![]() ![]() ![]() Especially when reading the Eclogues, one hears a new-old voice, as if Virgil had miraculously learned English and decided it might do as well as Latin. Virgil detail from Raphael’s The Parnassus, circa 1511įerry’s previous outings with Virgil, in his matchless Eclogues and Georgics, had already convinced me that he has some sort of uncanny connection to the great poet. But it is what Ferry accomplishes-his delighted attention to the movement of the doves, teasing the reader forward, and again forward, along with Aeneas and his confidence, as a poet, in this instance to take an even more expansive liberty while keeping the diction pure and plain-that makes this new translation such a marvel throughout. With all translations of the Aeneid into English, extra words are needed to convey the meaning of the more condensed Latin this passage in Virgil’s text takes only four lines. So that they can be seen by him who follows…. ![]() ![]() Then flying a little again, feeding and flying, Then flying a little way, and alighting again, What signs he might be given by how they went,Īlighting to feed a little, then flying a little,Īlighting a little again to feed on the grass, He stood there where he was and watched to see In David Ferry’s new translation, the moment unfolds as follows: One of the most magical passages in the Aeneid occurs when the hero, in search of the golden bough that will allow him entrance to the Underworld, is shown the way by two doves, emblems of his mother, Venus. ![]()
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