Odyssey - Žiurkikės

sarah apžvelgė autoriaus Homer knygą The Odyssey

austere and moving

5 žvaigždutės

to be totally honest, I had never been able to get through The Odyssey before. I did listen to maybe half of Ian McKellan reading the Robert Fagles translation, and of course I knew the general gist of the stories in it. But this was the first translation that I found compelling. And, as with how I read Moby-Dick, I read this slowly over multiple months (and listened to some parts in the Clare Danes audiobook) and often got lost in the immediate moment while forgetting where in the multiply layered narratives I was. But it worked for me. Iliad next! or soon, at least.

isabel@bookwyrm.social apžvelgė autoriaus Homer knygą The Odyssey

Vivid and accessible

5 žvaigždutės

An approachable version of The Odyssey in a plain and modern English. Wilson matches Homer line-for-line, but compresses each line to a 5-beat iambic pentameter. Her language is chiseled, sometimes to a fault. But it adds up to a surprisingly quick, enjoyable, and morally engaging read.

Homer's most vivid images really shine in this rendering: "He saw them fallen, all of them, so many; / lying in blood and dust, like fish hauled up / out of the dark-gray sea in fine-mesh nets; / tipped out upon the curving beach's sand, / they gasp for water from the salty sea. / The sun shines down and takes their life away. / So lay the suitors, heaped across each other."

The text avoids justifying or masking immoral or questionable acts and practices. The word "slave" is used frequently, rather than euphemisms. Sometimes the translation strikes a judgmental note, like when the …

An approachable version of The Odyssey in a plain and modern English. Wilson matches Homer line-for-line, but compresses each line to a 5-beat iambic pentameter. Her language is chiseled, sometimes to a fault. But it adds up to a surprisingly quick, enjoyable, and morally engaging read.

Homer's most vivid images really shine in this rendering: "He saw them fallen, all of them, so many; / lying in blood and dust, like fish hauled up / out of the dark-gray sea in fine-mesh nets; / tipped out upon the curving beach's sand, / they gasp for water from the salty sea. / The sun shines down and takes their life away. / So lay the suitors, heaped across each other."

The text avoids justifying or masking immoral or questionable acts and practices. The word "slave" is used frequently, rather than euphemisms. Sometimes the translation strikes a judgmental note, like when the opening stanza says of Odysseus and his men: "He failed to keep them safe." Overall, I loved being invited to see these characters as flawed people in a flawed world, not as monuments.

loppear apžvelgė autoriaus Homer knygą The Odyssey

spare and clear

4 žvaigždutės

A lovely plain and readable translation, I'd entirely forgotten how much the story is of human hospitality, deceit and its dangers when surrounded by capricious gods. Even arriving home, the ancient Greece portrayed is far and foreign from us.