A very easy to read translation with the classroom in mind, the priority reminds me of Emily Wilson's translation of the Odyssey
I have tried to avoid
A very easy to read translation with the classroom in mind, the priority reminds me of Emily Wilson's translation of the Odyssey
I have tried to avoid the use of obviously old-fashioned or obsolete English
I did run into troubles with Emily Wilson's somewhat excessively modernized translation; I'll find out soon enough whether the simplicity and modernness of this translation with get me in troubles too.
The introduction of this text is also very good. Though, I am reading two other translations, and I fell in love with the introduction of the NYRB trans., whereas I find this one informative, straightforward, but not exceptional. ...more
The author did all the legworks to collect fragments from various sources in order to reconstruct the events leading up to the Iliad. I’ve read footnoThe author did all the legworks to collect fragments from various sources in order to reconstruct the events leading up to the Iliad. I’ve read footnotes and articles in journals and commentaries referencing these events anyway, so not a lot is new to me. It’s still great to have them organized and arranged to tell a somewhat coherent tale.
Which is what this book is. The language and style certainly reminds you of classical epics, obviously because they are translations of fragments from various periods. The only thing I’m sorely dissatisfied with — and I’m 86.7% certain I don’t have the rights to complain about this, because that’s not what this book is — is that there’s no “unity”. Each epic writer compose their epics with a certain kind of structure, shape, symmetry, to gradually disclose what the epic is about. It could be wrath itself, or the meaning of being a man, or “change” ... readers are delighted as scenes and events and symbols and structures gradually reveal what you are originally blind to. You realize everything fits and contribute to making a statement, painting a particular vision. That’s absent here: the language and style is familiar, but it’s merely encyclopedic, it ultimately argues for nothing, promotes no vision, and satisfies nothing beyond curiosity.
Obviously I still think this is a really worthy project, the way it left me with a void, a sense of something missing, really accentuates how incredibly masterful the old poets really were. ...more
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