Greek vase with muse

TRANSLATION 
  WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?

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Goddess Athena        Woman with lyre
         THE ILIAD (Page 5) 

                                                        CONCLUSION: 
                           WHAT DIFFERENCE  DOES TRANSLATION MAKE?  
                              
As you come to the end of this web site,  I hope you won't feel that since translations can be so different from each other and from the original works being translated, it's not worth reading translated literature. Although it's always preferable to read a work in its original language, most people, if not for translations, would never be able to read great works like the Iliad. And because of translations, a work can be read many times, each version producing a different sort of pleasure. Translation is an art -- difficult to achieve, often frustrating because of the impossibility of "translating" certain words into other languages -- but worthy of appreciation in its own right. As a renowned group of translators put it, many years ago:


 Translation opens the window, to let in the light that breaks the shell, so that we may eat the kernel;  that puts aside the curtain, that we may look into the most  holy place; that removes the cover of the well, that we may come by the water. 
    ---- Written by the translators of the King James version of the Bible, a translation of the Bible into English from the original Hebrew and Greek. First published in 1611, this became the version of the Bible used by most English-speaking Protestants for over 200 years. (qtd. in Wechsler 11)
        

Thank you for visiting the Iliad translation site. There are numerous resources, online and printed, for further study of the Iliad and its many translations. Following are two that make good starting points:

  • This site contains the Greek text of the Iliad and an English translation by Samuel Butler:   <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu>

  • The Printed Homer: A 3,000 Year Publishing and Translation History of the Iliad and the Odyssey by Philip H. Young (McFarland & Company, 2003) contains detailed information about the many different texts and translations of Homer's works.

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 comments to:  vpoulakis@nvcc.edu

  08/29/06