Homer's The Odyssey, translated by Emily Wilson discussion

This is a thread for group members to share links to published articles and reviews about Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey.

Here's an excellent profile of Emily Wilson from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/02/ma...

An article from The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/...

Emily Wilson remembers performing in a production of The Odyssey as a child: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2...

Excellent review of Wilson's translation from the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/05/bo... Lots of attention to translation decisions.

Kris wrote: "Excellent review of Wilson's translation from the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/05/bo... Lots of attention to translation decisions."

Great review. Looking forward to reading this even more, now.

George wrote: "Great review. Looking forward to reading this even more, now. .."

It's quite a contrast to the NYT review of David Ferry's translation of The Aeneid, published at the same time as the Wilson review: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/05/bo... I winced when I read it.

Kris wrote: "I winced when I read it"

"Readers need to know that while they will find a great deal to savor in Ferry’s translation, they cannot be confident at any given point that the English they are reading is tracking what Virgil wrote."

Thats a sting.

Emily Wilson discusses female characters in her translation of The Odyssey in The New Yorker : https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-...

Thanks so much for posting the link!

Kris wrote: "Thanks so much for posting the link!"

You're welcome!

Lawyer wrote: "Emily Wilson discusses female characters in her translation of The Odyssey in The New Yorker : https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-...-..."

A great article. I love her perspective. Thanks for posting the link.

I agree, Tamara. I'm going to add it to the gender thread in case anyone would like to discuss it further.

Great article. Love her desire to translate the original so that non Greek readers can enjoy the authenticity.

Thanks so much for posting the New Yorker article by Prof. Wilson. Her discernment of female attributes, societal freedoms and marital options will benefit me as we begin in March. Wow, what a difference gender interpretations make!

Review from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

The Guardian article highlights significant translation changes from the male perspective to the new translation we'll be reading. I like seeing the contrasts. Thanks, Kris.

Some of you might be able to download this BBC programme which includes a feature on the Emily Wilson translation:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09hp311

Thanks so much, Jan-Maat! Just downloaded it.

Emily Wilson interviewed on NPR: https://www.npr.org/2017/12/24/572911.... Includes an interesting discussion of her treatment of slavery.

Wonderful - I had missed this! Thank you, Kathleen!

I second that. A lovely interview. Thank you for posting it, Kathleen.

Thank you, Kathleen. It is a pleasure to hear the author's voice tell the intimacies of her translation. Wish she could be interviewed on BookTV's In-Depth...maybe she will later in 2018.

No problem--I was happy to catch it on the radio, and of course more than happy to share. And Cheryl, yes! Wouldn't In-Depth be great. Crossing my fingers for that ...

Handy web page compiling press coverage of Emily Wilson's translation: https://www.classics.upenn.edu/news/i...

Interview with Wilson in The Chicago Review of Books, focusing on translation decisions: https://chireviewofbooks.com/2018/01/...

Thanks for this, Kris. I enjoyed her translator's note so I'm sure I would like more on the subject.

Nice interview in the Penn alumni magazine with Wilson and another Penn classicist: http://thepenngazette.com/an-odyssey-...

Lisa wrote: "Nice interview in the Penn alumni magazine with Wilson and another Penn classicist: http://thepenngazette.com/an-odyssey-..."

Very nice. Thank you for posting it.

So glad you posted this, Lisa. Peter Struck is wonderful. He's serving on some of our faculty committees and I've had the pleasure of working with him on some new program proposals. One of my favorite people at Penn.

These are great resources, thank you for posting them everyone! I'm reading the one on gender bias now, it's fantastic.

I'm so sorry to not be reading along--I unexpectedly started a micro-press recently. Fun but time-consuming.

I wanted to post this interesting take, which I don't think is here yet:

http://www.kirkcenter.org/bookman/art...

The iambic pentameter choice is so weirdly anachronistic, when the original is not.

Another interview with Emily Wilson.

https://www.tor.com/2018/05/03/all-th...

Emily Wilson speaks! (Along with some other people)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b4...

Columbia has replaced the Lattimore translation of the Odyssey with Emily Wilson's. Article here:

https://www.columbiaspectator.com/art...

I think Lattimore is long past ready to be replaced but I still love Fagles best.

Lark wrote: "Columbia has replaced the Lattimore translation of the Odyssey with Emily Wilson's. Article here:

https://www.columbiaspectator.com/art......"

That's great! Thanks for sharing the link.

I like both Fagles and Wilson in very different ways. I’m glad I don’t have to choose.

Sue wrote: "I like both Fagles and Wilson in very different ways. I’m glad I don’t have to choose."

Probably what I mean is "I love Fagles AS NARRATED BY IAN MCKELLAN best." It was such a treat to have McKellan telling me this story.

Claire Danes is going to narrate Emily Wilson's Odyssey. I'm skeptical. She really bungled narrating The Handmaid's Tale imo.

That must have been nice, McKellan narrating Fagles. I don’t listen to audio books so I don’t have that comparison available.

I, too, loved the Fagles translation. I have both a beautiful hardback copy and the audio narrated by McKlellan and I don’t even recall which I had first. But I know that listening to the Odyssey being read by this incredibly gifted actor was like being transported back in time, if not all the way back to Homer than to a time where I was part of a greater audience and you could feel the energy of the listeners as we all experienced the different adventures and points of view together. Utterly magical!
Emily Watson’s is the one I would recommend to any younger readers like my grandchildren. It’s fresh modern voice was fun and I really admired her well thought out word choices. But I feel I really need to read it a 2nd time to appreciate it on its own without my brain continually comparing it to the Fagles, rather like a first love!

That’s a good thought, Renata. I think I agree with you as to recommending Wilson to young or new readers of the Odyssey.It is very accessible and also may be more approachable for those who don’t “do” poetry.

I’m looking forward to Wilson’s translation of the Iliad though I know it will be a while :-)

I never felt that attached to the Iliad but I’m thinking Wilson’s translation might help me access the characters more. I love the way she is playful with language but in a very purposeful and reflective way.

I liked Fagles translation of The Iliad much better than whatever one I read in college, but I would very much like to see Wilson’s take on it.

Sue wrote: "I liked Fagles translation of The Iliad much better than whatever one I read in college, but I would very much like to see Wilson’s take on it."

Caroline Alexander translated the Iliad in 2016 and I wondered, after Wilson's Odyssey came out, why Alexander wasn't able to capitalize on the "first woman" story more for The Iliad in the manner that Wilson did with the Odyssey this year.

Review:

https://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/04/a...

I did pick up Alexander’s translation for kindle this year when it was a special but haven’t read it yet. That’s a very good question Lark, about her not using the marketing method that seems to have been so successful for Wilson. Alexander and her publisher seem to have missed an advantage.

I read Alexander's Iliad in 2016 when it first came out. I loved it. But now that you mention it, Lark, I wonder why she didn't capitalize on it the way Wilson did with the Odyssey. In some ways, I preferred Alexander's translation because it didn't have some of those jarring modernisms that Wilson used in the Odyssey (e.g. Telemachus referring to Eurycleia as "nanny.") Weird!

My review of Alexander's Iliad in case anyone is interested.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Caroline Alexander wrote an excellent book called The War That Killed Achilles in which she makes some very clear parallels with modern reactions to war and those described in The Iliad.
My (slightly long and rambling) review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...