Jerusalem Delivered (Gerusalemme Liberata) FROM THE PUBLISHER
Arguably the greatest Italian poet after Dante, Torquato Tasso was born in Sorrento in 1544 and died in
Rome in 1595, having served as the court poet in Ferrara, been confined for years in a madhouse after
attacking a servant with a knife, and composed one of the great works of Renaissance literature.
Unjustly neglected today, Tasso's epic poem Jerusalem Delivered (first published in 1581) is set
in the 11th century and tells the story of the First Crusade and the siege which gave Christian armies
control over Jerusalem and the Holy Lands for a time.
As in other epic poems, Jerusalem Delivered deftly mixes history and myth. Tasso's
heroes—Godfrey, leader of the Christian armies; Rinaldo, bravest of the Christian warriors; and
Tancred, the Italian prince who falls in love with the pagan warrioress Clorinda, whom he eventually (and
simultaneously) converts and kills—must face not only the Saracens and their allies, but also a host of
fearsome and manipulative devils, demons, and sorcerers. This is a sweeping and often thrilling tale of
war, faith, love, and sex that easily rivals its classical predecessors. Writing at a time when Christianity
was bitterly divided, Tasso was naturally concerned with the nature of leadership and loyalty, with the
importance of sacrifice, with the evils of corruption, and with the existence of truth, themes that continue
to resonate today. No wonder that for three centuries, Jerusalem Delivered was considered the
great modern epic. Indeed, Spenser borrowed scenes and episodes from this poem in writing the
Faerie Queen, and Milton was greatly influenced by Tasso when writing his own Christian epic,
Paradise Lost.
English-language readers who are familiar with Tasso's grand romance have until now known it only
through a verse translation by English poet Edward Fairfax published in 1600. In order to fit Tasso's
stanzas into the then popular Spenserian verse form, Fairfax had to alter the original poem considerably.
Now, 400 years later, Anthony Esolen presents a new translation that transforms Jerusalem
Delivered into an English-language masterpiece. The first major verse translation into English since
Fairfax's, Esolen's version is both more true to its original source and more fluid than that of his
Elizabethan predecessor. Esolen has translated Jerusalem Delivered with the care of poet,
capturing the delight of Tasso's descriptions, the different voices of its cast of characters, the shadings
between glory and tragedy, and does them all in an English as powerful as Tasso's Italian. Esolen's will
immediately be acclaimed as the definitive translation of this powerful work of faith and war. Like the
Fagles Iliad and Odyssey, the Pinsky Inferno, and Seamus Heaney's imaginative
new rendering of Beowulf, Anthony Esolen's bold, fast-moving, and faithful translation of Tasso's
Crusade-era adventure will introduce a new generation of readers to a masterpiece of world literature.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Published in 1581, Tasso's (1544-95) verse epic on the 11th-century First Crusade and the love of Tancred and Clorinda is one the masterpieces of Italian literature. Esolen (English, Providence Coll.), a translator of Lucretius's On the Nature of Things, here provides a solid verse translation. Despite its importance, Jerusalem Delivered has enjoyed only one significant rendition in English that is still in print: Edward Fairfax's 1600 Spenserian version. Esolen observes the basic shape, rhythm, and rhetorical movement of the original ottava rima but never sacrifices poetry or meaning to rigid form. The result is both highly readable and truer to the spirit of Tasso than Fairfax's rendition. Esolen also provides a valuable introduction, an essay on Tasso's allegory, a glossary of characters, and helpful textual notes to identify allusions. An important contribution; recommended for public and academic libraries.--T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong Atlantic State Univ., Savannah, GA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\
Home
