Deeds and Their Days

Peter Fallon’s widely acclaimed translation of The Georgics of Virgil appeared in 2004. A sub-sequent edition was published by Oxford in its World’s Classics series. Now he turns his hand to a poem by Hesiod (c.700 bce) which was a model for Virgil’s ‘song of the earth’. In his rendition of the work commonly referred to as Works and Days the energy of his sprightly verses propels a version of man’s origins, an ancient almanac, a store of instructions for the best way to live on earth and the drama of the poet’s address to, and condemnation of, his brother, Perses. Peter Fallon’s skills as a translator have never been more clear.