![]() One need only look to how she captures Calypso’s luscious island: with its “scented cypress”, “verdant vines”, and “springs spurt with sparkling water”. It is telling that the pettiness of the gods feels more familiar than the human ethics of hospitality to strangers in need.īut even with this immediacy, we are not shortchanged of the poem’s beauty. It is a poem where people get “dizzy / under the influence of wine, which makes / even the wisest people… say things best not spoken.” It is one where a spurned goddess can take solace that “my body is / better than hers. While this is a narrative with gods and Cyclopes, it is also one of jealousy and insecurity, of pride, and of loyalty. Avoiding the stodgy residue of former translations, she makes the mythic world feel deeply contemporary. The careful attention to rhythm gives the whole text a living and gripping pulse. Like the sleeping Odysseus when his men open Aeolus’ bag of winds, I often found myself returning back to where I started.īy refreshing contrast, Wilson’s translation is crisp and streamlined. They seemed florid and self-consciously decorative. But my previous attempts to enjoy translations of Homer were fruitless. By all accounts, this poem of Odysseus’ circuitous return home after the Trojan War is a foundational work of western literature. ![]() Foreign Policy & International RelationsĮmily Wilson’s new translation of The Odyssey is a marvel. ![]()
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