Petrarch’s Confessional Poetry: A Conversation with A. M. Juster

Today, we welcome A.M. Juster, whose new book is Canzoniere: A New Translation, with an introduction by Andrew Frisardi (Liveright).

In this episode:

(1:00) Where does Petrarch fit in literary history? From the medieval to the Renaissance

(4:50) Petrarch vs. Shakespeare

(8:59) Confessional poetry from Petrarch to Plath and Lowell

(12:56) What is love? This is not really love poetry.

(17:45) Is Petrarch accessible to the modern reader?

(19:28) Is Petrarch difficult to translate?

(23:00) Readings from Juster's new translation of the Canzionere:

• 1. ‘To you who hear within these bits of rhyme’
• 18. ‘When I return to focus on the part’
• 118. ‘I leave my sixteenth year of sighs’

(26:21) How is time represented in Petrarch’s work? The influence of Augustine.

(30:00) The origins of this translation. The inspiration of Richard Wilbur

(39:42) Forthcoming works from A. M. Juster