# RIP Christopher Logue **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 4, 2011, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-christopher-logue/605060 "2011-12-04T21:37:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2011, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-christopher-logue/605060/1 "2011-12-04T21:37:57Z")
Who? I hear you ask. The man wasn’t particularly well known, but I was introduced to his work my freshman year in college. Purely by chance I learned that he died on December 2. It didn’t make even a small splash in the news. He was a poetr who has been working on the most idiosyncratic, weird, and wonderful translation of Homer’s _Iliad_. He’s been working on it for over fifty years, and it’s still not finished. He’s been publishing it piecemeal, and was supposed to be working on the last installment when he passed away. His translation is unlike any other translation of the Iliad. Or of any other book. It includes parodies, lines borrowed from advertising campaigns, and typographic fireworks. Here’s Achilles’ prayer to Zeus from Book 16 (The _Patrocleia_): > [@](#): > > Our Father, who rules in Heaven, > Hallowed be your name. > Because your will is done on Earth > Grant me this prayer, > As you have grannted other prayers of mine, > As you did grant me Agamemnon. > Humble in my stead. > I ask that you stay by me now, > Even as you go with my men, > And my Patroclus. > Give him this day your visctory. > And let him show Prince Hector he can win > Without me at his side. > And grant, above all else, O Lord, > That when the Trojans are defeated, he > Shall come home safe to me. Amen. > > God heard his prayer and granted half of it. > **[Christopher Logue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Logue)** > > Christopher Logue, CBE (23 November 1926 – 2 December 2011) was an English poet associated with the British Poetry Revival, and a pacifist. > Born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and brought up in the Portsmouth area, Logue was the only child of middle-aged parents, John and Molly Logue, who married late. He attended Roman Catholic schools, including St John's College, Portsmouth, Prior Park College, before going to Portsmouth Grammar School. On call-up, he enlisted in the Black Watch, and was posted... Here’s an obituary: > **[Christopher Logue obituary](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/dec/03/christopher-logue)** > > Poet whose War Music was a stark rendition of Homer's Iliad