Quote:
Originally Posted by kattrades
How do you determine which translations to read?
I use the Amazon preview or publisher's excerpts to find something that speaks to me. I'm not that concerned about one translation being more accurate than another. For instance, the first line of the Iliad is:
μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος
which is, literally
wrath sing goddess son of Peleus Achilles
so you can translate this
sing, goddess, of the rage of Achilles, the son of Peleus
or
goddess, sing of the rage of Achilles, the son of Peleus
Pope spreads it out over two lines like this:
Achilles’ wrath, to Greece the direful spring
Of woes unnumber’d, heavenly goddess, sing!
Which is just fine by me.
Fitzgerald has it:
Anger be now your song, immortal one,
Akhilleus' anger, doomed and ruinous
Which sucks all manner of ass and I have no idea how this translation got to be popular in the first place.
Fagels in his brilliant translation has it
Rage - Goddess sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles
Now this is epic poetry. It sings out and has acid bite in repetition of the word rage. So this is the kind of stuff I look for.