Martial: Some Midnight Translations Sed in primis ad fontes ipsos properandum, id est graecos et antiquos.

Tonight on Substack: some thoughts on always returning ad fontes in my life, and three fun translations of epigrams by Martial.

open.substack.com/pub/avmarrac...

Martial: Some Midnight Translations Sed in primis ad fontes ipsos properandum, id est graecos et antiquos.

Tonight on Substack: some thoughts on always returning ad fontes in my life, and three fun translations of epigrams by Martial.

open.substack.com/pub/avmarrac...

Omg wow! I would have made myself not scream and hid behind something clumsily had I seen this in person.

Hölderlin Redux another translation and a rejoinder to the right wing capture of the German Romantics and their neoclassicisms

New on my Substack: Hölderlin Redux-- another translation and a rejoinder to the right wing capture of the German Romantics and their neoclasscisms

open.substack.com/pub/avmarrac...

In which you get a fresh little Hölderlin translation, a personal challenge to up your classical language skills, *and* delicious bacon-wrapped chestnuts fired at the RETVRN-o-philes.

What more does one need for a good-time Saturday night?

Hölderlin Redux another translation and a rejoinder to the right wing capture of the German Romantics and their neoclassicisms

New on my Substack: Hölderlin Redux-- another translation and a rejoinder to the right wing capture of the German Romantics and their neoclasscisms

open.substack.com/pub/avmarrac...

Plin update— officially 3.4 lbs at the vet!

Hölderlin Duplex: a review of a play + a new translation Peter Weiss’ Hölderlin at LifeWorld, Brod und Wein VII newly in English by me

A review-essay about a new production of Peter Weiss’ Hölderlin and my new translation in English of Brod und Wein VII in my latest Substack post here:

open.substack.com/pub/avmarrac...

Hölderlin Duplex: a review of a play + a new translation Peter Weiss’ Hölderlin at LifeWorld, Brod und Wein VII newly in English by me

A review-essay about a new production of Peter Weiss’ Hölderlin and my new translation in English of Brod und Wein VII in my latest Substack post here:

open.substack.com/pub/avmarrac...

If you like Huysmans, Nijinsky, perfume, rotting, or Ovid, this is for you.

Apologies, late night typos: Toe Rag* of course, Philippa Snow**, and it also includes new Anne Carson in this issue if that’s your jam!

Since it’s print only and Plin was feeling extra participatory, here’s what my piece looks like in The Toe Rage Decadence issue (order here thetoerag.com) Other great contributors to this issue include @kukukadoo and Phillipa Snow.

Show Up For The Radiant Classical Difficult On Norte Maar's Counterpointe 13

New on my Substack (Cloud Studies)— a review-essay on a new set of contemporary classical ballet collaborations at Counterpointe 13, and the value of difficulty and classical lineages made new in an inattentive world. open.substack.com/pub/avmarrac...

The Perch:

Big Stretch!

As for Plin, I actually have to check this against the real Pliny but I think the kitten at least, prefers the plains of Troy rather than the problems of afterward. She would speed on a bumping chariot at 40 mph without blinking on her four little white legs like a deathless god.

For the Pavese Leucothea Dialogues, his most strange and pleasingly referential book, you can buy them from indie @archipelagobooks.bsky.social For more Homeric commentary after millennia, my friend the Homerist, Joel Christensen, has a new Odysseus crossover book coming out this spring-summer.

I have always been an Iliad person, but reading Pavese’s Leucothea Dialogues has made me softer toward Odysseus again, made the many turnings shift a corner. It’s funny how Homeric commentary still works that way for readers after millennia…

They had to wait until she stopped purring from attention to check her heart, she was sooo friendly!

Home from the vet where she was dubbed an angel by the techs at 2.35 pounds. Just in case, Plin will now be getting extra nutritional supplementation since she is so tiny— but she may just be a small kitty!

A List of Recent Loves Manet Roses, Wyatt Sonnets, Tang Imports, High Femme Japanese Makeup

A new Substack, on various recent loves, including Manet roses, Wyatt sonnets, Golden Peaches of Samarkand, and Japanese High Femme Makeup, with shouts to Hannah Smart and @drewdaniel.bsky.social Read it here:

open.substack.com/pub/avmarrac...

The Leucothea Dialogues - Archipelago Books Longlisted for the 2026 PEN Translation Prize   Cesare Pavese’s The Leucothea Dialogues is peopled with gods, centaurs, clouds, poets, hunters, snakes, and nymphs. These are the beings who spoke to hi...

More info here: archipelagobooks.org/book/the-leu...

Tonight’s diversion from Archipelago, @archipelagobooks.bsky.social , a Pavese that’s not a novel about fascism but something strange, deeply antiquarian, whimsical. Exactly what I needed. I just order their back catalogue blind because they have such good taste and make beautiful books.

Entering her long-legged phase as she grows. Now taking bets for her weight at the vet on Friday. She was 1.9 pounds on February 14.

A List of Recent Loves Manet Roses, Wyatt Sonnets, Tang Imports, High Femme Japanese Makeup

A new Substack, on various recent loves, including Manet roses, Wyatt sonnets, Golden Peaches of Samarkand, and Japanese High Femme Makeup, with shouts to Hannah Smart and @drewdaniel.bsky.social Read it here:

open.substack.com/pub/avmarrac...

Snippets of MoMA with the undergrads today:

Sometimes you suddenly remember why a poem you’ve seen a hundred times is good again, why a thing is “a classic” as it just snaps backs into its natural place of awe in the world. Now I want to spent the rest of the week reading Wyatt again; noli me tangere for Wyatt’s, I am!

This is tomorrow and I’ll be reading a corona of sonnets on ends of empire, Tang and Song Dynastic influences, museum vitrines, melancholy antiquarianism, and yes, Pliny the kitten.

Love, actually.

LGBT History Month is February in the UK, and I’m thrilled to see We The Parasites featured by its British publisher, @bhousepress.bsky.social!