So I started reading actual hard-copy books like Proust (the ebooks version is littered with misprints) and Homer. I just finished The Odyssey in the Fagles translation and really enjoyed it. I've also been keeping a journal written with a fountain pen (which is a much nicer experience than a ballpoint) and I have been learning to sketch. I put up some of my abstract sketches the other day. I have also been composing with a pencil rather than a computer.
What am I reading next? Well, The Iliad would be the obvious choice, but I noticed on my shelf The Landmark Thucydides and realized that it has been on my shelf for years, but I haven't opened it. So, that's what I am currently reading:
It's a nice hefty book loaded with maps and appendices on things like Athenian and Spartan institutions and allies, land and sea warfare, dialects and ethnic groups, religious festivals, currency and calendars--all those things that Thucydides doesn't bother explaining but that a modern reader needs.
Oh, I think we need some Greek music! Bear in mind that this is probably 70% speculative as the Greeks did not have a useful system of music notation:
Agree with you on the Fagles translation of Homer. (I was not as happy with his Dante.) I have read the oft cited Homer translations and Fagles was the only one to make Homer sound like English poetry. The only comparable translation feat for Greek poetry I know is the Nisetich translation of Pindar's Victory Odes. Astonishing poetic imagery in the Nisetich but Pindar is not easy to follow since he doesn't follow smooth narrative logic. Also the topic is of course narrower and without Homer's character painting. Slightly off topic I thought the Stephen Mitchell translation of the Sumerian/Akkadian Gilgamesh also excellent.
ReplyDeleteThe Thucydides uses a 19th century translation by Richard Crawley modernized and, so far at least, seems to work just fine.
ReplyDeleteI have Stephen Mitchell's translation of Rilke and quite liked it.
Great post thank youu
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