What are the best translations of the odyssey and The Illiad?
November 27, 2009 - 10:18 pm
I want to read a version that is english but still close to the original. I dont want the versions that are easy to read I feel that reading dumbed down versions of classics books helps no one.
I’d like to recommend the ones translated by Professor E.V. Rieu published by Penguins in paperbacks some 20-25 years ago but, as far as I know, his translations’ve been regarded as one of the best.
November 28th, 2009 at 4:00 am
I’d like to recommend the ones translated by Professor E.V. Rieu published by Penguins in paperbacks some 20-25 years ago but, as far as I know, his translations’ve been regarded as one of the best.
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November 28th, 2009 at 4:39 am
I have only read the Robert Fitzgerald Translation and I suspect that this is a dumbed down version, but I don’t know because its the only one I’ve read. I tend to think this because for a "the greatest epic of all time" I though it would at least be as poetic as Sophocles’s Oedipus plays or the king James translation of the Bible.
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November 28th, 2009 at 5:28 am
Yes, I have to agree with Umberto, it’s the translation of The Iliad by E.V. Rieu (with an update and revision by Peter Jones and D.C.H. Rieu) in the latest Penguin Classics (black with orange letters on the cover).
As for The Odyssey, I have the translation by T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), which is fine – but the translation by the same people above (which I haven’t read yet) is also sure to be the best.
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November 28th, 2009 at 5:45 am
I like the Robert Fagles translations. The language is modern but still has an epic feel to it, and they read well. I don’t know Greek but these are said to be quite faithful to the Greek texts.
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