Metamorphoses by Ovid

Metamorphoses by Ovid

Arthur Golding's translation of 1567 with an introduction by John Frederick Nims

Absolutely essential--Library Journal

This 1567 translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses...is tough, surprising, and lovely...To read it is to understand the Renaissance view of the classical world, storytelling and also Shakespeare's language and worldview.--A. S. Byatt

It is a tour de force of translation, and it deserves, more than 400 years after its composition, to be read.--Rain Taxi

The most beautiful book in the English language.--Ezra Pound

Since its first publication in 1567, Arthur Golding's translation of Ovid has had an enormous influence on English literature and poetry. This is the translation that Shakespeare knew, read, and borrowed from. Golding's witty and beautiful verse continues to delight today's readers. This volume promises to be a valuable resource for students and teachers of Ovid and Shakespeare indeed, for anyone interested in the foundations of English literature.

Golding's translation] was the English Ovid from the time of publication in 1567 until about a decade after the death of Shakespeare in 1616. The Ovid, that is, for all who read him in English during the greatest period of our literature. And its racy verve, its quirks and oddities, its rugged English gusto, is still more enjoyable, more plain fun to read, than any other Metamorphoses in English.--From the Introduction by John Frederick Nims

Ovid was Shakespeare's favorite classical poet. Both are writers who probe our humanity with great rigor, but ultimately do so in a spirit of sympathy for our frailties and indulgences. Ovid's world shuttles between human passions and natural phenomena. Shakespeare, with the assistance of Arthur Golding, carried the magic of that world into the medium of theatre.--From Jonathan Bate's Essay

The Six-Cornered Snowflake, Zany in Denim, and Knowledge of the Evening are among the eight collections of poetry written by John Frederick Nims (1913-1999). He also wrote Western Wind: An Introduction to Poetry and translated various collections of poetry, most recently The Complete Works of Michelangelo. He was a longtime contributor to the magazine Poetry, serving as its editor from 1978 to 1984, and he lectured at a number of prestigious institutions and workshops in the United States and overseas. The American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, the Aiken-Taylor Award, and the O. Henry Award are just a few of the many awards he has garnered for his work.