书名：The Metamorphoses 变形记
难度：Lexile蓝思阅读指数1220
作者：Ovid奥维德
出版社名称：Signet Classics
出版时间：2009
语种：英文
ISBN：9780451531452
商品尺寸：10.6 x 2.7 x 17.3 cm
包装：简装
页数：464 （以实物为准）

The Metamorphoses《变形记》是古罗马诗人奥维德的代表作，全诗共15卷，取材于古希腊罗马神话，根据古希腊哲学家毕达哥拉斯的“灵魂轮回”理论，用变形，即人由于某种原因被变成动物、植物、星星、石头等这一线索贯穿全书，共包括大小故事250多个（其中以爱情故事为主），是古希腊罗马神话的大汇集。本书为英文译本，是美国翻译名家Horace Gregory的译著，内容忠实原著，英文优美、通俗易懂且不失韵律，是一本很值得推荐的英语读物。
Prized through the ages for its splendor and its savage, sophisticated wit,The Metamorphosesis amasterpiece of Western culture—the first attempt to link all the Greek myths, before and after Homer,in a cohesive whole,to the Roman myths of Ovid’s day. Horace Gregory, in this modern translation, turns his own poetic gifts toward a deft reconstruction of Ovid’s ancient themes, using contemporary idiom to deliver all the ageless drama and psychological truths vividly intact.
Translated and with an Afterword byHorace Gregoryand a New Introduction by Sara Myers
Review
“When—if ever—shall we come upon his like again?”—Horace
“Varied as only verse can be when it comes from a poet with a virtually perfect car.”—The New York Times Book Review
“It is the only literate and readable version I’ve come across. A large and wonderful job…I’m sure be using it the rest of my life to return to the old stories.”—Robert Lowell

Ovid’sMetamorphosesis a magnificent collection of Greco-Roman myths that has fascinated readers down through the ages. The great English poets—Chaucer, Shakespeare, Spencer—knew him well and were greatly influenced by his abundant vitality and passion and his exquisite poetry.

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso(43 bce ce 17 or 18) was born into a wealthy Roman family and became the most distinguished poet of his time. He died in exile on the Black Sea, far from Rome and his literary life.
Horace Gregorywas born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1898 and published his first book of poems,Chelsea Rooming House, in 1930. He continued to win prizes and esteem for his poetry while also becoming an acclaimed translator and literary critic. He died in 1982.
Sara Myersis Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Virginia. The author ofOvid’s Causes:Cosmogony and Aetiology in the Metamorphosesand Metamorphoses 14, she has also published numerous articles on Ovid, Statius, Roman elegy, and Roman gardens.

CHAOS AND CREATION
Before land was and sea—before air and sky
Arched over all, all Nature was all Chaos,
The rounded body of all things in one,
The living elements at war with lifelessness,
No God, no Titan shone from sky or sea,
No Moon, no Phoebe outgrew slanted horns,
And walks the night, nor was Earth poised in air,
No wife of Ocean reached her glittering arms
Into the farthest shores of reef and sand.
Earth, Air, Water heaved and turned in darkness,
No living creatures knew that land, that sea
Where heat fell against cold, cold against heat—
Roughness at war with smooth and wet with drought.
Things that gave way entered unyielding masses,
Heaviness fell into things that had no weight.