Moral Tales

Polymath poet H. L. Hix responds to Plato and Marie de France with wry modern takes.

Plato may have pestered poets out of his republic, but he peppered his dialogues plenty with poetry of his own: the mind as an aviary, the soul as contrary horses chafing their charioteer. Marie de France might be more famed for her Lais, but she could fetch a pretty funny fable. In MORAL TALES, H. L. Hix first treats (not "translates," quite) and then glosses a suite of each: flighty passages from Plato, earthy fables from Marie. Which makes the moral tales here tales you've heard before, but not the way you've heard them.