Hoovering up ideas
There's such a zest to this account of the Armenian approach to dealing with invaders: translate everything you can get...
The secret of surprise
A pithy tip from one of the masters, succinctly conveyed in Clive James' translation. It's certainly given me food for...
Yours to win, not lose
These racing monosyllables have the pace and certainty of one who runs, and lives, as if he can only win. I...
Thunderbolts are go (I)
The gods learn the price of rebellion against the supreme one. Hughes' re-telling of Ovid's tales has some spectacular thunderbolt...
Alighting stars
I like this hint of stars being both lit up and alighting in their permanent positions in the firmament, after...
The first golden age
Continuing his retelling of the myth of Creation, Ted Hughes reminds us of a first golden age...
Summary impatience
I liked this sharp injunction to Dante to hurry up and spit it out. You can imagine an impatient parent...
Do what a hero must
Naturally, any would-be hero or heroine needs to set sail, or how are they to prove their worth? Clive James,...
Frayed by sin
A surprising one, this, as sin is often presented, nowadays, as socially acceptable, even desirable 'vice' - something naughty-but-nice, essentially...
The piling up of beauty
Clive James' spent decades working on his splendid translation of Dante, sometimes in 'back burner' mode, other times full on. ...
New-grown green
At the precocious signal of spring, I see new-grown green peeping all about. And isn't that a sweet scene, sitting...
As the falcon flies
Even the rhythm of this simile conveys something of a great bird's single, confident swoop to land precisely on a...
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