Colin Burrow's LRB review, comparing Wilson with contemporary Odysseys by Verity and Green, is on sounder footing when he describes Wilson's "result" as "a perceptive reading of The Odyssey, but it is also a partial one.". He writes, “There are so many books of the historical facts behind Troy and its fall, and many magnificent translations of Homer. Though it doesn't come with notes, or at least mine didn't. Lattimore's Iliad remains probably the most 'direct' and reliable translation of that work. In answer to your question, I read large excerpts of “The Odyssey” in high school (but do hope one day to feel inspired to read the entire work), and was enthralled by the language in Fitzgerald’s translation, which was the one our textbook had chosen. Yesss!!!! Translated from the Greek by Emily Wilson. 4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Follow-up to the Iliad. I’d guess from this translation that Fitzgerald’s is perhaps more literal. Note: I wrote this before the publication of Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey. I’d be interested to hear thoughts on it. This may seem a large array of choices, but by Homeric standards, it is pitiful. This first line of Emily Wilson's translation of the Ancient Greek epic poem The Odyssey raised a lot of eyebrows when it was published in 2017. Interestingly, I just read a paper by a classicist who doesn’t like either of these translations, for different reasons, most of them having to do with poetic technique in the original. Unlocking Worlds: A Reading Companion for Book Lovers, the translation project and its formidable challenges. And now, there’s a new version available, translated by Emily Wilson. It might be important to note that Fagles says in his own introduction that Pope's translation is the most superb ever written. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. I was just so hung up on the words and their meaning and how their meanings changed and what it meant. It was clear and entertaining. First he’d say it in Greek, then in English. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window). Or the revision of the revision by Enright? Attempting a new translation of "The Odyssey" is like directing "Hamlet." You’ll notice their names are spelled differently. HOMER was a semi-legendary Greek poet from Ionia who the Greeks ascribed with the composition of their greatest epics--The Iliad and The Odyssey. ...Emily Wilson translation of Homer's Odyssey. May I ask Is it just for fun or for a class? ….Which is now leading me to wonder about so many of my reading choices. If you really want to get annoying and split hairs, application Bibles aren’t technically study Bibles. (Pope also only translated a small part of the Odyssey; the majority of the translation attributed to him is the work of lesser hands.). Many persons and places in the Odyssey are best known to readers by their Latinized names, such as Telemachus. I’m no Dante expert (that sounds like “I don’t know anything about Art, but….”) – however, the Sayers translation is the one I know, and I would always recommend her introduction to her translation. . I’d like to try a more traditional telling first, but I could see circling back around to her version. Dismal as it has been in other respects, the fall of 2017 has been good to readers of Homer. Totally freaking out and questioning my life right now….. . The Odyssey has been divided into the following sections: . Matt Jenkins. A book by Homer. But this review is just lovely – the perfect balance of knowledge and personal feelings – the best way, imho, to approach just about any reading experience. I did feel Fagles lacked a bit flare that Pope gives in excess. Best translation I've found of the Odyssey, really beautifully written and easy to read. (Butler, by the way, had published an earlier book claiming the Odyssey was written by a young, headstrong, unmarried woman.) For example, in the small section I quoted, “Alkinoos’ answer was a declaration” removes Alkinoos as a subject; our focus is on his answer not on him per se. edit: I see that this has now been quite reasonably addressed in an earlier reply I didn't see before I added this one. Or the new translation that begins with Davis and continuous with […] Now I know she’s not what I’m looking for. A prose translation is probably easier for anyone coming to the Iliad or Odyssey for the first time. “The Iliad - Twenty Centuries of Translation” by Michael Nikoletseas compared English translations (and some Latin, French, and Modern Greek) with strict reference to the ancient test and graded them. I’m going to this epic for a look into the minds of the Ancients. The result is a hollow shell. Pope's is a poetic translation. I know the article to which you've referred (Mendelsohn's) and while it's very encouraging, it's also somewhat misleading. I read a New Yorker article comparing the same passage across several translations. Translators and scholars have translated the main works attributed to Homer, the Iliad and Odyssey, from the Homeric Greek into English since the 16th and 17th centuries. Novelist Samuel Butler continued his Homer project, begun with the Iliad, with an easily read prose translation of the Odyssey in 1900. 5 Responses to “Is Longfellow’s translation of Dante the best?” Bruce Cole Says: March 30th, 2016 at 7:36 am. Reviewed … A circumflex accent (ˆ) indicates One bit I remember my dad repeating (and he still has to remind me from time to time): Πάν μέτρον Άριστον. As you can imagine … time consuming! I guess I like Fitzgerald’s version because it remains more poetic –and perhaps more distant, but to me, more aesthetically appealing to me.