Catullus is a companion of lovers and of those whom love has disappointed. He is also a satirical and epigrammatic writer who savagely consoles with laughter. Carmina captures in English both the mordant, scathing wit and also the concise tenderness, the famous love for reluctant Lesbia who is made present in these new versions. A range of English metres and rhymes evokes the many modes and moods of this most engaging, erotic and influential of Latin poets. Of Len Krisak's translations of Horace, Frederic Raphael writes, '[He] enables us both to enjoy a fresh voice and to hear (and see), very distinctly, what lies behind and within his unintimidated rescripts'. Again in Carmina Krisak works his precise magic.
