The Odyssey

It is traditional in statements like this Translator’s Note to bewail one’s own inadequacy when trying to be faithful to the original. Like many contemporary translation theorists, I believe that we need to rethink the terms in which we talk about translation. My translation is, like all translations, an entirely different text from the original poem. Translation always, necessarily, involves interpretation; there is no such thing as a translation that provides anything like a transparent window through which a reader can see the original.

There is often a notion, especially in the Anglo-American world, that a translation is good insofar as it disguises its own existence as a translation; translations are praised for being “natural.” I hope that my translation is readable and fluent, but that its literary artifice is clearly apparent.

Odysseus, the lord of lies

I would have thrust my sword
right through your belly, and your father would
have held your funeral, and not your wedding.
So from now on, you all should stay in check,
here in my house.

he bowed his head in silence, contemplating
his murderous plans

May the gods
annihilate me

take some joy in hearing how much pain
we each have suffered.

You never
feel joy at heart. You have endured too much.

But all that grieving
could do no good.

and any act of kindness is a blessing.