Translations Of Greek Tragedy In The Work Of Ezra Pound

Turning the tables on the misconception that Ezra Pound knew little Greek, this volume looks at his work translating Greek tragedy and considers how influential this was for his later writing. Pound's work as a translator has had an enormous impact on the theory and practice of translation, and continues to be a source of heated debate. While scholars have assessed his translations from Chinese, Latin, and even Provençal, his work on Greek tragedy remains understudied. Pound's versions of Greek tragedy (of Aeschylus' Agamemnon, and of Sophocles' Elektra and Women of Trachis) have received scant attention, as it has been commonly assumed that Pound knew little of the language. Liebregts shows that the poet's knowledge of Greek was much more comprehensive than is generally assumed, and that his renderings were based on a careful reading of the source texts. He identifies the works Pound used as the basis for his translations, and contextualises his versions with regard to his biography and output, particularly The Cantos. A wealth of understudied source material is analysed, such as Pound's personal annotations in his Loeb edition of Sophocles, his unpublished correspondence with classical scholars such as F. R. Earp and Rudd Fleming, as well as manuscript versions and other as-yet-unpublished drafts and texts which illuminate his working methodology.

The first book to deal with the subject of Ezra Pound's relationships with Japanese literature as a whole, this book provides a wealth of new scholarship on this subject, including on the 19th-century Japanese contexts that led to Pound's interest in 'hokku' and Fenollosa's No translations on which Pound based his own; significant original research on Pound's Japanese friendships that enriched his understanding of Japanese literature; and an examination of all the explicit references to No in The Cantos in unprecedented depth. It demonstrates that the works for which Ezra Pound is most famous, such as 'In a Station of the Metro' and his epic poem, The Cantos, were shaped by his lifelong interest in Japanese literature.

This volume offers new interpretations of Pound’s poetics, as well as new perspectives on his critical reception globally. It covers Pound’s work from his beginnings as a young poet in Philadelphia in the first decade of the century through his most productive years as a poet, critic, and translator to the first critical treatments of his work in the 1940s and 50s, and on to translations of The Cantos spanning the last fifty years.

Known for his maxim "Make it new," Ezra Pound played a principal role in shaping the modernist movement as a poet, translator, and literary critic. His works, with their complex structures and layered allusions, remain widely taught. Yet his known fascism, anti-Semitism, and misogyny raise issues about dangerous ideologies that influenced his work and that must be addressed in the classroom. The first section, "Materials," catalogs the print and digital editions of Pound's works, evaluates numerous secondary sources, and provides a history of Pound's critical contexts. The essays in the second section, "Approaches," offer strategies for guiding students toward a clearer understanding of Pound's difficult works and the context in which they were written.

Translation practice, its contexts, and its broader consequences, too often studied separately, are here brought into conversation.

Focusing on the works of Camillo Sbarbaro and Giovanna Bemporad, this book offers the first in-depth analysis of poetic translations of Greek tragedy in 20th-century Italian poetry. The close examination of the linguistic and ideological diversity embedded in these authors' works shows how narratives of Greek tragedy shaped their poetic universe, and how their work influenced the Greek paradigm in return. The reader is presented with a textual analysis of Sbarbaro's and Bemporad's translations, as well as a discussion of larger cultural patterns. This volume provides a fresh perspective on the pedagogical commitment of the Italian poets and their roles as translators of classical studies. The web of relationships and historical context in which these authors are placed provide an understanding of their importance for a wider discourse on translation in Italy and Europe in the 1940s. Caterina Paoli's original analysis of Sbarbaro's and Bemporad's poetic translations and her emphasis on their relevance for translation studies, women's writing and classical reception, fills a significant gap in current scholarship on the translation of ancient literature in the Italian poetic community.

The volume combines for the first time the fields of Classical Reception and World Literature in a pioneering collection of essays by world-leading scholars on modern poetry from various cultural and linguistics backgrounds (Arabic, Chinese, creole, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Spanish).

In October 1967, Pier Paolo Pasolini travelled to Venice to interview Ezra Pound for broadcast on national television. One a lifelong Marxist, the other a former propagandist for the Fascist regime, their encounter was billed as a clash of opposites. But what do these poets share? And what can they tell us about the poetics and politics of the twentieth century? This book reads one by way of the other, aligning their engagement with different temporalities and traditions, polities and geographies, languages and forms, evoked as utopian alternatives to the cultural and political crises of capitalist modernity. Part literary history, part comparative study, it offers a new and provocative perspective on these poets and the critical debates around them – in particular, on Pound’s Italian years and Pasolini’s use of Pound in his work. Their connection helps to understand the implications and legacies of their work today.