Crossing the Bay of Bengal: The Furies of Nature and the Fortunes of Migrants

The acclaimed translation of the classic poem at the heart of Stephen Greenblatt’s The Swerve “A plague . . . tests us in unique ways. . . . Only if you can face the invisible bullets all around us, and still keep calm, remain rational, and somehow find it possible to take pleasure in life, have you learned the lesson that [The Nature of Things] set out to teach.” —Stephen Greenblatt, The New Yorker Lucretius’ poem On the Nature of Things combines a scientific and philosophical treatise with some of the greatest poetry ever written. With intense moral fervour he demonstrates to humanity that in death there is nothing to fear since the soul is mortal, and the world and everything in it is governed by the mechanical laws of nature and not by gods; and that by believing this men can live in peace of mind and happiness. He bases this on the atomic theory expounded by the Greek philosopher Epicurus, and continues with an examination of sensation, sex, cosmology, meteorology, and geology, all of these subjects made more attractive by the poetry with which he illustrates them. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

This groundbreaking volume may well be the poetry anthology for the global village. As selected by J.D. McClatchy, this collection includes masterpieces from four continents and more than two dozen languages in translations by such distinguished poets as Elizabeth Bishop, W.S. Merwin, Ted Hughes, and Seamus Heaney. Among the countries and writers represented are: Bangladesh–Taslima Nasrin Chile–Pablo Neruda China–Bei Dao, Shu Ting El Salvador–Claribel Alegria France–Yves Bonnefoy Greece–Odysseus Elytis, Yannis Ritsos India–A.K. Ramanujan Israel–Yehuda Amichai Japan–Shuntaro Tanikawa Mexico–Octavio Paz Nicaragua–Ernesto Cardenal Nigeria–Wole Soyinka Norway–Tomas Transtromer Palestine–Mahmoud Darwish Poland–Zbigniew Herbert, Czeslaw Milosz Russia–Joseph Brodsky, Yevgeny Yevtushenko Senegal–Leopold Sedar Senghor South Africa–Breyten Breytenbach St. Lucia, West Indies–Derek Walcott