The Regrets

Joachim Du Bellay

Northwestern University Press, Aug 25, 2004 - Poetry - 280 pages

A bilingual edition of one of the finest sonnet sequences of the Renaissance

As a member of the mid-sixteenth-century literary group La Pléiade, Joachim du Bellay sought to elevate his native French to the level of the classical languages—a goal pursued with great spirit, elegance, irony, and wit in the poems that comprise The Regrets. Widely viewed as one of the finest sonnet sequences in all of French literature, this Renaissance masterpiece wryly echoes the homesickness and longing of Ovid's poetry written in exile—because du Bellay finds himself lost in Rome, the very home Ovid longed for. In this translation by David R. Slavitt, these brilliant performances retain their original formal playfulness as well as their gracefully rendered but nonetheless moving melancholy. In decadent Rome, among hypocrites, thieves, and snobs, du Bellay uses his poetry as an opportunity for social satire and caustic self-criticism-it becomes a salvation of sorts, an approach peculiarly modern in its blending of the classical, the social, and the personal.

About the author

JOACHIM DU BELLAY (1525–1560) was born in Liré, a small town in Anjou, orphaned at the age of seven, and raised by an older brother. After studying law at the University of Blois, then attending the College of Coqueret in Paris, du Bellay accompanied Cardinal Jean du Bellay, his father's cousin, to Rome, where he composed the poems that make up The Regrets. David R. Slavitt was born in White Plains, New York in 1935. He received an AB and an MA from Columbia University. After graduating from college and beginning a Ph.D., he worked as a movie critic for Newsweek from the late 1950s through the mid-1960s. During this time, he published his first book of poetry, Suits for the Dead. His first novel, Rochelle, or Virtue Rewarded, was published in 1966. He has written about 100 works of fiction, poetry, and poetry and drama in translation including Alice at 80, The Cock Book, Falling from Silence: Poems, The Latin Odes of Jean Dorat, Milton's Latin Poems, and Three Greenlandic Poets. He also writes under the names David Benjamin, Henry Lazarus, Lynn Meyer, and Henry Sutton. As Henry Sutton, he has written less "literary" works that have sold well such as The Exhibitionist and The Sacrifice: A Novel of the Occult.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Regrets; European Poetry Classics
• Author: Joachim Du Bellay
• Translated by: David R. Slavitt
• Publisher: Northwestern University Press, 2004
• ISBN: 0810119935, 9780810119932
• Length: 280 pages
• Subjects: Poetry / European / General; Poetry / General