Thank you for your article! Your pessimistic comments remind me of Tennyson's parody of translators' attempts to recreate ancient rhythms in modern English:
These lame hexameters the strong-wing’d music of Homer!
No — but a most burlesque barbarous experiment.
When was a harsher sound ever heard, ye Muses, in England?
Thanks so much for this, Christopher! It seems to me that (as you pointed out re: the "English ballad") the best translations manage to capture something more nebulously "Homeric" than can maybe be plainly defined. In that regard, some of the points you hit on here are relevant to discussion of allusion/intertextuality/Homeric reception as well—much to ponder!
A thorough and enlightening discussion. I can't help but feel though, even now, that there is a big hole where a solid blank verse Homer ought to be. Blank verse does have strong oral associations as the chief dramatic metre in English, and Wordsworth showed that it could be purged of both the Miltonic elaborate majesty and Elizabethan busyness.
I think Tennyson's brief (too brief!) specimens of the Iliad in blank verse give the clearest glimpse of what we're missing. They are musically rich but, particularly in the extract from Book VIII, there is a simplicity of movement which is distinctly non-Miltonic. For my money they are the most beautiful and least affected attempts at Homer in English.
None of the full “blank verse“ versions of Homer achieve or even aim at this mode. You're bang on about Fitzgerald. He turned most of what he translated into a sort of pastiche Shakespeare, and he didn't fully commit to his metre either. He suggests rather than utilises blank verse.
Wilson is an admirably disciplined metricist but she has made the legitimate decision to prioritise accessibility over poetry. In a way, her verse is almost more prosaic than prose. The metre gives a certain amount of energy and momentum to what would otherwise be an intolerably flat diction. Her version achieves exactly what it sets out to do but, as poetry, it doesn't try to compete with genuine blank verse.
I still think there is a modest place in literary history waiting for anyone who manages to follow Tennyson's hint.
Great comment. I actually didn't know Tennyson's Homer fragments; the book VIII passage is particularly beautiful, as you say, though it's also an amazing passage in itself, well-suited to his skills. Will definitely come back to his 'specimens' & think hard about them if I do ever take up the Task of Tasks. (I also very much agree with you that Wordsworth is another likely model.)
If what you want is accessibility, I'd start with Fagles or Emily. Emily gives you simple language and fast-moving verse. Fagles has a bit more nuanced vocabulary but still reads pretty easily; his rhythms are more prosy. Fitzgerald's Odyssey might be the best poetically but is maybe also a bit more of a slog for the average undergraduate (not that that describes you!).
I found Wilson’s translation so much more accessible than the Lattimore I had to read in college. For starters the introduction. Lattimore’s is horrible. From his first sentence he’s passive voice and self absorbed.
Thank you for your article! Your pessimistic comments remind me of Tennyson's parody of translators' attempts to recreate ancient rhythms in modern English:
These lame hexameters the strong-wing’d music of Homer!
No — but a most burlesque barbarous experiment.
When was a harsher sound ever heard, ye Muses, in England?
When did a frog coarser croak upon our Helicon?
Hexameters no worse than daring Germany gave us,
Barbarous experiment, barbarous hexameters.
Fwiw, Tennyson is, I think, trying to imitate a classical elegiac couplet, in quantity rather than with stress:
Thēse lāme hēxametērs thē strōng-wīngd mūsic of Hōmer!
It sounds particularly barbarous that way...
Thanks so much for this, Christopher! It seems to me that (as you pointed out re: the "English ballad") the best translations manage to capture something more nebulously "Homeric" than can maybe be plainly defined. In that regard, some of the points you hit on here are relevant to discussion of allusion/intertextuality/Homeric reception as well—much to ponder!
A thorough and enlightening discussion. I can't help but feel though, even now, that there is a big hole where a solid blank verse Homer ought to be. Blank verse does have strong oral associations as the chief dramatic metre in English, and Wordsworth showed that it could be purged of both the Miltonic elaborate majesty and Elizabethan busyness.
I think Tennyson's brief (too brief!) specimens of the Iliad in blank verse give the clearest glimpse of what we're missing. They are musically rich but, particularly in the extract from Book VIII, there is a simplicity of movement which is distinctly non-Miltonic. For my money they are the most beautiful and least affected attempts at Homer in English.
None of the full “blank verse“ versions of Homer achieve or even aim at this mode. You're bang on about Fitzgerald. He turned most of what he translated into a sort of pastiche Shakespeare, and he didn't fully commit to his metre either. He suggests rather than utilises blank verse.
Wilson is an admirably disciplined metricist but she has made the legitimate decision to prioritise accessibility over poetry. In a way, her verse is almost more prosaic than prose. The metre gives a certain amount of energy and momentum to what would otherwise be an intolerably flat diction. Her version achieves exactly what it sets out to do but, as poetry, it doesn't try to compete with genuine blank verse.
I still think there is a modest place in literary history waiting for anyone who manages to follow Tennyson's hint.
Great comment. I actually didn't know Tennyson's Homer fragments; the book VIII passage is particularly beautiful, as you say, though it's also an amazing passage in itself, well-suited to his skills. Will definitely come back to his 'specimens' & think hard about them if I do ever take up the Task of Tasks. (I also very much agree with you that Wordsworth is another likely model.)
Thank you for this insightful article.
Which translation of Homer would you recommend for a first-time reader in English?
If what you want is accessibility, I'd start with Fagles or Emily. Emily gives you simple language and fast-moving verse. Fagles has a bit more nuanced vocabulary but still reads pretty easily; his rhythms are more prosy. Fitzgerald's Odyssey might be the best poetically but is maybe also a bit more of a slog for the average undergraduate (not that that describes you!).
What about Fitzgerald's Iliad?
I found Wilson’s translation so much more accessible than the Lattimore I had to read in college. For starters the introduction. Lattimore’s is horrible. From his first sentence he’s passive voice and self absorbed.
I also read Lattimore in college. I don't love his version, but can't share your vehemence. I can however share your enthusiasm over EW!