Robert Fagles, 74, Translator of Greek Classics
JeffCo
Robert Fagles, renowned translator of Greek classics, died March 26 in
Princeton of prostate cancer. He was 74.
Fagles, the Arthur Marks '19 Professor of Comparative Literature
Emeritus at Princeton University, was widely acclaimed for his popular
translations of Homer's "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey," both of which
became best-sellers. He also created English renditions of "The
Oresteia" by Aeschylus and "The Three Theban Plays" by Sophocles as
well as "The Aeneid" by the Roman poet Virgil.
"He was a quiet man, diligent and decorous, yet one who was
unexpectedly equal to the swagger and savagery of Homer's 'Iliad' and
'Odyssey' in a way no one had managed before him," said Paul Muldoon,
the Howard G.B. Clark '21 University Professor in the Humanities and
chair of the Lewis Center for the Arts. "It was as if two key texts of
Western literature had been adapted by a director of Westerns like
[Sergio] Leone or [Sam] Peckinpah. Robert Fagles will be remembered
for many reasons, not least of which being his extraordinary
achievement in giving us not only a Homer, but a Virgil, who were true
both to their own moments and ours."
Robert Hollander, professor of European literature and French and
Italian emeritus and a colleague for some 40 years, added, "No
translator of major writers in the Western literary tradition has ever
met with the kind of success that Robert Fagles has enjoyed. His
'trilogy,' both epics of Homer and that of Virgil, has brought these
texts to life for over a million readers. It was a joy to share some
of his joy in that success with him, just as it was sadness to watch
his brave, slow battle with pain."
Born on Sept. 11, 1933, in Philadelphia, Fagles earned his bachelor's
degree, summa cum laude, in English literature from Amherst College in
1955. He completed his Ph.D. in English literature at Yale University
in 1959 and taught there as an instructor for a year. He joined the
Princeton faculty in the Department of English in 1960.
"My friendship with Bob Fagles goes back 50 years, when we taught in
the same humanities program at Yale," said Victor Brombert, the Henry
Putnam University Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and
Comparative Literature Emeritus. "As a junior colleague, Bob already
had the highest standards and made the greatest demands on himself,
displaying a warm humanity and an exquisite interest in others. His
leading presence in comparative literature at Princeton was for me
years later a powerful enticement for joining Princeton's faculty. His
achievements as a supremely poetic translator of great classical texts
are outstanding. His passion for literature was genuine, as was his
moral fiber. And he knew how to laugh."
Starting in 1966, Fagles was director of Princeton's Program in
Comparative Literature, which attained department status in 1975. He
served as founding chair of the department from 1975 to 1994.
"Bob's warmth and intelligence provided luminous guidance for our
department's growth well beyond his years as chair, and he must
especially be credited for comparative literature's ongoing
integration of literary study with translation and the creative arts,"
said Sandra Bermann, the current chair of the department. "He was, we
all know, a much praised translator and poet, a gifted teacher and an
innovative administrator. In all of these domains he left his mark."
Fagles' teaching and research specialties were the classical tradition
in English and European literature; the theory and practice of
translation; interrelationships between the arts; and forms of poetry:
lyric, tragedy and epic.
"When I came to Princeton in 1976, in the heady days of literary
theory, Bob was following an independent line," said Lionel Gossman,
the M. Taylor Pyne Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures
Emeritus. "His relation to the texts he studied and taught and loved
was more practical than theoretical. His way of getting to the inner
shape and meaning of a text was to recreate it, not to apply theories
to it or use it to illustrate theories. In the last 20 years or so
especially, his extraordinary talent as a translator -- his
translations of Greek and now Latin classics have become classics in
their own right -- won him universal recognition and many honors. It
is typical of him that he shared his pleasure in this ever-increasing
success and celebrity with his friends and made us all feel somehow
party to it.
"In the most difficult last months of his illness," Gossman continued,
"in circumstances that would have made many people angry, his innate
courtesy, humor and wit (playful and kindly, never mean) were enhanced
by an ability to create around him an atmosphere, rare in academic
circles, in which the expression of affection was absolutely natural
and normal. For his friends the world is colder as well as poorer
without him."
Fagles received numerous awards over the years, including the National
Humanities Medal, the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation, the
Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and
Letters, the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award of the Academy of
American Poets and Princeton's Behrman Award for Distinguished
Achievement in the Humanities. He was elected to the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society and the
American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Having such a noted scholar on the faculty enabled many Princeton
students to take part in a unique experience during their initial
years on campus.
"Of all the things I loved and admired so much about Bob, I think
especially of his extraordinary engagement with our youngest
students," said Nancy Malkiel, dean of the college. "Years ago, I
recruited him to teach a freshman seminar. The seminar gave a small
group of entering freshmen the chance to read Fagles' 'Iliad' and
Fagles' 'Odyssey' under the guidance of the master translator himself.
Bob loved that seminar, and he taught it again and again until he
retired.
"When we inaugurated the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence to
honor distinguished achievement on the part of some 70 Princeton
freshmen and sophomores, I chose those volumes as the book award for
the students," she continued. "Bob came to the banquet, spoke about
translating Homer and read from his magnificent texts. The students
were mesmerized; at the conclusion of the celebration, every one of
them lined up to have Bob sign their books. And when we inaugurated
the Princeton Humanities Symposium for outstanding high school seniors
in the humanities and creative arts, it was Bob to whom I turned to
give the address at the celebratory banquet; again, the students
regarded him as a hero -- someone whose works they had read in their
high school classes, and whose reading that night simply captivated
them."
Fagles retired from the faculty in 2002. This past June, Princeton
awarded him an honorary doctor of humane letters for "four decades of
feats on behalf of Princeton, as the founding father of comparative
literature, as a gracious and wise colleague and as an inspiring
mentor and teacher."
"Bob Fagles was not simply a superb translator, poet and teacher of
poetry," said Edmund Keeley, the Charles Barnwell Straut Class of 1923
Professor of English Emeritus and a friend since Fagles joined the
faculty. "He was among those select colleagues who were always
generous toward others, whether fellow teachers, students or
supporting staff. He could not speak ill of anyone he came to know or
practice witty judgments, yet he was a discriminating reader. His
breadth of spirit, along with his poet's ear for language, were among
the attributes that allowed him to understand and render the greatest
ancient poets with both sensitivity and passion."
C.K. Williams, lecturer with the rank of professor in creative writing
and the Lewis Center for the Arts, added, "Robert Fagles was the most
widely read and widely celebrated poet translator of his time, indeed
of any time. He was also the kindest, most generous, most loving
person I've ever met, and I don't believe these facts are unrelated.
His work is radiant with a love of poetry, of language, of people, of
the entire human experience. There was no one like him."
Survivors include his wife of 51 years, Lynne; and two daughters and
their husbands and children: Katya Fagles and Richard Friedman and
their daughter, Lindsay, of Randolph, N.J.; and Nina and Richard
Hartley and their children, Tessa and Jed, of Hampden, Maine.
Burial will be private. A memorial service in the University Chapel is
being planned in late May.
DGH
This is the only person by the name of "Fagles" ever mentioned in
alt.obituaries.