Love Lyrics of Ancient Egypt - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807821594 ISBN 13: 9780807821596

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 1994

Synopsis

Ancient Egypt is often thought of as a gloomy society obsessed with death. But a collection of papyri, dating to the latter half of the New Kingdom (ca.1305-1080 B.C.), presents us with delicate love lyrics that dispel any such illusion. These vibrant love poems, purported to be by boys and girls perhaps as young as thirteen or fourteen years of age, are remarkable for their innocent sensuousness. Combining her notable skills as a translator and a poet, Barbara Fowler provides the first accurate translation of these love lyrics into modern English-language poetry. Her renderings are both elegant and correct. They preserve the charm of a long-lost civilization, while making it possible for readers to appreciate one aspect of that culture in our time and through our language.

About this title

Review:

The innocent sexuality of these poems is a sheer delight.

"Booklist"

"The translations are typical of Barbara Fowler's work: vivid diction, melodic phrasing, and an elegant simplicity of tone.

Randall Colaizzi, Wellesley College"

"Love Lyrics of Ancient Egypt" will make a very important collection of Egyptian poetry accessible to the public.

Richard Jasnow, The Oriental Institute

The translations are typical of Barbara Fowler's work: vivid diction, melodic phrasing, and an elegant simplicity of tone.

Randall Colaizzi, Wellesley College

"There is a charming, sweet sensuousness about these poems translated from papyri of the New Kingdom (1305-1080 B.C.). Translator Fowler has, in general, made these ancient works accessible without burdening them with notes. . . . The innocent sexuality of these poems is a sheer delight."--"Booklist"

"This collection of little-known love poems, along with its lucid introduction, illuminates for the general reader the private lives and personal literature of the ancient Egyptians. The translations are typical of Barbara Fowler's work: vivid diction, melodic phrasing, and an elegant simplicity of tone."--Randall Colaizzi, Wellesley College

""Love Lyrics of Ancient Egypt" will make a very important collection of Egyptian poetry accessible to the public. In her renderings of these poems, Professor Fowler has sensibly chosen the middle road, the result being neither too free nor a 'trot' in unidiomatic English. In the popular mind the ancient Egyptians are a gloomy and morbid people. Such poetry as that in "The Love Lyrics of Ancient Egypt" gives the lie to that conception."--Richard Jasnow, The Oriental Institute

About the Author:

Barbara Hughes Fowler, a well-known classicist, translator, and poet, is author of The Seeds Inside a Green Pepper, a volume of original poems, Hellenistic Poetry and Archaic Greek Poetry, both works of translation, and The Hellenistic Aesthetic, a critical work. She is John Bascom Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

About this edition

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0807821594
• ISBN 13: 9780807821596
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 101