk/hmodart.htm)
at 7.45pm-9.30pm on Friday 31st August
at the Redroaster Coffee House
1d St. James’s Street
Brighton BN2 1RE
Tel: 01273 686668
Website: http://www.redroaster.co.uk
For further information contact:
http://www.facebook.com/rjdent#!/groups/2375323561/
The authors look forward to seeing you there…
May 14, 2012
Review of Alcaeus: Poems & Fragments
Alcaeus : Poems & Fragments, Translated by R J Dent.
A review by Joe Fearn in the Hastings Online Times: http://hastingsonlinetimes.co.uk/arts-culture/creative-writing/a
R J Dent is a poet, novelist, translator, essayist and short story writer who read at the much missed F-ishtales poetry readings at F-ish Art Gallery in Hastings . His modern English translation of the poems of the Greek lyric poet Alcaeus is available in July from Hastings based Circaidy Gregory Press and is reviewed by Joe Fearn.
REVIEW:
On the back cover of R J Dent’s book, Peter Levi is quoted as saying of Alcaeus
“His poetry smells of vine-leaves and the sea.”
It made me wonder what my own poetry smells of, wet dogs in a dry room maybe. The folk singer Ray Hearne once told me that poetry may be read out in ballet shoes or pit boots. I quoted this to poet Peter Sansom who said he always tried for tennis shoes. I mention this because the poems and fragments in this book are of the ballet shoes variety. This is not to say that they are slight and have no resonance, for example the poem that begins:
Let us drink! Why do we wait for the lamps?
There is only a fraction of day left.
Friends, take down the large decorated cups.
Reminds me of the Yorkshire ditty:
Beer! Beer! We want more Beer!
Everyone is cheerin’
Get the chuffin’ beer in!
Alcaeus is under no illusions about drink
Wine, dear boy, and truth,
for wine is a peep-hole into a man.
And later
…and if wine shackles his wits…
Ever wondered why imbibers become so loud?
It is almost a custom
here on the mountain
in the deep silence
to make a huge din,
a great noise.
Very Arthur Schopenhauer, who insisted that silence worries most people.
Alcaeus was born into an aristocratic family circa 625 BCE, and lived in Mytilene, the largest city on the Greek island of Lesbos. Mention Lesbos and one’s mind immediately turns to the “Violet-haired, pure, honey-smiling Sappho” as Alcaeus described her (according to Wikipedia). R J Dent remarks that Alcaeus’s poetry is often overshadowed by the literary reputation of Sappho, his fellow poet and compatriot.
The appendix thankfully has a glossary of people and places, essential for the reader’s attempt to understand the poems and fragments. It includes Onomacles, a Lesbian hermit. These were rum times indeed.
One of the great delights to be had in reading this book is that it harks back to a past world of gods and heroes, set in a typically Hellenic fact-value continuum, which we may contrast with the modern commonly held fact-value distinction that influences some modern poetry. Alcaeus writes
The cold wave carries Sisyphus
along to the river bend.
Zeus and the blessed gods
watch as you toil, calling down curses
while making yourself a ship
which you will drag down to the sea.
It is my guess from the tone of the poem that Alcaeus might have written
“…and the other gods…” alluding to their callousness, if not for sounding disrespectful; gods of course are guiltless.
It is important to understand what this little gem of a book is about. It would be silly to read it in order to see how to write poetry. For that you would be better off subscribing to a modern poetry magazine listed on http://www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/
Alcaeus’s poems and fragments are lyrical songs, most of which are monodies; lyric poetry sung by a single performer, written in this case to be accompanied by the music of a lyre. Many of these poems and fragments are concerned with the politics and personal tenure of the times. He also writes about contemporary personalities, as well as love songs, drinking songs and hymns to various gods.
R J Dent’s book is quite a find. There is no other published translation of Alcaeus’s poems and fragments in existence. In many ways it reminds me of ‘The Blue and Brown Books’ compiled from notes made by the students of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Both contain fragments and aphorisms that continue to illuminate and delight.
Alcaeus: Poems & Fragments
Translated by R J Dent (Circaidy Gregory Press) 2012. price £7.49
www.circaidygregory.co.uk
R J Dent’s Amazon page can be found at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/R.-J.-Dent
Follow R J Dent’s work on:
Blog: http://rjdent.wordpress.com/
twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/RJDent
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/R-J-Dent/344369095423?v=wall
youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/rjdent69?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/CmnYHWJqQK4
Other works: www.rjdent.com
February 15, 2012
Alcaeus: Poems & Fragments
Translated by R J Dent
Alcaeus: Poems & Fragments – translated by R J Dent (ISBN 978-1-906451-53-0)
R J Dent’s sensitive modern English translation of the complete Poems & Fragments of Alcaeus is finally available in all formats from Circaidy Gregory Press.
http://www.circaidygregory.co.uk/alcaeus.htm
Alcaeus: Poems & Fragments is available for Kindle from Amazon.com at:
and from Amazon.co.uk at:
Alcaeus was a fellow countryman and contemporary of Sappho, and his beautiful and delicate poetry is often overshadowed by Sappho’s reputation. R J Dent has now translated all of Alcaeus’s Poems & Fragments from ancient Greek into lively modern English in an attempt to rescue Alcaeus’s ethereal poetry from obscurity.
There is no other published translation of Alcaeus: Poems & Fragments in existence.
Product Details:
Title: Alcaeus: Poems & Fragments – translated by R J Dent [Paperback Edition]
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-906451-53-0
Title: Alcaeus: Poems & Fragments – translated by R J Dent [Kindle Edition]
e-book ISBN: 978-1-906451-54-7
Translator: R J Dent
© R J Dent (2012)
Language: English
Paperback ISBN 978-1-906451-53-0 £7.49 available July 2012. A vailable to trade and retail customers from www.circaidygregory.co.uk or to trade via Nielsen Teleorders. Contact sales@circaidygregory.co.uk for discount and SoR terms)
Ebook ISBN 978-1-906451-54-7 from £4.11 available for Kindle from Amazon, for other formats from all i-stores. Orders available to trade from Gardners and Baker and Taylor.
R J Dent’s published works include a novel, Myth; translations of Charles Baudelaire’s The Flowers of Evil & Artificial Paradise; of Le Comte de Lautréamont’s The Songs of Maldoror; of Alcaeus’s Poems & Fragments; a Gothic novella, Deliverance; a poetry collection, Moonstone Silhouettes, and various stories, articles, essays, poems, etc, in a wide range of magazines, periodicals and journals, including Orbis, Philosophy Now, Acumen and Writer’s Muse.
R J Dent’s Amazon page can be found at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/R.-J.-Dent
Details of R J Dent’s other works – novels, novellas, translations, stories, poems, essays and songs – are available on www.rjdent.com
Follow R J Dent’s work on:
website: http://www.rjdent.com/
blog: http://rjdent.wordpress.com/
twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/RJDent
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/R-J-Dent/344369095423?v=wall
youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/rjdent69?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/CmnYHWJqQK4
December 4, 2011
Relativity and the Lobster by R J Dent
R J Dent’s latest short story is Relativity and the Lobster.
Relativity and the Lobster is published in Writer’s Muse (issue 64).
Issue 64 of Writer’s Muse contains:
EDITORIAL by JIM PALMER
RELATIVITY AND THE LOBSTER by R J DENT
THE NUTTER ON THE BUS by JAYNE FALLOWS
SKIRT by SHIRLEY GOLDEN
STEVE DAWSON VIEWED BY AN INANIMATE OBJECT by STEVE DAWSON
NONE SO BLIND by DI PAVEY
THE FORMATIVE YEARS OF A LITERARY LONER by BRIAN DARWENT
ONLY A FEW HEARTBEATS by WILLIAM WOOD
KIDNAPPED by JOHN KENT
DEAR MAVIS (PART 2) by JOHN McDERMOTT
LAMBING NIGHT by BRUCE HARRIS
THE LAST BATTLE by ADAM LEE PARRY
READERS’ LETTERS by THE PUBLIC
DON’T CRY FOR US by DAVID McVEY
ONCE UPON A TIME… by MAL VEITCH
According to R J Dent, ‘Relativity and the Lobster was written as a tribute to Samuel Beckett.’
Other stories by R J Dent can be read at: http://www.rjdent.com/shortstories.htm
October 11, 2011
On the Bus by R J Dent
R J Dent’s latest short story, On the Bus, is is set in the Australian outback and is based on a real event.
On the Bus is published in Writer’s Muse, Issue 63.
Issue 63 contains:
EDITORIAL by JIM PALMER
BIOGRAPHICAL BIRTH PAINS by BRIAN DARWENT
JACK THE STRIPPER by ED BLUNDELL
ZAZIE’S QUEST by WILLIAM WOOD
STEPPING ON CRACKS by ADAM PARRY
DEAR MAVIS by JOHN McDERMOTT
READERS’ LETTERS by THE PUBLIC
ON THE BUS by R J DENT
BOTTLE MAN by GRETA JORDAN
THE CONSTABLE’S FAREWELL SHOW by MARK DAVID STALLARD
THICK SKINNED by JOHN KENT
JOB DISSATISFACTION by JAYNE FALLOWS
On the Bus can be read here.
On the Bus and several other stories by R J Dent are available to read at http://www.rjdent.com/shortstories.htm
