in my first breath, i created constellations

not a lot to say for these. honestly, i think my general impression on the two translations has remained fairly consistent, so i might not write big long essays for every book and instead move to small thoughts i have as i go along.

for example: it’s (and this is a joke, a jest, a comment made in good humor) absolutely wild how menelaus speaks about odysseus. my first thoughts were “wow, that’s gay” and then, with even greater emphasis, “oh he’s down bad.”

now, with all seriousness, i am aware that such concepts functioned differently in the ancient past, but menelaus’ one speech essentially boils down to: i would’ve moved odysseus and his wife and son here and given him a little kingdom of his own and we would’ve spent all our days together and not parted until we were bones in the soil.

really, now.

the friendship between telemachus and nestor’s son (do not expect me to spell that name, please) is incredibly sweet, too. the way he speaks for telemachus when telemachus is unable to, and how he and telemachus whisper together at the table—ugh, be still my heart.

while accurate to telemachus’ prior behavior, it does amuse me that the suitors were wildly unprepared for him to actually sail to pylos (and by extension, sparta). antinoös is so annoyed he immediately turns to murder, which is quite some escalation from his earlier entreaties for telemachus to join them for dinner. for all they make fun of telemachus for his lack of maturity, they seem to handle rejection just as well as the average toddler.

as for penelope…she’s just so beautifully well-spoken. not even just technically, but she has such theatricality about her that really adds to her presentation. her lecture towards the complacent townspeople was really compelling, in both translations, and in some sense foreshadows later events.

i will say, it did highlight for me the differences in naming conventions the translators use—mendelsohn uses the more greek forms for some characters (ie telemakhos, antinoös, kalypso) while retaining the more familiar, latinate/anglicized forms for others (ie circe). his reasoning is that he keeps the more familiar forms for popular characters, which is fair enough on the surface, but i’m not sure it’s a choice i love in practice. to me, calypso -> kalypso and circe -> kirke are the same level of phonetic change and nonetheless recognizable.

i do think i…somewhat forgot how integral athena is to the first four books? like i knew she kickstarted everything, but it must’ve slipped my mind how involved she gets. she’s really just up there in the middle of everything, either as mentor, herself, in telemakhos’ skin (as she appears to the ithacan boys to ask them to sail with telemakhos), or as a bird.

A great pairing in my opinion. And the introductions and translator's notes are so good, exploring the problems of translation and the translator's intentions and choices. It's too bad more of the online furor hasn't taken these into account, essentially ignoring the art of it and pretending there is some ideal "true" translation out there or possible.

Looking forward to more of your reactions :)

thank you! that’s such a fun coincidence that we’re both doing this, and with the exact same translations to compare!

and yes, it’s absolutely about the fact that much of this discourse is based on the shaky premise that there is a singular, One True Translation out there that perfectly fits the tone, meter, rhythm, and intention of the original homeric epic while also being both accurate and beautifully written at all times.

which. english is not homeric greek! so already we’re operating on a false equivalency.

and the introductions/translators notes—yes! half the time i purchase translations purely for the notes, because despite being ostensibly about the same thing, they’re all so different! the things they focus on, what they draw attention to, the insight they have into particular passages—none of it matches exactly, which i think rather proves our point about a singular translation ever being perfect is impossible.

but we’re good now! so onto the discussion:

okay, i’m saying this once more and then never again, else i complain about it every single time—the repetition is driving me physically insane. i recoil, internally, every time i set my eyes upon the words “telemakhos, sensible lad” or some variant.

and i know mendelsohn is very proud that he stuck with the epithets since most translations don’t repeat them verbatim every time, and that’s actually a win for him, but i am dying. on the floor. resisting the urge to throw the book down.

that aside, book 2 did feel like it dragged a bit. i think it’s because it’s very speech heavy, but the speakers spend most of it rehashing what the other said. i think antinoös’ speeches held the most original thought, which made his the more appealing and the more exciting to read.

but hands down the funniest line, in mendelsohn’s translation specifically, is when antinoös says to telemakhos: “you big talker, you’re out of control”. and he says it twice.

one, the deep irony of who’s saying that, but two, it jumps out so hard from the rest of the text that it’s like it was bolded, italicized, and made two font sizes bigger. i have never been more delighted by a singular phrase of ancient poetry in my life.

i think wilson’s was the more enjoyable for me for this book, mostly because it felt very brisk and forward-facing. while hers isn’t as detailed as mendelsohn’s, i do feel the more compact language offers its own benefit.