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Work InformationThe Odyssey by Homer
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Great translation that illuminates slave culture and women’s issues ( ) https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-odyssey-by-homer-tr-emily-wilson/ I got myself this as a late Christmas present, having read positive reviews and also having slogged through a couple of other translations. I was familiar with the high points of The Odyssey, which is fairly approachable, if oddly structured. But this is definitely worth getting. I really appreciated Wilson’s paring down of the language to take only as much space as the original words – most other English translators seem to have been rather verbose (cf Lawrence and Chapman above, three centuries apart). As you would expect, given where Wilson is coming from, she boosts the voices of the women characters more than other translators do – and let’s bear in mind that Odysseus has love affairs with Calypso and Circe, and less explicitly with Nausicaa, while poor old Penelope has to stay faithful to him despite his years of absence. I also felt I got a much better sense of Telemachus here. The book comes with an 80-page introduction and another 12 pages of preliminary notes, and it’s really worth it – a very good survey of both the society which the poem depicts, and the efforts that others have made to interpret the text for later times and places. And crucially the language is crystal clear. I have been told that this is now the standard translation used to teach The Odyssey, and I can see why. I'm no Greek scholar but I can read English, and know when a writing transfixes me. It's been about 45 years since I read Richmond Lattimore's translation of the Odyssey, and while that was comprehensible it never captivated my like this. Suddenly the energy of Homer (whoever he/they was/were) from the beautifully presented papyrusesque pages, and I knew at last why Homer is important. I'm not qualified to say anytghing more than "thank you, Emily Wilson, for your translation, and oh the gods, your Introduction is inspiratioinal in its own right." I finally read the Odyssey after sitting in my shelf for a long time. This version is translated by Roger Fagles. Description of the book: "So begins Robert Fagles' magnificent translation of the Odyssey. If the Iliad is the world's greatest war epic, then the Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of everyman's journey though life. Odysseus' reliance on his wit and wiliness for survival in his encounters with divine and natural forces, during his ten-year voyage home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, is at once a timeless human story and an individual test of moral endurance." I have seen many movies of the Odyssey and I felt the book and the movies were very close. Quite and adventure and a book worth a re-read. I recommend readers add it to their classic reads. For me the best of Homer is his battle scenes. Sharp bronze plunging through sinews and sockets, limbs severed and bones crushed, and so on. I don't normally think of myself as a bloodthirsty sort of person, but then it's all mythological, so it's all good. The Iliad, now, is great for that sort of scene, but The Odyssey... not so much. There's a lot more sitting around and chatting, so for me not as enjoyable. I read the Lattimore translation, said to be closest to the original Greek in meaning, but not as poetic as the Fagles perhaps.
In this interview, we discuss how her [Wilson's] identity as a woman—and a cis-gendered feminist—informs her translation work, how her Odyssey translation honors both ancient traditions and contemporary reading practices, and what Homer meant when he called Dawn, repeatedly, “rosy-fingered.” (Emily Wilson translation): To read a translation is like looking at a photo of a sculpture: It shows the thing, but not from every angle. Like every translator, Wilson brings out some features more clearly than others. But altogether it’s as good an “Odyssey” as one could hope for. Sing to me, O muse, of the—well, in the very opening line, the phrase Wilson chooses is the rather bland ‘complicated man,’ the adjective missing out on the deviousness implied in the Greek polytropos, which Robert Fagles translated as ‘of twists and turns.’ Wilson has a few favorite words that the Greek doesn’t strictly support … More faithful to the original but less astonishing than Christopher Logue’s work and lacking some of the music of Fagles’ recent translations of Homer; still, a readable and worthy effort. Occasionally he expands to seven beats or contracts to three (as in the third line above)...The verse idiom of the 20th century does not allow poets to create a grand style, but Mr. Fagles has been remarkably successful in finding a style that is of our time and yet timeless, dignified and yet animated by the vigor and energy essential to any good rendering of this poem. ... This book is a memorable achievement, and the long and excellent introduction by Bernard Knox is a further bonus, scholarly but also relaxed and compellingly readable. Mr. Fagles's translation of the ''Iliad'' was greeted by a chorus of praise when it appeared; his ''Odyssey'' is a worthy successor. 'Tell me about a complicated man.' So this new Odyssey begins ... this single verse introduces both her take on the work’s hero and a poetics of reduction that she observes rather ruthlessly in order to make a poem that matches Homer’s line for line ... The result is a lean, wiry Homer, shorn of his more ornamental features. In this she is consistent, even to a fault ... to her credit Wilson knows how to craft her lines in the most flexible way, including a number of those ridiculously named 'feminine' endings ... Belongs to SeriesBelongs to Publisher SeriesAustral (70) — 54 more detebe (20779) L'esparver llegir (43) Everyman's Library (454) The Folio Society ((11) 1948) Harvard Classics (22) Harvill (16) Limited Editions Club (S:2.03) Penguin Classics (L001) Penguin Clothbound Classics (2009) Perpetua reeks (71) Reader's Enrichment Series (RE 327) A tot vent (562) The World's Classics (36) Is contained inGreat Books Of The Western World - 54 Volume Set, Incl. 10 Vols of Great Ideas Program & 10 Volumes Gateway To Great Books by Robert Maynard Hutchins (indirect) GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD--54 Volumes 27 volumes 1961-1987 GREAT IDEAS TODAY (Yearbooks) 10 volumes GATEWAY TO THE GREAT BOOKS 10 volumes GREAT IDEAS PROGRAM. Total 101 Volumes. by Robert Maynard Hutchins (indirect) ContainsIs retold inHas the (non-series) sequelHas the adaptationThe Graphic Canon, Vol. 1: From the Epic of Gilgamesh to Shakespeare to Dangerous Liaisons by Russ Kick Is abridged inIs parodied inInspiredO. by Sabine Scholl Has as a reference guide/companionHas as a studyHas as a supplementHas as a commentary on the textHas as a student's study guideHas as a teacher's guideAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
References to this work on external resources. Wikipedia in English (17)A Greek epic tells of the adventures of the hero Odysseus during his perilous and protracted journey home from the Trojan War. No library descriptions found.
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Current DiscussionsBruce Rogers' design of T. E. Shaw's Odyssey in Fine Press Forum "Best" translation of Iliad & Odyssey? in Folio Society Devotees (1 more) Recommend a fine press edition of The Odyssey? in Fine Press Forum Popular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)883.01Literature Greek and other Classical languages Prose and Fiction, Classical Greek Pseudo-CallisthenesLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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