After Callimachus: Poems

by Stephanie Burt, Mark Payne (Contribution by)

Overview

Contemporary translations and adaptations of ancient Greek poet Callimachus by noted writer and critic Stephanie Burt

Callimachus may be the best-kept secret in all of ancient poetry. Loved and admired by later Greeks and Romans, his funny, sexy, generous, thoughtful, learned, sometimes elaborate, and always articulate lyric poems, hymns, epigrams, and short stories in verse have gone without a contemporary poetic champion, until now. In After Callimachus, esteemed poet and critic Stephanie Burt’s attentive translations and inspired adaptations introduce the work, spirit, and letter of Callimachus to today’s poetry readers.

Skillfully combining intricate patterns of sound and classical precedent with the very modern concerns of sex, gender, love, death, and technology, these poems speak with a twenty-first-century voice, while also opening multiple gateways to ancient worlds. This Callimachus travels the Mediterranean, pays homage to Athena and Zeus, develops erotic fixations, practices funerary commemoration, and brings fresh gifts for the cult of Artemis. This reimagined poet also visits airports, uses Tumblr and Twitter, listens to pop music, and fights contemporary patriarchy. Burt bears careful fealty to Callimachus’s whole poems, even as she builds freely from some of the hundreds of surviving fragments. Here is an ancient Greek poet made fresh for our times. An informative foreword by classicist Mark Payne places Burt's renderings of Callimachus in literary and historical context.

After Callimachus is at once a contribution to contemporary poetry and a new endeavor in the art of classical adaptation and translation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691201917
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	04/14/2020
Series:	The Lockert Library of Poetry in Translation , #138
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Stephanie Burt is a poet and critic and professor of English at Harvard University. Her books include Don’t Read Poetry, Advice from the Lights: Poems, and the essay collection Close Calls with Nonsense, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her work has appeared in such publications as the London Review of Books and the New York Times Book Review. She serves as poetry coeditor for the Nation. Mark Payne is professor of classics and comparative literature at the University of Chicago. He is the author of Theocritus and the Invention of Fiction, The Animal Part, and Hontology.

Table of Contents

Foreword Mark Payne xi

Imitator's Note xxii

1

So reactionaries and radicals complain (Aetia, book 1, frag. 1: proem) 3

This is a story with a happy ending (Aetia, book 3, frag. 67-75) 4

That island feast (Galatea, frag. 378) 7

Apollo has come to our house party, and Aphrodite (Lyric, frag. 227) 8

Caro, you didn't seem to experience more (Epigram 62) 9

Sleep, Conopion, sleep (Epigram 64) 10

Zeus (I read here) once made love for three hundred years (Aetia, book 2, frag. 48) 11

It's easier to explain if we use Mr. Spock (Epigram 43) 12

The lord of the gods gets crushes on people too (Epigram 53) 13

Honestly I don't know (Hecale, frag. 274) 14

I hate to say it, Lee, but you look awful (Epigram 32) 15

You were already in pain (Epigram 44) 16

Warm ashes may flare up when stirred (Epigram 45) 17

Don't worry, you (Hecale, frag. 256) 18

There are so many versions of Aphrodite (Iamb 10, frag. 200a) 19

Once they decided to make a home together (Epigram 27) 20

The shepherds I know tell stories for one another (Epigram 24) 21

When you can't be with somebody you want to be with-(Epigram 33) 22

It's hard work making people fall in love (Epigram 39) 23

Snakes stand for danger, but also for things intertwining (Aetia, book 4, frag. 101a) 24

Snakes stand for danger, but also for things intertwining (Aetia, book 4, frag. 101b) 25

Fun fact: long ago, in the age of myth (Epigram 47) 26

2

The fuckers renamed an airport for a tyrant (Epigram 8) 29

It hurts to be poor. It hurts more (Hecale, frag. 275) 30

Choose me, Athena, defender (frag. 556, 638,644) 31

Berenice, rightful governor (frag. 388) 32

All the Greek cities have seen their refugees (Aetia, book 2, frag. 44-51) 33

The way a word like sanction, or inflammable (Aetia, book 4, frag. 90) 34

Dear Thracians-no, dear citizens (Aetia, book 4, frag. 104) 35

You're the kind of rich dude who drains wetlands (Aetia, book 3, frag. 64) 36

People are going to hate you once you've won (Aetia, book 3, frag. 84-85) 37

Now we pour out wine (Hymn 1: To Zeus) 38

3

What the-(Aetia, book 1, frag. 31g, and frag. 620 and 731) 45

There are so many-too many (Aetia, book 3, frag. 79) 46

Nobody wants to talk about lochia. Or about menstruation (Aetia, book 3, frag. 65) 47

Pour one out for women who date men (Lyric, frag. 226) 48

Remember when we didn't get along? (Aetia, book 3, frag. 80-82) 49

Goddess of parturition, listen when Cleo (Epigram 54) 51

Asclepius, god of medicine, we've paid (Epigram 55) 52

Artemis! Phileratis has placed (Epigram 35) 53

Horses don't get periods. Ihey used to (Iambs, frag. 223) 54

Child-care workers deserve to retire with pensions (Epigram 51) 55

As in Hamlet, but harmless (Iambs, frag. 223) 56

You were always a lamb (Aetia, book 1, frag. 27) 57

Why is the stork called an avenger? (Hecale, frag. 271) 58

In my poems about the origins of things (Iambs, frag. 221) 59

This morning Patricia drew her own picture (Epigram 35) 60

"My daughter won't leave her room, even though" (Epigram 41) 61

I wish you wouldn't yell at me for trying (Hecale, frag. 248) 62

Sometimes you just hit a wall (Aetia, book 4, frag. 97) 63

What does Artemis want with attention? Of all the gods (Hymn 3: To Artemis) 64

4

Half of me-an intangible half-is alive (Epigram 42) 73

The poets who win a contest (Epigram 10) 74

One of the Muses took this singer (frag. 471) 75

Sometimes you don't want it (Aetia, book 1, frag. 2) 76

You shouldn't make children work all the time (Iambs, frag. 222) 77

Apollo, lord of my only art, mouse god (Iamb 3, frag. 193) 78

Everything I set down has a source (frag. 612) 79

Henry's new poems sound a lot like Hesiod's (Epigram 29) 80

Attribution is weird, and scholars get it wrong (Epigram 7) 81

Lucky Orestes (Epigram 60) 82

The bitter god called Envy tried to get under (from Hymn 2: To Apollo) 83

He was in one of those bands that use so much reverb (Iambs, frag. 215) 84

When I began writing, I felt like a constellation (Epigram 56) 85

Cover me quietly, stone (Epigram 28) 86

Bunting I like, but not Olson, or Bernstein, or Pound (Epigram 30) 87

Once on the hill of Tmolus (Iamb 4, frag. 194) 88

5

My Muses, my Graces, I'm tired (Aetia, book 4, frag. 112: epilogue) 93

Cheer up, goats! (Epigram 63a) 94

Cheer up, malefactors! (Epigram 63b) 95

I already know how your friends with the school-spirit hoodies (Epigram 4) 96

Everybody wants to be the talent (Aetia, book 4, frag. 100) 97

This bow (Epigram 38) 98

What or who are you, whose nameplate reads Opportunity? (Epigram 59) 99

Those who have known a god must know (frag. 557, 586) 100

I'm an old nautilus egg case. I make a good toy (Epigram 6) 101

Timon, you were part of an institution (Epigram 5) 102

My first teacher prayed (Epigram 49) 103

You've been my friend for a while. You know you can trust me (Iamb 5, frag. 195) 104

For the sake of Laura Jane Grace and all the graces (Epigram 34) 105

We all made fun of Celia when we learned that her name meant "hair" (Hecale, frag. 288 and 304) 106

Eyes take what's seen and rarely ask for more (Hecale, frag. 282) 107

Gentle wind from the south that meant we were coming home (Iamb 8, frag. 198) 108

Our people have our own holidays (Aetia, frag. 178) 109

6

I lost my friend's laptop. I thought about skipping town (Epigram 46) 113

Hermes, you've definitely been around for a while (Iamb 9, frag. 199) 114

I am a superhero with mask, gloves, and boots on (Epigram 26) 115

I'm an enamel pin with a black-and-yellow (Epigram 57) 116

By using no spice but salt (Epigram 48) 117

I am the deity of the periphery (Iamb 7, frag. 197) 118

There are more than two, and they work in secret (Aetia, frag. 115) 119

There were four Graces. There are not (Epigram 52) 120

Of course Athena does not date men (Hecale, frag. 261) 121

The goddess we call our foe (Hecale, frag. 299, 301) 122

The soft hats I brought back from my travels (Aetia, book 2, frag. 43) 123

Some inventions are simple (Aetia, frag. 177) 126

Lift up the basket for the harvest festival (Hymn 6: To Demeter) 128

7

The pillar at the dock must sing his song (Aetia, book 4, frag. 103) 137

Why do I write? Experience (frag. 714) 138

Don't let yourself or your friends or your children leave (Hecale, frag. 278) 139

I'm not exactly from poverty, or from obscurity (Iamb 13, frag. 203) 140

From welcoming the stranger (Hecale, frag. 231) 142

Don't hold yourself superior to others (Epigram 4) 143

The gods (to put it calmly) aren't big fans (Aetia, book 4, frag. 96) 144

Justice will give you your due (Hecale, frag. 358) 145

We build cities and towns, we mortals. The deathless gods (frag. 467, 480, 491) 146

"Goodbye to the sunlit world," said Klia, who took (Epigram 25) 147

The singer who wrote the songs for the band Game Theory (Epigram 9) 148

Whatever happens happens for all time (Epigram 11) 149

Nothing new will vex you or make you heartsick (Hecale, frag. 263) 150

Visual depictions of suicide kill (Epigram 22) 151

Nobody knows what the gods will bring tomorrow (Epigram 16) 152

When I am in cemeteries I consider (Epigraml7) 153

Cress was the best kind of chatterbox. Her classmates (Epigram 18) 154

Here lies Nicholas, the son (Epigram 21) 155

I named my son after his grandfather (Epigram 23) 156

The god who made us made us such (Hecale, frag. 298) 157

The same, single, visible, daily phenomenon (Hecale, frag. 291) 158

Sometimes people won't listen. Sometimes they can't (Aetia, book 1, frag. 23) 159

At one time all the animals- (Iamb 2, frag. 192) 160

It is not for me-gods forbid it-to watch (Hymn 5: To Athena) 161

Acknowledgments 165

Epilogue to Callimachus 167

Index of Greek first lines 169

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"There is nothing like this book. No other poet that I know of has attempted to reenvision Callimachus in modern dress. With an urbane wit and a sense of fun, enlivened with sensibilities from our own time, Burt’s reimagined re-creations of Callimachus have a wonderful freshness about them."—Stephen Scully, Boston University

Praise for Stephanie Burt's previous books

"Brilliant, charming, engaging, and highly original."—Harvard Review

"Engaging, artful . . . Burt’s wit and powers of invention are on full display."—Washington Post

"Burt mines a nearly limitless store of empathy, lending voices to living things and inanimate objects alike. . . . Burt’s poems are never less than compassionate."―Library Journal, starred review

Editorial Reviews

"The delightful fifth book from poet and critic Burt brings the ancient poet Callimachus, respected by later Greeks and Romans, to 21st-century audiences. Burt’s contemporary translations and adaptations musically and playfully build on Callimachus’s themes . . . Burt engages deeply and originally with Callimachus, and the result is a wonderfully rich collection that reveals how the past can cast new light on the present."

Publishers Weekly

Selected as One of the Top 10 Poetry Books of Spring 2020 by Publisher's Weekly

From the Publisher