Phaedra

Racine Jean

Phaedra is a new verse translation of Racine's Phaedre. As with his acclaimed and often-performed Cyrano de Bergerac (published by Carcanet in 1992), so here Edwin Morgan has chosen to translate this greatest of French classic tragedies, with its measured and highly formal rhetoric, into a vigorous, specific idiom: a Glaswegian-based Scots. It is a risk worth taking: the version is at once true to the drama and psychology of Racine's play, but also answers the dramatic needs of modern theatre. Morgan's aim is to make Racine's play speak with immediacy and to remove the hushed respect with which Racine is often presented, replacing it with a deeper respect for Racine's poetry, the characters and today's audience.

About the Author

Jean Racine (1639-1699) is France's greatest tragic playwright. Edwin Morgan was born in Glasgow in 1920. He became lecturer in English at the University of Glasgow and retired as titular Professor in 1980. Carcanet publish many of his works, including "Collected Poems" (1990), "Crossing the Border: essays" (1990), "Sweeping Out the Dark" (1994), "Collected Translations" (1996) and a "New Selected Poems" (2000).

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