Oh man, I can’t rave enough about Dr. Emily Wilson’s translation of the odyssey. I love her stance of ‘what is the point of translating an ancient language if you’re going to stuff archaic shakespearian language into it to try and preserve the fact that it’s a classic.’ It IS a classic, one that was passed orally long before it was written, and used more accessible language then it tends to get translated to. The other reason I love it is that she was very careful to make sure she preserved the same amount of lines, and same amount of words per line, where every other translation is far longer, as the translator feels the need to awkwardly have the main character explain the subtle nuances instead of a forward describing some of the rituals they conduct. It’s a fluid and engaging read, and I’ve read several other versions (Lattimore, Fagles and Fitzgerald off the top of my head), and Wilson’s is above and beyond the best. I cannot wait for her translation of the Iliad to be finished and published!

I always assign the Fitzgerald translations of Iliad and Odyssey for my classes. Fitzgerald uses a loose English free verse and is generally pretty faithful to the rhythm and organization of the original Greek whenever possible. I much prefer his verse version to a prose version. The originals are in Greek verse, after all.