Allen Mandelbaum

Allen Mandelbaum (May 4, 1926 – October 27, 2011) was an American professor of Italian literature, poet, and translator.

Quotes

The Aeneid of Virgil (1971)

• I sing of arms and of a man: his fate
  had made him fugitive; he was the first
  to journey from the coasts of Troy as far
  as Italy and the Lavinian shores.
  • Book I, lines 1–4

• For other peoples will, I do not doubt,
  still cast their bronze to breathe with softer features,
  or draw out of the marble living lines,
  plead causes better, trace the ways of heaven
  with wands and tell the rising constellations;
  but yours will be the rulership of nations,
  remember Roman, these will be your arts:
  to teach the ways of peace to those you conquer,
  to spare defeated peoples, tame the proud.
  • Book VI, lines 1129–1137

• Euryalus, is it
  the gods who put this fire in our minds,
  or is it that each man's relentless longing
  becomes a god to him?
  • Book IX, lines 243–246