[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 32 KB, 275x406, iliad.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15274386 No.15274386 [Reply] [Original]

I started reading the Iliad in the German Voß translation and got to book 3 until I decided to switch translations as I couldn't tell what was going on most of the time. And holy shit, the English translations are actually enjoyable and so much easier to understand (including Pope). No wonder nobody reads Homer here.

>> No.15274418
File: 46 KB, 437x557, 1583680192821.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15274418

yeah, reading Iliad in German when your native language is English is really tough, no joke

>> No.15274439

>>15274418
I was stripped of my native German skills by the eternal anglo and his culture warring

>> No.15274453

What do you mean it was difficult? Can you post some examples? Do Germans write in a more archaic style in translations of classics or something?

>> No.15274570
File: 28 KB, 600x453, 1572489854044.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15274570

Dunno about English translations you talking about, but Gnedich's one is a god tier if you know Russian, of course. His use of Old Church Slavonic vocabulary makes up for the ultimate experience if you don't know the Ancient Greek. I flipped through some English translations I could find online, and they sound so rough compared to Russian. Can't judge the preseravation of original meaning and overall tone though, I haven't looked this deep into them.

>> No.15274614

>>15274386
the least language i imagine to be fit to translate the iliad is german with its gothic flavour.

>> No.15274695

>>15274386
English is a frog language

>> No.15274717

>>15274614
The swedish translation from the 1910s deliberately used some archaic language as a callback to the earlier gothicism movements within swedish lit to great effect. It's fantastic.

>> No.15274738

>>15274717
Lagerlöf?

>> No.15274804

>>15274738
Of course.

>> No.15274856

>>15274386
I know what you're talking about OP. Until now, I thought it was my fault.

I will switch to Pope's translation.

>> No.15274893

>>15274717
it was the fash of the time, opened by strindberg as far as i know. point is, it has nothing to do with homer.

>> No.15274896

>>15274453
the most widely read translation is by Johann Heinrich Voß (1793). It's incredibly archaic and not even a very accurate translation.

>> No.15274899

>>15274893
No translations have much to do with Homeros.

>> No.15274916

>>15274856
I don't know if Pope is the best one as it isn't an actual translation but rather a fancy adaptation in verse. Right now I'm trying to decide between Lattimore and Fagles

>> No.15274918

>>15274896
it's the one you get when you google "Ilias deutsch pdf", since German is my second language I thought it's me and I should fucking improve, which is nonsense because my German is on a fine level

>> No.15274939
File: 23 KB, 400x221, unnamed.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15274939

>>15274439
I DONT SPEAK MY MOTHER TONGUE
NO THIS IS NOT A LOVE SONG

>> No.15274959

>>15274916
I'm choosing Pope because of the guy who is shilling him here constantly and it's on Gutenberg.

He got me.

>> No.15274974

>>15274899
i had to study the whole iliad in greek in high school and that's not true. i know italian, french and english are homer is well translated in all three of them (the best english version is buckley's)

>> No.15274986

>>15274974
> are homer
and homer

>> No.15274989
File: 80 KB, 1200x928, Oedipus.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
15274989

>>15274386
Greek here, I can tell you that the German translation is much closer to the original than the English one. Modern German and ancient Greek have incredibly similar grammar.

I've read a bunch of shit of the Greeks in the original text and seen it dramatised too. Iliad's okay, Odyssey's better. Reading or seeing a play of the Oedipus trilogy is by far a better experience than either.

>> No.15275023

>>15274959
the thing I don't like about Pope is that he uses the Latin names, but other than that, the verse is kino

>> No.15275090

>>15275023
> complains about latin names
> doesn't complain about entire lines completely invented

>> No.15275144

I have the Fitzgerald version and a new-Norwegian version, and I don't understand shit reading the new-Norwegian version-

>> No.15275168

>>15275144
and I'm Norwegian btw

>> No.15275178

The '95 Mugler translation into french is quite nice. It's got a good ring to it most of the time.

>> No.15275372

>>15275090
if it's from Pope it's allowed

he's legit based