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quote:Originally posted by The Return Of Rothkoid:
Haus: what's your view on the Fagles/Knox translations of Illiad and Odyssey? Workable, or...? They're both in Penguin...
It worries me that when you say "Fagles", I immediately think "Ooo! Crowns and hoplites on severe black backgrounds!", but that's just a cross I have to bear.
In answer to your question - I have a lot of respect for Fagles as a translator, particular in drama. And, if you are of a mood to read a 300-page epic in verse, Fagles probably strikes a good balance between faithfulness to the original text and the demands of his audience. I haven't read it for a few years, but IIRC he does fuck around with bits of it, but not to such a great extent that the casual reader will be upset by it.
Hammond's translations score by being accessible - his position is that prose is the natural medium of epic narrative now as hexameter was then - and clear, and probably more faithful to the original.
I'm afraid that I'm in the office and as such haven't got a chance to look at the books, but I found some bits of both to compare. Fagles' opening of the Iliad:
Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles,
murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,
hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls,
great fighters' souls, but made their bodies carrion
feasts for the dogs and birds,
and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end.
Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed,
Agamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles.
And Hammond's first lines of the Odyssey.
Muse, tell me of a man: a man of much resource, who was made to wander
far and long, after he had sacked the sacred city of Troy. Many were
the men whose lands he saw and came to know their thinking: many too
the miseries at sea which he suffered in his heart, as he sought to win
his own life and the safe return of his companions. But even so, for
all his efforts, he could not save his companions. They perished
through their own arrant folly--the fools, they ate the cattle of
Hyperion the Sun, and he took away the day of their return.
Start the story where you will, goddess, daughter of Zeus, and
share it now with us.
And hey, since I've got them handy, some different versions of a bit from the catalogue of ships:
Say, Virgins, seated round the Throne Divine,
All-knowing Goddesses! Immortal Nine!
Since Earth's wide Regions, Heav'n's unmeasur'd Height,
And Hell's Abyss hide nothing from your sight,
(We, wretched Mortals! lost in Doubts below,
But guess by Rumour, and but boast we know)
Oh say what Heroes, fir'd by Thirst of Fame,
Or urg'd by Wrongs, to Troy's Destruction Came?
To count them all, demands a thousand Tongues,
A Throat of Brass, and Adamantine Lungs.
Daughters of Jove assist! inspir'd by You
The mighty labour dauntless I pursue:
What crowded Armies, from what Climes they bring,
Their Names, their Numbers, and their Chiefs I sing.
Alexander Pope
Tell me now, ye Muses that dwell in the mansions of Olympus- seeing that ye are goddesses and are at hand and know all things, but we hear only a rumour and know not anything- who were the captains of the Danaans and their lords. But the common sort could I not number nor name, nay, not if ten tongues were mine and ten mouths, and a voice unwearied, and my heart of bronze within me, did not the Muses of Olympus, daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus, put into my mind all that came to Ilios. So will I tell the captains of the ships and all the ships in order.
Lang, Leaf, and Myers
Tell me now, Muses, dwelling on Olympos, as you are heavenly, and are everywhere, and everything is known to you- while we can only hear the tales and never know- who were the Danaan lords and officers? The rank and file I shall not name; I could not, if I were gifted with ten tongues and voices unfaltering, and a brazen heart within me, unless the Muses, daughters of Olympian Zeus beyond the stormcloud, could recall all those who sailed for the campaign at Troy. Let me name only the captains of contingents and number all the ships.
Robert Fitzgerald
Tell me now, you Muses who have your homes on Olympos. For you, who are goddesses, are there, and you know all things, and we have heard only the rumour of it and know nothing. Who then of those were the chief men and the lords of the Danaans? I could not tell over the multitude of them nor name them, not if I had ten tongues and ten mouths, not if I had a voice never to be broken and a heart of bronze within me, not unless the Muses of Olympia, daughters of Zeus of the aegis, remembered all those who came beneath Ilion. I will tell the lords of the ships, and the ships numbers.
Richard Lattimore |
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