Our guest on this episode is the poet, translator, essayist and critic A. M. Juster, whose next book, Wonder and Wrath, will be published by Paul Dry Books in early 2021.

His other books include The Satires of Horace, Longing for Laura, Saint Aldhelm’s Riddles, The Elegies of Maximianus, Tibullus’ Elegies, The Secret Language of Women, and Sleaze & Slander. Read more at amjuster.net, or follow A. M. Juster on Twitter.

In this podcast: 

What did ‘satire’ mean for Horace? (1:45) — Whether to translate Horace using rhyme and meter (3:00) —  What draws you to choose a given work for translation? (5:45) — Contrasting Petrarch’s Latin work with his vernacular work (7:30) — Religious aspects of Aldhelm’s riddles (8:45) — Ovid’s importance for Aldhelm (10:15) — The element of mystery in Aldhelm (12:45) —

Influences on Maximianus in late antiquity: Horace, Lucretius, materialism (15:00) — An aging poet in an aging empire (18:30) — How to capture Petrarch’s freshness? (22:00) — On love and marriage (25:30) — Love and lust in Petrarch (28:30) — Classical vs. medieval love poetry (32:00) — The elegy: form and substance (35:00) — Syllables, stresses, challenges in translating Latin to English (38:15) — On being both a poet and a civil servant (42:45) — On balancing the quantitative and the qualitative (48:00) — Reading poetry (51:00): “Note from Echo” , “Cancer Prayer”, and “Backup Plan”

The Athenaeum Review podcast is also available on Anchor.fm, Spotify, Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts.