While Mandelbaum and the University of California Press are to be commended for attempting this new translation of The Odyssey , those of Robert Fitzgerald (Doubleday, 1963) and Richard Lattimore (Harper & Row, 1968) still remain the versions of choice for serious students who don't know Greek. Mandelbaum's poetry is fluent but lacks the feeling for the original that he brought to his fine translations of Virgil ( The Aeneid of Virgil , Bantam, 1976) and Dante ( The Divine Comedy: The Inferno , Bantam, 1982). There is a looseness in the translation that often misses the intricacy and interconnection of The Odyssey as a whole. Illustrated with engravings, this is essentially a coffee-table book. Homer's epic chronicle of the Greek hero Odysseus' journey home from the Trojan War has inspired writers from Virgil to James Joyce. Odysseus survives storm and shipwreck, the cave of the Cyclops and the isle of Circe, the lure of the Sirens' song and a trip to the Underworld, only to find his most difficult challenge at home, where treacherous suitors seek to steal his kingdom and his loyal wife, Penelope. Favorite of the gods, Odysseus embodies the energy, intellect, and resourcefulness that were of highest value to the ancients and that remain ideals in out time. In this new verse translation, Allen Mandelbaum--celebrated poet and translator of Virgil's Aeneid and Dante's Divine Comedy --realizes the power and beauty of the original Greek verse and demonstrates why the epic tale of The Odyssey has captured the human imagination for nearly three thousand years. 作者简介: Homer is traditionally held to be the author of the ancient Greek epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, as well as of the Homeric Hymns. |
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