Virgil, from The Aeneid

The commander’s words relieve their stricken hearts.
“My comrades, hardly strangers to pain before now,
we all have weathered worse. Some god will grant us
an end to this as well. You’ve threaded the rocks
resounding with Scylla’s howling rabid dogs,
and taken the brunt of the Cyclops’ boulders, too.
Call up your courage again. Dismiss your grief and fear.

A joy it will be one day, perhaps, to remember even this.
Through so many hard straits, so many twists and turns
our course holds firm for Latium. There Fate holds out
a homeland, calm, at peace. There the gods decree
the kingdom of Troy will rise gain. Bear up.
Save your strength for better times to come.”

From Robert Fagles’ 2006 translation of The Aeneid, which had been long awaited after his earlier work on The Iliad and The Odyssey. Fagles died last week; he was 74.

Last December, many of his peers and admirers gathered in New York for a celebration of his legacy.

(photo: Laura Pedrick/NYT)

1 April 2008 | poetry |

I’m Hitting the Road This Spring

If you live in the Los Angeles area, I’ll be making my second consecutive appearance at the LA Times Festival of Books on Sunday, April 27. I’m moderating a morning panel on books and the film industry with guest speakers Mark Frost, Chris Miller, Gary David Goldberg, and Tom Epperson.

Aspiring writers in Michigan may wish to consider registering for the Ann Arbor Book Festival Writer’s Conference on Friday, May 16, where I’ll be talking about “blogging for the serious writer” with Claudia Mair Burney. The conference costs $100, but the festival the next day is free, and depending on what the airfares are like I might be wandering around…

I’m lining up more speaking engagements all the time, so who knows? I may make it to your neck of the woods yet!

27 March 2008 | events |