They are sleeping, mountain-heads, headlands,and the gullies, too—the fallen leaves and the tribe of slow-footedcreatures the dark earth grows—beasts of prey mountain-bred and broodof wild bees and the brutemonsters deep in the deep purple seas:and that flock of omen-giving birds long-winged,they are sleeping, too.
Alcman 89
Alcman
Translated from the Greek
Feature Date
- October 26, 2020
Series
- Translation
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“Alcman 89” from STONE GARLAND: Translation by Dan Beachy-Quick.
Published by Milkweed Editions.
Copyright © 2020 by Dan Beacy-Quick.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Dan Beachy-Quick is a poet, essayist, and translator. His most recent books include Arrows (Tupelo Press) and Stone-Garland (Milkweed Editions), a collection of translations from the ancient Greek. Recently long-listed for the National Book Award in Poetry, his work has been supported by the Monfort, Lannan, and Guggenheim Foundations. He teaches at Colorado State University, where he is a University Distinguished Teaching Scholar.
"As part of the publisher's 'Seedbank' series, aiming to preserve endangered literatures, the poet Beachy-Quick offers a modern gloss on six ancient Greeks."
—New York Times Book Review, "New & Noteworthy Poetry"
"Sixth-century BCE Greek lyric poets Alcman, Theognis, Simonides, Anacreon/Anacreonata, Archilochus, and Callimachus are beautifully translated by Beachy-Quick in this memorable and edifying collection, which presents excavated fragments meant to be sung or recited to music . . . This skillfully achieved collection is a necessary contribution to ancient translation."
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
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