Author(s): Andrew Rutherford

Poetry

Andrew Rutherford thoroughly recasts Horace's Odes, Book One into the streets of contemporary Melbourne, drinking plonk among the 'yoof', dismissing as 'turd teflon' or 'idiot du jour' a rival in love. Here Horace's patron, Maecenas, becomes his mate, Mitch, and the dutifully reviled Cleopatra updates into an imperiously flaming Julia Gillard.; meanwhile the Bellarine Peninsula transforms into a distant idyll, an 'arbitrary arbour', free from the petty slights and misfortunes of urban life. In these ingeniously faithful renderings Rutherford stamps Horace's concerns as internally ours.