![]() ![]() They express anger and sorrow, helplessness and despair, joy and excitement and overweening pride. His Homeric heroes don't just declaim, and their speeches are not just a continuation of the narrative by other means. It's full of what Fitzgerald himself calls "the ruck of war." The Iliad is largely dialogue, and it's in the back-and-forth speeches that Stevens really shines. And that's not right, because Fitzgerald’s verse is also rough and craggy like a mountain, and it cascades down cliffs like a waterfall. But that makes it sound static and over-engineered. I would call it crystalline, because the language has many sharply-edged facets. I don't read Greek, so I can only base my assessment on how it works as an English poem. ![]() It's hard to say what's so awe-inspiring about Fitzgerald’s verse. ![]() The result here is one of the finest versions of The Iliad available. Dan Stevens is a wonderful narrator, and Robert Fitzgerald is a wonderful translator. ![]()
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