/lit/ - Literature

>>23274204
Is it really that good? /lit/ usually fellates Fagles, Fitzgerald and Pope. Sometimes Chapman and Lattimore. Haven't heard much about Green.

>>23274204
My question for you sir, is how do you know it keeps fidelity?

>>23274314
A fair question—I can only go off comparative analysis done by people who seem to have put in a good-faith effort in doing so. Here is an example: https://www.reddit.com/r/classics/comments/l7yl6h/every_modern_iliad_translation_compared/

>>23274305
I've previously read Fitzgerald for The Iliad and Fagles for The Odyssey; both are fine. I plan on reading Pope eventually, but I'm not sure it'll capture me in the same way given he has pretty much put the stories through an Augustan prism.

Green is, based on the sources I've studied, second in fidelity to Lattimore.

>>23274204
>>23274305
>>23274329
Lattimore is the best.

>>23274366
What makes him superior, anon?

>>23274373
He's the best

>>23274329
>I've previously read Fitzgerald for The Iliad and Fagles for The Odyssey
you did it backwards

>>23274382
So it seems. I enjoyed both, however. I'm enjoying my re-read with Green based on the opening stanza and the "Shield of Achilles" section of Book 18; I'll sample Diomedes battling the Gods next.

>>23274392
Both Fitz and Fag have good versions of both poems, but do yourself a favor and read Fitz's Odyssey at some point.

>>23274204
>>23274305
>>23274329
>>23274366
>>23274382
>>23274399
Just learn ancient Greek and don't bother with translations.

>>23274399
Thanks for the tip. Have you read a sufficient volume of both to offer any comparison?
>>23274405
Maybe in my semi-retirement, anon. Until then, it's the rat race for me.

>>23274405
No thanks, not enough literature for me to justify learning it. I might learn latin because of it how used in science.

Reminder to all Fitzgerald anons that he outright declared Lattimore's translations to be superior to his own and undoubtedly the standard for the next hundreds of years.

>>23274439
sauce me up playa

>>23274439
That sounds about right, it what keep hearing hearing here and elsewhere. What hear about Fitzgerald is that his Aeneid is the best one.

Where do you guys rank Reid's translations?
(I do not care for poetical interpretations, rather an accurate translation structured as best as possibe)

>>23274409
If you've read the full Odyssey and Iliad by Fagles and Fitzgerald respectively, you should already have an idea of their differences. Fagles tends to be more colloquial and Fitzgerald tends to be more lyrical. And I think Fitzgerald's Odyssey is more consistently brilliant compared to his Iliad.

From the first page:
>...they killed and feasted on
>the cattle of Lord Hêlios, the sun,
>and he who moves all day through heaven
>took from their eyes the dawn of their return.
That last line is one of my favorite lines ever.

>>23274552
That's one of my favorite lines as well, actually. I think I may actually prefer Fagles' version, which I've saved in my notes because of how brilliant I thought it was:

>He who moves through heaven took from their eyes the dawn of their return.

Quite similar.

>>23274566
Fitzgerald's Odyssey pre-dates Fagles', so assuming that line wasn't in an earlier translation, Fagles based the line on Fitzgerald's.

Not a knock on Fagles, most translators steal from previous translations, and obviously Homer had it similarly. He mentions the "day of return", but I believe mentioning "eyes" was Fitzgerald's original contribution. (I don't know Greek, I just looked up the relevant lines on perseus.tufts.edu). I think that's an excellent contribution, and an example of how poetic license can be effectively used in translation.

>>23274636
>I think that's an excellent contribution, and an example of how poetic license can be effectively used in translation.
No disagreement there. We are fortunate to have several high-caliber translations. Cheers, anon.

>>23274409
>Until then, it's the rat race for me

>>23274204
>reading translations published after the year 2000
you people don't actually do this... do you?

>>23274409
I'm a neet and still can't learn Greek. I wonder how pissed /lit/ would be by the hundreds of thousands of hours i have wasted lying in bed depressed. I have not done or learned a single thing in yesrs

>>23274405
This. Homer is the easiest pre-koine writer. There's no excuses.

>>23274204
I can't read these as an ESL and want to die from strain and boredom. My working memory is insufficient so I need to reread most sentences several times before they sink in.

>>23274204
I recommend Wayne Ambler's translation of Anabasis. It is faithful as well to the original with its simple patrician elegance, unlike those 19th century translations that make him sound too flowery, much like the Renaissance poets translating Homer's rugged hexameters into pristine Virgilian ones.

>>23274204
Hijacking this bitch to ask for the best spanish translation.

I shopped around for the best Divine comedy translation and by god it paid off. I'm enjoying it like nothing else in a while.

>>23274204
Words are just symbols. Language doesn’t matter. The true meaning is deeper than the words

>>23274552
Fagles is by far the best by virtue of his simplicity. He gets the point across easily and doesn’t waiver or get bogged down with poetic rigamarole.

>>23279022
Well, I also like Crime and Punishment, so I suppose I have a high tolerance for rigmarole.