Robert Fitzgerald Quotes

Robert Stuart Fitzgerald was an American poet, literary critic and translator whose renderings of the Greek classics "became standard works for a generation of scholars and students". He was best known as a translator of ancient Greek and Latin. He also composed several books of his own poetry. Wikipedia

✵ 12. October 1910 – 16. January 1985

Robert Fitzgerald: 3 quotes0 likes

Famous Robert Fitzgerald Quotes

“Anger be now your song, immortal one,
Akhilleus' anger, doomed and ruinous,
that caused the Akhaians loss on bitter loss
and crowded brave souls into the undergloom,
leaving so many dead men—carrion
for dogs and birds; and the will of Zeus was done.
Begin it when the two men first contending
broke with one another—the Lord Marshal
Agamémnon, Atreus' son, and Prince Akhilleus.
Among the gods, who brought this quarrel on?
The son of Zeus by Lêto. Agamémnon
angered him, so he made a burning wind
of plague rise in the army: rank and file
sickened and died for the ill their chief had done
in despising a man of prayer.”

Robert Fitzgerald

opening lines
The Iliad (1974)

“I sing of warfare and a man at war.
From the sea-coast of Troy in early days
He came to Italy by destiny,
To our Lavinian western shore,
A fugitive, this captain, buffeted
Cruelly on land as on the sea
By blows from powers of the air—behind them
Baleful Juno in her sleepless rage.
And cruel losses were his lot in war,
Till he could found a city and bring home
His gods to Latium, land of the Latin race,
The Alban lords, and the high walls of Rome.
Tell me the causes now, O Muse, how galled
In her divine pride, and how sore at heart
From her old wound, the queen of gods compelled him—
A man apart, devoted to his mission—
To undergo so many perilous days
And enter on so many trials. Can anger
Black as this prey on the minds of heaven?”

Robert Fitzgerald

opening lines
The Aeneid (1983)

“Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story
of that man skilled in all ways of contending,
the wanderer, harried for years on end,
after he plundered the stronghold
on the proud height of Troy.
He saw the townlands
and learned the minds of many distant men,
and weathered many bitter nights and days
in his deep heart at sea, while he fought only
to save his life, to bring his shipmates home.
But not by will nor valor could he save them,
for their own recklessness destroyed them all—
children and fools, they killed and feasted on
the cattle of Lord Hêlios, the Sun,
and he who moves all day through the heaven
took from their eyes the dawn of their return.”

Robert Fitzgerald

opening lines
The Odyssey (1961)

Similar authors

Cesare Pavese photo

Cesare Pavese137

Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator None

Fernando Pessoa photo

Fernando Pessoa288

Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publi… None

Tomas Tranströmer photo

Tomas Tranströmer6

Swedish poet, psychologist and translator None

Seamus Heaney photo

Seamus Heaney29

Irish poet, playwright, translator, lecturer None

Czeslaw Milosz photo

Czeslaw Milosz106

Polish, poet, diplomat, prosaist, writer, and translator None

Walter Benjamin photo

Walter Benjamin70

German literary critic, philosopher and social critic (1892… None

Robert Frost photo

Robert Frost265

American poet None

Ezra Pound photo

Ezra Pound68

American Imagist poet and critic None

Jorge Luis Borges photo

Jorge Luis Borges213

Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator… None

Guillaume Apollinaire photo

Guillaume Apollinaire28

French poet None