Jeffrey M. Duban

The Lesbian Lyre (eBook, ePUB)

Reclaiming Sappho for the 21st Century

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

Hailed by Plato as the "Tenth Muse" of ancient Greek poetry, Sappho is inarguably antiquity's greatest lyric poet. Born over 2,600 years ago on the Greek island of Lesbos, and writing amorously of women and men alike, she is the namesake lesbian. What's left of her writing, and what we know of her, is fragmentary. Shrouded in mystery, she is nonetheless repeatedly translated and discussed – no, appropriated – by all. Sappho has most recently undergone a variety of treatments by agenda-driven scholars and so-called poet-translators with little or no knowledge of Greek. Classicist-translator Jeffrey Duban debunks the postmodernist scholarship by which Sappho is interpreted today and offers translations reflecting the charm and elegant simplicity of the originals. Duban provides a reader-friendly overview of Sappho's times and themes, exploring her eroticism and Greek homosexuality overall. He introduces us to Sappho's highly cultured island home, to its lyre-accompanied musical legends, and to the fabled beauty of Lesbian women. Not least, he emphasizes the proximity of Lesbos to Troy, making the translation and enjoyment of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey a further focus. More than anything else, argues Duban, it is free verse and its rampant legacy – and no two persons more than Walt Whitman and Ezra Pound – that bear responsibility for the ruin of today's classics in translation, to say nothing of poetry in the twentieth century. Beyond matters of reflection for classicists, Duban provides a far-ranging beginner's guide to classical literature, with forays into Spenser and Milton, and into the colonial impulse of Virgil, Spenser, and the West at large.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Clairview Books
• Seitenzahl: 832
• Erscheinungstermin: 23. August 2016
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781905570805
• Artikelnr.: 55096885

Autorenporträt

Jeffrey M. Duban, an ardent classicist, art devotee, and classical music presenter, grew up in Boston, where he attended the prestigious Boston Public Latin School. He began studying Latin in the seventh grade and Greek in the tenth, followed by Old Testament Hebrew and Sanskrit in college. A graduate of Brown University, he obtained his PhD in classics from The Johns Hopkins University and briefly entered university teaching. Changing course, he earned his Juris Doctor (JD) degree from Fordham University and devoted himself, for the next twenty-two years, to defending academic freedom in college settings large and small. Following retirement, he returned to his first love--ancient Greek, publishing The Lesbian Lyre (2016) and The Shipwreck Sea (2019). Inspirational visits to the Greek islands of Lesbos, Chios, Syros, and Crete further cemented his determination to publish Homer's Iliad (2024), which he translated classically--critically, free of colloquialisms, and truer to Homer's own idiom and elevated diction. Moreover, Jeffrey's varied musical interests have led to a collaboration with contemporary Greek-Canadian composer Constantine Caravassilis on his double album, From Sappho's Lyre. In addition to liner notes, commentary, and translations of Sappho, the album includes "5 Duban Songs" set to Jeffrey's own poetry, published in The Shipwreck Sea. Jeffrey and his wife Jayne, his beloved editor and collaborator, live in New York City.