Guy Lee of St Johns College, Cambridge, is a distinguished Latinist who has made his name both as a perceptive interpreter of poetry and as a sensitive translator. In this work he combines his special gifts in a delightful fashion. Waves of translators have assaulted and been broken on the shining rocks of Horatian lyric, being judged in terms of failure rather than success. Ls attempt is a brilliant one and his versions represent, at worst, splendid failures and, at best, remarkable successes. Though the author is a scholar, his book is not aimed at scholars but at lovers of poetry who wish to know what Horace says in his Odes and how he says it. No lover of poetry who lacks direct access to Horace should be disappointed. ... In translation it is astonishing how closely L. has managed to keep to the original while maintaining an easy natural style. ... the versions are so accurate that they could be recommended as a 'crib' for students of Latin. They are however far superior to that kind of work in elegance and sensibility, and might serve as a reliable guide to the best contemporary English usage, for L. employs as far as possible the language of ordinary speech, avoiding archaism, poetical diction, inversion and the like.'--Arnold Bradshaw "Revue Latomus, 60, 2001 "
