Post #4053757

@ThisCJ@mastodon.nz They're very different and that makes this a near-impossible question. Wilson is the most accurate English translation if you want to read it as a poem, but even acknowledging that makes a certain kind of person apoplectically angry (I can feel them sharpening their keyboards already). Fry is a lightweight novelisation that's a lot more accessible if you don't like reading poetry. Fry's version starts from the unexamined (and occasionally misogynistic) assumptions baked into the 19th and 20th century translations, imagines some clunky banter, and adds new material. I favour Wilson because I find those things distracting. I think Wilson starts from the goal of “let's create a polished jewel of a translation” and Fry starts from "let's teach classics narratives to a society that no longer values them”. Both approaches have their place. In the modern era, no approach is complete without Madeline Miller's Circe, and probably Song Of Achilles as well.