What's the best translation of the Iliad and the Odyssey?

Lattimore

>>8909203
Samuel Butler

What's the consensus on prose translations? Yay or nay?

There are no translations of the iliad, there are some epic poems by talented english authors, based on iliad. Do you meant that?

Richard Lattimore (more literal) or Robert Fitzgerald (more poetic)

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>>8909216
>prose translation of poetry

>>8909219
Fitzgerald seems to want to format his Homer like a modernist poem. Lattimore is much better in this regard because he at least tries to keep the effect of the poem intact (ie you can actually chant Lattimore like you would the Greek)

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>>8909216
>prose translation of poetry

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>>8909217

>>8909216
Nay, keep the form at least of the original

For OP, any layman translation is acceptable so far as it contains no glaring errors (a quick google will tell you), and preferably keep continuity of translation between the text. The differences in translation only really become important when you go to study further into the text, and in academia.
Find a version with digestable language and plenty of footnotes and just read, the story isn't particularly dense.

>>8909216
I say go for it. Only one English translator of Homer was a truly great poet: Alexander Pope. Even then, you're reading a great poem by Pope, not a great poem by Homer. No translator is going to give you Homer's poetry, so nothing significant is lost by reading him in prose. Same goes for all poetry.

>>8909236
Don't listen to this retard. English translations can still approximate the poetry of the original and you won't get more from a prose translation than you would from a good summary

>>8909228
This is why verse translations should include the original text (and even better a phonetic translation with diacritical marks as to the meter) alongside the translated verse. Heaney's Beowulf is a great example.

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ITT people who have never read Homer in any language explain why reading English translations instead of spending years studying ancient Greek is not patrician.

>>8909246
How do I learn Ancient Greek?

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>>8909203
>not devoting your career to studying ancient Greek in order to fully comprehend the Odyssey
>being this plebian

>>8909245
If Not, Winter does this too. Are there any bilingual editions of Homer?

Fagles. Only he retains the poetry

>>8909254
>>8909246
neither of these people have spent years studying ancient greek

>>8909236
>prose translations
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

>>8909258
That's my point. Studying ancient Greek to try to understand the most basic parts of the Odyssey is a waste of time. Unless you devote your whole career to it, you'll never fully understand ancient Greek, so why waste time when you'll have to read interpretations of it anyways.

>>8909264
>Unless you devote your whole career to it
Wrong. Tons of writers learned Ancient Greek on the side without devoting their whole lives to it. You're just a brainlet.

>>8909242
Ridiculous. They do not. English translations by mediocre poets or non-poets do not "approximate" the poetry of Homer, perhaps the greatest poet to ever live, who wrote in a meter that doesn't even exist in English. An enormous aesthetic gulf separates Richard Lattimore's translation of Homer and Homer in the original. No such gulf exists between a prose translation of Homer and Lattimore. The Lattimore is not a significantly greater experience, nor is a prose translation significantly diminished.

>>8909267
None of them learned it to the degree where they can understand all the nuances of the language.

>>8909272
>you need to spend your whole life learning a single language or you'll never understand it
This is a lie to get more dumb kids enrolled in language studies majors

What are the strengths and weaknesses of Fagles vs Lattimore?

>>8909286
Fagles does nothing better than Lattimore desu, Fagles is just easier to understand and at times flows a little bit better due to his increased manipulation, as opposed to Lattimore's more literal translation.

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Not exactly what you meant, but still, this is excellent.

>>8909268
>English translations by mediocre poets or non-poets do not "approximate" the poetry of Homer, perhaps the greatest poet to ever live

Not trying to bash you in any way, but how do you know Homer is ''perhaps the greatest poet to ever live''? Can you read the original work, he didn't even write it himself I believe?

http://www.strawpoll.me/12002857

Pls vote

>>8911098
>http://www.strawpoll.me/12002857
I'm reading Pope and Fagles at the same time, and I really prefer Pope.

>>8911077
Homer is not always used to mean a single genius that composed the works. Often the name is used for convenience's sake and means the last person to synthesize, add to, and subtract the poems from an already-existing tradition.

>>8909216
As someone who read a prose translation, I would highly suggest choosing a poet. It wasn't terrible, but I would have preferred a verse. (Lattimore for Iliad, Fitzgerald for Odyssey)

>>8909264
With a couple years of regular study of latin and greek, you can be good enough to read any greek/latin text with a dictionary, maybe a translation if you get stuck.

my translation desu

>ctrl+f
>chapman
>0 results

>>8909216
I try to read a prose and a verse translation of any of the epics I've read.

>>8909250
>buy book on ancient greek
>work through book cover to cover
>buy dictionary
>start reading ancient greek texts

>>8909272
>learning it partially is worse than not learning it at all

When did /lit/ go off Rodney Merrill? He used to be dick sucked in every thread.