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Robert Fitzgerald Quotes

Powerful Robert Fitzgerald for Daily Growth

About Robert Fitzgerald

Robert Fitzgerald (1910-1985), an esteemed American poet and translator, was born on September 2, 1910, in Brookline, Massachusetts. He grew up in a creative environment; his mother, Helen Winslow, was a published author, and his father, Richard Fitzgerald, was a prominent lawyer and literary patron. Fitzgerald's early education took place at Groton School, where he developed a strong interest in classical studies. After graduating from Harvard University in 1932, he pursued further education at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. Here, Fitzgerald immersed himself in the world of English literature, particularly the works of John Keats and James Joyce. Fitzgerald's career began to flourish in the 1940s with the publication of his first collection of poems, "Twenty Poems" (1942). He continued to publish poetry throughout his life, with notable collections such as "The Long Distance Runner" (1963), which earned him a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. However, Fitzgerald is perhaps best known for his translations of classical texts, particularly Homer's epic poems, "The Iliad" (1961) and "The Odyssey" (1963). His renderings of these ancient works into modern English have been celebrated for their beauty, clarity, and faithfulness to the originals. Throughout his life, Fitzgerald's work was influenced by his deep love for literature, his dedication to craftsmanship, and his desire to make classical texts accessible to a modern audience. He passed away on December 19, 1985, leaving behind a legacy of timeless poetry and groundbreaking translations that continue to inspire readers today.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The great poets make nothing happen; they merely witness it."

This quote emphasizes that great poets serve as observers rather than instigators or agents of change. Their role is not to create events, but to capture, interpret, and immortalize significant moments in life through their art. In essence, they are the silent witnesses of human experience who transform raw emotions and observations into poetry, providing us with timeless insights into the human condition.

"Art is a way of realizing values in experience that are greater than those realized in ordinary experience."

This quote by Robert Fitzgerald suggests that art transcends everyday experiences, providing a means to express and appreciate values beyond our ordinary comprehension. It's the creative process of an artist that amplifies and elevates the human experience, allowing us to perceive and value aspects of life in deeper, more profound ways.

"Poetry can communicate before it is understood."

This quote suggests that the power of poetry transcends simple understanding. Poetry, in its essence, has a profound impact on us even when we do not fully comprehend its meaning or intent. The beauty, rhythm, and emotion conveyed in a poem can resonate deeply within us, stirring our feelings and thoughts, sometimes before we consciously grasp what the words actually signify. Essentially, poetry communicates more than just language; it speaks to our souls, connecting us on a level beyond rational comprehension.

"A translation is never just a transposition from one language into another. It is, rather, an act of creation, in which the translator must make choices that are inherently subjective and personal."

This quote by Robert Fitzgerald emphasizes that translating a work from one language to another is not merely a mechanical exercise, but an artistic endeavor. It involves creative decisions, as the translator must interpret the original text while considering cultural nuances and maintaining the author's intended tone and style. As such, each translation reflects the translator's unique perspective and choices, making every translation inherently personal and subjective.

"The poet's task is to find the words for what he has seen, or felt, or known."

This quote by Robert Fitzgerald emphasizes the role of a poet as an interpreter and communicator of profound experiences, emotions, or observations. The poet is not merely recounting facts but translating deeply personal insights into language that can resonate with others. Through their unique expression, they transform private moments into shared human truths, enriching our collective understanding and empathy.

What the translator - myself in particular - does is not comparable to what the Homeric performer was doing.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Doing, Performer, Does, Translator

Well, with the French language, which I understood and spoke, however imperfectly, and read in great quantities, at certain times, the matter I suppose was slightly different from either Latin or Greek.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Greek, However, Which, French Language

In a way you can feel that the poet actually is looking over your shoulder, and you say to yourself, now, how would this go for him? Would this do or not?

- Robert Fitzgerald

Go, Feel, Over, Shoulder

Well, maybe so, although I don't think I am particularly gifted in languages. In fact, oddly enough, it may have something to do with my being slow at languages.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Think, Fact, Particularly, Oddly

Now, the language that had grown up and formed itself on those principles is what one is dealing with, and the problem is to bring a work of art in that medium into another medium formed on different principles and heard and understood in a different way.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Art, Dealing, Different Way, Understood

The invention of Bob Dylan with his guitar belongs in its way to the same kind of tradition of something meant to be heard, as the songs of Homer.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Kind, Way, Meant, Invention

Of course the other and more serious way in which it all happens is that one finds in poems and language some quality one appropriates for oneself and wishes to reproduce.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Some, Other, Which, Reproduce

One should indeed read Pope with his notes available, in the Twickenham edition possibly, to see what a vast amount he did understand about Homer.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Pope, Amount, Read, Possibly

I think it was lucky that during most of the work on the Odyssey I lived on Homer's sea in houses that were, in one case, shaken by the impact of the Mediterranean winter storms on the rocks below.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Think, Lucky, I Think, Storms

Yes, and there were changes of light on landscapes and changes of direction of the wind and the force of the wind and weather. That whole scene is too important in Homer to neglect.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Changes, Yes, Landscapes, Wind

Homer's whole language, the language in which he lived, the language that he breathed, because he never saw it, or certainly those who formed his tradition never saw it, in characters on the pages. It was all on the tongue and in the ear.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Tongue, Which, Certainly, Formed

Words began to appear in English and to make some kind of equivalent. For what satisfaction it is hard to say, except that something seems unusually piercing, living, handsome, in another language, and since English is yours, you wish it to be there too.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Handsome, Some, Equivalent, Yours

In fact, eloquence in English will inevitably make use of the Latin element in our vocabulary.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Fact, Vocabulary, Eloquence, Element

Is encouragement what the poet needs? Open question. Maybe he needs discouragement. In fact, quite a few of them need more discouragement, the most discouragement possible.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Fact, Needs, Discouragement, Encouragement

The heart of the matter seems to me to be the direct interaction between one's making a poem in English and a poem in the language that one understands and values. I don't see how you can do it otherwise.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Values, Making, Otherwise, Understands

I would then go on to say that Homer, as we now know, was working in what they call an oral tradition.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Now, Call, Would, Oral

There must of course be a relationship between translating and making poems of your own, but what it is I just don't know.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Own, Making, Your, Translating

Poetry is at least an elegance and at most a revelation.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Revelation, Most, Least, Elegance

Yes, living voices in a living language, so it seemed to us.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Living, Yes, Seemed, Voices

That helped me to keep in touch with myself and to keep in touch with this really quite extraordinary language and literature into which I had pushed a little way.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Myself, Touch, Which, Pushed

The question is how to bring a work of imagination out of one language that was just as taken-for-granted by the persons who used it as our language is by ourselves. Nothing strange about it.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Work, Question, Nothing, Persons

I think that everyone who took part has always been grateful for it.

- Robert Fitzgerald

Think, Always, Took, Part

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