George Economou

Paul Blackburn

Few works have shaped a national literature as thoroughly as the Poem of the Cid has shaped the Spanish literary tradition. Tracing the life of the eleventh-century military commander Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, called El Cid (from the Arabic Sayyidi, "My Lord"), this medieval epic describes a series of events surrounding his exile. The text of the poem survives in only one early-thirteenth-century manuscript copied by a single scribe, yet centuries later the figure of the Cid still was celebrated in the Spanish popular ballad tradition. Today almost every theme that characterizes Spanish literature-honor, justice, loyalty, treachery, and jealousy—derives from the Poem of the Cid. Restored by poet and medievalist George Economou, this elegant and spirited translation by Paul Blackburn is judged by many the finest English translation of a great medieval poem.

A Modern Translation with Notes

Poem of the Cid

William Langland

Presents a translation of the poet's third version of the text

The C Version

William Langland's "Piers Plowman"

Partly an addendum to George Economou's versions of the canonical Cavafy poems published by Shearsman in 2013 - in that this book includes completed versions of the master's unfinished poems- this volume also includes a number of Economou's own uncollected poems and translations, giving us a picture of both poet and translator, as well as a shadowy image of Cavafy himself.

Unfinished and Uncollected

The concept goddess Natura -- one most of the of the significant allegorical figures of medieval Latin and vernacular poetry -- drew upon many strands of classical and Christian thought, from Plato's Timaeus to Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy. In what is perhaps the best history of the goddess Natura, George Economou provides a full-length study of her philosophical background and the literary traditions that contributed to her image. Economou's work focuses on the renaissance of the twelfth century, when a new kind of allegory appeared that celebrated and explored the nature of the cosmos. He analyzes the central role that Natura played in the writings of Bernard Silvestris, Jean de Meun, Alain de Lille, and Geoffrey Chaucer. This paperback edition includes a new introduction by the author and an updated bibliography.

George Economou

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