![]() The over-simplification filters out the forces of emotion and imagination that pervade the other versions. However, it just feels like a dumbed-down, sparknotes summary. I appreciate it’s clarifying power-if you had any open questions about the plot with respect to the previous versions, this one likely filled in those gaps. This version reads as if it is a regular modern fiction story. For they perished by their own madness, because they killed and ate the cattle of Hyperion the Sun-god, and the god took care that they should never see home again. He did his best, but he could not save his companions. ![]() He had travelled far in the world, after the sack of Troy, the virgin fortress he saw many cities of men, and learnt their mind he endured many troubles and hardships in the struggle to save his own life and to bring back his men safe to their homes. Rouse translation (1937) This is the story of a man, one who was never at a loss. Sometimes the strategic use of a preposition can make all the difference. Pope’s version somehow misses that nuance by saying he was safe with his friends. I like that Chapman emphasizes how Odysseus tried to save his friends but was unsuccessful. And yet, I can’t really declare a winner between the two yet. A voice that merely informs, on the other hand, just doesn’t convey that part of the message. There is a sense in which Pope improves upon Chapman’s version here by making the readers grasp not just what is being said, but how it is being said. Oh, snatch some portion of these acts from fate,Ĭelestial Muse! and to our world relate. (Ah, men unbless’d!) to touch that natal shore. ![]() The god vindictive doom’d them never more Vain toils! their impious folly dared to prey Safe with his friends to gain his natal shore: Their manners noted, and their states survey’d, Wandering from clime to clime, observant stray’d, Of sacred Troy, and razed her heaven-built wall, Who, when his arms had wrought the destined fall Alexander Pope translation (1725) The man for wisdom’s various arts renown’d, Dear reader, which one do you prefer? Next. But whereas Lawrence throws all that at you in the beginning, Chapman savors it for the end. So, like Lawrence, he makes it clear that Homer is appealing to an outside, divine force. Even though it lacks Lawrence’s elaborate introduction to the muse in the opening lines, it makes up for it by the power of verse and the “deified Seed of Jove" reference at the end (Jove is the Roman word for Zeus). After getting the hang of it, I find myself singing it out loud, each time with more confidence and with more earnestness. Unlike Lawrence’s version, this one rhymes and thus makes you feel it as a song (even if you have to read it over a few times to get past the idiosyncrasies of the Early Modern English language). Chapman’s translation is the oldest English version of the Odyssey. Tell us, as others, deified Seed of Jove. Who therefore from their eyes the day bereft That in their hunger’s rapine would not shun Himself and friends in their retreat for home īut so their fates he could not overcome, Much care sustain’d, to save from overthrows ![]() With all their manners, minds, and fashions, Of sacred Troy had sack’d and shiver’d down That wander’d wondrous far, when he the town Wound with his wisdom to his wished stay What a lovely translation! After reading it, don’t you feel inspired to call on the Divine and let her speak through you, too? Let’s compare this with some other notable English translations: George Chapman translation (1615) The man, O Muse, inform, that many a way Lawrence Invocation O Divine Poesy,Īnd bring his company safe home. Here’s the version that Pressfield uses: translated from the Greek by T. And unless you make the ask, it’s just sitting there collecting dust. Each of us has access to a mystical, higher power, which is waiting to be activated. Well, if the father of epic poetry prayed to the gods for some help, and the prayer was granted, what’s stopping the rest of us from doing the same thing? Nothing! Pressfield steals Homer’s strategy, and encourages us to do the same shamelessly, mercilessly, and even proudly.
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