My translation of the short poem Emperor Hadrian supposedly wrote on his deathbed, as recorded in the Historia Augusta: Animula vagula blandulahospes comesque corporis,quae nunc abibis in locapallidula rigida nudula?Nec ut soles dab[i]s iocos! Small, fleeting, fawning soul,you stranger and companionof the body—for whatnaked, pallid, unyieldingplace do you now depart,without the humor you used to …
Here is a conference presentation I gave on Jacques Derrida, democracy, and Ovid’s Echo at the 2022 meeting of Derrida Today.
This poem is a reflection on language, empire, and otherness. It uses classical Western figures drawn from the Aeneid and the history of Rome (especially the Trojan horse and Aeneas’ experience in North Africa before arriving in Italy), structuring them around a pun on the nearly indistinguishable phonemic constructions /ma̠ɭ/ — which means both “word” …
This well-known elegiac poem, in which the Roman poet Catullus mourns the death of his brother, has been translated by everyone from Aubrey Beardsley to Anne Carson. Catullus addresses his words directly to his brother’s ashes during a ceremony after the funeral. Before reading the poem itself, take a look at this eighteenth-century description of …
Minerva descends from Olympus to confront Arachne, a famous weaver who has insulted her authority. Disguising herself as (simulat) an old woman, she at first implores the young mortal to humble herself and ask for forgiveness. But Arachne refuses, doubling down on her initial challenge to the deity of wisdom and weaving and war: “let …
