Josephine Balmer's translations breathe new life into long-lost works by over a dozen poets from early Greece to the late Roman empire, including Sappho, Corinna, Erinna and Sulpicia, as well as inscriptions, folk-songs and even graffiti. Each poet is introduced by a brief bibliographical note, and where necessary her poems are annotated to guide readers through unfamiliar mythological of historical reference. In an illuminating introduction, Josephine Balmer examines the nature of women's poetry in antiquity, as well as the problems (and pleasures) of translating such fragmentary works....

Sensual, salacious and above all scandalous, the erotic verse of the Roman poet Catullus has delighted - and shocked - readers for centuries. This new translation of the complete shorter poems highlights both the intense lyricism and the scabrous wit of the original.

In Piecing Together the Fragments, translator and poet Josephine Balmer examines the art of classical translation from the perspective of the practitioner. Positioning her study within the long tradition of translator prefaces and introductions, Balmer argues that such statements should be considered as much a part of creative writing as literary theory. From translating Sappho and other classical women poets, as well as Catullus and Ovid, to her poetry collections inspired by classical literature, Balmer discusses her relationship with her source texts and uncovers the various strategies and...