August 13 2023: Here embedded was a tweet (from 2022) announcing Emily Wilson’s translation of Homer’s The Iliad for 2023; now defunct. No matter; the translation is on its way – on our bookshelves in the next weeks as I write. Nor, by the way, can I any longer get to the May 30 thread which inspired me to the musings below. Rather than deleting my post, I offer Wilson’s thread from about the same time on the nuances required – and the compromises that sometimes have to be made – in Homeric translation.
“A classic translator’s dilemma, … One language makes a distinction where another makes none.”
Should one dare to flitter into the Twitter-sphere (which I do these days but sparingly!), Wilson’s May 30 2022 thread cleverly teases out how very much Homer’s epic tale evidences the absurd constancy of the human condition – for better or worse, in good times and bad – through the span of our existence. Fear not – Dr. Wilson is not on the brink! Of myself I am not so sure…
Don’t tell me about dead heroes, dead languages, dead civilizations, enlightenments and awakenings, beginnings and ends of history … ! On whim and with change of garb and scenery we play what we deem our original role; every night an opening night, an acting out of our own perceived exceptionalism.
The truth written in memory is another: Like the river from its source, we flow onward, snugly fitted in the bed made for us; accumulating and losing sediment along the way, wasting nothing more than we want, but remaining essentially the same. We are our ancestors’ heirs; a mere appropriation over time of ourselves, intent on satisfying ourselves for life’s moments; at once brief and eternal.