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Tales from Ovid: 24 Passages from the Metamorphoses
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About Tales From Ovid: 24 Passages From The Metamorphoses
About the Author TED HUGHES (1930-1998) published numerous volumes of poetry and prose for adults and children. He received the Guardian Award for Children's Fiction in 1985 and was appointed Poet Laureate of England in 1984. Product Description A powerful version of the Latin classic by England's late Poet Laureate, now in paperback.When it was published in 1997, Tales from Ovid was immediately recognized as a classic in its own right, as the best rering of Ovid in generations, and as a major book in Ted Hughes's oeuvre. The Metamorphoses of Ovid stands with the works of Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Milton as a classic of world poetry; Hughes translated twenty-four of its stories with great power and directness. The result is the liveliest twentieth-century version of the classic, at once a delight for the Latinist and an appealing introduction to Ovid for the general reader. Review “Brilliantly succeeds at bringing Ovid's passionate and disturbing stories to life.” ―James Shapiro, The New York Times Book Review“One of the few unquestionable successes in the revolutionary vein Pound opened at the start of the century.” ―Donald Lyons, The Wall Street Journal“Hughes is as broad as Ovid and as subtle, as violent and as erotic, as elegant and as folksy-and often all at the same time. It is simply a beautiful match.” ―Michael Hofmann, The Times (London) Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Tales from OvidBy Hughes, TedFarrar, Straus and GirouxCopyright © 1999Hughes, TedAll right reserved.ISBN: 0374525870Excerpt from Tales From Ovid by Ted Hughes. Copyright © 1999 by Ted Hughes. To be published in March, 1999 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC. All rights reserved.Creation; Four Ages;Lycaon; FloodNow I am ready to tell how bodies are changedInto different bodies.I summon the supernatural beingsWho first contrivedThe transmogrificationsIn the stuff of life.You did it for your own amusement.Descend again, be pleased to reanimateThis revival of those marvels.Reveal, now, exactlyHow they were performedFrom the beginningUp to this moment.Before sea or land, before even skyWhich contains all,Nature wore only one mask--Since called Chaos.A huge agglomeration of upset.A bolus of everything--butAs if aborted.And the total arsenal of entropyAlready at war within it.No sun showed one thing to another,No moonPlayed her phases in heaven,No earthSpun in empty air on her own magnet,No oceanBasked or roamed on the long beaches.Land, sea, air, were all thereBut not to be trodden, or swum in.Air was simply darkness.Everything fluid or vapour, form formless.Each thing hostileTo every other thing: at every pointHot fought cold, moist dry, soft hard, and the weightlessResisted weight.God, or some such artist as resourceful,Began to sort it out.Land here, sky there,And sea there.Up there, the heavenly stratosphere.Down here, the cloudy, the windy.He gave to each its place,Independent, gazing about freshly.Also resonating--Each one a harmonic of the others,Just like the stringsThat would resound, one day, in the dome of the tortoise.The fiery aspiration that makes heavenTook it to the top.The air, happy to be idle,Lay between that and the earthWhich rested at the bottomEngorged with heavy metals,Embraced by delicate waters.When the ingenious oneHad gained control of the massAnd decided the cosmic divisionsHe rolled earth into a ball.Then he commanded the water to spread out flat,To lift itself into wavesAccording to the whim of the wind,And to hurl itself at the land's edges.He conjured springs to rise and be manifest,Deep and gloomy ponds,Flashing delicious lakes.He educatedHeadstrong electrifying riversTo observe their banks--and to pourPart of their delight into earth's darkAnd to donate the remainder to oceanSwelling the uproar on shores.Then he instructed the plainsHow to roll sweetly to the horizon.He directed the valleysTo go deep.And the mountains to rear upHumping their backs.Everywhere he taughtT
