Uncovering Writing

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I stumbled across a review of an upcoming collection of poetry from Alice Oswald (Falling Awake, August 2016) and read about this little volume called Memorial. One of the best unexpected things to happen to me in 2016. A very interesting and thought provoking translation/transformation of Homer’s Iliad. I’m a big fan of the Iliad and have read it many times in various translations. I’ve even taken a whack a few times with the Greek text. Her take is new and is so worth the effort. She writes in the preface “I write through the Greek, not from it – aiming for translucence rather than translation.”

Alice Oswald has created a stripped down Iliad, that focuses on those who died in the epic poem. But, she’s added to it as well, as any good oral poet would with such a great tale to tell. She starts, powerfully, with a list of the names of the people who died in the poem. It’s like when they do readings of victims names at memorial services, or on monuments like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. At first thought/glance, you think it’s nothing. But, as you read one name, then another and continue on for pages, it builds in your mind and your heart. When you read the last name, here Hector, and then silence, it stops you dead (pun intended).

The afterword by Eavan Boland is well worth reading. He writes of the people who died: “They are the brothers, husbands, sons of every war. And as we put down Memorial we wonder whether we first met them in Homer’s epic or saw them on last night’s news bulletin” (p. 85). He highlights many things I saw, but also showed me things I missed.

I read this in one setting. Her pacing is fast but not rushed. I will have to return to this poem again and let it wash over me and transform me. Alice Oswald has created an excellent work with her version of the Iliad. I am so lucky to have stumbled upon it.