Among his many other attributes, James Elroy Flecker was a skilled linguist and an expert translator of Latin poetry.
In 1913, he planned to write a book to be entitled An interpretation in blank verse of Virgil, Aeneid VI, based on the poetic value of the sounds, together with Latin text and ten prefaces.
Flecker described the intention of the book as follows: "The book is simply an attempt to do a translation of Virgil as satisfactory as Fitzgerald's Omar— a translation which will utterly eclipse the very numerous and very feeble attempts hitherto existing."
The surviving translation consists of lines 1-19 and 264-547 from book six, which describe Aeneas' encounter with Sibyl and his visit to the underworld.
(Tags : The Descent to Hell: From the Aeneid, Book 6 (Unabridged) James Elroy Flecker - translator & Virgil Audiobook, James Elroy Flecker - translator & Virgil Audio CD )
