For immediate release: October 8, 2003
For more information, contact Susan Griffith at 216-368-1004 or susan.griffith@case.edu

CLEVELAND—Actors vie for Academy Awards, but translators of European poetry into English seek the prestigious honor of the Corneliu M. Popescu Prize from the Poetry Society in London. Tom Bishop from the Case Western Reserve University department of English became a finalist for this year's Popescu Prize for his work translating Ovid's "Amores", the Roman poet's first volume of love poems and notes.

Tom Bishop

Publishers nominated 56 books, which the Poetry Society on Earl's Court Square claimed, was double the normal entries in the biennial competition. "Amores" enter the competition after its submission by Carcanet Press in London. (Bishop's book is distributed in the United States by Routledge Press.) David Constantine's translation of Hans Magnus Enzensberger's Lighter than Air eventually received the honor.

"For a translator, this is like a nomination for literature's Booker Prize," explains Bishop. "Translators get few bones thrown their way."

Bishop spent five years working on "Amores".

The project started by happenstance as the Case associate professor of English, a Shakespearean scholar, was "chasing down" a reference and found a translation by a famous scholar, whom he will not name, "unexciting."

With years of Latin learned during high school in his native Australia and put to use in his Renaissance studies classes, Bishop began couplet by couplet to present Ovid's work in a contemporary voice that revealed Ovid's personality, his early beginnings as a writer and his calling to a literary career.
Bishop quotes from Ovid about his yearning to be remembered as a writer, "How far can I go; I want this undying eternal fame. In 2,000 years people will still be reading me." "And, they are," exclaims Bishop.

"Translating became addictive," Bishop states. While he was not overly concerned with getting an exact Latin syntax, he wanted "to keep the poetry in a workable English voice."

Ovid—from Sulmo and a family that wanted a senatorial career in Rome for their son—was like many contemporary writers from small towns who find their ways to the big cities like New York and Paris and become enthralled with city life.

"He is one of those provincial boys who comes to the city and just goes bananas, because now he is in the big candy store: poetry, women, banquets, gossip, jealousy and a whole exciting world around him," says Bishop.
He adds that the young writer remains conscious that his work is a "first step," treading with care. Later love poems in The Art of Love would lead to claims of immorality and corrupting the minds of Roman citizens and to his exile in what is today Romania.

In addition to Bishop's translation published in March, scholars at Case have spanned the beginning and end of Ovid's writing life. Martin Helzle, chair of Case department of classics, has undertaken a study of Ovid's letters from exile, last literary works.

The Corneliu M. Popescu Prize was named in honor of a 19-year-old Romanian translator, who died in a 1977 earthquake. The young man had translated into English the works of Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu.

About Case Western Reserve University

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