Stanley Lombardo

Stanley F. "Stan" Lombardo (alias Hae Kwang; born June 19, 1943) is an American Classicist, and former professor of Classics at the University of Kansas. He is best known for his translations of the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid. The style of his translations is a more vernacular one, emphasizing conversational English rather than the formal tone of some older American English translations of classical verse. Lombardo designs his translations to be performed orally, as they were in ancient Greece. He also performs the poems, and has recorded them as audio books. In performance he also likes to play the drums, much like Ezra Pound.

Works and Days and Theogony (1993)

 * Works and Days and Theogony (Hackett Publishing Company, 1993), ISBN 978-0-87220-179-8

But also, when we want to, how to speak the plain truth.
 * We know how to tell many believable lies,
 * Theogony, lines 28–29

And women's harm, comes to deadly old age Without any son to support him.
 * Whoever escapes marriage
 * Theogony, lines 607–609


 * There's no way to get around the mind of Zeus.
 * Theogony, line 617

Iliad (1997)

 * Iliad (Hackett Publishing Company, 1997), ISBN 0-87220-352-2

Sing, Goddess, Achilles' rage, Black and murderous, that cost the Greeks Incalculable pain.
 * Rage:
 * Book I, opening lines

The wind blows them to the ground, but the tree Sprouts new ones when spring comes again. Men too. Their generations come and go.
 * Human generations are like leaves in their seasons.
 * Book VI, lines 149–152; Glaucus to Diomedes.

And you could keep from grieving at all the pain.
 * It was glorious to see—if your heart were iron,
 * Book XIII, lines 355–356



Get out of the war alive and then immortal and ageless all of our days, I would never again fight among the foremost Or send you into battle where men win glory. But as it is, death is everywhere In more shapes that we can count, And since no mortal is immune or can escape, Let's go forward, either to give glory To another man, or get glory from him.
 * Ah, my friend, if you and I could only
 * Book XX, lines 333–342; Sarpedon to Glaucus.

Do lions make peace treaties with men? Do wolves and lambs agree to get along?
 * Don't try to cut any deals with me, Hector.
 * Book XXII, lines 287–289; spoken by Achilles.

Who has walked this earth has ever yet borne. I have kissed the hand of the man who killed my son.
 * I have borne what no man
 * Book XXIV, lines 541–543; Priam to Achilles.

Odyssey (2000)

 * Odyssey (Hackett Publishing Company, 2000), ISBN 978-0-87220-485-0

Your heart's desire, a husband and a home, And the blessing of a harmonious life. For nothing is greater or finer than this, When a man and woman live together With one heart and mind, bringing joy To their friends and grief to their foes.
 * And for yourself, may the gods grant you
 * Book VI, lines 183–189; Odysseus to Nausicaa.

I'd rather be a hired hand back up on earth, Slaving away for some poor dirt farmer, Than lord it over all these withered dead.
 * Don't try to sell me on death, Odysseus.
 * Book XI, lines 510–513; spoken by the ghost of Achilles.

Sappho's Poems and Fragments (2002)

 * Sappho's Poems and Fragments (Hackett Publishing Company, 2002), ISBN 978-0-87220-591-8

iridescent, deathless Aphrodite.
 * Shimmering,
 * Frag. 1

some say on foot, and some say ships are the most beautiful things on this black earth, but I say it is whatever you love.
 * Some say an army on horseback,
 * Frag. 31

And the Pleiades. Midnight. The hour has gone by. I sleep alone.
 * The moon has set,
 * Frag. 72

Aeneid (2005)

 * Aeneid (Hackett Publishing Company, 2005), ISBN 978-0-87220-732-5

These will be your arts: to establish peace, To spare the humbled, and to conquer the proud.
 * Your mission, Roman, is to rule the world.
 * Book VI, lines 1016–1018; Anchises to Aeneas.

Trust in Mind (2008)

 * Zen Sourcebook (Hackett Publishing Company, 2008), ISBN 978-0-87220-909-1

Not easy, not difficult. But small minds get lost. Hurrying, they fall behind. Clinging, they go too far, Sure to take a wrong turn. Just let it be! In the end, Nothing goes, nothing stays.
 * The Way is calm and wide,
 * The Hsin-hsin-ming of Seng-ts'an, lines 61–68

Inferno (2008)

 * Inferno (Hackett Publishing Company, 2008), ISBN 978-0-87220-917-6

Through me is the way to sorrow eternal. Through me is the way to the lost below.
 * Through me is the way to the city of woe.
 * Canto III, lines 1–3