Having translated Horace's Satires (2008) and Tibullus’ Elegies (2012) and written an essay (The Billy Collins Experience [2016]), J. has tackled translating the work of a sixth-century poet, Maximianus. This corpus, which includes the six Elegies and the Appendix Maximiani (i.e. Cassiodorus’ Variae, Ennodius’ De Boetio spata cincto and the text without translation of Imitatio Maximiani and Le regret de Maximian) was translated into French in 2013 (B. Goldlust) and into Polish in 2016 (A.M. Wasyl). Without justifying his choice, J. has omitted the Epithalamium for Maximus as well as an epigram that were both included by Goldlust.
J.’s goal is clearly to provide a faithful though not literal translation that also works as poetry. The Latin text, with a bias towards no punctuation and no initial capital letter, is presented with the English translation beside it. J. tries to imitate Maximianus’ pronounced internal rhyme, to duplicate his choices of alliterations and assonances, to make the reader feel the specific tempo of the elegiac couplet. Most of the time it is a true and elegant achievement, though on occasions translation gives way to interpretation: considering that the poet has focused on old age only as a form of physical and moral disaster or infelicitas, J. sometimes seems to forget that the Elegies are not as pessimistic as he makes them to be. One may think indeed that his corpus ends on an ambiguous image that can doubtlessly be read as suggesting impending death but also potential rebirth. For his translation J. uses the 1900 edition by R. Webster: it might have been useful to refer to C. Sandquist Öbers's translation (1999) that suggests some relevant points of textual criticism.
The introduction, written by Late Antiquity literature specialist M. Roberts, takes stock of the uncertain persona of the poet, his hardly known life and the conditions of Maximianus’ writings. It stresses the problematic gender of the Elegies, generic indetermination being matched by uncertainty about the collection's interpretation. Roberts shows how Maximianus plays with generic codes, mostly those of erotic Augustean elegy, confusing its referents. He also raises the issue of the relation of the poem to Christianity.
The commentary opens with a new presentation of the corpus, its date, its title and its author, which seems a bit redundant with M. Roberts's introduction. The precise and erudite commentary reviews each verse, highlighting how the poetry is part of a long tradition and listing previous interpretations. In that respect, it will be very useful to scholars and will make understanding the poetry easier.
The argumentation of this pleasant and well-produced book is well supported by a rich and up-to-date bibliography, though one wishes an index had been added. This book will significantly contribute to late-antique studies.
