Professor Emily Wilson tells Lucia Marchini how she dealt with the intricacies of translating Homers great epic poem the Odyssey.
Why did you choose to translate the Odyssey?
I wanted to do the translation because I felt I could do something that was different from what was already available in English and something that would authentically engage with the original text in a different way. For instance, I was frustrated by the fact that there seems to be a tradition in contemporary translations of Classical verse in general and of Homer, that even when the original text is very regularly metrical, the translation usually isn’t. That seems to be a choice, and I wanted to make another choice, to make an English version that was regular metrically like the original.
Similarly, the pacing of Homer’s text is actually quite rapid. I wanted to maintain that rapidity and not make the text any longer. I also wanted to keep the clarity and simplicity of Homer. On the one hand, the Odyssey is quite a simple story, with simple sentences and syntax, but at the same time it is ethically and philosophically challenging. I wanted to keep that combination of simplicity and complexity. Other translators have made the sentences more difficult, but simplified the challenging aspects and ambiguities of the plot. I wanted to flip that around.
Where do you place your Odyssey in the history of translations of Homer by Alexander Pope, George Chapman and the like?
Bu hikaye Minerva dergisinin November/December 2018 Volume 29 Number 6 sayısından alınmıştır.
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Bu hikaye Minerva dergisinin November/December 2018 Volume 29 Number 6 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
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John Osborne CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, £75 HARDBACK - ISBN 978-1108834582
