zlacker

I quite like Emily Wilson's recent translation of the Odyssey. I just wish she had kept "winged words" in, but that's a very minor thing.

For the Iliad, I have a preference for Richmond Lattimore. His is fairly true to the original and so it feels like an old story from far away, which I like. I think most people like Robert Fitzgerald better though?

>>jrumbu+(OP)
And Emily Wilson has a translation of the Iliad releasing in the US later this year - https://www.amazon.com/Iliad-Homer/dp/1324001801

>>hexis+wc
In Emily Wilson's article comparing her excerpt with other famous translators, she conveniently leaves Lattimore out:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230629122951/https://www.nytim...

I pulled my Lattimore off the shelf and compared them. I was unsurprised to find Wilson's iambic pentameter version over-simplified:

"Strange woman! Come on now, you must not be too sad on my account."

vs. Lattimore's: "Poor Andromachē! Why does your heart sorrow so much for me?"

>>jrumbu+(OP)
I’m reading Wilson right now and was pleased to see that in at least one passage she let the winged words peek through. She’s open in her introduction about varying how she renders the repetitive epithets and phrases in the poem, a practice that dates back at least to St Jerome who translated ו (and) with around a dozen variations (et, atque, -que, come to mind off the top of my head) although digging into the Vulgate, my biggest takeaway is that Jerome was wild (but in a good way).

>>thisis+HC
Butler: "My own wife, do not take these things too bitterly to heart"

It seems to me that most of the other translations I can find are closer to the Wilson translation. I don't know any version of Greek, but the name Andromache doesn't appear in that line (book 6 line 486) at all, and nobody else seems to interpret the line as a rhetorical question.

All this just to say, maybe Wilson's is closer to the original text?

>>Initia+vP
Great points. It still seems odd to me that she left Lattimore out when he's so often praised (on HN anyway).

>>Initia+vP
Yeah the Greek here is (Il. 6.486):

δαιμονίη μή μοί τι λίην ἀκαχίζεο θυμῷ:

δαιμονίη is of disputed meaning, but basically a literal translation might run:

Possessed woman, don’t be so upset in your heart for me.

Here Lattimore doesn’t look so good.